How a very hungry meat lover learned to eat salad for lunch three days per week.
I put meat and cheese in it. Well, there’s more to it than that.
Some background. Now that the weather’s a bit warmer, I ride my bike to a few different restaurants around here at lunchtime. One of my favorites has a three meat platter – pulled pork, sausage, and beef brisket. You also get two sides, baked beans, maybe some coleslaw. I skipped the roll and cornbread (you know, low-carb). Really healthy right? I figured if I’m riding my bike, I can indulge once in a while. And then there’s Pedro & Vinny’s. Their burritos are the size of my size 13 shoes. Social Proof here. But, I, of course do not eat the giant flour tortilla (you know, because I do low-carb).
Finally, even closer is the sushi place where the chef platter not only includes a full sushi roll and four pieces of Nigiri, it includes a salad bar, miso soup, tempura fried veggies, a cup of rice, and a filet of fish or chicken. The chef’s special is $9.99. That’s an outstanding value, how can I pass that up? I skip the bowl of rice, of course, you know….low carb.
3 or 4 days week of lunches like this adds up. Waistline, wallet, wellness. I wanted to make a change. At first, I experimented with supermarket salad bars. These are just odd. I noticed how they chop the vegetables in giant slices and include lots of mayo heavy pasta/potato/imitation crab-type salads. These are just to make the salad weigh more/cost more. I was better off eating at the sushi place! Then there are the new healthy salad chains. They have better ingredients but you’ll be spending $13 or $15 on a salad and drink, especially if you like some meat on your salad.
I was picking up some wine at our local Trader Joe’s and discovered some very interesting premade salads priced between $3.49 and $3.99. They have some more expensive versions that include meat, but the real value is in the healthy sized mixtures of greens, veggies, nuts, and beans in a resealable clamshell package. These are not small, and after adding a few of my own ingredients I usually even have enough left over to create a small dinner salad as well.
Here’s how I create a week of kick ass salads. [Read more…] about The Salad Experiment.