I am BIG on salad. Anyone who tells you they don’t like salad as an entree, or they like to order salads covered with chicken fingers, or they pour half a bottle of ranch dressing on iceberg lettuce, please send them to me. I will make it better. Today I’m sharing two of my absolute favorite salads. It’s summer, so lately I’ve been going with the watermelon arugula because the roasted veggie + quinoa salad requires the oven (for roasted vegetable purposes). Sometimes I do definitely turn the oven on when it’s 90 degrees and I don’t have air conditioning just so I can have that salad, though, because it’s that good. Okay, so salad. Here we go.
I like to eat a lot of salad. Some reasons:
It takes a while to eat, so you feel like you’re having a big meal. Usually one plate of salad takes me 30 minutes to eat. And not just because I have trouble eating arugula.You can LOAD it with tons of vegetables and other “toppings” to maximize nutrient consumption. My average salad has 6-8 vegetables and toppings combined.If you make a huge one or buy in bulk, you can make a salad that will last all week. Key: dressing on the side. (#MealPrep salad coming up in a post later!)You can save money. This one. I know. If you go to a place that sells produce in large quantities (looking at you, Produce Junction), or a local place especially in the summer, chances are salad fixin’s are cheaper than at the big grocery store.
Salad #1: Roasted Vegetables + Quinoa + Arugula + Goat Cheese
So, we are definitely noticing a goat cheese and an arugula theme. I will admit that. It’s just such a gosh darn solid combination! Feta would also work here, but once you go goat, you can’t go back. Also, back to my tip on saving money (which is the most important thing to me right now), both of these salads will feed you for days for cheap! I got this arugula at Aldi, for example and it was $0.49 for 5 oz organic baby arugula. Granted, it was about to expire and it was $2 off, but that means normally their organic arugula is only $2.49! What?! A watermelon twice the size of my head I got for $6. Goat cheese at Wegman’s sounds fancy but it’s only $8 or something for a huge log. Moral of the story, eat a salad, be happy and save money!