I always have greens, a bell pepper, a good cheese, and salad dressing on hand. But what varies on my lunch salads the most is the protein. If I have a good protein (like last week’s meatballs), I definitely eat more salads and find them so much more appealing!
I have realized that I don’t love doing prep days in the kitchen on Sundays, which I would rather spend with family or out doing fun activities. (I also realize that working from home / blogging allows me to have flexibility in my prep day schedule!) Therefore, I have been doing some of my weekly prep at lunch on Monday and some dinner batch cooking during Monday dinner. I’ll dirty up the kitchen making lunch and then cook 1-2 things right after before cleaning everything up.
This week my protein is a spiced chicken! I picked up an extra packet of organic chicken cutlets at Wegman’s last week and cooked them on Monday. I like cutlets or tenders because they are thin enough that they cook quickly in a pan. After patting dry, I simply seasoned with salt and pepper, smoked paprika, turmeric (spice of the year!), garlic powder, and cinnamon – just a dash. Everything was sprinkled on to taste. No measuring.
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After browning both sides in some olive oil, I sliced up the pieces and have had them for lunch and dinner salads (or Thomas’s lunch sandwiches) this week. I bet they would make an awesome cubed chicken salad too!
In the summer we like to have dinner salads once a week or so, and this one featured the spiced chicken (it was under all the lettuce!) with homemade croutons, tomatoes, sharp cheddar, greens, and more.
Chicken! I usually prefer fish when actually cooking, but I love chicken on salads. And I always have to have bell peppers and croutons (my guilty pleasure)! 🙂
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Costco sells the rotisserie chicken already pulled off the bone in bulk. I love to portion that out into about 1 cup portions and stick it in a sandwich bag and put it in our freezer. Then during the week I can use it for lunches for everything from salad to chicken salad to buffalo chicken sweet potatoes. It’s so simple and versatile
Nice! That is super convenient.
I love edamame on salads, especially with an Asian style dressing.
My husband used to cook a rotisserie chicken once a week and shred it up for whatever we needed. I also love to just bake chicken with some olive oil, salt and pepper. So simple but flavorful, and you can season it up any way you want for meals.
I love having extra chicken like this, rotisserie as mentioned above, and baked salmon to add to salads! Protein and carbs really can make all the difference. That spice combo sounds marvelous. I love turmeric and curry flavors – so delicious!
I like to make a big batch of taco meat (mix up my own seasoning) and my kids use it for burrito bowls or tacos and I use it for salads. I like to put taco meat, rice, refried beans, olives, and some chips in my salad.
Me too! We usually go through 2 packages ground turkey a week- one for taco salads and dinner taco nights and another in a tomato veggie sauce over pasta or zoodles or rice. SO easy and healthy. I need to look for cutlets- I don’t love tenders and breasts are too big! I don’t enjoy chopping and trimming raw meat even tho I know I would save a ton. One or twice a month we do steaks and leftover steak on salad is MY FAVE
I’m a huge fan of tempeh! It’s high in protein amd fiber and even probiotics since it’s fermented. My favorite is just cubed and sautéed with some soy sauce and sesame oil, or i’ll just do a basic batch with salt/pepper and have it with a peanutty sauce.
Last week i made a big batch of bean salad with edamame, chickpeas and white beans, with some chopped red onion, celery and a dijon heavy vinegrette. I used it on salads, in a wrap, and then ontop pf some toast with mashed avocado
I love bacon on salads! (and chicken).