The past few months I have become a big fan of salads. Coming from the girl who used to gag on lettuce, this is a big deal to me. I’m thrilled that I can finally stand the watery taste of lettuce, and proudly tell people in a haughty voice, “Yes, I had a salad for lunch today.” Okay, maybe I don’t take it that far, because I know that the salads I eat are anything but healthy. See, I like cheese. And croutons. And dressing. My salads look like this: a few pieces of lettuce scattered about, a cup of cheese, two cups of croutons (got to have at least two in every bite!) and then four cups of dressing – preferably ranch. So. That is not a good salad. I have realized this. I know I need to do better. I’ve tried incorporating chicken and steak into my salads. That’s pretty good. I’ve tried cutting back on the croutons. That makes me sad. I’ve even looked into getting rid of the ranch dressing and switching to caesar. That’s where I got confused. Which dressing is better for me?
I did some research online to try to understand which container I should grab for. The following facts were received from nutritiondata.self.com, a nifty site that breaks down the nutritional labels. For ranch, I was looking at reduced fat ranch dressing, and for caesar I was looking at the low calorie dressing. Both are based off a serving size of one tablespoon. Here were my findings:
Ranch Caesar
Calories- 29 Calories- 16
Total Fat- 2g Total Fat- 1g
Cholesterol- 2 mg Cholesterol- 0
Sodium- 136 mg Sodium-162mg
Total Carbohydrate- 3g Total Carbohydrate- 3g
Sugars- 1g Sugars- 2g
What did I learn? Well, ranch has more calories, but caesar has more sodium and sugar. I’m not sure how to draw a conclusive answer from comparing these dressings. I guess my decision will be to try to lessen all the bad stuff (that I love so much) on my salads. Which means less cheese, croutons, and dressing, and I’ll try to beef up on the lettuce and even hide some spinach in there.
Do you have a specific salad that you love? What are you go-to ingredients?
Nutritional information found at nutritiondata.self.com
Definitely Caesar! Kraft makes a “Free” Caesar dressing and it’s amazing!
As a vegetarian, woot for salads! I could eat them everyday. Honestly, I don’t think it matters which of the two dressings you choose if you eat them in moderation. I personally don’t like creamy dressings and prefer vinaigrettes like red wine vinegar and olive oil or even italian dressing. When in a pinch, I’ll just use plain balsamic vinegar.
My go-to ingredients are lettuce, baby spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers and bell peppers, occasionally cheese. For the crunch factor I use sunflower or flax seeds. Walnuts or almonds.
Good luck with your new salad venture and I hope you keep branching out and discovering new ingredients. 🙂
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Thanks for the input Chauncey!
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Hi Jenn! I just love a good salad 🙂 I am dying to try a red wine vinegar, sounds so delish! 🙂
You should try a salad with a sweet balsamic dressing, I add craisans, raisins, apple slices, grapes, strawberries, and you could add some chicken to beef it up. (i don’t use ask these things in one salad usually one of the raisins and one of the fruits is good enough) my mom makes the dressing I use but if you can find one you like these salads are amazing. Email me if you want the recipe – claire_gagnon@hotmail.ca
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That sounds delish Claire!
Lettuce sucks. Kale really sucks. Do this instead.
-Spinach, avocado, baby tomatoes, and garlic salt. (I used mozz balls before being vegan)
-sauteed spinach and mushrooms with lemon pepper plus a dash of lemon juice.
Look up vegan recipes. They don’t use any dairy products so you won’t have any ingredients full of bad fats. They even have some creamy tasting ones!
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