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Salads Can Be Sinful, Too

Posted on Jul 2nd 2007 2:16PM by Martha Edwards

Filed Under: Diet & Weight Loss

When you're trying to lose weight and you're eating out, what are you going to order? Chances are you'll opt for the salad, but surprise! That's not always the best choice.

One of the biggest offenders is the famous Caesar salad. The emperor's salad is full of fat and calories, and can punch a huge hole in your diet with up to 700 calories in an entree-sized order. Other salads might not be the best either. To avoid sabotaging your diet with a salad, hold the cheese, the croutons, the creamy dressings and pretty much anything else that makes it taste like you're not dieting.

But there is hope: Making your own dressings, with healthy ingredients, can make a world of difference to both your waistline and your tastebuds. Do you have any recipes?

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9 Comment

Tags: caesar salad, CaesarSalad, cesar salad, CesarSalad, cheese, croutons, dressing, salads

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Lauren 7-03-2007 @ 12:30AM

I Love salads!!! A good salad should be light and delicious "fast-food" you can make yourself in a snap. I like to make a big bowl to share or enjoy a couple times. I don't follow a strict recipie, but here's my basic approach: first, I make the dressing right in the bowl. A couple tbsp of a healthy oil such as olive or flax, along with vinager, a pinch of salt, some herbs, and perhaps a little sweetener. I like lemon juice or apple cider vinager because they are sweet and mild. herbs such as chives or cilantro give the dressing a fresh taste. a dash of sea salt is always good, and if you like things sweeter, honey or maple syrup are lower on the glycemic index than refined sugar. Then I add mixed greens, and stir them to coat with dressing. Top it off with an assortment of veggies. I love shredded carrot (it's sweeter than sliced), and juicy tomato wedges. celery or cucumbers add a hydrating crunch and nuts like almonds provide delicous healthy fats. Anyway, those are my loose guidelines to a fabulous salad. So get creative, salads can be fun!

Emelia 7-03-2007 @ 10:52AM

With all the warnings about what to eat/what not to
eat, etc.etc. One old fashioned saw would clinch it for
most people --

Everything in MODERATION. Often today's portions are
giant sized, taste good, and people just finish it all.

xsive318 7-03-2007 @ 8:30AM

When the weather gets hot, a salad makes a great meal. I like to play around with my salad ingredients. I start with fresh greens then add tomatoes, cucumbers any veggies that I like. I usually use red onions for their sharpness but I sometimes use vidalias for their sweetness. I like to slice veggies up to matchstick size so I get a little bit of everything in every bite. Then, if I want to make a real meal out of it, I take different cold cuts (honey ham, turkey, genoa salami, jarlsberg cheese (sweet swiss)even roast beef) stack them up then roll them & slice them (jelly roll style) and place them on top.Then I sometimes add dried cranberries, crumbled feta or bleu cheese & candied nuts. I make the nuts myself since I can control the calorie count that way & it's easy. I melt a couple of tbls of vegetable spread (like country crock) in a frying pan, then add about 2 tbls of splenda brown sugar & 1/2 tsp each of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves & allspice. Then add the nuts & mix to coat. Spread nuts on a cookie sheet & bake at 350 for 10 min. A handfull of these adds sweetness & crunch & offsets the sharpness of the onions & cheese. Then, I toss with olive oil & balsamic vinegar. This salad makes a great meal & leftovers are a great low calorie lunch the next day since all the ingredients have absorbed each others flavors by then. Enjoy! Micky

Heartlyte7 7-03-2007 @ 10:08AM

I like to make a salad with a few extra veggies. Mix a can of corn with one of black beans. Chopped celery,onion. Then maranade in italian dressing ( fat free). Make a huge bowl of greens. Add tomatoes and cucumbers. Black olives and banana peppers on top. I use a fat free creamy ranch dressing on this one

Tiffany 7-03-2007 @ 10:43AM

I like my dressings simple and fat free....the easiest and tastiest, for me at least, is honey-mustard dressing. It's as simple as it sounds...with one surprise...take honey...add mustard...(to taste really - remember your calories!)...then one tsp of fat free mayo..mix with a whisk until creamy andpresto...it's yummy! I never have understood why honey mustard dressing is so FILLED with fat!!!!

Nikki 7-03-2007 @ 11:24AM

I just use a squeeze of lemon and some pepper or balsamic vinegar , and lots of great veggies for flavor on my grilled chicken salad.

Not as tasty as Ranch or HoneyMustard (both made with mayo)...but good enough so that I can eat it.

Paula 7-03-2007 @ 12:04PM

I enjoy salads and am aware of the pitfalls cheese, croutons, and a load of dressing can have. If no fat free dressing is available I find the best thing to do is to order the dressing on the side (of course!) and just dip the tines of your fork into the dressing and then pick up some salad from your plate. Many times, just a taste of something is enough. You don't have to drown everything. Same goes for cheese. A sprinkle of lowfat cheddar is big on taste and goes a long way. You don't need a bag of cheese on a salad. Baked croutons are also available and are amazingly low in fat & calories but high on taste.

Audrey Booth 7-03-2007 @ 9:45PM

I was very interested to read one of the above recipes that called for Splenda brown sugar. Since moving to CA from NYS, I can't find any granulated brown sugar! When I make a salad, I always add wedges of hard boiled eggs and sliced avacadoes and triangles of salami. Sure it might be 700 calories, but so is a burger and fries!