FEBRUARY GOAL: Eat a Salad Every Day!

Our goal this month is to eat a salad everyday. Start small and over the year slowly increase the size and frequency to two salads everyday. Serve your salad first before serving the rest of the meal. Our salad at lunch is usually a veggie tray and our dinner salad is usually a very large green leafy one. Variety and prepping ahead are keys to making this a habit.

Helpful Tips:

· Plan ahead, write a menu for the week and have all the ingredients on hand. Prep what you can for the week as soon as you get home from the store.

· Prep your lettuce every 3-4 days. I tear (never cut) my lettuce into bite size or sandwich size pieces. I wash and spin it dry. Put it into a baggie or bowl with an unbleached paper towel. Include romaine, red leaf lettuce, green leaf lettuce and baby spinach.

· Each week prepare carrot sticks and celery sticks. Keep these in a covered bowl of water in your refrigerator.

· When you are fixing a meal with veggies, always prep extra. You already have the knife, cutting board and mess going. Cut one for your recipe and the other to put in your salads or even to throw in your green smoothies.

· Get in the habit of eating a raw food first. When leaving for a party or other function with food, eat an apple on the way. Make a green smoothie or pudding before you go.

· When you go to a buffet, it is so much easier to switch the dinner plate with the salad plate. When I remember, I fill my large dinner plate with the salad bar fare, I then return for the entrees and veggies using my small salad plate.

Kid Tips:

· 20 minutes before a meal set out a veggie tray with their favorite dip.

· Let your children help you pick out the veggies and help prepare them for the meal.



Basic Green Salad

• Start with a base of one to three types of lettuce.

Green leaf, baby spinach red leaf, swiss chard, romaine, etc.

• Add your veggies of choice.

Carrots, red cabbage, cherry tomatoes, roma tomatoes, grape tomatoes, cucumber, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, red onion, Orange, red or yellow bell peppers, sugar snap peas, snow peas, etc.

• Top with your favorite salad dressing.

To make it extra special a sprinkling of raisins, dried cranberries, raw sunflower seeds or other raw nuts are great.

It’s your turn!
Be sure to post your green salad combinations.