Nutrition
Salads are often a misleading meal. Restaurants will load them with fattening dressings and cheeses with little room for anything nutritious. So here are some tips to keeping your salads healthy, but delicious:
- Nuts. Add a small handful of chopped nuts to salads. Mixing textures is always a welcome delight to your palate. Combining the leafy greens, a protein, and the saltiness and crunch of nuts will enhance the nutritional value of any salad. Plus, nuts are the healthy fat and good for your heart.
- Craisins! These tart little nuggets will certainly add flavor to any bite and the antioxidants in cranberries make them one of the best fruits for a healthy diet.
- Greek yogurt. With the consistency of sour cream but with high protein content, this can take the place of calorie-laden dressings. Just a couple of spoonfuls over spinach will kick your salads up a notch.
- Vegetables. Don’t want to just eat lettuce and dressing? Who does? So add a cup of raw vegetables for variety. Broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and peas with low calorie dressing are an easy way to get your recommended daily allowance of veggies.
- Chef’s salad light. Rather than adding high fat Ranch dressing and handfuls of cheese like a typical chef’s salad, keep the mix of proteins. Chef’s salads usually contain ham and turkey. So add a variety of proteins so the taste buds won’t get bored.
Salads don’t have to be bland. Mix it up and you and your family will enjoy.
