Salad System

I started eating a salad once a day starting in May of this year. Recently, I did some "salad evaluation" to make my salads more efficient. It seemed I was always running out of one thing, while another item went bad before I could eat it all.

Here's what I like on my huge salad. Yes, I weigh everything, every time so I know my calorie intake.

75g chicken breast (ziploc in freezer)
75g romaine (bag)
25g spinach (bag)
50g cucumber (pre chopped in glass container)
50g celery (pre cut in glass container-chop fresh daily)
50g red pepper (pre chopped in glass container)
15g red onion (pre chopped in glass container)
4 sliced snap pea pods (chop fresh daily)
50g garbanzo beans (glass container)
20g salsa
1 hard boiled egg
35g salad dressing (my favorite is Newman's Own Lite Balsamic)
7g unsalted Hoody sunflower seeds
10g sesame stix
5 craisins or fresh blueberries
This is about 400 calories, 30 protein, 30 carbs, 16 fat, 10 sugars, 9 fiber

Fills me up until dinner! I don't like it really cold, so I make it early in the afternoon and let it sit out for a bit before putting on the dressing and dry ingredients.

I decided to buy bag-o-salad and prepare chicken ahead and freezing the portions in ziplocs. Each day when I make my salad, I pull out a ziploc of frozen chicken and put it in my salad box for the next day. I have to pay attention to inventory control on the cucumber, celery, red pepper, red onion and snap peas, but that isn't too difficult now that I'm doing the grocery shopping.

The garbanzo beans last a few days, so I pour them into a glass container with a plastic lid. The hard boiled eggs are easy because I do several at a time. The salsa and salad dressing are easy along with the seeds, stix and craisins. I have a large plastic "shoebox" in the frig to hold all my containers. Making a salad everyday is EASY, just pull out the box! A little planning and refining have made having a delicious fresh salad everyday possible!