All Salads are not created equal

I've had a similar discussion to this with many people but it bears repeating here. Besides it's my journal and it's what I want to write about. lol

Most, but by no means all, people agree with my opinion that salads bought out in restaurants are usually tastier than ones made at home. The downside, of course, is that they are also usually higher in points than you could and would make at home. Also you are never sure exactly that it was all low fat or fat free stuff or whatever.

I still take my chances most of the time. I love the salads at Crispers. No points available but based on ingredients you can figure reasonable estimates and most are not bad...without the dressings.

I also love California Pizza Kitchen's salads but they, I strongly suspect, are on the high points end. And of course there is the fact that they have pizza there and that is so hard to resist.

Bennigan's Killkenny Country Chicken Salad is great and if you really want to behave you can order it with grilled chicken not fried tenders on top. You don't get many tender pieces so I suspect the damage is not too bad even that way. If you don't care though the grilled is very good.

There are other places of course. Mostly I just love salads and have had them in just about every conceivable place.

Today for lunch though I made a salad that was every bit as good as one of CPK's chopped salads and was only 4 points. It could have been less, even zero. I started with a couple of cups of chopped lettuce (0 points). To that I mixed in two tablespoons of fat free Kraft Italian dressing (0 points). I spread that mixture on a large plate and topped it with 1/2 cup or so of Alfalfa sprouts (0 points) and 1/2 cup mushrooms (0 points). Around the edges I spread a chopped tomato (0 points). It looks good that way rather than sprinkled on top. Now the points start and you could put other items or skip these I suppose. I put 18g of crumbled cooked bacon (2 points), I used packaged already cooked bacon cuz I use very little and it's easier. That was almost a quarter cup loosely packed and when spread on top of the salad looked like plenty. On top I added 23g of crumbled gorgonzola cheese (2pts). It adds a good flavor and didn't raise the points that badly. To me the taste increase was worth the points cost. The 23g was plenty. The salad tasted great, was only 4 points and was very filling.

Now you're wondering how I picked 18g of bacon and 23g of cheese? You're not? Well I'm going to tell you anyway!

I was aiming at two points of each and, using Weightwatchers eTools I just found the number of grams of each that would give me two points for each one. Then I measured it out on my trusty scale and I was in business. That's another way I feel the scale helps. You can aim for exactly what you want in terms of points. Sometimes you'll be surprised and find that what you just measured is really more than you want. If you're like me though you probably eat it anyway :)

I'm done rambling...hope ya'll had a good lunch.