HEALTHY VEGETABLE FLAVOR

Salads are usually served at the beginning of a meal, but a salad can also make a healthy, low-calorie meal all by itself. When you use lots of fruits and vegetables, they can also be loaded with vitamins and antioxidants. The key to keeping salads interesting is to change the ingredients each time you make one. Don't just think of the simple garden salad, but imagine adding fruits, nuts, and lean meats to your salad to make a great low-calorie, highly nutritious meal.

How Much Salad is Enough for a Meal?

Use the calorie calculator to determine how many calories you need per day, and divide that number of calories by the number of meals you want to eat for the day. If you are eating 2,000 calories per day, you might want to allow yourself 500 calories per each of three meals and 500 for snacks. Or, you could opt for a lighter breakfast and a larger dinner, depending on how you feel. A dieter who is eating 1,300 to 1,500 calories per day might want a smaller salad, maybe 300 to 400 calories. Keeping a food diary  is a good way to keep track of your calories and nutrition.

Greens

Most salads start with a pile of greens. Since greens are low in calories and are a good source of fiber, it's a great way to add volume to your meal without adding a lot of calories. There are different varieties of lettuce, such as iceberg, leaf, spinach, escarole, romaine, or butter. The darker lettuces offer more vitamins than pale iceberg, for example. Spinach has iron, and all varieties are low in calories. One cup of shredded lettuce has about 5 to 10 calories.

Vegetables

Almost any raw vegetable can be cut up and added to a salad. Green