Salads
A salad can potentially use a lot of the same things you might put on your Plate o' Stuff, such as nuts, cheeses and crackers, but starting with a bed of lettuce and potentially being topped off with salad dressing.
You can get prepackaged salads -- complete with a plastic fork, so perfect as a lunchbox item -- that have a selection of toppings included, often chicken, cheese, some kind of carb plus salad dressing.
Most of these do not contain ingredients of high enough quality for my needs. If eggs are included, they are rubbery. In many cases, the cheese is not of very high quality and neither is the chicken.
However, I have found a couple of variations on a Waldorf salad from a couple of different companies where the ingredients are high enough quality that I will eat ALL of them. They both contain spring mix salad greens, walnuts, cranberries, a light fruity vinaigrette (raspberry or similar) and feta cheese. (Notice: This is vegetarian, though not vegan.)
You can get all kinds of pre-mixed salads with instructions on the back for how to add fresh chicken or whatever to make it a complete meal. If you look around and try a few things, odds are good you can find something that works for you.
You can also get just the "salad" -- lettuce mix -- part in a bag or other container. This seems to come in at least three varieties:
I generally don't pair high calcium foods with high iron foods, so I don't want to pair cheese with baby spinach as a base. Spring mix seems to contain SOME baby spinach leaves, but it's in the minority. I'm happy to have feta cheese with spring mix.
Depending on what you top it with, a salad can stand on its own as a meal or be used as a side dish and paired with fresh grilled steaks, rotisserie chicken or whatever works for you.
You can get prepackaged salads -- complete with a plastic fork, so perfect as a lunchbox item -- that have a selection of toppings included, often chicken, cheese, some kind of carb plus salad dressing.
Most of these do not contain ingredients of high enough quality for my needs. If eggs are included, they are rubbery. In many cases, the cheese is not of very high quality and neither is the chicken.
However, I have found a couple of variations on a Waldorf salad from a couple of different companies where the ingredients are high enough quality that I will eat ALL of them. They both contain spring mix salad greens, walnuts, cranberries, a light fruity vinaigrette (raspberry or similar) and feta cheese. (Notice: This is vegetarian, though not vegan.)
You can get all kinds of pre-mixed salads with instructions on the back for how to add fresh chicken or whatever to make it a complete meal. If you look around and try a few things, odds are good you can find something that works for you.
You can also get just the "salad" -- lettuce mix -- part in a bag or other container. This seems to come in at least three varieties:
- Iceberg lettuce with carrots and red cabbage.
- Spring mix, which has a variety of dark green lettuces.
- Baby spinach.
- Crunchy onion strips
- Wonton and tortilla strips
- Bacon bits
- Nuts and seeds
- Dried fruit
- Croutons
I generally don't pair high calcium foods with high iron foods, so I don't want to pair cheese with baby spinach as a base. Spring mix seems to contain SOME baby spinach leaves, but it's in the minority. I'm happy to have feta cheese with spring mix.
Depending on what you top it with, a salad can stand on its own as a meal or be used as a side dish and paired with fresh grilled steaks, rotisserie chicken or whatever works for you.