Salad d'Jour

I can't believe how easy this transition to organic/whole food has been for me. I feel fabulous and I am enjoying all the new flavors and the richness of my food. One would think that with reintroducing cream and cheese to my diet that I would have gained weight, but I have not. Wonderful - isn't it!!


I recently purchased and iPhone and found and app that allows me to track my food and calorie intake. It turns out, I was not eating enough! Who knew? I’d been hoping to lose the 10-15 pounds I’ve gained this year and my body has just been hanging on despite the healthy changes and increased time in the gym. PS – if you aren’t away – you cannot lose weight if you don’t eat enough!! This app is wonderful, because I can upload my recipes and it will populate the nutritional information.

So, now that I can track a little better and make sure I am taking in enough calories, I am anticipating the weight will fall off! HA! Let’s cross our fingers. Why is it so easy to put on and so hard to take off?

One of my lunches is so fabulous I have to share it with you. I like things that I can modify easily. This is basically a no lettuce salad that you can very easily take from Italian to Russian to Asian with a few different ingredients!  The variations will all fall between 250-350 calories. The following makes one medium-large sized salad; a very filling and satisfying lunch. Add a few gluten free crackers or a slice of gluten free toast and you have achieved utter perfection. If you want a little extra (especially if you only eat three times a day) add a grilled chicken breast to the mix. When I used to work in an office, I would take a frozen chicken breast, salt and pepper and microwave for about 8 minutes and slice. Another great office friendly “meat source” are frozen turkey burgers!

The base of the salad is tomato and cucumber. I use two to three Roma tomatoes, quartered and chopped. This is one instance where I do not deseed my tomatoes. I peel, quarter, and chop about half of an English cucumber. You can see my post on cucumbers for a detailed explanation of why I prefer the English variety.

Once you have that done you can do the following:

Italian

Chopped basil (a few leaves, just for taste)

2-3 tbsp chopped or shredded Mozzarella (PLEASE do not buy pre-shredded. You will enjoy this so much more if you use real, fresh cheese! The taste is substantially different!)

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp quality olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste


Greek

a few quartered marinated artichoke hearts

feta (approx 2 tbsp)

red onion (approx one ½” thick slice, chopped)

1 tbsp white wine vinegar

1 tbsp olive oil

Spanish

½ c. white beans (navy beans)

1-2 slices Prosciutto or ham

3-5 kalamatta olives

1 tbsp white wine vinegar

1 tbsp olive oil



Russian (Eastern European)

2 tbsp sour cream/crème fraiche

2 tsp dill

Red onion (approx one ½” thick slice, chopped)

1 tbsp white wine vinegar

salt and pepper to taste



Toss everything in a big bowl, toss and enjoy! :-)