Some people add tangerine slices to salad. Credit: snowpea&bokchoi/Flickr
My go-to recipe when I’m tired or don’t even have 30 minutes to make dinner is a farmer’s salad, so named because I throw everything that grows into it! If you want something heavier, check out my recipe for chicken stew with carrots or browse my dinner recipe page.
I make a filling meal out of salad by adding plenty of protein (garbanzo beans, leftover meat cut up, rinsed black beans), and pair my salads with toast, a roll, or a warm tortilla. These salads make great use of leftovers, which is one way to save money in the kitchen. Here are four combinations I like.
Bonus: If you have pizza dough on hand (Trader Joe’s and other stores sell uncooked balls of dough), cook it as you normally would to make pizza but without any toppings. Instead, brush the surface very lightly with olive oil. Warm slices of plain pizza dough are excellent with salad.
Salad No. 1.
Arugula
Leftover beef, sliced into strips
Roasted red peppers
Thin slices of Parmesan cheese
Lemon vinaigrette
Salad No. 2
Mesclun and arugula mix
Canned corn
Goat cheese, crumbled
Garbanzo or black beans, rinsed
Diced zucchini or yellow squash
Radish slices
Avocadoes
Tomatoes, diced
Red or green peppers
Raspberry vinaigrette, honey mustard or your favorite dressing
Salad No. 3
Romaine, mesclun, or butter lettuce
Dried cranberries or raisins
Apple chunks
Walnuts
Blue cheese, crumbled
Red onions, raw or sauteed
Leftover chicken, cut into chunks
Creamy dressing like Ranch or blue cheese
Salad No. 4
Spinach
Boiled egg, sliced
Sauteed red onions
Feta cheese, crumbled
Walnuts, plain or cooked in 1 teaspoon each of butter and brown sugar
Leftover chicken, if you have it
Balsamic vinaigrette
What do you add to salad to take it beyond an appetizer?
Sign up for the BargainBabe.com email list to receive more strategies, coupons, and inspiration to save money everyday.
Welcome to Bargain Babe! I’m Mara, and I’m so glad you’re here. I am an obsessive bargain hunter and penny pincher, and I am determined to live a full life without EVER paying full price.
One of the faves of my family is taco salad, made with the meat left over from a taco dinner. I use chopped romaine and iceberg, a small can of rinsed kidney or pinto beans, chopped onion (any kind), and shredded cheddar cheese. Toss with dressing. I make one with green taco sauce, plain nonfat yogurt and drained diced green chiles. Leave out the chiles if that’s too spicy for you. Since the taco meat had already been seasoned, no extra stuff was needed. Serve with tortilla chips on the side.
@EllieD Clever way to use leftovers! Tacos was my favorite dinner to prepare for my family when it was my night to cook. (This was when I was in junior high and high school.) I liked tacos because it was the absolute quickest meal I could prepare and my Mom had a rule that dinner had to be on the table no later than 6:30 p.m. I procrastinated until 6 p.m., then I would run into the kitchen and begin making tacos. Looking back, I now realize my Mom had a lot of self-restraint to not remind me that I needed to start dinner.
I have been reading couple of your blogs and I can say that you know what you write. Great information. Keep it up!