I see a lot of salad in my future and am looking for ideas beyond the bed of lettuce plus tomatoes and a light dressing.
What's your favorite diabetic-friendly salad? Please share. Thanks!
salad and salsa instead of dressing MMMMMmmmMMM, add avocado onions and maybe few chips
Low in carbs, though this is high in fat… taco salad. I make taco meat, usually using the Ortega blue mix and ground beef. Bed of shredded lettuce onions, tomato, toss with lemon and pepper. put a layer of taco flavored meat on plater, top with shredded mexican blend cheese and put in microwave to melt cheese. Slide this atop bed of lettuce, top with fresh salsa, grape tomatos, red onion and dollop of sour cream. You can grab a handful of tortilla chips (low carb or not) and shred these over the top… it’s fine with as little as five taco chips. Very high in fat, though; eat only occasionally.
I love adding hard boiled egg to my salads. Also try adding chopped walnuts or hazelnuts.
I bild my own salads at an buffet. Unlike others here I don’t put lettus on it (DON’T LIKE IT) but do put alot of other really good vegatables like mushrooms & onions (and that just names a few) Pit some Light Itiallian on it and ENJOY!!! (You won’t be the only one that thinks I crazy to do that my husband does too LOL)
Things to try:
Gorgonzola, pecans, and balsamic vinaigrette over spring mix
Cobb Salad (the BLT Cobb at Wendy’s is great if you are in a hurry)
Tuna, cheddar, and a little bit of black beans
Here’s the salad I always get from Subway: Tuna, spinach, lettuce, tomato, black olives, banana peppers, vinegar and oil
I love salads with cabbage,all colors of bell peppers,cucumber,tomato,onion,babycorn,sprouts,lettuce,carrots little with min salt and pepper
I like my salads on the Greek side…
- Feta cheese
- Red onions
- Roma tomatoes
- Mushrooms
- Black olives
- Pine nuts or slivered almonds
- A handful of croutons, for crunch
- Olive oil and balsamic vinegar, or red wine vinegar
- And spices: salt, black pepper, oregano, garlic powder, a bit of sage powder, thyme, and rosemary, etc.
If I have avocado around, I will add that, too. Or pumpkin seeds/sunflower seeds.
I start out using one of Dole’s salad bags… they have some cheap ones for like 99 cents, sometimes… so that I don’t have produce going to waste…
lettuce
apple
tomato
shredded carrots
shallots
dressing: mustard pickles (5 %) and vinegar (95 %)
cucumber
avocado
i have it everyday
well almost
Sometimes I make it more italian, and I add diced white cheddar, and diced hard dry salami.
add some croutons, and thats a dream salad!
add chicken for variety
Wow! Thanks for all the good ideas. Please keep them coming. I’m trying to gather a month’s worth (20 working days) so that I have some sack lunch ideas.
Was at Whole Foods yesterday and found a really interesting salad roll. It looked like a Thai spring roll because it was wrapped in a rice spring roll wrapper, but it was put together and cut like sushi. Inside there was avocado, thinly julienned vegetables and shrimp–no rice noodles. Yum! They packaged it with soy sauce and wasabi.
If I can just figure out how to make it at home. Hmmm…
I usually start with the reddi made salad in a bag I choose ones with carrots radishes etc. Quite often I substitute reddi made coleslaw.
Low carb veggies of your choice like…
tomato
cucumber (often I make them into what we called refrigerator pickles when I was a kid. Just soak sliced cucumbers in vinegar overnight in the fridge add onion and garlic or whatever to taste.)
red or green peppers
celery
raw broccoli and cauliflower.
sugar snap peas.
Then some meat (often leftovers).
Cheese (shredded if you have it).
Sunflower seeds, pine nuts etc.
If I have a good glucose reading pre meal I might add a small amount of garbanzos or other cooked bean otherwise I just skip them.
Add low carb dressing of your choice If store bought stay away from the low fat versions. For me they tend to produce a spike. I choose one with 4g or less carbs or even better make my own.
The meat, cheese, sunflower seeds etc. make it quite filling I don’t need anything else to make a meal. I have one of these everyday for lunch and several times a week in the evening, they are very blood sugar friendly.
Salad will be our friend even if we don’t want tit to be and it doesn’t have to like you said the old boring salad.
I enjoy putting different nuts Peanuts, Almonds ,and sometimes raisins or currants in my salad. I find it adds a little something to the salad and it is all good for me.
To the normal lettuce type salad I add cooked runner beans, broccoli, raw cauliflower, nuts, avocado mashed with olive oil makes a great dressing, should just be soft enough to stir through the salad.
Coleslaw with vinaigrette instead of mayonnaise. Make the vinaigrette with olive oil and lemon juice for a lovely fresh taste.
LOVE salads. You can put pretty much anything into them:
lentils
black beans
pasta
julienned turkey, chicken, ham or roast beef
sliced beets
mandarin orange segments
berries
any and all vegetables
feta cheese, any cheese
seeds and nuts
lettuse, spinach, endive, radicchio
Let your imagination go wild!
lasat night I picked up a Caesar salad with chicken, cheese (parma), cucumbers, carrot shavings, and green onions. Then when I got home I had some whole foods broccoli salad with nuts, so I tossed that in. It was a mess, but tasted wonderful some how!
I like salad. A lot. =^) I also eat a low carb diet, so lots of greens for me. I do sandwiches in a pan where Ill take all the sandwich goodies and toss them over a bed of greens, mustard, mayo and all. I stole the idea from a place called Ranadlis in So Cal. The do a sandwich in a pan called the godfather that is amazing. Its hot on a bed of lettuce and supper yummy.
Spinach, chicken, bacon, with italian dressing is yummy. Maybe some walnuts in there. Oh and some berries.
Taco salads rock as well. Take a bed of greens (generally shredded romaine) with spinach, add some cheddar, grilled (insert protein here), sour cream, avocado, and salsa.
You can in the end through anything you want on top of a salad and so long as it isnt gravy it will be wonderful.
anything is good salad…lol
i make sure to eat about 3 cups of raw veggies a day…any raw veggies.
but, a favorite of mine is to use cold cooked quinoa over a bed of baby spinach or slightly wilted spinach with carmelized onions as the ‘dressing’. obviously its not all raw.
dried cranberries, goat cheese and yogurt dressings…toasted sesame seeds…they all add to boring uncooked veggie salads.
and different oils add too.
salads never have to be boring.
Sandwiches in the pan sounds like the “In a Bowl” thing that The Counter does here in Honolulu. It’s a build your own burger joint, but instead of on the bun or a rice bowl they have a lettuce bowl. Actually, looking at their menu gives me bunches of ideas…Hmmm…
Here’s a link to their menu http://www.thecounterburger.com/menu/
My doctor has warned me off of raisins and currants. She calls them little balls of concentrated sugar. :-o So I am cautious about them.