Salad Bar for Beginners

“Let’s just go get salad!”

What just popped into your head?  Was it a vision of a lovely mound of arugula topped with a few sprinkles of gorgonzola, a few thin slices of pear and a dab of crunchy walnuts, drizzled with a balsamic vinaigrette?  

Or was it a plate mounded with spoonfuls of white chicken salad, alongside the oily pasta salad, tucked into the layer of shredded cheddar cheese, croutons and almonds?  In your mind’s eye, do you have somewhere buried on that plate some iceberg lettuce, maybe some tomatoes, some ham and chicken cubes, boiled egg if they have it, and topped with enough ranch dressing to dunk your cornbread muffins in?

There’s so much to talk about here, but first I want to say this about that.  Just because you CAN “all you can eat” doesn’t mean you should.  You paid for it, that’s true, but that doesn’t mean that to get your “money’s worth” you need to eat until you’re sick.  Let’s set the record straight.  If your salad bar experiences resemble my second description, there’s not one single reason to “just” get salad.

Let’s start with the vegetables.  In general, the higher or deeper the color, the more nutrient value that food item has.  So when given a choice of iceberg, romaine or spinach, spinach wins the award for most nutritious.  Close your eyes and walk with me down this salad bar row.  First you’ll pick out  the deepest leafiest greens they offer. Next you’ll add some purple onion rings, some broccoli, shredded carrots, sprouts, green peppers, tomatoes, crunchy celery, some artichoke hearts and mushrooms.  (Lots and lots of fiber in that bowl now...that’s ok because you’re drinking water with your meal!)  

The tough part comes next.  You’ll approach the chopped ham, turkey and egg containers right alongside the gunky chicken, tuna and pasta salads.  Go for the pure chopped meat every time.  (It’s safe to say unless you create your chicken or tuna salad at home so you know how it’s made, you should avoid them.)  Next are the shredded cheeses. (Wow.  Can’t say this enough:  cheese COUNTS.  It’s not a freebie topper).  Pick a combination of 3-4 golf ball sized proteins and leave the white gloppy salads alone.

Now you have to navigate the dressings. I bet you didn’t know that ladles are exact measurements.  Typical salad bars use the 2 T size (or enough to fill one of those little plastic cups for to-go salads.)  Dust off your home economics and remember that 4 T = ¼ cup.  Now go to any website that has nutrition information for salad dressings and be careful your eyes don’t pop out as you red about the calories and fat PER TABLESPOON.  How many ladles full of dressing did you use last time?  You do the math.

Skip those.  At the very end of the line, you’ll find cruets of oil and vinegar.  If they have balsamic vinegar, even better.  Take one of those to-go cups for dressings and pour some oil in one and some vinegar in another.  This is your dressing.  (I don’t recommend many fat free dressings.  But if you simply cannot stand oil and vinegar, this is a better option than the full fat stuff.)

Don’t be tempted by the nuts, croutons, sunflower seeds, cornbread and trail mix to top your salad with.  Just don’t.  Ok, maybe a sprinkle of seeds or nuts.  But no croutons.  Take a package or two of crackers if you’d like a little crunchy starch.  Again, unless you home-make your croutons, it’s a good plan to break that habit and learn to like salads again without them.

What’d I leave off?  Fresh fruit.  Great choice.  Fruit in whipped cream or pudding?  Not so much.  Gingerbread muffins?  Huh?  Why?   

One more thing.  This is your MEAL, right?  You’re not eating this to kill the time before your food comes, right?