How To Spruce Up Salads
It's that time of year, Sweeties! With all the colors of spring happenin' we're feeling inspired to create tasty and crisp salads for our family. When ya think if eating healthy, the mighty green mix always comes to mind. Let's be honest, y'all, sometimes a crisp green salad doesn't seem too exciting or appetizing... are we right?
If you're finding yourself bored with your everyday salad routine or looking to mix it up a bit with and extra nutritional boost, we've some tips on how to spruce up salads! Ready? Let's get to the goooood stuff!
Pick Your Greens:
Y'all, there's absolutely nothing wrong with muchin' on plain 'ol iceberg lettuce. There are actually so many other options out there to help mix up the greens to treat your taste buds! Try tossing in together a combination of Swiss chard, baby spinach, radicchio, arugula, and watercress, and you will find a sweet, bitter, and peppery flavors in each bite. Sweet Tip! The darker the green, the more nutrient pack it is!
Other greens to consider for your salad are:
Boston Lettuce
Bibb Lettuce
Kale
Mustard greens
Romaine
Spinach
Make it colorful:
Sweeties, to build a delicious and healthy salad, make sure you add in a variety of crisp veggies such red, green, yellow, and orange pepper slices, broccoli florets, cucumbers, snap peas, plump carrots, and juicy tomatoes. Vegetables like these add essential vitamins that are crucial to keeping us going n' healthy! Think of a rainbow! Adding veggies and even fruits (like watermelon and berries) to your salad mix make all of the tasty difference.
Add some protein:
Top off your healthy salad bowl with some clean meat, eggs, or both! Our favorite proteins to add are roasted chicken, cooked turkey, tuna fish, and even sliced hard-boiled eggs. Adding protein to your salad helps keep your belly full longer too-and that means less snacking in between meals!
Sprinkle in some herbs:
Boost your salad into somethin' really special. Adding extra nutrients like basil, chervil, chives, cilantro, dill, mint, parsley, oregano, rosemary, thyme is another way to add new flavors in your salad!
Toss in some good fats:
Add in fat. There we said it! Add in some good fats. Oils like olive oil are heart-healthy and provide an excellent base to flavor it up! Add a squeeze of lemon to it, garlic or ginger and coat the salad ingredients with all of the goodness!
Add a crunch:
Adding some crunchies are a nice addition to salads. Get creative, Sweeties! Add seeds like sunflower, almonds, pumpkin, hazelnuts, cashews. The additions are endless and will help bring out the other flavors of your salad! Some other favorites are chia seeds, hemp seeds, flax seeds, and sesame seeds.
YUM! We don't know about y'all, but our mouths are watering! Doesn't this sound exciting? Now that you have the scoop on how to spruce up your salad, don't forget about somthin' good to wash it down. Southern Breeze Sweet Tea is the ideal zero calorie sweet tea. Just only 5 minutes of steeping time will get ya deeelicious sweet tea to sip on 'till the cows come home! One of the great parts about Southern Breeze brewin' is no need to measure any sugar-the sweetness is in the tea bag, y'all!
Making healthy salads should be fun and not a chore. Remember Sweeties, get creative, play with textures, and never skimp in the flavor! Well y'all, get choppin' and make your summer salads oh-so-colorful! What are your favorites to add to your salad? Share with us in the comments below!