Lettuceless Salad
I love omitting leafy greens in favor of crunchy, colorful produce to make a non-traditional salad. Who says something must be served on a bed of romaine to be considered a salad anyway?
Today’s no-lettuce salad contained:
- ¾ large red pepper, chopped
- ¾ large cucumber, chopped
- Grape tomatoes, halved
- Rotisserie seasoned chicken deli meat
- Annie’s Naturals light raspberry vinaigrette
Annie's Naturals
I gave my salad a shake, shake, shake to evenly distribute the sweet dressing.
So Check Me Out, Hey!
What a winning combination!
On the side, I also enjoyed a Chocolate Brownie Clif Bar that I received from AmericasNutrition.com, a website that features products to “help build a better you.”
Chocolate Brownie Clif Bar
Bite Me!
The bar was chewy, moist, chocolatey and had a slightly crunchy texture that I really enjoyed. Plus, it contained five grams of fiber and 10 grams of protein to keep me full until it is time for my afternoon snack.
Can I just take a minute to be a totally dorky writer and say how much I enjoy the little anecdotes on the back of Clif Bars? I love reading about the founder of the company’s adventures and endeavors.
I think my interest in the content on product packaging stems from my childhood when I would always read the back of cereal boxes. To me, working as the person who creates the content on food packaging would be an awesome job! (Annnd, if it meant that I had to eat new products all the time to really understand what I was writing about, well, that’s just icing on the cake. 😉 )
Upcoming Posts
Thank you for your post requests! Stay tuned for upcoming posts about:
- A sample total-body strength training routine
- Ab workouts
- Grocery shopping on a budget
- How to start working out in the morning
- Change your mindset so food doesn’t take over your thoughts
- My healthy food staples
- Staying positive through an exercise setback
I already have a billion ideas running through my head of what I want to say in these posts. So much to write, so little time. I feel like a nerdy version of Buddy the Elf… “I love to smile write! Smiling Writing’s my favorite!”
Of Possible Interest
- Trick Your Brain to Control Food Cravings (FitSugar.com)
- Operation Beautiful Book Giveaway (dailySpark.com)
- 8 Tips for a Healthy Heart from Dr. Oz (AOLHealth.com)
Question of the Afternoon
What is your favorite food to include in a salad?
I love including beans, edamame or sweet corn in my salad. I also love fresh fruit in a salad during the summer!
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i love corn and black beans in salads…the texture is perfect, and i love the sweet corn!
Funny thing you mention reading the backs of cereal boxes…
I always used to do it when I was younger (and still today). One morning before school, I think I was about 7 or 8, I was looking at the back of a box and playing “The Name Game” with what I saw. One of those things happened to be a duck.
And that’s how I learned what curse words were.
I must say that I too am a fan of lettuce-less salads. I always pile mine high with ingredients, that I tend to put less lettuce than anything else. As I mentioned in one of my recent posts, I am a big fan of cold, whole wheat pasta in my salad. It’s pretty fantastic and leaves you feeling satisfied.
Yum, that lettuce-less salad looks awesome. I am a big fan of grain based salad. I throw in tons of chopped veggie, olives and leftover cooked chicken with a simple dressing, oh so good and easily travels too!
Heart of palms!
I never grow tired of it … it’s so delicious!
I absolutely lovee corn on my salad! A few strips of grilled chicken is always awesome too 🙂
Yummy& filling for my hungry hungry tummy!
Those upcoming posts sound great! Great ideas.
Anything and EVERYTHING in my salads! But I do enjoy the subtle sweetness of dried cranberries in a veggie salad. 🙂
Cereal box reader here too! I read all my packages to this day . . .
Love to add either kidney beans to my salad OR soynuts for some crunch. Also dried cranberries are AWESOME!!!
Secret salad seasoning? Oregano. It gives the salad some POP. 🙂
I can’t wait to read your upcoming posts – I’m interested in all of the topics! Whoop whoop 🙂
My favorite salad additions are black beans and sunflower seeds. They take an average salad to a whole new level!
I <3 lettuceless salad – you get to enjoy more awesome veggies this way 🙂
Look forward to all those posts!
I love adding texture to my salads. So I like adding nuts along with other crunchier veggies. Then I also like the creaminess of some quality cheese or avocado in it as well. I think I would really love a lettuce-less salad.
My new favorite to put in a salad is pickles! They add a kick! Speaking of kicks, I am on a tomato kick too. 🙂
Cooked sweet potato, Hummus in place of dressing, Pickles, Mushrooms…. basically anything!
So with you on edamame. I found some dry roasted edamame at my local closeout store that is a perfect crunchy topping for my spinach salads! I also enjoy shrimp, feta, strawberries, sunflower kernels, and mushrooms… basically a smorgasbord in a bowl. Yum! :9
Sometimes I too like to omit the actual lettuce from salads, sometimes I feel like it’s just assumed, but the other *goodies* are really the stars of the show, so why not just stop there or build up, lol?! Also love amys lite dressings! Have you tried the honey mustard or sesame ginger ones? They are good too.
White beans, TJs spiced pecans, strawberries – I love salads!!! Nothing like opening up the fridge and just throwing whatever you have in a bowl and calling it a salad.
i ADORE avocado in salad. It’s so so good. I find I need less dressing as well because it adds so much creaminess. Black beans are awesome, I totally agree!
Or if I’m going in a different direction I’m a huge fan of throwing in fruit with my more traditional greens. Fresh berries or mango in the summer add an awesomely satisfying sweetness to salad that I love. Yum.
I just had a Clif Builders bar (PB flavor)..so freaking good! I’m newly obsessed!
I totally rocked the sans lettuce salad today! The first time I was served a lettuce-less salad at a Greek restaurant, I thought it was really strange. Now I’ve grown on the idea!
P.S. Hummus + salad = deliciousness.
I love taco salads!! With lots of veggies, cilantro, black beans, CHEESE, jalapenos, SALSA, chicken, and GUAC!! 🙂 Yummmmmm!!
I love jicama and avocado in salads. I just had an amazing salad the other day with spinach, jicama, mango, zucchini and avocado. It didn’t even need dressing. And Clif bars are great and actually work really well in a pinch to keep you full for a couple of hours. I definitely went through a phase, I recommend the oatmeal-raisin-walnut.
Sometimes a good chunky salad is a nice change from a leafy salad. My favorite salad topping are avocado, nuts, or garbanzo beans yumm
i love avacado in salad! yum. and fruit too. and homemade croutons.
Yummy salad! I almost always include feta cheese because I just can’t get enough of it! I literally opened my eyes to the world and was fed feta cheese ha ha! So naturally I can’t live without it. Other additions I love are, sliced strawberries, apples, grapes, beans (I especially love black or garbanzo), corn, almonds, avocado and the list goes on! 🙂
Avocado!!
I am loving that rotisserie sliced deli meat right now! I have a pound in my fridge.
I had a salad today with warm veggies and cold ones mixed together and it was the bomb!
Feta and walnuts!
mmm. Lettuce-less salads are such a Mediterranean staple! I could seriously put anythinggg into a salad and be happy but a crowd pleaser is always broccoli salad: broccoli, ramen noodles, red onion, nuts and raisins with apple cider vinegar dressing.
I love lettuceless salads, too. My favorite is tomato, mozzarella, basil and cucumber with balsamic.
I am lovin’ fruit in salads right now 🙂 YUM!!
That salad looks so good!
cucumber and tomatoes, simple but delicious
I am the same! I still read the back of cereal boxes and the packages of bars and other food 🙂 Clif bars are amaazzingggg!
so funny about the salad sans lettuce…just posted last night how I often crave salad but don’t want lettuce! Last night, I put quinoa at the bottom and it worked great!
Tonight for dinner though, I had both lettuce and quinoa! 🙂
I love avocado, feta cheese, zucchini, beans of any kind, boiled eggs, tomatoes, everything but the kitchen sink basically 😉
Vinegar is my favorite salad component, I drown my veggies in it! I love salads of all kinds, too. With or without lettuce. I like string beans as the “greens” as well. Makes a nice fluffy bed of crunchy fiber. 🙂
Jenn
Julie
I am really looking forward to the last post you mentioned, how to stay positive during an exercise set back, because two nights ago I hurt my knee and I have a 1/2 marathon to run at the end of August. I’m so beyond bummed 🙁
Write that one first! Haha, just kiddin’ 🙂 I wanna read ’em all!
I love lettuce-less tupperware salads – they’re my favourite lunch as of late since they’re so portable and the weather has been so muggy here. One of my favourite additions to salads is a touch of sweetness, whether it is the dressing, some fruit, craisins, etc.
Definitely fresh strawberries and pecans! so yummy and summer 🙂
Frozen peas! They are super sweet and taste really good cold 🙂
I like to add edamame, blueberries, and corn. Yummy! 😀
I love Avacado in my salads along with some lemon juice and some feta. YUM!
I always love reading the containers food comes in. It’s a great way to start reading lables, if you’re already reading the boxes to see what other entertaining thing is on them.
Just a suggestion, if you can send pictures via text message to your friends, you may want to see if you can send them to your email. That’s how I get my pics from my phone to my webpages and such. Check it out.=-)
My salads – even with lettuce – tend to be mostly chopped toppings anyway – I love ’em! My favorites are cherry tomatoes, peas, fresh corn, avocado, herbs, and hummus.
Can’t wait for those upcoming posts! Looks like a great lineup.
I love to add craisins, grapes and any type of nuts. Also a big favorite of my family is kidney beans in salad it really makes it filling and substantial.
feta and sunflower seeds (no salt)
The peanut butter clif bars are my favorite! I have one in my bag for my afternoon snack today!