Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 07:30 AM
Among my friends and family, I’m the Girl Most Likely to Eat a Salad. Or Bring a Salad. Or Order a Salad. Yes, lucky for me, I like the green stuff. I always have. I was born that way. But, in the winter, my salad cravings fade a bit because I get cold. So, at times when I normally would go for a big salad, I want something warm instead.
Well, guess what happened this week? I wanted salad. Not just wanted. Craved. Surely, this is a sign that Spring is almost here.
Woo Hoo!!!
This salad that I made for lunch was soooo good.
Romaine lettuce: NuVal score of 100
Cucumbers: NuVal score of 93
Tomatoes: NuVal score of 96
Chick Peas: NuVal score of 88 for Goya Chick Peas
Leftover Grilled Asparagus: Plain Asparagus gets a 100. But it does have added olive oil, NuVal score of 11.
Cheddar Cheese: Kraft Sharp Cheddar Cheese, NuVal score of 26
As for the dressing, I keep it simple. I combine Olive Oil, Balsamic Vinegar, Kosher Salt and Black Pepper.
I will tell you what I would like though….. that salad dressing emulsifier from Williams Sonoma!
Don’t forget you can win one – or a gift card for $30 to Williams Sonoma – by entering My National Nutrition Month Contest. All you need to do is get your kids (of any age) to try a new vegetable and catch it on video or camera. Send it to me at abetterbagofgroceries@gmail.com. You have until the end of the month, but March is starting to fly by. I am feeling Spring coming!
Question of the Day
Are you inherently a Salad Person?
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Salad
Tags: Contest, Salad, Salad dressing
Wednesday, September 29, 2010 at 08:10 AM
Yes, my daughter recently uttered these six little words much to my incredulous delight. Hooray, I am raising at least one salad-lover! In my humble opinion, there are two kinds of people in this world: those who love their salad greens and those for whom crunching the green stuff is a chore. I am fortunate to be in the first category. And my love for leafy greens came early in life. I would ask my mom if I could have lettuce for a treat. She would sigh and say, “Well, OK. But only if you’re good.” My husband loves salad too and together, we’ve created our own salad routines over the years. For example, we eat salad at the end of dinner, like Europeans do. It’s not that we’re trying to be all Euro or something. It’s just the way our tummies like to process food – first some carbs & protein, then our greens.
So, this salad bowl is a mainstay in our household. I keep it full and fresh and rotated and it’s on the dinner table every night.
I love that this bowl was made in Italy. It is so hard to find bowls like that these days!
I guess my daughter noticed us always eating our salad – at the end of dinner – because one night she just decided to move up from her side of sliced cucumbers and she asked for a full-fledged salad. And she is digging it! Woo hoo!
Once, when I was visiting our former daycare at lunchtime for some reason or another, I noticed one of the kindergartners had a little salad with a little container of dressing and she was happily munching away. At the time, I bumped into her mom that afternoon at Pick Up Time and I commented on what a great eater her daughter was and how impressed I was that she brought salad with her lunch. I only hoped that I would be doing the same thing one day. Well, here I am packing a little salad for my daughter’s kindergarten lunch box, with her little side of dressing.
Why am I so happy about my daughter’s salad habit? Well, salad is a fantastic way of getting vegetables into your diet. And vegetables get incredible NuVal scores.
Now, we still have one child to try and lure over to the Salad Team. My son, a good eater, does like fruits and vegetables, but he is not as adventurous as my daughter is with his variety of foods. But we will keep trying. Perhaps the peer pressure of three other people at the table munching away will sway him. I’ll be sure to keep you posted. In the meantime, I have to go pack my daughter’s salad dressing and fork!
Yesterday’s Giveaway
Congratulations to Commenter #58 Hazel! You’ve won the Kashi Autumn Wheat and 7 Grain Puffs Giveaway. Please send me an email at abetterbagofgroceries@gmail.com with your mailing address so that I can send your prize to you. Thank you to everyone who entered!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Salad
Tags: Salad
Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 06:50 AM
Welcome to Trade-Up Tuesday, a great day here on A Better Bag of Groceries. Every Tuesday, I blog about a Trade Up I’ve made since I’ve learned about NuVal scores and I give away something for free.
You know, I’ve done so many Trade Up Tuesdays now. Truth be told, it’s getting a little harder to think of shelf-stable items that I have truly traded up to and that I can package up for you and send to you in the mail. It’s not easy. As I was wracking my brain, trying to figure out what this week’s Trade Up Tuesday should be, it suddenly dawned on me. I have made a huge change in one area of the supermarket: Salad Dressing. I absolutely no longer buy the bottled stuff. Not. At. All.
When I saw the abysmal scores for salad dressings, it made me re-think the whole idea of buying bottled dressing. Not to mention, the ingredients list is pretty pathetic. For example, here are the ingredients for Wish-Bone Light Ranch:
Water, Corn Syrup, Natural Flavors (Milk), Soybean Oil, Modified Corn Starch, Salt, Sugar, Garlic Juice, Onion Juice, Cellulose Gel, Lactic Acid, Distilled Vinegar, Chives, Monosodium Glutamate, Onion Powder, Xanthan Gum, Garlic Powder, Garlic, Color Added.
Ewwwww.
Soon after I began working for NuVal, I found myself no longer buying salad dressing. Instead, I make a simple mixture of extra virgin olive oil, Balsamic vinegar, Kosher salt, and black pepper. That’s it. Nothing more. The only downside to my dressing is that it tends to solidify in the refrigerator. So, you need to take it out and stick it in a measuring cup of warm water before serving. No big deal.
Now, if you are interested in knowing which of the bottled brands get the best NuVal scores, I can tell you:
- Full Circle Organic Raspberry Vinaigrette: 21
- Emerill’s Vinaigrette: 23
- Kraft Light Creamy Reduced Fat: 28
- Annie’s Natural’s Raspberry Vinaigrette Light: 23
Today’s Giveaway
Today, I’ve assembled the ingredients I use for my very basic salad dressing: olive oil, Balsamic vinegar, Kosher salt, and black pepper. Also included is the Good Seasons Italian All Natural Cruet Kit. It has a couple packets of salad dressing mix in it, which you could use – or not. But the reason I included this kit is for the glass cruet. This is what you need to make your own homemade salad dressing. It’s healthy and eco-friendly! One lucky commenter will win my salad dressing kit. Just leave a comment below, telling me what you would put in your salad. You can enter twice by telling me the NuVal scores for those items. Hint: you can find some sample scores by searching this blog or www.tradingupdowntown.com or at www.nuval.com. I will choose one winner at 7 am EDT on Wednesday morning, so don’t delay!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Salad, Trade-Up Tuesday
Tags: Salad, Salad dressing
Thursday, April 29, 2010 at 07:08 AM
There’s nothing like a healthy lunch to make me feel good. That is something I’m trying hard to pass along to my kids as well.
Here’s a sneak peak inside two lunches that went out the door at our house today.
First, my son’s lunch for school.
In his Transformers lunch box, you will find:
- Ham and Cheese sandwich on Freihofer’s 100% Hearty Whole Wheat bread (NuVal score of 33 for Freihofers)
- Chobani Champions Strawberry Banana Greek yogurt (not yet scored – I am eagerly awaiting the score on this new Chobani product for kids)
- Del Monte Fresh Cut Green Beans with No Salt Added (NuVal Score: 100)
- Horizon Organic Reduced Fat Milk (NuVal Score: 55)
- One Lunch Box Note reminding my son to pay it forward
More about those Lunch Box Notes later in this post!
He also took some Chocolate Teddy Grahams (NuVal Score of 25) and a Minute Maid Fruit Falls (NuVal Score of 41) for his afternoon snack. It’s always a challenge to pack something that will sit in his warm backpack until the 2 pm snack time!
I took some extra time to pack a nice healthy lunch for myself as well.
This is actually my morning snack and lunch. I eat a lot of food!
Morning Snack
- Strawberries (NuVal Score: 100)
- Chobani Fat Free Plain Greek Yogurt (NuVal Score: 94)
Lunch
- Romaine Lettuce (NuVal Score: 100)
- Red Leaf Lettuce (NuVal Score: 100)
- Cucumber (NuVal Score: 93)
- Cocktail Tomatoes (NuVal Score: 96)
- Goya Cannellini Beans (NuVal Score: 57)
- Dressing of Olive Oil (11), Balsamic Vinaigrette, Kosher Salt and Black Pepper)
- Cedar’s Red Pepper Hummus (NuVal Score: 61)
- Central Market Toasted Whole Grain Wheat and Flax Crackers (NuVal Score: 36)
- Orange (NuVal Score: 100)
- Ghiardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Chips (NuVal Score: 8)
I was a little disappointed by the score on the Cannellini beans. I thought they would be higher. I’ve been spoiled by the Beans That Scored 100!
Those Central Market Toasted Whole Grain Wheat and Flax Crackers were a great find!
The average score for crackers is a 16. So a cracker that scores a 36 is great. And they taste great too! I found them on my last visit to Price Chopper.
Packing a healthy lunch is no easy task! And in my case, it takes a lot of containers. My lunch bag was bulging!
Today’s Bonus Giveaway
As you know, I usually reserve giveaways for Trade Up Tuesday, but the nice people at www.sayplease.com were kind enough to send me some Lunch Box Notes to give away after I wrote about them in Two of My Favorite Things. They sent me Volumes 1, 2, 3, and 4 of Lunch Box Love for Kids:
I love these notes! There are even some blank ones inside so that you can personalize your message. And if you are not a Mom, you could win these and give them away to a Mom that you love for Mother’s Day. Also check out their site for:
- Lunch Box Love for Girlfriends
- Lunch Box Love for People You Work With
- Lunch Box Love for Those You Appreciate
To enter, leave a comment below telling me what’s in your lunch bag today. You can enter twice by leaving a second comment with the NuVal score for something in your lunch bag. Check out the NuVal site for some sample scores. I’ll pick one winner at random by 7 am EDT Friday. Good Luck!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: bread, Chobani, Crackers, Lunch, Salad, tomatoes
Tags: bread, Chobani, Crackers, Lunch Box Love, Salad, tomatoes
Wednesday, March 10, 2010 at 06:47 AM
You have to sing that to the tune of Happy Days Are Here Again. Here in the Northeast, we are finally enjoying some beautiful spring time weather. And there’s nothing like some sunshine and mild temperatures to make me start eating salad for lunch again. It is such a refreshing feeling to have salad cravings!
I made that one while lunching at home.
- Green leaf and romaine lettuce (NuVal score of 100)
- Cucumbers (NuVal score of 93)
- Cocktail tomatoes (NuVal score of 96)
- Grilled asparagus (NuVal score of 100, but the olive oil we used to grill it only gets an 11)
- Full Circle Garbanzo beans (NuVal score of 82)
- Boar’s Head sliced cheddar cheese (not yet scored)
- Newman’s Own light Italian dressing (NuVal score of 3)
I paired it with 2 Ryvita crackers (NuVal score of 87) and some Cedar’s roasted red pepper hummus (NuVal score of 61). It was so good, I had to make it in a bring-to-work version.
This time I swapped my Ryvita for some Joseph’s Flax, Oat Bran & Whole Wheat Flour Pita Bread (NuVal score of 65), added a clementine (NuVal score of 94), and finished up with a cup of Mint Medley tea and a few dark chocolate chips.
My office partner, Rachel, is on a salad kick too.
Between Rachel, Tina, and myself, there’s a lot of noisy crunching going on!
Remember my cool new lunch bag? Well, the kind people at Built NY sent me one to give away to one lucky ABBG reader!
The bag is called the Gourmet Getaway. So, today, in honor of the new beautiful Spring weather, I’m having a Gourmet Getaway Giveaway!
I love my lunch bag. Our Office Manager here at NuVal stopped by my office today and spied it. She thought is was a purse, not a lunch bag! She agreed that it is The Bomb!
The nice people at BuiltNY also sent me a laptop sleeve. For me – sorry, not to give away. Isn’t it cool though?
It’s made of neoprene (the wetsuit material) and it is checkpoint friendly so you can get through airport security faster. And, best of all, it matches my running shoes!
If you love BuiltNY stuff too, you can become a fan on Facebook. I know that next, I am shopping for one of their camera cases for my poor abused digital camera.
To Enter the Gourmet Getaway Giveaway:
All you need to do is comment below and answer the following question:
- If you won the Gourmet Getaway, what would you put in it and what is the NuVal score of that item?
For ideas, check out this blog, or our other two NuVal blogs: Trading Up Downtown or Nutrition Outlook. You can also find interesting scores on the NuVal site.
But wait, there’s more!
I am also throwing in a limited edition NuVal water bottle!
You get all this for one low price of leaving a little comment! You can’t go wrong. Hurry, the contest closes at 11:59 pm Eastern time tonight! I can’t wait to hear what you have to say! Happy Spring!
Winner of the Dreamfields GiveAway
Wow! It’s a big week for GiveAways! Congratulations to Commenter #16, Christina. You’ve won yesterday’s Trade-Up Tuesday GiveAway!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Lunch, Salad
Tags: BuiltNY, Salad
