Salad

In case you missed it, I’ve challenged myself to eat a salad a day for the month of May. Here are the ones I ate this past week.

But we’re just going to glaze right past last Sunday, because unless pho counts as salad, I didn’t eat one.

Monday, May 7

I think I forgot to mention this, but Joel wanted to take on the salad a day challenge – but only if we could have taco salads. One week in, we finally made them. Romaine, ground beef, olives, beans (I used kidney, he had pinto) tomatoes, avocado.

Tuesday, May 8

Ham steaks and pasta salad. Mine had Tinkyada rice pasta, steamed zucchini and green beans, chopped tomatoes, and was smothered in pesto.

Wednesday, May 9

We made these enormous green salads. A mixture of romaine and spinach with chicken, chopped apple, apple chips, and walnuts, and was dressed with basil oil and balsamic vinegar. I forgot to add it before I took this picture, but I had some goat cheese on mine as well.

Thursday, May 10 – No pictures, but I had some leftover pasta salad for lunch and a little three bean salad, which you’ll see in the next two pictures, as a snack before dinner.

Friday, May 11

We had a barbecue at work, which I never feel comfortable partaking in because of the huge tubs of hamburger buns and cookies. I used to feel a little resentful about this, but in the past couple of years, my tactic has been to bring something that I’m really excited about eating instead. This time I brought my own barbecue food – hot dogs, carrot and celery sticks, and three bean salad (garbanzo, kidney, and green beans, dressed with apple cider vinegar, olive oil and stevia.) I ate it with the only barbecue food I felt safe eating – a bag of Lays potato chips.

Saturday, May 12

More barbecue food! A hot dog swimming in ketchup, more three bean salad, and a Caesar salad. Up until last month, it had been years since I’ve had Caesar salad, and I’m not sure why – it’s questionable at restaurants because of croutons, but otherwise, gluten-free and is one of my favorite salads.

Also from this month:

• Salads from the week May 1-5

To prove share that I’m following through on my promise to eat a salad a day this month, here are the ones I enjoyed this week:

May 1

Salad Nicoise. Mixed greens, steamed green beans, roasted potatoes, tomatoes, kalamata olives, a hard boiled egg, and smoked salmon. Dressed with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. So good, but huge – I couldn’t finish the salmon.

May 2

Ended up eating two salads on Wednesday – the first was at lunch, and had spinach, tomatoes, avocado, basil, and ginger lemon dressing. Had leftover salmon alongside. (If the salad sounds familiar, it’s a very old post from Choosing Raw – I’ve been making it for years and it never disappoints.)

For dinner, this Italian chop salad. It had red leaf lettuce, cubed salami, green and black olives, roasted green pepper, and tomatoes. Doused with apple cider vinegar and olive oil. (Note to self – self, next time you make this salad, add the best garbanzo beans ever.)

May 3

Thursday’s salad was this small salad with red leaf lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, and sunflower seeds. Eaten with a steamed artichoke and a chicken sausage. I made a sugar-free lemon poppyseed dressing with NuNaturals lemon stevia (giveaway coming next week!) with the juice of one lemon, 10 drops lemon stevia, 1/4 cup olive oil, and 1/2 tsp poppy seeds.

May 4

By Friday, the fridge was looking a bit bare, and I wasn’t really feeling the salad. I made this one with spinach, carrots, celery and tomatoes, and the rest of the lemon poppyseed dressing from the night before. Had French fries and chicken with it, and I was way more into the French fries.

May 5

Cinco de Mayo saw another side salad, but this one was much better, mostly because I had enchiladas en mole with it. Mixed greens, black olives, red onion, tomatoes, and guacamole.

A word on salad dressing – in general, I dress my salads with oil and vinegar from Seattle Olive Oil Company, and if I ever forget to mention dressing, that’s a safe assumption. I am of the opinion that the dressing makes or breaks a salad, and no salad should go undressed. The only exception is when there’s guacamole involved. I mean, it’s a fat (avocado) and acid (lemon juice) which is kind of the same idea … right?!

And that about covers it. Before the start of this month, I hadn’t been eating much salad and was really craving it, which is why all the greens. This week, I’m hoping to branch out with things like three bean salad and pasta salad. I’ll fill you in next weekend!