I just had the BEST salad I've ever, ever made. I don't really like a lot of raw veggies (though I love almost anything cooked), which means I don't really enjoy traditional pile-on-the-veggies salads. I really just wanted a big, hearty, healthy salad for dinner tonight and this is what I whipped up:

Shrimp and Avocado Salad

3oz shrimp (about 12 medium, peeled, deveined, cooked)
1/2 avocado
1c broccoli, lightly steamed (crisp-tender), and cooled
3c baby spinach

1 tbsp lite mayo
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp worchester sauce
dash cayenne pepper
dash paprika
bit of dill, bit of cilantro

combine the dressing ingredients, stir well to incorporate. put everything on top of the spinach and eat!

This is what I just had for dinner and OMG was it delish! I was thinking next time I'd use some EVOO to get an oil serving in, that would be good too.

For this whole bowl of salad, it's 8 points, which is perfect for me for dinner. You could lighten it up by using only 1/4 avocado, but I just love avocado and had the points to spare.

Anyway, I just thought I'd share that, and ask -- what are some of your favorite salads and/or salad dressings that you make from scratch? With the weather warming up there's nothing better than a light, crisp, cool salad!

Mmmm. Sounds delicious. I'm just learning to like avocado.

I love steamed or roasted veggies served cold - on salads, as a side, with or without dressing.

For me salads are all about minimizing the lettuce and maximizing the veggies. Often I don't even both with dressing because there are already so many flavors. I probably never make the same salad twice.

I'm almost always disappointed in restaurant salads because they are so lettuce intensive and healthy topping sparse.

Another idea is to lower the fat content of your favorite potato salad recipe and make it with cooked, chilled, cubed cauliflower instead of potatoes. So for me that involves sprinkling the hot cauliflower with vinegar. When it chills, adding low-fat mayo, lemon juice or vinegar, celery seed, diced onion, & diced celery.

Why do you put vinegar on the cauliflower while it's hot? Just for flavor? I've heard of doing faux-mashed potatoes with cauliflower but never thought of putting it in potato salad!

I feel the same about restaurant salads - they're usually just chopped iceberg lettuce with crummy veg or fried chicken on top.

Although I have to say, I love salad greens (other than iceberg) ... baby greens, spring mix, and especially spinach. I've eaten about 5 cups of fresh baby spinach today, I just can't get enough of it!

Anyway, enough rambling. Thanks for the cauliflower idea!

I had the *BEST* salad ever at Boathouse in Vancouver. I loved it so much I asked for the recipe for the salad dressing. Here it is:

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp apple juice
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Pepper

If you mix all of that together, it works out to a point per tablespoon. I am not sure it really had balsamic vinegar in it because the colour is different from the one I had in the restaurant, but either way, it is tasty with balsamic vinegar too. The salad they made it with had spring greens, dried cranberries, slivered almonds, and grilled chicken. It was unbelievable. I have successfully replicated it a few times, with and without the chicken. I have a hard time finding appetizing-looking salad of any sort because I don't like iceberg lettuce, but the little spring green mix boxes/bags are super easy to whip up this one with! And it is SOOOO good.

It's a carryover from making the salad with potatoes and I'm not sure it really works on cauliflower. While the potatoes are warm/hot, they absorb the vinegar and pick up the flavor in a way that adding it in the dressing when the potatoes are cold just doesn't do. However, I'm not sure the cauliflower is really absorbent. Friends of our from Germany sent us their potato salad recipe, and they do the same thing, but with pickle juice, instead.

I just ate a lovely salad for lunch today. Thought I'd share it

Note that this is higher in points, and is therefore best if you can split it between two or more people as part of a meal. Or if you can plan to have it when you need to use a lot of points like I do on Saturdays.

The salad:
Points: 13
Couple cups of mixed salad greens
1 chopped avocado
1 chopped small red apple (I simply love Braeburn, but use your favorite.)
1/4 cup sunflower seeds (Already de-seeded... they're in the nut & candy aisle.)

The dressing:
Points: 2
2 teaspoons olive oil
The tiniest amount of dijon mustard (maybe 1/4 of a teaspoon... very small)
About a tablespoon of Pomegranate balsamic vinegar (use more or less depending on your tastes)


Combine the salad. Mix the dressing thoroughly & poor over salad. Eat!

I love lots of lettuce/baby spinach in my salads. For me, regular Ranch dressing is a must. I simply do not like other dressings, but I use very little of it and I've found that I can stomach f/f French mixed with the real Ranch, but I cannot do the f/f French alone. There's just something about that Ranch flavor.

I always order my food with extra lettuce on it.

I love Mexican. Last night a g/f and I went out for dinner at a Mexican restaurant. I had a beef tostada with extra lettuce (so it was more like a taco salad on a flat shell.) Yum! It was delish!

Afterwards I drove through McDonalds and had a 3.5 pt ice cream cone! It was a good night!