May is National Salad Month so let’s celebrate! Salads are an excellent way to eat your five servings of fruit and vegetables a day. This time of the year there is a good assortment of leafy greens available to get your salad started. Add some crispy veggies, protein, cheeses, herbs, berries, grains and nuts to make your salad interesting and flavorful. A salad can be a very healthy meal all by itself if you don’t overindulge in fatty meats, cheese or too much dressing.
There are some things you can do this month to celebrate and elevate salads.
- Mix up the lettuce variety by using spinach, romaine, green leaf lettuce or any of the other types of lettuce for a change.
- Prep veggies like carrots, celery, green onions and cucumbers to use for several days of salads.
- Serve salad at every meal. (Fruit salad is a great way to start the day!)
- Substitute salad for one meal a day.
- Try a different salad every week.
Recipes
There are so many recipes for salads on the internet, and although there is nothing better than a fresh green salad tossed with your favorite dressing, I have found some new recipes that I want to try.
Honey Mustard Chicken Salad with Bacon and Avocado
This recipe comes from Café Delights. Part of the honey mustard mixture is used to marinate the chicken so that it cooks up caramelized and crispy. The rest of the honey mustard is used as the salad dressing, and the good news is you get that yummy taste of honey mustard dressing without the mayo! It would be a perfect dish to serve while dining al fresco during this lovely spring weather. To get to the site with the recipe, click here.
Crunchy Asian Chicken Salad
This salad would be very easy to put together for a main dish salad because it uses frozen breaded chicken tenders, packaged coleslaw mix and a bag of romaine hearts salad. Put the romaine and the coleslaw in a large bowl and toss with the dressing. To serve, place some salad mixture on individual plates and top with the tenders that have been cut into bite-sized pieces. Sprinkle with crunchy Chinese noodles and toasted almonds and enjoy! To see the recipe, click here.
Summer Buzz Fruit Salad
This is definitely not your ordinary fruit salad! It has watermelon, cherries, blueberries and English cucumber cubes that you toss together with salad greens, thinly sliced mint leaves and crumbled feta cheese. Then you mix honey and lemon juice and drizzle over the salad. What a super salad for a day when it’s too hot to cook! Click here to get the recipe.
Avocado Toast Breakfast Salad
Here you go – a perfect breakfast salad! This avocado breakfast salad takes avocado toast to a whole new level. It is low in calories, high in fiber and has vitamin C thrown in for good measure. You toast the bread then mash and spread the avocado on the toast. Mix up the orange vinaigrette dressing and toss it with arugula, toasted almonds, feta cheese and radish slices. Put a mound of the salad on top of the avocado toast and have a healthy and yummy breakfast! Click here to get to the recipe.
Enjoy your “Salad Days”!
– Becky Lynn is a writer for EllisDownHome.com. She and her husband Bob enjoy spending time with their 8 grandchildren and traveling. Becky loves cranking up the music and heading to the kitchen to try out new recipes or cook for an upcoming party. She is passionate about continuing to be a life-long learner!
