Introducing Salad with a Side of Fries

Philip Pape 0:00

Hey, it's Philip, and today I'm sharing an episode from Salad with a Side of Fries. This is a podcast hosted by my good friend Jen Trepik, who you've heard on this show twice before. If your salads are leaving you hungry an hour later, Jen is gonna show you how to build one around protein, fiber, and fat so it holds you over until your next meal. Any offers you hear are Jen's, not mine. If you enjoy the show, please guys give salad with a side of fries a listen and a follow. The link is in the show notes. Here's Jen with her episode: How to Build a Salad That Eats Like a Meal.

Jenn Trepeck 0:34

Ideally, your salad is giving you a ton of fiber. So if a proper serving of greens is two handfuls, and then kind of a proper serving of any other vegetable is one handful, we could theoretically have a salad that's, you know, three or four servings of vegetables. And really making a dent in the overall grams of fiber that we want to get in the day. Welcome

Salads That Feel Like A Meal

Jenn Trepeck 1:02

to Salad with a Side of Fries. I'm your host, Jen Trepik, talking wellness and weight loss for real life. We're here to clear up the myths, misinformation, bad science and marketing to teach you how to eat and how to cheat. Are you ready? I'm having Salad with a Side of Fries. Hey friend, welcome back to Salad with a Side of Fries. I'm Jen Trepik, your health and lifestyle coach and host, here with you every week for Wellness Without the Weirdness. My mom is back with us today. Hi, mom. Hi, how lucky am I? Oh, you're sweet. It's been a minute since you've been on this side of the pod. I think so. I know. Well, I'm thrilled you're here. And it's fitting because you and I were talking about this topic and said, this would be a great episode. So I love salads as a meal. And I mean, I name the show salad with a side of fries, so duh, right? But I also hear a lot of people where they say either they don't like salads or they think they're not satisfying, or they call them bird food. And so I believe the difference comes down to a few factors that make salads qualify or satisfy like a proper meal versus not. So that's what we're gonna go through today, sharing some tips, tricks, combinations, recommendations. What do you think?

Jenn's Mom 2:28

Okay, good. Because it's important that when you have a salad for a meal, you don't finish the salad and say, I need more. I need something else. For sure.

Jenn Trepeck 2:37

And I also think it's fitting for this time of year because it's getting warmer out. We don't necessarily want a heavy thing or something hot, or we don't feel like cooking or spending a ton of time in the kitchen. But then if you feel like this stuff doesn't satisfy, then you're going, well, what am I gonna eat? Right. So,

Happy Healthy Hub Recipe And Membership

Jenn Trepeck 2:56

all right, before we get too far into it, let's talk about the happy, healthy hub. So, friends, are you a member? Members, your recipe this week is for, well, it's a salad that hits the mark. So it is chopped salad with chickpeas, feta, and avocado. And while I get it, this probably sounds like no big deal. I think it's also likely to introduce you to a couple things that you're probably not already using in salads. And the dressing recipe, I mean, you could use for a ton of different things. So if you want this recipe, be sure you're a member of the Happy Healthy Hub. You'll go to a salad with a side of fries.com slash membership for just $12 a month. Or by the way, you can pay the whole year. You get the whole year for $120. What a bargain. Because you get two months free if you pay the whole year. Okay. For that, you get weekly recipes, curated articles, discounts from me and our partners, expert interview episodes in full video, including some behind the scenes pieces, access to our community board where we can interact, ask and answer questions, and so much more. So it really is the next best thing to my 12 week signature coaching program. And if you're ready to level up your health, support this podcast so we can keep doing this together every week, go to a salad with the side of fries.com slash membership. Or there's a link in the episode notes because that's easy. Once you're there, you're gonna click subscribe now, follow the prompts to enter your payment info, create your login to access the hub and all of your membership benefits. And then, of course, you'll get this week's recipe for the chopped salad with chickpeas, feta, and avocado. Okay. It looked like you were gonna say something.

Jenn's Mom 4:38

No, just I love the recipes. I mean, I'm like print them out and save them kind of girl. So well, they're all in there.

Jenn Trepeck 4:45

Yeah. Anyway,

The Core Formula Protein Fiber Fat

Jenn Trepeck 4:46

I think the piece to start are the general components that we need to have in a proper meal, and then to think about how that fits into the salad.

Jenn's Mom 4:57

I think that's really good because we don't always kind of figure out in our mind what's protein, what's fiber, and the combination of those in order to make a satisfying salad. Totally.

Jenn Trepeck 5:11

And you're such a like longtime listener, stellar client, right? So the elements we need: protein, fiber, quality fat. Protein, like I always say, is clean, lean protein. Eat what you like, don't eat what you don't like. If you eat animal protein, chicken, shrimp, tuna, steak, if you don't eat animal protein, tofu, edamame, chickpeas, you could pick from the gamut of things. Fiber is the vegetables in our salad. Now, there are some things that do double duty, like if you put lentils in there, lentils are gonna give you some fiber and some protein. So we can kind of play with that stuff. Ideally, your salad is giving you a ton of fiber. So if a proper serving of greens is two handfuls, and then kind of a proper serving of any other vegetable is one handful, we could theoretically have a salad that's, you know, three or four servings of vegetables and really making a dent in the overall grams of fiber that we want to get in the day. Absolutely. The quality fat piece is one I think that gets overlooked a lot when it comes to salads. How so? Well, because I think for so long everybody was into avoiding fat that we get afraid. We go for the fat-free dressing. We want avocado, but we have like a quarter of a sliver of a slice of an avocado.

Jenn's Mom 6:45

I have a girlfriend that makes amazing salads, and she actually needs very little dressing because she puts avocado in it, and she really mixes it up really well, way more than I do. You know what I mean? I just do a couple tosses. She does a lot, and the avocado itself becomes so creamy, creamy and luscious in the whole thing. You know, you could put a little bit of olive oil on the sale and be done. Right. You don't even really need per se dressing.

Jenn Trepeck 7:15

Right. Or like if the avocado is giving you your fat, add a little vinegar and call it a day. Right. Because we're balancing those flavors then. People will get afraid of putting nuts on the salad or whatever. Like there are some things that to me are the big differentiators between a salad that's going to satisfy and the one that leaves me going, you know, kind of nom nom nom. I need something else.

Jenn's Mom 7:40

And the crunch is so important because normally we think of crunch as croutons. Right. But crunch doesn't need to be croutons. Like you're saying, it can be nuts or seeds or whatever. As long as it's that crunch in it, it goes a long way. Yeah.

Jenn Trepeck 7:57

So I want to come back to that texture thing in a second. Because the other thing about salads that satisfy is that they are an incredible example of what I say all the time of using greens and starches like condiments rather than a side dish. So if you really wanted the croutons, add a few. Doesn't have to be a side dish, but we could get that in there. I love adding even like some like roasted sweet potato pieces to a salad. Oh, yeah. Adding in those grains and starches, or if you have some rice left over, throw in a little bit of rice or barley, or you know, I mentioned the lentils, then beans. Like, I don't do that well with beans or lentils as my protein source. Like that volume doesn't make me feel my best. Yeah. At the same time, a little bit of them mixed into a salad goes a long way.

Jenn's Mom 8:57

You know, and when you say, you know, bit of sweet potato or even regular potatoes, you know, it's that leftover. We have that like this definition of leftovers in our head, you know, and what they are, and that leftovers need to be the second time you eat them the same as the first time you eat them. And what I hear you saying is, you know, forget that, right?

Jenn Trepeck 9:20

Exactly. Like I was interviewed on somebody else's podcast earlier today, and I was talking about my breakfast salad. And people want like this magical formula. And I'm like, what do you have in your fridge? Put it in there, you know, especially if you have something that's about to go bad and use it for sure. Yeah. You know, or like those leftovers don't sound great as they were, but like you said, give it new life in a different way. So that texture thing is part of how we take stuff to the next level. So

Texture Tricks Restaurants Use

Jenn Trepeck 9:53

textures, and I went like culinary school on some of the things that we're gonna talk about today because I was also, I'm like, I think I make a pretty good salad. I make some interesting salads for myself when I have groceries. You'll all be thrilled to hear that I actually had a grocery delivery yesterday. But at the same time, the salads that I love from restaurants, what are they doing in those salads? What are the things that they're putting together? And that's where like some of the ideas that we're gonna talk about later, some of this stuff is coming from. But so texture. The textures that we want to think about are sort of the textures of the culinary world. So there's crispy, crunchy. So, like you said, that could be the nuts, that could be a few of the croutons, seeds. It also could be roasted chickpeas instead of raw chickpeas. It could be roasted edamame instead of boiled edamame, kind of a thing. Then there's soft and tender. So that's even like the sweet potato is soft. It's a different texture to chew. Maybe the soft and tender is different vegetables that you have in there. Or even certain lettuces are more, or if you let some of the greens sit in oil and vinegar for a minute, they're gonna become much softer and more tender to eat.

Jenn's Mom 11:20

But even the stuff you can buy, like pepper rings, yep, you know, like the yellow pepper rings or pickles or stuff like that. We don't think about necessarily putting them in a salad, but they'd be great in there. You don't have to save them to eat with a main course, like a burger or something like that. Exactly.

Jenn Trepeck 11:39

So, one of the things that I think about is like, if you're in the mood for a burger, make the salad that's all the flavors of the burger. So is the dressing kind of like a thousand island where you have almost that like ketchup and mayo with relish kind of situation. Wow. And then you put tomatoes and pickles and whatever on the salad. And whether you do ground meat or something else, right? Like we can take the flavors of what we feel like eating and put it on there. Sometimes with my breakfast salad, I use everything but the bagel seasoning, and it kind of has that satisfaction, like I'm eating an everything bagel, even though I'm not at all. But it gives you those flavors. Yeah. We'll come back to flavors in a second, on the other textures, smooth and creamy. So that's like what you were talking about with the avocado. Right. It could be using Greek yogurt in the dressing, it could be goat cheese. And again, if we think about some of these other choices, like the grains or the dairy or the starches, some of these other things where people tend to get shy. If we use them for a purpose in the combination with sufficient protein and fiber and quality fat, we don't need a ton of it to get that texture and flavor. We don't have to be afraid of it. And it turns this thing from something really boring into something really satisfying.

Jenn's Mom 13:16

It's just so interesting. Like you were talking about everything but the bagel seasoning. Maybe I need to keep it in my refrigerator and my cupboard.

Jenn Trepeck 13:25

Yeah. Yeah. So we'll talk about dressings because I go to my cupboard for a bunch of dried stuff to put in dressings. Doesn't matter. Other textures, elastic and chewy. So maybe that chewy texture is something cooked that's then added. You know, maybe that's your protein. Maybe that's feeling a little chewy. Maybe you're doing a little bit of a dried fruit to add something else in there. And then there's the liquid or viscous texture. And this, especially when it comes to salads, I think is personal preference. But like you were saying with your friend's salad, where she mixes it a lot, that's going to completely change how it eats and how it feels. It also doesn't have to take an inordinately long time either. It's like pausing to just look at what you have and be like, oh, okay, that's crunchy. Even cutting the lettuce or the vegetables to a different size changes the texture. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah. So I love a salad made from shredded lettuce. I find romaine to be the easiest, but I can chop romaine really thin like it's shredded lettuce. Or I can roll up, you know, if I'm gonna use spinach as the base or a combination of things, I can roll up the spinach and sort of cut it really small. So even still, like if carrots are what you have, but they're so crunchy that it's almost too much for your salad, cut them smaller. Grate them on a grater instead of leaving them as these big chunks. So we can even adjust the texture with the same things. Like maybe you grate an apple instead of cutting it into pieces and throwing it in there. That's a great thought. Going back to the bases thing, you could even end up with some romaine. Maybe you buy the pre-sredded cabbage that's like, you know, the package coleslaw in air quotes, because you could make coleslaw with it, right? Or I could just use it as part of the base of my salad. I used to do that all the time and got away from it. We sort of forget they even have Brussels sprouts that are shredded like that. So you could use the shredded Brussels sprouts raw as part of your base. You could take those shredded Brussels sprouts, throw them in the oven and roast them. And now you completely change the texture and the flavor, and you could then put them on top of a different salad or do some one way and some the other way. The same thing in your fridge now has like many different lives. Yeah. I will say, I think that Brussels sprouts, if you're gonna try to shred them on your own, like skip it. If you're gonna try to roast Brussels sprouts on your own, like if you have whole Brussels sprouts, roast them whole and then chop them up to put them in your salad. It is difficult to try to shred the Brussels sprouts yourself. You'll be chopping till the end of time and then you'll hate me. Right. We've done that before. We have actually for Thanksgiving. Yes. That salad's a great example, too. It has some pomegranates in it, like pomegranate seeds in it. Yeah. Okay. Pro tips. We talked about that texture thing and even how we chop something or cut something up can change the texture and how it feels in the salad.

Temperature Changes Everything

Jenn Trepeck 16:52

I have also noticed one of the things about salads at restaurants, they're not always ice cold. Oh, fascinating. Like when we take a million things out of the fridge and chop them up, our salads are very cold. So I feel like a lot of times what comes out from the restaurant, it's not an icicle. And so it creates a very different eating experience. So maybe that means taking some of the veggies out of the fridge, not long enough for them to like grow bacteria and go bad, but just long enough where it's not ice cold when you go to eat it. Or like, I love taking a salad and then putting one warm component in there.

Jenn's Mom 17:34

I'm just thinking that like when you put a little bit of the chicken that's kind of warm in a salad, it's so good.

Jenn Trepeck 17:41

It is infinitely more satisfying than the salad with cold chicken.

Jenn's Mom 17:45

And it makes the other stuff taste so much different. Like the dressing tastes different when you have a warm component in there.

Jenn Trepeck 17:54

Yeah. So maybe it's the roasted vegetable or the roasted sweet potato that becomes the warm component. Maybe it's the protein, maybe it's lentils are warm, maybe it's whatever. But this idea of not just texture, but now temperature that shifts how satisfying this thing is. Because by the way, if your salad is iceberg with tomato and cucumber, yeah, I think that's boring too. And when I talk about eating salads, that's not what I'm talking about.

Jenn's Mom 18:24

Yeah, absolutely. And any one of those could be warm. Like tomatoes could be made of warm, you know, any of them. Exactly.

Jenn Trepeck 18:32

I mean, and think about the difference in texture between a warm tomato versus a colder tomato, or even a tomato that's like the ones that come off the vine that are a little bigger, that for the life of me in this moment I can't think of what they're called. Somebody, thank you. Heirloom tomatoes. I'm like, somebody who goes to grocery stores. What are those call? So, like heirloom tomatoes versus cherry tomatoes, different flavor, different texture. Yeah, like so. There's a diner that I order from, and they have a salad that's romaine with blue cheese and bacon and carrots, cucumber, tomato, and then they do buffalo chicken on it. So it's almost like you're having wigs. Oh, wow. But it's a salad. But I will tell you, they literally take one of those giant tomatoes and chop it up into like four pieces, and I rarely eat them compared to when it's a cherry tomato in the salad or sliced in half. I don't know, like the size of it changes everything.

Jenn's Mom 19:41

Those chunks, like a fourth of a tomato, can taste mushy, I would think, by the time you would get it, as opposed to little tomatoes that are firm.

Jenn Trepeck 19:52

And I also, this is sort of a me thing, but maybe this is why some of you listening don't love tomatoes in a salad. Like, I don't want the seeds and the juice all over the other things in the going back to texture, right? Like, I don't want those things mixed into the lettuce. It makes the lettuce then feel wet and it doesn't do it for me. All right, so we have texture, temperature, right? We have the components too. Let's talk about

Five Flavors And Easy Dressings

Jenn Trepeck 20:17

flavor because this is where also I think people get in a rut, or they assume that a salad has to be savory or all this one thing. Okay, so this is where I did some of the like culinary school things because my backup plan when I moved to New York was culinary school and I never made it. So now I'm living out my culinary dreams with all of you here today.

Jenn's Mom 20:41

Right. Because they did so well at everything else, you didn't have to do that. Right. Yeah, thank you. Yeah.

Jenn Trepeck 20:47

As only a mother could say, right. So, all right, flavors. I'll overview the flavors and then we can go back to each one. So it's sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami are the five flavors in the culinary world. So sweet things could be fruit. Sweet things could be your tomato, it could be an apple, it could be I had a salad the other day that had like maybe a tablespoon worth of dried cherries. Oh, but it was amazing. So some of these flavors that are maybe a little more intense, or there may be foods that you wouldn't necessarily eat a ton of or all the time, you can throw a little bit in a salad, like your croutons, unless you have a reason to not be eating things like that. But like a little bit in a salad that could take it from boring to completely satisfying, like, do it. Enjoy. And it doesn't require an entire loaf of bread to get a few croutons that give you that flavor and texture.

Jenn's Mom 21:56

I use those fried onions sometimes, you know. Can buy in a store, they're really good in a salad, and you don't need a lot.

Jenn Trepeck 22:05

Exactly. That's the thing, is by using them in that way, you don't need a ton. So sweet could be fresh fruit, could be dried fruit, it could be a little bit, and this is one of my favorite things is a little bit of maple syrup in the dressing. So I don't really use store-bought dressings, and I make some kind of concoction for almost every salad I make. And I have been on a long kick of making a dressing with a little bit of maple syrup. You could use honey too, but we'll come back to those salad dressings, remind me. Okay, salty. Salt, by the way, enhances the flavor or taste of other things. So it brings out the natural flavor in foods. So even if you're not a salt person, I am not a salt person, but just a little bit makes everything taste better. If you are craving that salt, maybe you do some olives or some capers into the salad. Again, a teaspoon of capers, a half a teaspoon of capers, doesn't have to be a ton. It goes a long way.

Jenn's Mom 23:11

It sure does.

Jenn Trepeck 23:12

And all of a sudden, it's like eating a completely different meal, even if the stuff that you threw in there was exactly the same as what you had yesterday. So that's salty. Your pickles would be salty. Okay, sour. So by the way, sour stimulates salvation, like your salvatory, the saliva in your mouth. It also cuts richness. So if we add too much avocado and we need to cut the richness, we add sour. So that could be vinegar, that could be citrus. It's also a way of saying, oh, if I'm doing maybe a more rich protein, like a steak rather than tofu, maybe I want to do a dressing that's a little more acidic, that's using a little more vinegar than other things. Okay, bitter. Most of your greens are gonna qualify as your bitter. It could be kale, it could be arugula. Bitter tends to provide depth. So again, as we think about sort of building this flavor that's gonna be in this bowl, adding something. And if you're not a kale person, let it sit in the dressing for a little bit, the citrus or the oil or whatever, and it will get softer. Chop it up smaller. The internet will tell you to massage it. You don't have to massage it. If you let it sit there and like shake the bowl for a little bit, it's fine. But letting it sit there if you can or are willing to. Or by the way, roast the kale, it turns crunchy, throw it on top. You know, by the way, once it breaks up and it's on top and then mix into the rest, it won't be crunchy anymore.

Jenn's Mom 24:52

But different lettuces are a really important point, like bib lettuce. You know what I mean? Stuff that you don't think about can be very different.

Jenn Trepeck 25:01

Yeah. And what about a no lettuce salad? Just lots and lots of veggies chopped up. We don't even need the lettuce.

Jenn's Mom 25:12

There's a salad. I'll do that especially. Which is so cottage cheese. Well, it has tomatoes and cucumbers and onions and oil and a little bit of oh, actual Israelis. Yeah. Oh my god, it's so good. And it's just all veggies. Yep.

Jenn Trepeck 25:33

Yep. Tomato, cucumber, onion. And then you can add. Yeah, sometimes there's peppers. You could add chickpeas to it. You could add olive oil, you could add lemon juice, oregano, right? Like, yeah, you know, build a little thing. Okay, so that was bitter. And then umami is like the savory, brothy, meaty kind of flavor. So sometimes that comes from mushrooms, that could be soy sauce, that could be Worcestershire sauce, that could be certain cheeses. It could be nutritional yeast that we sort of sprinkle on top to give us some of that flavor. And then the flavors balance each other. So this is where I went Le Cor d'Anble style. So if you need to balance the flavor, right? So if we have sweetness, it's gonna counteract bitter and sour. And that can be helpful also. The sweetness can cut spice. So if you're like woof, added too much pepper or added too much something, right? Then we can tweak it. Salt plays two roles. So one, it balances bitterness. And then two, like we talked about, it enhances flavors that are already there.

Jenn's Mom 26:52

Do you find a big difference between salts like pink salt and regular, you know, kind of like table salt? Table salt. Yeah.

Jenn Trepeck 27:00

I'm not a salt person. So I feel like if it's table salt, I taste it. It tastes very strong to me. I find pink salt and you know, kosher salt that have more minerals. The flavor is much less aggressive to me. So a little bit I can use and it helps pull out the flavor, but it doesn't taste salty to me. I'm trying to think. I ate something the other day. It was delivered from a restaurant, obviously, because I just got groceries yesterday. And it tasted so salty to me. I was like, oh my goodness, like what is in here? But a lot of times I think that's not necessarily the like salts that have a ton of minerals in them. So salt can be used to kind of balance other flavors.

Jenn's Mom 27:48

Sometimes it just really perks things up. A little bit can really make something exactly.

Jenn Trepeck 27:56

And that's that piece of it enhancing the flavors of other things. Okay, bitterness. If something is too bitter, maybe it's dark leafy greens or beer or whatever, bitterness helps create some balance in there, but you can use bitter to counteract sweet. So if we're gonna use kale as our base that's more bitter, maybe that's a salad where we add some fruit so that we're combining these things in a little bit of a way. Sour can counteract sweet and spice. So vinegar and citrus, like if we're gonna make a salad dressing, we could use balsamic and maybe you know red pepper flakes, and we're getting that balance of the sourness and the spice. That's interesting, yeah. The umami thing, it kind of gives you that, like, I can't quite put my finger on it thing. So if you're like, this just isn't doing it, see if you could add something for that umami. So I'll make a salad dressing that's Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, olive oil, a little bit of salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder. And by the way, those tend to be kind of my basis when I'm making a salad dressing. So the salad dressing with honey or the maple syrup, I do lemon juice, maple syrup, pepper, a little bit of salt, onion powder, just a little bit of garlic powder, and olive oil. And when I make the dressings to make it less complicated, add the oil last, and I'll use, you know, like the tiny little Tupperware things that are like square and pretty tiny. I make the dressing in that and then I add the oil, put the top on and shake it and pour it on top of the salad, or I'll make it in the bottom of the bowl and kind of shake the bowl to mix that, and then I'll build the salad in that bowl and mix it. And that helps coat everything too. If you want your greens to sit in the dressing, make the dressing in the bottom of the bowl, chop up all your greens first, put them in the bowl and let them sit there. That's what's on the bottom of the bowl. They're gonna get the most of that dressing. Nutritional yeast is a great one for that umami flavor when you're like, I need something. It kind of has this like almost cheesy, nutty flavor. And because it's dry, it adds a different texture to the salad, too. So we have texture, we have temperature, we have flavors, right? Those tastes. So all of the senses, what are we seeing? How many colors can we get in there? Hearing, is it crunchy? What are the sounds that we're hearing with that, right? The taste, texture, touch, and the smell. Like maybe there are certain pieces of this that smell differently as we're cooking them or whatever it is. All of those things can be really helpful. We have a nutrition nugget also called, I think I called it travel the globe, where it's this idea of like whatever you're craving, like use the flavors, create a salad that's sort of Asian inspired. So maybe we're putting a little, maybe it's a little peanut butter in that salad dressing with the maple syrup and olive oil and some pepper. And right. Now you're talking. And then with that dressing, maybe you're using like mandarin oranges in that salad instead of something else that's right. Like we can sort of change things up and think about too, like how the greens are going to hold up to those other toppings. So when I do that one that's more of like Asian inspired, I tend to use more romaine versus something that's maybe more of like, I don't know if I'm doing a whole bunch of different veggies, but you know, carrots, cucumbers, maybe a dried cherry or something. I'm probably using more of like arugula or kale. So that we're kind of putting some different things together. I know

Pantry Staples And A No Lettuce Salad

Jenn Trepeck 32:04

you have a bunch of things that you keep in your pantry for salads.

Jenn's Mom 32:08

So I want to get to those before I just keep them in my pantry for salads. Corn, black beans. Yes.

Jenn Trepeck 32:16

I keep a jar or a can of hearts of palm. Yes. I like that because they don't have a ton of flavor on their own. So they give me another vegetable. I can throw it into almost any salad. And that they happen to be very good with olive oil and everything but the bagel seasoning. So, like if I am desperado and I have nothing in my house and I'm not gonna order something, I could even do that as a snack. You know, just the hearts of palm, a little olive oil, and the everything but the bagel seasoning. What else? I keep the chickpeas and the hearts of palm. I think. Oh, artichokes. Oh, yeah. Artichoke hearts. Artichokes have so much fiber in them. And depending on what they're canned or jarred in, they may have a ton of other flavor. By the way, if you're getting one of the ones that's like jarred in olive oil, we probably don't need to then add a ton of other olive oil to the dressing because we could chop those up and it disperses, and then we can balance that flavor with some of the other things a long time. Yeah. All right, so I'll give you guys the salad that has been keeping me very satisfied for the last few months. No lettuce. And celery is the base of your salad. You're gonna chop it pretty thin. As the base of your salad, you need a lot of it. This whole thing is one of those where, as the chefs would say, measure with your heart. So I couldn't tell you the proportion, but of the things, it's the most celery. That's the base of the salad. Then there's cucumber, apple, walnuts, a couple dates chopped up. And I chop everything up, so it's pretty small. Green onion, dill. What else is in there? Those I use fresh, by the way. The dill I use fresh. And then the dressing is the lemon juice, maple syrup, a little salt, pepper, onion powder, a little garlic powder. I'm not big on garlic. And then olive oil? Olive oil. And sometimes I add too much olive oil, and then I'm like, okay, I need more maple syrup because all I taste is olive oil. Fine, whatever. You know. Mix that, throw it on top. And I also like to make salads in a Tupperware or some sort of container that has a top, because then I can put the top on it and shake it to mix it. It's a great idea. And that's just easier. So that salad is one of my favorites. I also make my own Dijon mustard or honey Dijon dressing the same way. So Dijon mustard, maple syrup, and a little bit of olive oil. Wow. Put it on some chicken, put it on a salad, whatever. Use it to dip your veggies in.

Jenn's Mom 35:04

You know, it's kind of good to keep lists of these things. You know what I mean? Like lists of things that you like that go together, because then you're not trying to think, well, what should I do? And it's pretty handy, and you know you're gonna like it. Exactly.

Jenn Trepeck 35:21

And it becomes the thing like now when I order my groceries, these things are all in the previously ordered. So it makes it easier to be like, oh yeah, I could do that salad.

Jenn's Mom 35:32

Yeah, it's a great idea. Awesome.

Jenn Trepeck 35:34

Any other thoughts, questions, tips, something to wrap this up?

Jenn's Mom 35:39

No, except I'm hungry. I guess I will kind of underscore your idea of salad for breakfast. And a lot of times when I'm out the night before and I bring a salad home, I have it for my breakfast. It's more exciting at breakfast than it is sometimes at lunch and certainly at dinner. So it's a really good idea.

Jenn Trepeck 35:59

And when I do a breakfast salad, I put eggs on it. Yeah, I know you do. Yeah. Or I'll add, again, another use of some potatoes left over, or if I have chicken apple sausage, change it up. A little bit of a bunch of things, every bite you get is a little bit different and it satisfies in a completely different way than we typically think of.

Jenn's Mom 36:20

Because they're so easy to just keep them in the refrigerator and put them in the microwave to heat them up and then chop them up in the salad. So they're really good. Yeah. Awesome.

Jenn Trepeck 36:31

I think my thought to wrap this up is yes, of course, a salad of iceberg with cucumber and tomato makes not a meal yet. I think with a little bit of thoughtfulness, for lack of a better word, but just a little bit of looking at what you have there and going, how could I throw this all together in a bowl? Add that grain. You know, maybe you have some rice left over, like long grain rice or whatever. Like use up the things, throw it in there. And I don't think you have to get as bored. Like there's a lot that can be really satisfying. I think you're 100% right. Yeah. All

Breakfast Salads Plus Wrap And Next Steps

Jenn Trepeck 37:10

right. Well, I hope this was helpful for everybody. And on that note, on Friday, in our bite-sized bonus episode, Nutrition Nugget, we're talking about meals on repeat. So a recent article from the American Psychological Association talked about a new study that was published in Health Psychology, where people ate the same meals. So we're gonna look at that study and their findings. And then of course, I'll share my two cents on the whole approach. So that'll be on Friday in this week's bite-size bonus episode. Be sure wherever you're listening, click the plus sign or the follow button, and then your app will alert you when it goes live on Friday morning. Well, as always, everybody, I'm your host, Gentrepic. Connect with me on Instagram or all social media. I'm at Gentrepic, J-E-N-N-T-R-E-P-E-C-K. Website is a salad with a side of fries.com. Pick your platform, send a message. I love hearing from you, your takeaways, your ideas, your questions. This is also the easiest way to learn more about working with me as your coach. Mom, thanks again for joining me this week. Always a pleasure. Thank you. It was great. Good. And of course, friends, if you are not already a member, I invite you to the Happy Healthy Hub. You'll go to a salad with a side of fries.com/slash membership. This shows your support for this podcast, this community, and above all, it supports your help. On top of access to the community board where we can interact, ask and answer questions, and so much more. You get discounts, curated content, and then of course this week's recipe for chopped salad with chickpeas, feta, and avocado. So until next week, remember, it is possible to make salads that eat and satisfy like a proper meal. It's just gonna require you to go a little beyond the boring lettuce, tomato, and cucumbers. Well, friends, that's it for today's episode of Salad with a Cida Fries. Congratulations for making yourself and your health a priority. Thanks so much for joining us. Be sure to click subscribe or follow on your favorite podcast platform. Share us with a friend, and we'll be back next week. Always remember, you deserve it and you are worth it. Happy healthy