I Heart Salads

I probably eat more salad than most families combined. And I love all sorts of salads with all sorts of toppings and all sorts of dressings. This has actually been a quality of mine since I was old enough to feed myself. I think that other kids probably thought I was weird when I was younger because I didn't have to be forced to eat salad and other veggies, I actually wanted to. I also got a lot of flack as I got older when ordering salads in restaurants...like "Wow, you must be dieting if you're ordering a salad." No, that's not it at all. I just really love salads. I find them filling, versatile and tasty. Here's the salad that I had last night.

Ahhhh-perfection! Romaine lettuce (I always opt for Romaine, or the triple hearts bag, because iceberg lettuce has no real nutritional value), a torn up tortilla shell, black olives, tomatoes, onion, red wine vinaigrette dressing and some sprinkled parmesan cheese. I always eat my homemade salads from this bowl and if I go to make one and I find this bowl to be dirty I get very upset. Not just because I hate washing dishes, but because this is absolutely THE perfect salad bowl. First off, it's huge, so it can hold a lot of salad. Second, it's the perfect depth. I hate using really deep bowls because all of the dressing just slides right off of the ingredients and pools at the bottom of the bowl (a salad-eaters nightmare, haha). Third, my Mimi gave me this bowl so that just makes it even better :) 


I find myself ordering salads a lot when we go out for food, so I thought it would be a good idea to post some of the worst ones. Keep in mind, not all salads are healthy. Just because there is lettuce in there doesn't mean it's a good choice. And although the following salads are delish, I wouldn't recommend ordering them on a regular basis.


1. The very tasty Oriental Chicken Salad from Applebees. It contains 1,310 calories and 93 grams of fat. Too bad because this truly is one of my favorites.


2. O'Charley's Southern Fried Chicken Salad...to die for. But it contains 1100 calories and 62 grams of fat.


3. Chili's Boneless Buffalo Chicken Salad...ok, I could eat buffalo sauce on just about anything. So when you combine that with a salad, it's all good for me. Unfortunately though it contains 1,010 calories and 68 grams of fat.


4. And worst of all is the Quesadilla Explosion Salad, also from Chili's. It contains 1,400 calories and 88 grams of fat!


Here are some tips to keep your salads more on the healthy side whether you're at home or dining out:
Always order your dressing on the side, keep the cheese to a minimum, choose vinaigrette based dressings versus creamy ones, always opt for grilled protein instead of the breaded, fried kind.


So, there's my nutritional guidance for the day, hehe. I'm still feeling crappy and it is really cold here today (45 degrees when I left for work this morning...brrrrr!). We had a cold front come through last night and we were absolutely dying while walking the baby girl so we cut our walk short :(  We probably made it about 2 miles and that was it. Better than nothing I guess. Today I am going to give it my all to make it to the gym. I just can't stand not exercising...I need it!!! The plan is to get mucho cardio in--stair mill, treadmill and elliptical today...and I still haven't done those upper body strength exercises I've been talking about since Monday, so we'll shoot for completing those too. 


Breakfast today was a pack of whole grain peanut butter crackers, on the run as usual. I also stopped at 7-11 for some fat-free french vanilla cappucino. Lunch is some Parmesan Tomato Soup courtesy of Progresso with a string cheese. I'll have a Strawberry Special K Protein Bar before hitting the gym...and dinner is still a mystery for now. That's all I have for today, but I will share this cutie-pie picture of my baby girl with you. She is not the most affectionate, cuddly dog in the world, much to my dismay. So when she jumps up in the recliner with me without me asking her to, it's pretty darn special. That would be Two and a Half Men on the TV in the background, Scotty's favorite show. Ta ta for now!


Whitney