You Are Not Lazy – Ready Made Salad edition

26 Feb 2023 Leave a comment

by A Dreamer in Quick Prep, Salad Tags: ,

I am going to take a moment to sing the praises of the single serve ready made salad. I first tried them when my market closed the salad bar at the start of the pandemic. (I was a big fan of the salad bar…)

Now, during farmer’s market season, I will buy their super awesome salad mix greens and actually make my salads, but we’re two months away from that – and I don’t always get over there every week.

Enter the ready made salad. They have a decent fridge life*, a nice variety of options, AND I GET VEGETABLES INTO MY BODY.

My local market carries Dole & Ready Pac – and all you have to do it open it, toss it in a tupperware with a lid, give it a shake, add the dressing, another shake, and SALAD!

I do get a little fancy with mine – I add croutons, some extra cheese, some extra chicken or ham**, and a few shakes of whatever seasoning blend is my favorite that day.

But even if you don’t add anything – you’re still getting some veggies and protein and that’s good for you.

Is it more expensive than buying all the salad stuff and just making salads? Yes. Is it cheaper than buying all the salad stuff and having it just get gross in the fridge because for whatever reason actually getting the salad made is harder than you thought it would be? Definitely.

Behold the messy glory of my chef salad with extra cheese and chicken. I don’t know why my camera wanted to make everything so…golden yellow, but I also couldn’t figure out how to fix it, LOL. But, it was tasty.

A tupperware container with a salad in it
Healthy noms

* I do always double check the ‘best by’ date when I am buying them just to be sure I’m not grabbing one that has a day left.
** I get ready to go proteins, too. Either pre-diced/chopped ham, or ready to go grilled chicken strips, either from the market deli or the Purdue shortcuts.

Easiest Chicken Salad

20 Apr 2015 Leave a comment

by A Dreamer in Chicken, Chicken Salad, Salad, Sandwiches Tags: , , ,

It's hard to take an artful photo of a chicken salad sandwich...

It’s hard to take an artful photo of a chicken salad sandwich…

With the weather warming up, it’s time for cold salad sandwiches.  Never been an egg salad person myself, but I loooove my chicken salad.  Mainly because the only way it could be easier is if I got it at the store – and the store bought is never as good.

Chicken Salad!

1-2 pounds of chicken breasts, cooked and diced
Mayonnaise
Grey Poupon Country Dijon Mustard

Optional:
Celery
Onions
Grapes
Apples
Walnuts

Cook up and chop up the chicken.  For the sauce, the proportions are 1 heaping tablespoon of mayonnaise to 1 heaping teaspoon of mustard.  Now – how much of these tablespoons & teaspoons you need depends on how much chicken you have.  I just keep doing one of each until it looks like enough, taste it, then add more mayo or mustard to get it just right.

Combine it all.  There you go.  Really.  You could just eat it like that.  (I have been known to do that on more than one occasion.  Straight from the bowl.)

I like to add in some chopped celery and onions.  My brother prefers it plain.  If you go with grapes and apples, it’s a little harder to make sandwiches out of it, but it’s good.  I think it’s terrific on croissants.

Cooking the chicken takes the most time – but it’s not like you’re standing over the stove the whole time.  The rest, maybe 10 minutes.