What are good, non starch, additions to salads. I have cheese and chicken breast strips.

[applegrove]

What else should I get on hand as I start a diet?

[Chan790]

1. nuts. dried fruit.

In fact, bibb lettuce, dried cranberries, walnuts, a very small amount of cheese and some of those strips would be the basis of a good healthy salad, dress it with some balsamic vinegar, no oil needed.

Oh don't exclude all carbs, those sorts of diets don't work. The primary reason people snack and nibble is dietary deficiencies. Tis better to happy partake in a cake pop than implode one's diet with forbidden brownie. Your body needs carbs and sugar. The secret to sustainable weight-loss is don't diet; diets are a recipe for failure. Eat less, eat healthier, drink more water, move more. Enjoy it, any diet that feels like work or deprivation will fail. 100% truth.

Take it from someone who used to be closer to 400# than his current weight.

[applegrove]

4. Thanks. That is good advice. I wasn't going to go on an extreme carb diet. Just one where they

are way down because I was eating too much of them. Especially at night.

[Duer 157099]

2. Bacon!

:D

[MiddleFingerMom]

3. I add stuffed green olives to LOTSA things. There's even a REAL low-sodium choice where I shop. n/t

[Flaxbee]

5. walnuts, gorgonzola, 'field greens' and a red wine vinaigrette = divine

But also look for seeds - sunflower seeds, salted pumpkin seeds, even sesame seeds are terrific on salads.

I'll also add garbanzo beans (chick peas) to damn near every salad - very good.

Another nice addition is a little rice mixed in with greens - gives the salad some heft w/o adding a lot of starch.

Oh, also try quinoa!

Slivered almonds, toasted, are also great on a salad. One of my favorite new salads is baby bok choy, chopped, with chopped green onions and slivered toasted almonds. Home made dressing of soy sauce, sugar, vinegar (I use rice vinegar) and olive oil. Really very good!

[Grey]

11. What to do when you HATE the taste

of any kind of vinegar? I simply can't eat anything with vinegar on it. Just the smell makes me want to puke.

[Chan790]

12. Use a different acid as the tart in your dressing.

Specifically, try citric acids like those found in some juices. In addition to citrus juices, also pineapple and a small amount in cranberry.

Or use a sweeter tart taste to mask the taste and smell. Lemon juice mixed 50/50 with a milder vinegar like cider is a common foundation for dressings and marinades used in some Mediterranean cuisines. Adjust the ratios to taste until you find one that works for you, if not mixing with vinegar try water. OR Vinegar/Citrus/Water.

A Google search yielded this vinegarless salad dressing from North Brooklyn Seventh-Day Adventist Church:

Zero Salad Dressing

Makes: 2 servings of 1/2 cup each
This recipe is equal to 2 tablespoons of free food (two servings per day) It contains no added sugar and is vinegarless.

1/2 c Tomato Juice
2 tb Lemon Juice
1 tb minced Onion
1/8 ts Salt
1/8 ts Oregano
1 ds Garlic Powder(optional)

Combine all ingredients in jar with tightly fitted top. Refrigerate several hours. Shake well before using.

Note: This dressing may be kept for several weeks refrigerated in a closed container.

Or look for recipes for miso tahini dressings, there are hundreds and they're almost all vinegar-free, low-fat/low-cal/low-carb and vegan. Or just dress your salad with a spoonful of hummus.

[HopeHoops]

14. Just squeezing a lemon over a salad works great. Well, and oil.

I use peanut, walnut, safflower, or extra virgin olive oil - depends on the salad contents and which flavor of oil would best match them.

Fresh lemon, fresh tangerine, red wine (not vinegar), red wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, and malt vinegar are all good, again based on the salad contents.

Fresh chives are always a good combination. We've got a colony that goes back to at least 1987 and has been split into new colonies almost every spring (over-crowding). We've even got some of them growing inside, but the cats like to munch on them. It's almost DECEMBER and I could still go harvest a shitload of them. I've dug them out of the snow to use them. They don't grow during the winter, but they don't really deteriorate either - the stalks freeze well in the snow just as they do in the freezer. They defrost within minutes at room temperature and are almost as good as the real thing. We also dehydrate a shitload of them every year, chop them, and put them in old spice shakers. We do that with a lot of our herbs.

I prefer to make herbs a "serve yourself" item rather than mix them in with a dressing.

[Arugula Latte]

15. Yes, I'll second the garbanzos.

:9

[jobycom]

6. Cheese is not so good for a diet.

It's high in fat and extremely cholesterol producing. We non-vegan vegetarians often wind up with cholesterol problems because we eat cheese to replace meat. You'd probably lose more weight by eliminating cheese than most starches.

And no, I don't listen to my own advice on that. :)

Instead of cheese, or in addition if you must, chickpeas are good. They are filling and have a tuna/bacon kind of tang to them so you'll be less bored. Any other type of bean or peas is good, too. Edamame, especially--and you can add it just after boiling if you want a hot/cold contrast to the salad.

A couple more things aside from the usual carrots, celery, cucumber stuff: grated fresh beets (very different from canned), steamed or baked sweet potatoes (firm, chilled, diced), apples (even in a veggie salad), walnuts or sesame seeds (nuts have fat, but not as much as cheese, and reduce cholesterol, if that's an issue). Raisins or cranberries add a little tang, too, if you wind up with too much sweet or too much green in the bowl.

Simple dressings: balsamic vinegar by itself, a shaken mixture of lemon juice and olive oil, or shaken blend of apple juice and lemon juice can be really quick, and good dieting.

Oh yeah, and sun-dried tomatoes. Not a lot, just chop a small amount. Has an almost pepperoni flavor.

[Major Nikon]

8. Some cheeses can add a lot of flavor without adding a lot of calories

Crumbled feta sprinkled on a salad is nice, as is goat cheese. Hard aged grated cheeses like Romano and Parmesan are good choices.

[jobycom]

9. Yeah, true, good points. Blue cheese, too. I wasn't thinking of those. nt

[grasswire]

7. hard-boiled egg slices?

some parsley to chop? I love chopped parsley in a salad; boost of nutrition and fresh flavor. Maybe some other fresh herbs if it weren't winter!

[begin_within]

10. Blue cheese. Capers, Pickles. Herbs. Seasoning salt.

[HopeHoops]

13. gorgonzola and cashews.

As for what ELSE, the best thing is dulse. It is a dried dark red seaweed that tastes quite salty but isn't. It has a lot of trace minerals and you can eat as much of it as you want without worrying about it. It is good raw, in a stir fry, in soup, pretty much anyway - and it freezes well. You can learn a lot about it, and purchase it, from Maine Sea Coast Vegetables (http://www.seaveg.com/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=20) and they also have a lot of other sea vegetable products including shakers with dulse, dulse and garlic, etc. that you can use in place of a salt shaker. The applewood smoked dulse is my favorite, but it is often out of stock.

[Arugula Latte]

16. Sunflower seeds.

They add a good, nutty taste and a nice texture, and give you a bit more protein.

[zanana1]

17. Lite Mayo. nt

[noamnety]

18. Chia seeds!

They're like a little miracle food, high protein, high in omega3's, high fiber.
Nutritional yeast can add a bit of cheese flavor without the cheese.
Avocados are good because they have the good kind of fats, and those will help control appetite cravings.
Beans of any sort (not just garbanzos) or lentils, the "slow carbs" in them will also help keep you full.

I would avoid mixing carbs and fats in a meal if you can. So if I had a salad with a mayo-based dressing or seeds and nuts or avocados, I wouldn't put apple slices in it. The fats and sugars combine to form a nice little fat bomb, whereas fats on their own don't necessarily turn to fat on your body, and the sugars on their own aren't as bad either.

Damage control if you do combine them: 1-2 minutes of exercise like squats a few minutes before you eat, and again just a few minutes of squats or similar exercise about 60-90 minutes after you eat, and lots of water (especially with lemon juice in it).

"... What the study found was that 280 seconds of intense exercise increased Glut-4 in the muscle by 83%…and 6 hours of lower intensity exercise increased it by 91%. So 280 seconds of exercise had almost the same effect as 6 hours when it comes to increasing GLUT-4 levels." http://fitnessblackbook.com/diet-tips/gone-in-60-seconds-one-minute-of-activity-to-avoid-storing-calories-of-a-meal-as-body-fat/

-- from 35 to 30 inch waist since August

[TuxedoKat]

19. Sprouts are good

They give a salad a nice crunchiness.

[BiggJawn]

20. Capers

I second the capers suggestion.

[Kali]

21. thin sliced lean roast beef or char broiled/gtilled steak

sorry, occupational necessity:P