Satisfying Salads

Well, this is the wisdom of Homer Simpson- what do YOU think?

Nutrisystem's new monthly auto-deliveries only include 20 entrees, which basically means you have to flex two days a week. Personally, while I think this option should be available as a plan, I think that for people starting out it can be a bit overwhelming when I suspect one of the main reasons for choosing this program is convenience and not having to think about food. All a person can do at this point if they don't want to flex is to fill in the gaps with a la carte orders, or else request their auto delivery to arrive sooner.

Because there's such an emphasis on flexing now, I'm going to try and post more flex recipes here, to make it easy to figure out what to eat on those days when you don't have a Nutrisystem entrée available. I'm going to write out some posts to make it easy to stay on plan and track your meals.

But first, I wanted to share this delicious dinner salad with you! My local grocery store makes some amazing salads in their prepared food section and they were always so good, but so high calorie. So I set out to see if I could make a NS suitable substitute and I did!

That delicious salad at the grocery store had lettuce, cherry tomatoes, red onion, grilled chicken, bacon, shredded cheddar cheese, and a hard boiled egg topped with creamy Ranch dressing. Guess what? The one in the picture is not the one from the store!

A NS flex dinner for women includes one SmartCarb and two PowerFuels (men get three PowerFuels). And don't forget those veggie servings- load up on the unlimited ones!

A PowerFuel is 80-100 calories with at least 5g of protein. So let's see what we can do with that, shall we?

Chicken BLT Salad (flex meals):

4 cups of your favourite unlimited salad mix
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 cucumber, diced
1/4 cup red onion, diced
3 baby bella mushrooms, chopped
1/2 tomato, diced (or cherry tomatoes if you prefer)

1 hard boiled egg
1/2 fat free string cheese, chopped small (or 30 calories of shredded cheese)

1 slice turkey bacon (I used Butterball low sodium turkey bacon, 35 calories per slice)
2 oz grilled chicken

Throw it all together in a bowl and top with 2 tbsp. Skinny Girl creamy Ranch dressing. It's delicious, and even frees up a SmartCarb serving for elsewhere in your day, if you prefer. Or if you really want to go all out for decadence, get some baked tortilla chips that fit the SmartCarb requirements (80-120 calories and at least 1g of fiber) and crunch them up and toss them in the salad, too.

Don't forget, men get an additional PowerFuel if using this for dinner (or you can eat it as is for lunch), so if you're a guy feel free to add extra chicken, bacon, or cheese to meet the PowerFuel requirements.

The Skinny Girl dressing counts as one of your extras, but is definitely worth it.

So, did I make friends with my salad today?