Reaching balance is on my to-do for spring and summer. It’s obviously something that I’m not always great at. I love cake. I love pasta. And I honestly don’t see anything wrong with having those beautiful things in my life. They’re not going anywhere. But I also have been trying to eat healthier on a day-to-day basis. Having lots of fresh produce and ingredients on hand has been a huge game-changer for me.
Did you know May is also National Salad Month? To celebrate, I teamed up with Rubbermaid to create salads for my entire week! The FreshWorks Produce Savers keep produce super fresh and crisp in the fridge! The CrispTray at the bottom of the container elevates produce away from moisture and promotes airflow to help reduce spoilage. After 5 days of being in the fridge, the radishes were crispy, the arugula alive and well and the green onions were snappy! I love going grocery shopping and then storing everything away in their Rubbermaid home until I’m ready to use them.
Here’s what I like to keep on hand!
1. Kale
2. Romaine
2. Arugula
3. Cherry Tomatoes
4. Green Onions
5. Radishes
6. Italian Parsley
7. Cucumbers
8. Strawberries
These ingredients make it easy to make a bunch of different salads. I like variety in my routine and it’s way easier to do that when you start with about 6 or 7 different types of produce.
If everything is ready for me in the fridge, I’m more likely to mix it all together and make healthy, good-for-me choices.
Here are some combinations that I love.
1. Kale, tortilla chips (these are a favorite of mine as of late), cubed up chicken, avocado, tomatoes, diced green onions with a lime vinaigrette.
2. Romaine, parmesan chips, avocado, green onions, cucumbers with a vegan caesar dressing.
3. Arugula + romaine, radishes, Italian parsley, tomatoes with pan-seared salmon.
4. Kale + romaine, dollop of hummus, diced red onion, tomatoes, avocado, cucumbers, feta with a hard boiled egg.
5. Romaine lettuce, strawberries, feta chese, walnuts, diced green onions, chicken with a balsamic vinaigrette.
6. Arugula + kale, roasted tofu (mixed with some amino acids teriyaki sauce), sesame seeds, sliced radishes, raw broccoli, green onions with lots of sesame seeds.
7. Spicy sautéed shrimp (I used a mix of cumin, paprika and chipotle chili powder), crushed up chips, cotija, avocado.
It’s like making a personal salad bar and making tons of different options. It makes it 100% doable to eat healthier more often and it saves a ton of time. I think each salad took me about 10 minutes to assemble, some shorter.
My favorite of all of them is still the chicken caesar salad with the avocado and parmesan chips. I can be a classic girl a lot of the times and that one has my heart.
I know you all are gonna ask for dressing so here’s the deal/my stance on dressings:
I’ll buy more complicated dressings like vegan ranch or vegan caesars. But I usually make all vinaigrettes because they’re so simple. I don’t remake them because I think they taste better made super fresh. I also love just a simple salad dressing of lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper and crushed red pepper. That is my favorite salad dressing, I eat it all the time and it takes literally zero time/effort.
(Thanks to Rubbermaid Freshworks for sponsoring this post. Thanks for the supporting the sponsors that keep A Cozy Kitchen cozy.)
Where are the recipes for the salads
My next week’s dinner menu! Yay!!
What are the proportions you use on the lemon/olive oil dressing?
Nice, but more useful if actually gave recipe for dressings. Thanks
For Nicole, I bought a very similar carafe at the Union Market in Washington D. C. a couple years ago when visiting, so if you pop into shops that carry local and unique things, you might find something like it. Good luck!
Yummy salads, thanks for the ideas. I always get compliments on my salads at work, I love a good salad for lunch.
Roasted tofu on salads is heavenly! My favorite salad recipe: spinach, caramelized onions, mushrooms, roasted bell peppers or tomatoes, kabocha squash, zucchini, and a little bit of green onions on top. My dressing would be a homemade mixture of avocado, curry powder, nutritional yeast, tahini, white beans, water, Moringa, and garlic!
yumm that dressing sounds so good.
As a vegetarian, I eat A LOT of salads and thankfully, I never get bored. My favourite go-to is a basic garden (mixed lettuce, cherry tomato, Lebanese cucumber) with diced avocado, a warm, crumbled falafel, pan fried haloumi cubes, pomegranate arils and I make a lemon/tahini/honey dressing. If I feel the need for some carbs, I’ll make some toasted pita chips.
ahhh pan fried haloumi cubes sounds so good. and lemon tahini dressing is my so good! love this salad of yours!
How do you make your lemon/tahini/honey dressing?
As someone that’s trying to get her life together on the healthy eating spectrum, I am loving everything about this post! Thanks for sharing girl xo
i feel you! xoxo
Such a great post! Thank you for sharing all of these ideas. I’m definitely aware of the fact that I love my sweets and fried food, and need to balance it out with greens. I’ll be using this as a reference!
oh yay! so good to hear!
I’m curious where you found the little carafes you used for the dressing. It appears to be two different ones.
the pink one I got in copenhagen 🙁
the light blue one, i got in venice, california at a store called tortoise. i quickly looked at their site and couldn’t find it 🙁
http://tortoisegeneralstore.com/