's motd Wed April 7, 2010 - Salads

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THE THOUSAND-CALORIE SALAD

Wednesday, 07 April 2010

Have you been to a salad bar lately? Thousands of restaurants have what they now call "Endless Salad Bars." And oh, they do offer what seems like an endless array of ingredients you can choose to make your healthy(?) salad?

See, if you're not careful, you can easily turn your healthy salad into one that contains a thousand calories, or more...and within just a few minutes, too! Oh yes, that trip down the length of the salad bar can be quite a journey. The first selection you're likely to see is lettuce. (A lot of people skip that one! LOL.) The lettuce is followed by other vegetables you know. Still good-for-you ingredients like sliced tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, celery, peas and peppers. But once you get past the veggies, that innocent salad bar takes more of an "evil" turn. There's a smorgasbord of cheese to choose from and I'm not spotting any low-fat selections in there either. Oh, oh...look out! It's the bowl of bacon bits! (That bowl ends up getting refilled...a lot!) And here come the croutons! Chunks of bread crumbs, sauteed in butter, rolled in spices and lots of salt!

Now if that salad weren't already piled high enough, there's still something missing. Wait, I've got it...we haven't added the salad dressing. Oh my! We've got to make that salad swim with some blue cheese, thousand island, honey Dijon or ranch dressing. And look, to make sure we get enough, there're no spoons for adding the dressing. The restaurant has been so thoughtful and provided ladles to scoop up that dressing. (To make sure you get plenty!)"Hey, that's not enough dressing on my salad! I'd better ladle on just a bit more! Okay, now I'm done!"You then walk back to your table with a salad that looks a little like one of the Swiss Alps! As you take your seat, you're thinking, "Oh, I'm so proud of myself, I'm only having a salad for lunch."

Uh, huh. And hey, you're right. You are eating "only" a salad. But, like I said earlier...that "innocent and healthy" salad you've assembled for yourself may very well contain more than a thousand calories!Now look, the main ingredients for your salad should be those greens, like lettuce, spinach and maybe some purple cabbage. Then you should try to add as many vegetable selections as you can. Another wise choice would be to add a moderate amount of garbonzo or kidney beans to get proteins into your salad mix. You need to stay away from all of the fattening ingredients because those items will make you, well...fat! And let's face it, when someone is adding bacon bits to their salad, they're not going to settle for just a "little bit" of those bits! Same thing goes for croutons. Have you ever seen anyone put just, oh, two or three croutons on their salad? Oh, come on now!Now let's get to the cheese. If your salad really has begun to resemble Mt. Everest, let's face it, you've really "cheesed" it!

Your weaknesses are the same as mine. And when it comes to salads, that weakness is salad dressings. You'll find oil & vinegar at every salad bar and it's always a wise choice to use as a dressing. A sensible amount of oil & vinegar is really your best bet for keeping those calories in check on your salad. (I know a lot of people who actually bring their own favorite low-cal dressing with them to a restaurant.)

As for me, I'm telling you, I live on salads. Years ago, I even had a fabulous salad bar restaurant in Beverly Hills called Roughage. Salads can really help you stay on program with your calories. I make a huge salad for myself a few nights a week. And I'd say the whole salad costs me only a few hundred calories.I hope you'll use these helpful hints the next time you're visiting a salad bar that wraps around the entire restaurant or even preparing your own healthy salad, right there at home! Love,