Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Summer Salads

Between our hot summer and eating a low-carb diet, we've been enjoying lots of salads! I've been trying to plan at least one main dish salad for supper each week. If I have lettuce washed and ready and a few veggies already chopped, these meals come together pretty quickly and don't heat up the kitchen!

We've always eaten bread items with our salads up to now, so it's been an adjustment not to have that extra carb to fill up on with our salad. Instead, I make sure that the salads are packed with protein, lots of veggies and some healthy fats to satisfy our hunger.

Some salads we've been enjoying:

Taco Salad



 BLT (Bacon, Lettuce & Tomato) Salad with hard-boiled egg and Swiss cheese.




 Shrimp and Avocado Salad. Top a green salad with already cooked shrimp and fresh avocado chunks.

Salad with grilled chicken or steak.

My sister in law emailed me with some salads that she's been enjoying this year. These all sound delicious as well!

Asian
lettuce
green onion
red bell pepper
cilantro
carrots
edamame
grilled chicken
cashews
Ken's Asian dressing (She uses lite.)

Blue Cheese Salad
lettuce
tomato
cucumber
sweet onion
green apple
bacon (or you can use bacon bits)
blue cheese crumbles
Marzetti's Blue Cheese dressing (She likes the lite variety) with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.

Beet, Chicken and Feta
lettuce
sweet onion
fresh beets (cooked and sliced-I have been getting these at the farmer's market- yum!)
crumbled feta
walnuts
grilled chicken
balsamic vinaigrette

Our favorite homemade dressings: 

Balsamic Vinaigrette

Basic Vinaigrette

Garlic-Herb Vinaigrette



What are your favorite salad combinations? 

**This post is linked to Works For Me Wednesday!

6 comments:

Bevy @ Treasured Up and Pondered said...

Hi Mary Ann... I know it's been awhile since I've commented here... but I'm still here. ;)

You're salad fixin's look and sound incrediable. I like salads - but I don't have to have one at every meal. Scott would LOVE IT if I made more of them. He loves his greens...

Creatively.

I just hate doing all the prep work that goes into it (for as little as I enjoy a good salad).

If we go out to eat - a salad is a must (there) because someone else did all of the work. Isn't that terrible of me?

I love how inspiring you are. :)

gail said...

love this post! i have deemed this summer the "summer of the salad" for us too. tho most of mine are still side dishes. never heard of a BLT salad--must try that one. and you have some others that look enticing. i make taco salads alot, tho they aren't my husband's favorite. and by the way, happy b-day!

Mary Ann said...

Gail,
Thanks for the comment and the birthday wishes! :-) I had a BLT salad at Cracker Barrel this spring. Theirs also included croutons. And maybe other things; can't remember.:-) Since cutting out bread, we are very willing to try sandwich combinations on lettuce.:-)

Louisette said...

Nice blog and recipes, greeting from Belgium

Tea said...

YUM!! Those salads look so delicious!!!

~katie~ said...

Oh wow ~ those look wonderful. We heart salads, especially this time of year.

I really like to get creative, but I tend to consistently include a couple of things. I use nuts as toppings occasionally ~ cashews or almonds. We usually have baked/grilled chicken diced in. I really enjoy lots of juicy tomatoes, and I'm expanding my horizons a bit with the dressing. I'm really enjoying poppy seed dressing(s) and sesame/soy based dressings lately! Thanks for the dressing recipes ~ I've always been a fan of vinaigrette!

My goal before the end of summer is to re-create the "Chinese Chop Salad" from Noodles'n'Company at home. Yum!!