I LOVE eating salads. I’ve been eating them for lunch most days of the week as far back as I can remember. A lot may think that it’s hard to fill up on a salad or that it’s just rabbit food. Not my salads! They’re filling, full of healthy fat, protein and color. My salads have evolved quite a bit over the years and I never get tired of them. When I’m marathon training like I am now I try to get more carbohydrate in my lunches so I’ll usually add fruit (either to the salad or on the side) and eat more pasta salad. I also love homemade sweet potato fries, and I’ll eat these with my salad to add some additional carbohydrate. See my sweet potato fry recipe here.
Here are a few of my favorite salad recipes that are delicious and filling enough to get you through the afternoon without feeling the need to reach for that candy bar or bag of chips.
Strawberry Chicken and Avocado Salad
For the salad:
- Shredded chicken (Rotisserie chicken makes it easy and reduces prep time, or you can cook a chicken breast the night before, shred it and put it in the fridge until you’re ready to make your salad).
- 1/4 avocado, sliced
- 1 tbsp walnuts (for a vegetarian option leave the chicken out and add more walnuts)
- 1 oz feta cheese
- handful of sliced strawberries
- 2 cups salad greens (I use spring mix or spinach. The darker the greens the more nutrient dense your salad will be.)
- sprinkle of chia seeds
For the dressing:
- 1/2 tbsp golden balsamic vinegar
- 1.5 tbsp olive oil
Mix dressing ingredients together and pour over salad and toppings. I eat this a lot over the summertime. It pairs well with berry infused water. So refreshing!
Hummus bowl
I have told friends that one of my favorite salad dressings is hummus. They thought it was weird and couldn’t quite picture how that would work. I promise you, it’s amazing. You don’t need a lot of hummus to cover the salad and it’s much healthier than ranch or 1000 island dressing.
For the salad:
- 2 cups spinach
- sliced red onion (as much as you like)
- 5-6 grape tomatoes
- shredded chicken
- cucumber slices (not pictured in the above photo but I like to add these as well)
For the dressing
- 2 tbsp hummus
- lemon juice
First I wet the spinach and all the ingredients with a little bit of lemon juice. Then I mix in the hummus. Another favorite for a hot summer day, this salad is light yet filling. Tastes great with lemon infused water.
Taco Salad
Not your traditional taco salad. No fried tortilla shell or massive amounts of cheese here! But I assure you it’s more flavorful and just as satisfying. I used to put my taco salad ingredients on top of shredded iceberg lettuce but lately I’ve started using spring mix greens. They add some better flavor and of course more nutrients because of their darker color.
Ingredients:
- Meat- You can do whatever you want here. I vary this ingredient with ground grass-fed beef, shredded chicken, grilled shrimp or veggie burger crumbles (pictured here). Another vegetarian option would be to use black beans for your protein
- 1/4 avocado, sliced
- shredded carrots
- diced tomato
- sauteed mushrooms, red bell pepper and green bell pepper
Place the cooked meat, avocado, shredded carrots and diced tomato on top of your greens. I like to saute a handful of mushrooms, red and green bell pepper together and add these on top. I don’t add dressing, instead I mash the avocado up to use as a dressing. If you want to add some guacamole to the salad you can to dress it up a little more. Salsa is a good dressing as well. I eat my taco salad with a few tortilla chips and lemon-lime infused water.
Bow tie pasta salad
Some weeks I will make a big batch of pasta salad on the weekend and eat it throughout the week. It makes the prep work much easier, all I have to do is scoop my chilled pasta salad onto a bed of greens.
Ingredients (this makes about 5-8 servings):
- 1 cup cooked bow tie pasta
- 1 crown of broccoli, chopped
- 1/3 red onion, chopped
- 1 summer squash, sliced
- 1 zucchini, sliced
- 1 cup grape tomatoes, sliced in half
- 2 roasted red peppers
- 1/2 cup feta cheese
- 1 bunch minced parsley
- If desired, shredded chicken (about 1 cup)
Dressing:
- 1/3 cup red wine vinegar
- 1 cup olive oil
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp minced garlic
Cook pasta and drain. Mix with the remaining ingredients. Mix together dressing ingredients and pour over salad. Eat alone or on top of spring mix greens. Pairs nicely with cucumber and mint infused water.
Another pasta salad recipe I love is an Italian chicken pasta salad recipe a friend shared with me. This is another one I like to make and store in the fridge for a quick and easy lunch. See it here.
I also have a lot more fun salad recipes on my Pinterest page.
