Can This Be Dinner?
Recently I made a trip to my local Whole Foods looking for industrial-sized bags of Veggie Booty (don’t laugh, it’s better than it sounds) and a six-pack of mandarin orange soda.
Normally, I don’t do a majority of my shopping there, but I became intrigued with the vast salad bar island that rivaled the size of a small country and I wandered over to look at their offerings.
Before I knew it I had loaded a massive recycled box full of greens and fixin’s into my shopping cart and headed toward the check out. I should have known to expect sky-high prices on this item as I could barely lift it. It was like hoisting an armful of bricks onto the conveyor belt but I persevered, paid the price and took home the spoils.
I may not be attractive but I'm filling and delicious.
When I got my giant salad home I shoveled it onto an oversized dinner plate and began chowing down, but not before a quick phone call came in. After initial greetings and pleasantries the conversation naturally turned to what each of us were doing at that moment and I casually answered that I was eating a salad.
“Are you on a diet?” was the response.
I thought about that for a moment and wondered how a vat of food this large slathered in dressing could be considered deprivation. Then I remembered a conversation that I’d overhead once about how salad could in fact be dinner.
Where I was raised meals had to consist of a meat, a vegetable, and a starch washed down by a big glass of whole milk. Then if you were good you got to go to the ice cream place and smash your face into any number of dairy delights.
As you can imagine this “salad for dinner” idea really intrigued me as I took stock of the ingredients and thought about how I eat during the summer months. I’m more naturally inclined to pick at fruits and fresh vegetables when it’s hot out, but I still have a hard time thinking of a salad, even one this epic, as a full meal.
Would you feel the same way?
I equate it with all of those after school specials about the “girl with the secret eating disorder” who eventually threw herself off a building (remember the Helen Hunt on crank one?) because no one noticed she was only nibbling on lettuce and carrots for two months prior to her crisis coming to a head.
Still, I enjoyed the hell out of my massive dinner and felt bloated for the rest of the evening.
Diet my ass.
I’m the same way! I try to compensate for my toppings-mania by starting with a giant bed of greens (spinach if its available… I fucking LOVE spinach), but even then, I begin piling on cheese and brocolli and carrots and meat and sunflower seeds and… shit, by the time I’m done, it’s a mountain of deliciousness.
Even so, I still have a hard time thinking of salad as a standalone dinner. Like, I need something “real” to go with it. But it’s so satisfying by itself that I don’t know why I don’t do it more often. I don’t even think about the fact that it’s got a shit-ton of veggies. I just love the menagerie of flavors.
Peace,
Shannon
I have a confession to make. After the first salad I snuck right back into Whole Foods and continued to eat this same thing for dinner three nights in a row.
It really is fantastic and I’m right on board the sunflower seeds + wasabi peas + crutons toppings fascination boat with you.
As a matter of fact, I think I’ll go back and get one tonight as well.
I guess I’m different, I frequently have salads for meals. I look at this as truly intuitive eating, sometimes you need the full three part meal, and sometimes you wanna bury yourself in a huge mound of veggies. I’m with Shannon, I adore spinach. Raw though, not cooked.
Raw or creamed… I also I love when people cook it so it wilts a bit and add to some rice, like Jean mentions. Mmmmmmmmm… But then if you eat too much you get that tannin taste and I hate that!
Peace,
Shannon
I love salads as dinner, finally got hubby into them to. I like to start with a bag’o salad mix (iceburg, cabbage and carrots), add spinach, sliced ciminis, shredded cheese, some variation of ranch dressing all tossed together. If we have some kind of leftover meat, that will go in or I will chop up some deli meat. Once plated, hubby will get some bell peppers on his, mine gets avocado. Totally perfect for hot days and in no way is it any kind of “diet” food.
I love spinach, hated it growing up since mom usually got the crap that came in a can. GROSS!!!!! I love it for wilted greens and will throw a half a bag into the tumeric chicken and chickpeas I like to make every once in a while. Gives the dish a nice slightly bitter bite that goes nicely with jasmine rice.
Avocado. That is all.
I love them.
I tried not to include too many on my mountain of salad so that some of the other stuff got a fair shake but they always manage to outnumber all the other ingredients.
I’ve only just begun to like salads, and between my lifelong hatred of fruits and my Aspie texture issues, I’m quite picky. I hate the way romaine hearts crunch, so I make up salads pretty much entirely of lettuce. I found low-sodium croutons I’m fond of, and I add carrots and sometimes cucumbers, low-fat dressing and I’m good to go. I basically make caesar salads with carrots instead of cheese and low-fat Italian dressing instead of caesar.
I spent many lean single years surviving on nacho chip and Ramen noodles so big free for all salads weren’t in my budget until I started making decent money but even then I made them large and slathered in everything I could fit on the plate. Cucumbers are also a favorite part of the whole concoction for me but I spend hours burping afterward.
I used to do salad for dinner a lot of times when I worked nights, but the hubby thinks anything that isn’t primarily made up of meat or starch is a side dish. I make a big salad for lunch often though, usually topped with avocado or egg whites for protein. I made one a couple days ago with baby spinach, arugala, walnuts, mandarin oranges, strawberries, and bleu cheese with a raspberry vinaigrette and it was awesome.
I like the idea of adding fruit. I’m off to try something new!
I used to eat salads as the whole meal all the time, before I had my VBG (now that I’ve had that, vegetables of any kind just don’t seem to agree with me, and any dressing with a dairy base is also out, and those are the ones I really like).
I grew up with the ‘meat, potato, 2 vegetables’ as your basic meal, if you had a salad, it was a side dish served maybe once a month or so. I wasn’t into salads as a kid at all, but developed a taste for them once I left home and was on my own. Actually, the first time I saw a salad bar, where I could have more than just lettuce, tomatoes, and dressing was when I really started liking salads. I added eggs, chopped meats, sunflower seeds, black olives, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, croutons, and bacon bits to the lettuce and covered it all with ranch or thousand island dressing. I miss those meals.
I love salads for dinner and I love Veggie Booty! I also like the Pirate’s Booty.
What is Veggie Booty?
I don’t really have a reason, but I’m not a salad for dinner person. I like salad. I’m never sorry when I eat one. But I never think about eating one as a meal. Not that I haven’t, of course. Just not real often. My favorite though is lettuce and tomatoes with olives, artichoke hearts and a can of albacore tuna with olive oil and red wine vinegar. Yum. Maybe that’s what I’ll have for lunch!
Grew up in a sunshine state, so salads for dinner or lunch were a staple. 100+ degrees outside, you’re not really up for anything else until the BBQ at night (stereotypes DO come from somewhere).
Fruit (especially dried fruit, but also fresh raspberries or mandarin oranges) is lovely with fresh baby spinach leaves (yum! I’m with every spinach lover here). I love a small handful of chopped walnuts and dried cranberries on lamb’s lettuce. Avocado’s great too, of course. I love vinaigrette more than creamy dressings so I usually mix up a little olive oil&special vinegar (raspberry, plum, lavender, balsamic…) with a few fresh herbs and a little chopped egg to make one.
Not so much of a meat fan (never have been. I’m not a vegetarian, but I’m about 98% there), so I sometimes add a little spicy parmigiano or creamy camembert if I feel like cheese.
Yum, salad… It’s past midnight here so since I ate the last I had for dinner I’ll just have to get me some… on Monday. Huh. No Sunday shopping in Germany (really SO last century!).
Dark leafy mix, arugula, baby spinach, and halved grapes. Nuff said! Oh, and avocado.