Lunch Part I

When I grew up pretty much every dinner started with a salad.  I guess that's kind of a West Coast thing but it's a tradition I've kept up.  Now most salads as a kid were iceberg lettuce with Bob's Big Boy Bleu Cheese Dressing.  Now while quite tasty it's maybe not your healthiest choice.  Since I've tried to make lunch my main meal of the day, I'll start it with a healthier salad.  Now if I really wanted to put in the effort I would buy a variety of fresh lettuces (letti?), wash them & spin them dry in my salad spinner.  I do that sometimes but I usually just buy the bags of prewashed lettuce.  I would recommend one brand but I don't really have a favorite, whatever looks the best, is the freshest & on sale.  I get a big mixing bowl & fill it with A LOT of lettuce, I'll eat a whole bag sometimes!  Now here's a little trick of mine, even though I'll put other stuff in the salad, I'll toss just the lettuce & dressing first, that way all the other stuff doesn't end up at the bottom of the bowl.  Now you may ask, or not, what kind of dressing do you put on your salad.  Well there are many lower calorie, lower fat salad dressings on the market but by far my favorite is:

Galeos Miso Dressing

The toasted sesame is my favorite but all the varieties are very, very good.  Now when I say very good I don't mean good for lower fat, lower calorie dressing I mean this stuff is just about the best bottled salad dressing I've ever had.  It has only 22 calories & 2 grams of fat per tablespoon, Bob's Big Boy Bleu Cheese Dressing, for example, has 65 calories & seven & a half grams of fat per tablespoon.

But I don't just pour this stuff on, you do that you can end up with a pretty high calorie salad.  I measure out 2 tablespoons & then pour it on.  Here's a good tip 2 tablespoons equals one ounce, get yourself some one ounce shot glasses & it makes it easy to measure.

Galeos Miso Dressing is available at Ralphs, Albertsons, Whole Foods, Gelson's, & some independent  Markets.  It usually runs for $4.99 a bottle, but if you try it & like it you can order it by the case from Galeos & save a little bit of money or you can find it here:

Any kind of fresh vegetables will make this salad better.  I especially like the little grape tomatoes my favorite brands are Santa Sweets & Nature Sweet Cherubs.  Than can be a little more expensive than the store brands, but they're always good.  Nature Sweet Cherubs are in a cute container & seem to last forever.  They're available almost everywhere as are Santa Sweets but you can find Santa Sweets in a larger size at Costco.

I really love olives and hearts of palm and artichoke hearts in a salad & while they're all low in calories (except when packed in oil), they do have a lot of sodium.  These are a good substitute:

They're not quite as good as the kind in the jar, but they have far less sodium & are a bit cheaper.  As you can see by the label they're available at Trader Joe's.

By the way, before you ask, nope no croutons allowed.