A First Step....Salad

After being away from home for 4 days, I hit the ground running on Monday as I had previously scheduled a, well, I don't know what to call it exactly, but a cooking lesson / consultation kind of thing, with a former KB client who is now interested in taking her nutrition more seriously, and she needed to get some ideas and direction on how and where to start. Now, I'm not a "cooking" expert, and I don't know what's going to be the best or easiest way for anyone else to, 1) lose weight, or 2) conveniently eat more nutritiously by cooking and preparing their own foods and therefore improving their health....the two going hand in hand....but this is how I did it, and I did manage to do both of those things very successfully.

The first thing I knew about my own weight loss was I needed to consume less calories...way less! No one had to tell me how bad the processed foods, that were the majority of my diet, were for my weight, but also for my health, good health means being of a healthy weight. So I knew the quickest way to losing weight was to provide myself with homemade foods and meals, bottom line...and since I knew myself well enough to know I had a large appetite, my main approach was to eat all the fresh veggies I could learn to incorporate into each meal, endless amounts, if I wanted.

Maindish salads topped my list. Salads require no cooking, but they do require fresh veggies, the fresher the better. So what do you do if you don't have the time or energy to make a salad, fresh, everyday, or fresh every meal? One of the solutions is to pre-prep your salad ingredients and even creating a salad mix ready to go, that can last 4-7 days in the fridge. Cabbage based salad mixes are my staple, because you can pre-shed cabbage without it wilting for many days and you can even pre-dress cabbage salads lighty without the same effect (no wilting). This is also the reason I take a cabbage or broccoli based salad to work or on travel with me.

With proper prep and storage most veggies will last 4-7 days in the fridge. Proper prep and storage requires, upon arriving home, washing and drying your veggies and then storing them indivually in towel lined plastic bags in the fridge (I use flour sack cotton towels, or you can use paper towels). This is also how you store fresh herbs. The dry towel inside the plastic absorbs some of the leftover moisture from washing the veggies, while creating humidity within the plastic bag to help keep the veggies fresher.

I routinely preshred a cabbage salad mix that starts with green cabbage, and carrots. These two veggies last the longest (raw broccoli too) and even if this is all you have, makng a simple dressing of 1/2 plain yogurt, 1/2 mayo, some sort of vinegar (apple cider or even plain white) and, or lemon/lime juice, maybe a tad bit of honey or sugar S& P....or a low calorie store bought dressing....is all you need, anything extra is a bonus. And adding protein, like diced chicken, tuna, etc., turns it into a maindish salad.

I add lots of other stuff to my cabbage salad mix, mostly using other veggies I already have in my fridge, one or another or all! Here is a list, in order, of the other ingredients I add,

red cabbage
broccoli (chopped fine)
green onion
jalapeno
cilantro

The amounts don't matter. For instance today I had more red cabbage than green, I only had one carrot and one jalapeno, I had tons of green onions and a small amount of broccoli, no cilantro, but italian parsley. I made enough salad mix for about 3 salads, two of which I'll take with me on my trip tomorrow. I'll dress 2 salads lightly and bring extra dressing, this salad requires no immediate refrigeration, I'll eat one for lunch and one for dinner. (I need to be at the airport by 10am, leaving at 12 noon).


See Food and Thought for my favorite, most requested, Curry dressing, and more info on washing, storing and prepping fresh veggie ingredients.




Life is good, salads are good, pre-prepped, fresh veggies are good.