A salad a day.....

Salads don't have to be boring. Taking a salad for lunch nearly every day is a lot simpler if all the ingredients are prepared ahead of time and ready to go.  On Sundays I wash and dry a head of red leaf lettuce and a bag of mixed field greens using a salad spinner.  If you don't have one I highly recommend it.  If your lettuce is not dry it will wilt and turn brown quickly but dried in the spinner and placed either back in the salad spinner as a bowl (without the insert) or in a zip loc bag lined with a paper towel, the lettuce will keep for several days.  Now I know you can buy big tubs of already washed lettuce or bags of it and it can be good or not so good, depending on the brand and how longs it's been on the grocery store shelf.  I prefer to choose the lettuce myself and only buy it for a few days at a time.  I find the big tubs start tasting icky way before I'm done with them.  I buy a bell pepper, cucumbers and carrots. I get the fresh organic carrots with the greens still attached at Central Market--they are so sweet. Yes, you can buy the bags of carrot type things that are already washed and ready to eat, but I find them to be bland.  If you don't love your salad you will not want to eat it frequently and salads are very filling and satisfying IF they are made with quality ingredients.
Add some sliced red onion, avocodos, black beans, feta cheese, tomatoes, and pecans or almonds and you have a complete meal.  Don't be afraid to use an avocado.  You can use a quarter of it at a time and tightly wrap the rest, seed and skin, in plastic wrap.  I buy a container of feta cheese or a log of goat cheese to use in salads or omelets.  I use my low fat balsamic vinaigrette for dressing.
So this weekend I will buy a new supply of salad ingredients for next week and I hope you will too.