Lettuceless Salad

One of my favorite healthy lunchtime meals is a lettuceless salad… also known as a salad sans lettuce.

Lettuceless Salad

I love omitting leafy greens in favor of crunchy, colorful produce to make a non-traditional salad. Who says something must be served on a bed of romaine to be considered a salad anyway?

Today’s no-lettuce salad contained:

• ¾ large red pepper, chopped
• ¾ large cucumber, chopped
• Grape tomatoes, halved
• Rotisserie seasoned chicken deli meat
• Annie’s Naturals light raspberry vinaigrette

Annie's Naturals

I gave my salad a shake, shake, shake to evenly distribute the sweet dressing.

So Check Me Out, Hey!

What a winning combination!

On the side, I also enjoyed a Chocolate Brownie Clif Bar that I received from AmericasNutrition.com, a website that features products to “help build a better you.”

Chocolate Brownie Clif Bar

Bite Me!

The bar was chewy, moist, chocolatey and had a slightly crunchy texture that I really enjoyed. Plus, it contained five grams of fiber and 10 grams of protein to keep me full until it is time for my afternoon snack.

Can I just take a minute to be a totally dorky writer and say how much I enjoy the little anecdotes on the back of Clif Bars? I love reading about the founder of the company’s adventures and endeavors.

I think my interest in the content on product packaging stems from my childhood when I would always read the back of cereal boxes. To me, working as the person who creates the content on food packaging would be an awesome job!  (Annnd, if it meant that I had to eat new products all the time  to really understand what I was writing about, well, that’s just icing on the cake. 😉 )

Upcoming Posts

Thank you for your post requests! Stay tuned for upcoming posts about:

• A sample total-body strength training routine
• Ab workouts
• Grocery shopping on a budget
• How to start working out in the morning
• Change your mindset so food doesn’t take over your thoughts
• My healthy food staples
• Staying positive through an exercise setback

I already have a billion ideas running through my head of what I want to say in these posts. So much to write, so little time. I feel like a nerdy version of Buddy the Elf… “I love to smile write! Smiling Writing’s my favorite!”

Of Possible Interest

• Trick Your Brain to Control Food Cravings (FitSugar.com)
• Operation Beautiful Book Giveaway (dailySpark.com)
• 8 Tips for a Healthy Heart from Dr. Oz (AOLHealth.com)

Question of the Afternoon

What is your favorite food to include in a salad?

I love including beans, edamame or sweet corn in my salad. I also love fresh fruit in a salad during the summer!

Who Spiked the Eggnog?

Straight No Chaser just released their first ever music video! It’s holiday-themed, which obviously pleases me to no end.

Here’s the video for “Who Spiked the Eggnog?” a song off their latest Christmas CD, Christmas Cheers.

I love this acapella band and own both of their Christmas CDs (highly recommended). The happy, upbeat music always ups my Christmas cheer.

Straight No Chaser: Christmas Cheers

Lunch

Lunch today was a ginormous salad featuring lots of random veggies, fruit and cheeeese.

Tuesday's Lunch

I topped a bed of fresh spinach with leftover green beans and broccoli from last night’s dinner, mushrooms, homemade cranberry relish, feta and goat cheese. I used Annie’s Naturals raspberry vinaigrette dressing for added sweetness.

Annie's Naturals

All Tossed Up

I’m on track to meet my veggie-quota for the day!

A Rare Appearance

Today I randomly snapped a pic of my elusive morning snack. As you may remember, I usually do not take pictures of my snacks, but today I was feelin’ pic-happy.

'Dilla

I made a quick microwavable quesadilla. I just placed a stick of string cheese on a whole wheat pita an microwaved it for 45 seconds until the cheese was melted. Easy, warm, delish ‘dilla!

Tonight

I will be leaving work early today for yet another Invisalign appointment with my orthodontist. I  actually don’t mind these appointments (I have to go once every six weeks) because my orthodontist is amazing and is engaged as well! I love all the wedding talk! 🙂

After my appointment, I am hoping to make it home early to take Sadie on a walk with Ryan before dinner. Then I’m hosting our weekly girl’s movie night! We’ll be watching Elf, one of my favorites.

"I'm Buddy the elf! What's your favorite color?"

My sister and I quote this movie year-round. It’s the best!

What’s your favorite holiday movie?

My top three holiday favorites are:

• Christmas Vacation
• Elf
• Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (you know, the T.V. classic!)

Click here for MovieFone’s list of the top 25 holiday movies. Somehow How the Grinch Stole Christmas, A Charlie Brown Christmas and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer didn’t make the list! I’m confused.

Green Scene

Lunch today was quite the scene of green.

The Green Machine

I made a salad using several green ingredients:

• Spinach
• Celery
• Green beans
• Broccoli
• Apple
• Turkey
• Feta cheese
• Annie’s Naturals raspberry vinaigrette dressing

Dressing so good you could drink it!

Salads full of veggies, cheese, fruit and meat are a lot more satisfying to me than plain lettuce and dressing. It’s fun to taste something different every bite.

I know Ryan isn’t big on fruit in his salad. I, on the other hand, love fruit in pretty much anything, so I’m quite the fan. Do you like fruit in your salad? Any favorites?

Easy Dinner

Tonight I will be kicking off holiday movie night with some of my girlfriends. Each week through Christmas we’ll watch a holiday movie one night a week at a different girl’s apartment. I’m excited!

Since I’ll be out of the house by 7 p.m. tonight, our Sadie-walking/ dinner-cooking window is tight tonight. To be sure Sadie gets her walk and we have time to eat before I go, I placed the pork for tonight’s  dinner in the crock pot before I left for work.

Stay tuned for the easiest pulled pork recipe in the world!