Lately I have been on a major salad kick!  The great thing about salads is that you can basically add anything you want to fit your particular cravings.  I always seem to go through periods of eating a lot of the same thing and then switching to something different, before I was eating a vegan diet I was eating a lot of salads but then I stopped because I was having a hard time finding dressings without any dairy products.  Then I realized on of my families standby dressing mixes was dairy-free and could be made with lower fat as well.

To start with the salad I usually go with organic mixed baby greens and then top with whatever veggies I have on hand.  Pictured below I topped the greens with 1/4c of quinoa, cucumber, red onion, cherry tomatoes, and half an avocado.  Some other great toppings I use are chopped pecans, black beans, salsa, and even homemade guacamole!  If you eat meat you can use grilled chicken, ground turkey, anything you feel like! This is the salad dressing that we love using, you buy the seasoning packets and then you can make them fresh at home and just keep it in your refrigerator.  We use extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and water then you simply add the seasoning and shake it up!  It takes like two seconds and is super easy and has a really great flavor.   So if you read the preparation instructions it shows a low-fat option and we usually use a little more than 1/4c of water and less oil and the dressing still taste delicious and has a lot of flavor.   You can make this dressing in really any container that you have in your kitchen we have even made it in a ziplock container before because we don’t have a specific salad dressing bottle but a mason jar would also be another great option.  We have a bunch of blender bottles so we just use one of those and its great because you can easily pour it right onto your salad. 

Salads are a great way to increase the amount of veggies you are eating but they don’t have to be boring you can pretty much add whatever you want to switch up the texture and taste!  Just make sure to measure out your dressing so that you aren’t adding tons of extra calories to a really nutritious waist friendly meal!

xo Meg