I love big salads.  They are a great way to get in tons of fresh veggies, good fats and protein and they don’t weigh you down like heavy meals can. They are energizing and always make me feel great!

In order to make a salad filling enough for a meal, though, you’ve got to be sure that you incorporate the right mix of ingredients: lots of fiber-filled fresh vegetables, lean protein, healthy fats and a combination that tastes great!

My Tips for Building a Healthy Salad: 

Green Base: I like to have a few varieties of greens – something crunchy and something dark!

• Romaine
• Arugula
• Spinach
• Herb Salad Mix
• Dark Greens (Kale, Chard, etc.)

Veggie Toppings: 

• Cucumbers
• Peppers
• Carrots
• Cabbage
• Tomatoes
• Onions
• Zucchini
• Roasted Veggies (Squash, Sweet Potato)

Protein/Fat/Flavor Toppings: 

• Lean Protein: Beans, Chicken, Fish, Tofu, Eggs, Cottage Cheese
• Healthy Fats: Avocado, Nuts, Hemp Seeds, Olives
• Flavor: Cheese (I like to use a really flavorful cheese like Feta, Goat, Blue, etc), Fresh Herbs, Fresh or Dried Fruits

Dressing:

• Bottled Dressing (like Annie’s or some of the other organic/natural brands)
• Simple: drizzle of olive oil, squeeze of lemon, salt & pepper
• Favorite Vinaigrette: chopped shallots + olive oil + lemon juice or vinegar + mustard + salt & pepper

This time of year, there is probably something we can all use a little more of.

And it isn’t cookies.

Sorry. Always the bearer of bad nutrition news….

Our Thanksgiving celebration included a number of amazing dishes (think scallop chowder and shiitake stuffing) but also had TWO kale dishes! I came armed with creamed kale and there was a delicious kale & sweet potato salad with an asian dressing. I loved it and I’m happy to report that MORE than half of my plate was filled with veggies that night. What can I say, Nutritionists tend to be high-acheivers.

Turns out it is pretty easy to make which means it can and should be on your plate soon!

You can switch up the kind of kale, depending on preference and use sweet potato, squash or whatever you have on-hand. You could also use a pre-made dressing like Annie’s Shiitake Sesame if you are short on time.

In the short three weeks that Crooked Pint Ale House was open and we were still in Minneapolis, I managed to order the Rainbow Chopped Salad three times. It was clearly super tasty and good enough to resist ordering their delicious burgers! That should say a lot for a salad. And for me.

So I had plans to recreate it right away and as we drove through South Dakota and Wyoming, I would glance at that salad on my list – just anxious to get back into the kitchen and eat something full of vegetables.

A few weeks later, and the Taster and I are sitting at our table with this beautiful salad (on chilled plates thank you!) in front of us.

And it was perfect.

The nutrition stats are pretty good too, although it is a tad low on protein for me.  Next time we’ll try it with some grilled chicken to really make it a full meal.

If you’ve been looking for a new salad, or something healthy to bring to Thanksgiving (the Taster thought it would be perfect on turkey day), go make this. You might even choose it over stuffing – I know I would.

]]> http://anutritionisteats.com/rainbow-chopped-salad/feed/ 9 http://anutritionisteats.com/daily-eats-11-1-11/ http://anutritionisteats.com/daily-eats-11-1-11/#comments Wed, 02 Nov 2011 13:00:44 +0000 Emily http://anutritionisteats.com/?p=8656

Wow, I can’t believe it is already November!

I surprisingly didn’t eat too much candy on Halloween, but did drink my share of wine and eat pizza, so I was a little slow-moving this morning. Nothing a little coffee, water and work can’t fix. Sometimes its best to just throw yourself into it!

Peet’s Coffee was completely decked out for the holidays – an overnight transformation complete with red & green sprinkled almond bark, holiday blend beans and holiday music. I’m ready for the holidays, but that seemed like a bit much!

I returned home (cousins home, we move into our place Thursday!!) and promptly made some breakfast. I’m looking forward to getting back into a routine once we get settled. My type-a personality is freaking out!

Breakfast: French Meadow Sprouted Cinnamon Bagel + pat of butter + hard boiled egg + strawberries.

Both strength and cardio were on my list today so I did a quick weight routine before we headed out to run a few errands in our new neighborhood!

Lunch: Being that it was World Vegan Day (pointed out to me by Pepperoni is not a Veg – thank you!) I really wanted to eat vegan all day, but because I don’t have my own fridge, usual food options, etc. I wasn’t able to make it the whole day. (Soon I’ll do a Vegan Day!) But, we did have an excellent vegan lunch at Veggie Grill. I’d been wanting to try Veggie Grill since I saw one of them and figured today was a perfect reason to try it out. I was starving and needed more than a salad so I tried the VG Cheeseburger, which the guy in line behind us said was amazing. I ordered it with the red cabbage slaw side and I gobbled it up in no time at all. 

Then it was time for some more work. I loooove being able to work outside. In November.

A 50 minute walk with Ruby (the dog) was “cardio” for the day. Not necessarily a great workout, but because I had a dog with me I wasn’t worried about a certain length of time or getting in so many miles, I just enjoyed the walk and the afternoon. It was really, really nice.

We made dinner tonight for my cousins and the Taster decided to make a Minnesota speciality, the Blucy. (Blue cheese stuffed hamburger) No shortage of burgers (both real and not) for me today!

Dinner: An amazingly delicious blucy sans bun + salad + sweet potato fries + sriracha mayo for dipping.

Dessert: I was gifted some unwanted halloween candy.

Now I’m sipping tea and getting ready for bed, lots to do today!

This past Wednesday, I was invited to try out Greenleaf Gourmet Chopshop restaurant and meet with Chef Kristi, the corporate chef for Greenleaf.

The decor is bright, clean and green. In other words, I loved it! We visited the new Century City location.  And while it was a quick drive (by LA standards), the parking situation isn’t exactly easy (the majority of their patrons looked to be walk-ins from office buildings in the area).

Greenleaf is a healthy restaurant concept that uses eco-friendly products and creates gourmet food. They even have green bikes used to deliver the food! They have a number of salads, sandwiches, pizzas (made on tortillas, like me!) and take into consideration food intolerances, which is great.

Chef Kristi suggested a few of her favorites, and we stuck to those. I always figure that the people who work with and around the food probably know the best dishes – usually that works out very well for me.

Greenleaf was no exception.

It was tough to make the final decision, but, we went with a salad, sandwich and a side.

The Antioxidant Orchard Salad (suggested to add salmon) is one of their most popular salads and for good reason. It is bright, refreshing, flavorful and crunchy. Just what a salad should be. The salmon was perfectly cooked – it almost melted in my mouth and reminded me how much I love salmon. The salad contains scarborough farms baby mixed greens, grapes, celery, apples, walnuts, dried cranberries, apples, blue cheese, mint, red onion, cucumbers, strawberries and blueberries with pomegranate whole grain mustard vinaigrette. Yup. As good as it sounds.

Now I’m the one who typically orders salads and just eats a little bit of the sandwich, but I was soooo into this sandwich. The grilled chicken panini with avocado pesto on whole grain bread sounded good and I wanted something a little more substantial than a salad after an intense workout. (Ok, I guess I wanted some carbs?!) Back to the sandwich. It was so very lovely. Most of the time, panini’s are super greasy from lots of butter and cheese but the bread was grilled sans butter and the only cheese used was a small amount in a dressing that goes onto the chicken. (I seriously had to ask because I didn’t think there was cheese but it was so creamy!) Gotta love that avocado! The chicken was chopped into little pieces, tossed in a dressing, slathered with avocado pesto and stacked with spinach. A little messy but so worth it.

A very impressive aspect of this restaurant is that they do not have a fryer. I’m all for truffle fries, duck-fat fries, tator-tots, etc. but obviously not on a daily basis. I just couldn’t pass up the BAKED sweet potato fries with avocado pesto. Can you blame me? They were….um how should I put it…I could live on them. They were crunchy and sweet (not sure how they do it without oil) and were delicious alongside the pesto guacamole.

Yeah, everything was pretty average.

I can’t wait to go back to Greenleaf – I’ve got a list of things to try!!

 

Greenleaf Gourmet Chopshop

1888 Century Park East

Los Angeles, CA 90067

424.239.8700

http://www.greenleafchopshop.com/

I feel like every time I visit Trader Joe’s, they’ve got some new, great product that I simply must try. When we lived in Minneapolis, Trader Joe’s was a little out of the way, so I didn’t go on a regular basis, but they are all over LA and I’ve been going on a very regular basis. So I’ve been trying a number of new products.  To add fuel to the fire (addiction?) we are staying with my cousin which means there are 4 extra people to help eat those random snacks and cookies that I would never buy in the past but always wanted to. Carrot Cake Cookies, I’m talking about you. (And yes, they were delicious.)

On one of my recent trips, I came across Hummus Salad Dressing. I’ve always been tempted to make a hummus salad dressing – I saw it at a food show a few years back and thought it was such a great idea.

But for one reason or another, I’ve never gotten around to it.

And now, Trader Joe’s made it for me. So now I don’t have to! I immediately picked it up and put it on a veggie salad. It would be perfect on a greek salad with some feta and lots of cucumbers. I imagine it would be great drizzled over a quinoa dish as well or anywhere a drizzle of Tahini is used.

Like: 

• vegan
• the nutrition facts – 70 calories for 2 Tbsp of dressing!
• not expensive (is anything at Trader Joe’s??)
• great for those lunch salads

 

Nutrition Facts:

Serving Size: 2 Tbsp

70 calories

7 g fat

60 mg sodium

3 g carbohydrate

0 g sugar

1 g protein

Ingredients: Water, canola oil, garbanzo beans, olive oil, tahini, spices, garlic, cultured dextrose (for freshness), concentrated lemon juice, salt, phosphoric acid, acetic acid, malic acid.

Have you tried this dressing? What other TJ’s products must I try this fall? 

To say that I’m excited for all of the restaurants that come with a new city, is a huge understatement. We’ve already got a pretty long list going and I’m sure we’ll be adding to it faster than we cross them off.

Apartment searching was a great reason to head out and try a few restaurants in potential neighborhoods. Food after all, is a huge factor in picking out a spot to live…for us.

I’d been intrigued by M Cafe after seeing it many times on Lynn’s blog and I was really excited to try it out. For our inaugural trip (there will be many, many more) I tried the M Chopped salad which was wonderful. It had hearts of romaine & mixed greens, avocado, cucumber, chickpeas, herb-baked tofu, scallions, umeboshi pickled radishes, carrots, beets, tamari-roasted almonds, crumbled tempeh “bacon” & tofu-peppercorn ranch dressing.

All kinds of flavors and textures going on for a perfectly filling salad.

The great thing about macrobiotic food is that fish is a-ok (unlike vegan/vegetarian food) which makes the Taster very happy. He went with the Grilled Tuna Burger that was delicious. Not just any old tuna burger – a tuna burger glazed with teriyaki sauce & garnished with sliced avocado, pickled red onions, daikon sprouts, spicy yuzu mayo, fresh shiso leaf and served on a house-baked whole wheat bun.

Oh yes. You also get to pick your side dish with sandwiches and while I urged him to choose the Kale with Peanut Sauce, he went with the soba salad. Good, but I have a feeling the kale will be better.

Next time we visit M Cafe (which will be very soon – I just picked up a groupon for it) I’ll be getting the deli salad plate so that I can try that kale.

I can’t believe it is already mid October! It was a hot, hot day in LA today. Abnormally hot although we still saw people with sweatshirts, coats, etc. I wonder if we will ever wear a sweatshirt when it is 90 degrees out…

Apartment searching is our main focus at this point, but after two straight days, we took the morning off.

The day started out with a walk – we walked around the neighborhood for about 40 minutes, including a stop for coffee.

Then it was time to work for a few hours – I munched on a bag of cashews, almonds and dried cranberries.

I wanted something light as I planned on going to yoga in a few short hours. Planned being the keyword, we left too late and didn’t make it in time. Tomorrow, it is. Since we were already in Santa Monica, we decided to explore a bit and take a walk on the beach. First though, we came across a Whole Foods Market.

One of the only things that could make me feel better about missing yoga (I needed yoga, even the Taster agreed) is a tour of a new Whole Foods and an early lunch. The salad bar was pretty phenomenal and I loaded my box with all lettuces (romaine, spring mix, spinach and kale) then topped with cabbage crunch, lemon tofu, broccoli rabb, roasted cauliflower and hummus. Perfect and the salad bar was $2 off per pound today so it was actually pretty reasonable!

Then we hit the beach for a quick walk, which was just what we needed. I must admit that the apartment hunting has been a little more stressful than I thought it would be. It seems like each place we go is missing one of the aspects we are looking for.

Then it was back to the apartment search and we looked at about 5 different places. Nothing great, but we have narrowed it down to two definite neighborhoods, which will hopefully make the process move a little quicker now.

A few hours after lunch, I was of course hungry, so I munched on an apple,

and then some triscuits.

After we returned to my cousins, it was time for pizza, salad and wine. (x2 on the food) Really good pizza – NYC style!

More work and I’m off to bed!

Cross your fingers that we find an apartment today!!

]]> http://anutritionisteats.com/daily-eats-10-12-11/feed/ 33 http://anutritionisteats.com/daily-eats-91311/ http://anutritionisteats.com/daily-eats-91311/#comments Wed, 14 Sep 2011 13:00:21 +0000 Emily http://anutritionisteats.com/?p=8204

I’m officially in the midst of wedding-week madness. But besides a minor breakdown on Friday (it was just a very emotional day) I think I’ve been handling everything pretty well. Others may disagree.

Yesterday was filled with last minute errands and I declared it a day for myself!

The day started with some coffee and a gorgeous sunrise. I’m definitely going to miss this view.

Then it was time to drop off the Taster at work (we are a one car family) and start my other errands:

• body work appointment
• drop off dress to be pressed

Breakfast: In between the commute and errands I had a Two Moms in the Raw Bar – Gojiberry Granola – much better than I had expected although the first ingredient was agave and I’m not really a fan of that.

10:30 Yoga Sculpt – I was at a different studio than normal and it was a great class – I felt wonderful and the class flew by. Love those.

I love pickles. Crunchy, cold, dill kosher spears are my favorite although I usually try to refrain from buying them as I can go through a jar in no time at all. And we can’t forget about Minnesota Sushi (ham & pickle roll-up) which is a favorite in our house and the midwest. This salad resembles pickles. It is crunchy and flavorful, spicy and healthy, easily making it my new favorite “pickle.” I’ve made it three times in the last few weeks and I’ve got three cucumbers in the fridge currently waiting to soak in the vinegar tub.

This salad is great not only because of the spicy, fresh flavor but also because it can be made ahead of time which makes it perfect for busy nights or an easy salad to bring to parties. The recipe was adapted from a Thai Cookbook my Mom has after she made this salad and I had something similar earlier this summer. I was instantly smitten.

I tried made it with agave instead of the sugar and it was just as delicious, so if you’re into it, make the swap!

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