Feb 18

My Favorite Salad

Posted by Crystal // 0 Comments »

I’ve always been that person that when I ate a salad, I pretty much defeated the entire purpose by drenching it in Ranch dressing & then covering the ranch dressing with a giant amount of salted sunflower seeds. I guess you can say I liked a little lettuce with my ranch dressing.

My dad, on the other hand, never eats salad dressing on his salads. He says that adding dressing to it just covers up the taste of the fresh ingredients. This coming from the same man who would cut a piece of cake big enough to serve 3 people and call it the ‘Daddy sized piece’. -wink-

Well, I’ve had some massive cravings for salads lately – and I’ve been trying to kick them up a little instead of eating the basic, boring ones. In the process, I’ve been trying to not make salads to where the vegetables have to learn how to swim in a pool of Ranch.

During one of my salad cravings, I started pulling out this & that to assemble one. All were things I had on hand, and I grabbed everything that seemed to tempt my taste buds at the time.

The result was the best salad I’ve ever had. And the real kicker? I didn’t have to drown the whole thing in Ranch to call it the best ever either. It was so delicious, I even had to text my salad loving Daddy with a picture. You know, proof that his daughter actually enjoyed a salad that wasn’t saturated in dressing.

I can’t even count how many times I’ve made this salad since creating it. I eat it at least twice a week, if not more than that. It’s totally flavorful, low in calories, healthy, and actually extremely filling. And, at least to me, there aren’t many salads out there that actually fill me up. This one does!

You’ve got to try this. You may just find yourself addicted to this salad too!

Here’s what you need:

That’s half an avocado in the food saver wrapper, in case you couldn’t tell. Speaking of the food saver, I’m super excited to have just gotten one…. at the thrift store! For 8 bucks! Woot, woot!! That’s definitely one of my favorite finds yet.

Ok, back to the salad. Mostly everything is assembly only, with the exception of the green beans. Now, you can just put them on the plate raw if you want; I’m a huge fan of raw green beans myself. But for this salad, I definitely like them better quickly sauteed in a little bit of olive oil. Saute your green beans to your desired done-ness. Sprinkle them with a little bit of garlic salt as soon as they’re done sauteing.

You can mix everything together if you wish, but I really prefer separating mine. I like to gather a little bit of this & that in every bite. Plus, it looks prettier that way. They do say you eat with your eyes first! 😀

I place my lettuce in the middle; I use a lettuce mix. Then, I surround the lettuce mix with half of a sliced avocado, thinly sliced red onion (about 1/4 of an onion), sauteed green beans, & 1 pouch Starkist tuna creations in Ranch. Yep, I managed to get a little ranch in there anyway. But, this ‘ranch’ is way better for you and the entire pouch is only 80 calories!

Note: If you don’t like tuna, you can substitute salmon.

Take half of a lime and squeeze the juice over the avocado & tuna. Season with pepper, and I like to sprinkle a little bit of garlic salt on the tuna as well.

Sometimes I eat it all by itself, but I also really enjoy a drizzle of light Italian dressing. Ken’s Steak House Lite Northern Italian with Basil & Romano is my favorite on this salad. SO good!

I really hope you try this salad. I think you’ll love it just as much as I do! This is definitely not your ordinary run of the mill salad. It has so many flavors that are guaranteed to please your taste buds and keep you interested at the same time. Plus, it really fills you up, which (at least for me) is a rarity when it comes to salads.

I hope you love it as much as I do!

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