7 Ways to Satisfy Hunger With a Healthy Winter Salad

In previous articles, we highlighted the stats on how good (or rather not so good) we Aussies are at meeting our daily fruit and veg needs. To give you a small hint at just how good we are - we have the Cancer Council concerned!
In 2017-18, only 7.5% of Australians aged 18 years and over met the dietary guideline for vegetable intake. The females' proportion meeting this guideline was 10.9%, more than double the males' proportion was 4.1%.

So now you might also be wondering what the connection is between the Cancer Council and not having enough veggies in your diet. There’s plenty of research to indicate that eating your veggies and preventing cancer are well connected. So the opposite also applies. There are many things that benefit from “eating the rainbow” every day.
Each colour provides a range of protective and preventive health benefits for so many systems in our bodies.

To get around this deficit and get you on track to hitting your target, we need to look at hacks that we can implement easily, ensuring your quota of health-giving colour and fibre filled veg, every day.

Eating salad for lunch every day is a great start! I know, I can almost hear you groaning at the thought of soggy iceberg lettuce with shop-bought Italian dressing swishing around in the bottom of your lunchbox!

can almost feel your hunger pains as you try to do the right thing and eat “rabbit food” because you’re on a “diet”. Well, I'm about to shoot these notions back to the 1980s, where they belong!

When we know better, we do better! Salads have redefined in recent years - THANK GOODNESS.

It's time to get with the times.

Keep Calm And Eat Salad For Lunch!

1. Replace your iceberg lettuce antique beliefs about salad

Salad has been reborn - you can add cooked and cooled veggies of all types, really only limited by your imagination.
Ahead of time (on Sunday afternoon), bake 3-4 trays of your favourite veggies like:
- Pumpkin
- Sweet potato
- Eggplant
- Capsicum
- Slow roasted tomatoes
- Potatoes

2. Toast some crunchy goodness to sprinkle.

This whole salad escapade needs to be not finicky. You can cook a batch of many crunchy ingredients and store them ready for each meal. Any salad is incomplete without CRUNCH and OOMPH.
To add crunch try:
- Toasted slivered almonds
- Toasted pumpkin seeds
- Black sesame seeds
- Cashew nuts
- Chia seeds
- Sunflower seeds
- Store-bought dukkah (a blend of seeds and spices ready to go)

3. Choose a nutritious base.

Now iceberg lettuce is lovely but quite bland and doesn’t have much to offer in the nutrient department. Especially when we have other players in the field that bring more to the table as far as NUTRITION and SATISFACTION like:
- Kale
- Broccolini
- Romaine Lettuce
- Rocket Hydroponic lettuce (additional health benefits)
- Sprouted beans and seeds are a fabulous addition as well.
These will keep you satisfied for much longer too!

4. Keep a supply of condiments.

In our fridge, we always have a few staples: 

- Olives
- Marinated artichokes
- Goats feta
- Sun-dried tomato strips
- Boiled eggs

5. Make your own dressings.

When you’re making health your priority, it's good to try and weed out store-bought options that are not always as healthy as the label might indicate. 

Keep it fresh, zesty and super simple by making your own dressings. It will bring a huge array of plant nutrients and healthy fats.

Not only do they taste sensational, but they are also beneficial on so many levels. 

To make this super simple, download our FREE Homemade Salad Dressings E-book.

6. Choose your Protein

Gone are the days when salad was just veggies. 

Salad is a meal, so it needs to have all the macros you need to include.
Cooking proteins will make it convenient to make your salad on the run.
Our favourites are:

- Poached chicken tenderloins
- Pulled beef
- Pork back strap
- Lamb fillet
- Turkey or ham slices
- Stir-fried beef strips

7. Assemble in batches.

Making salad to eat every time you want one is a DRAG. 

Once you have all of your components organised from the above list, spread them all on the kitchen bench and assemble in lunchtime serving sizes for the week. Without the dressings, your salad will keep well for quite a few days in the fridge in an airtight container.

OR you could follow our lead and use mason jars, as we did in this handy Salads in a Jar recipe E-book.

Eating more veggies can be doable and enjoyable! Post your photos of your salad prep in the BN Bariatric group to let us know what your favourite combinations are each week!