My Favorite Salad

I love salad!  After a while it can get kinda boring and you need to shake things up.  My new favorite salad is the chopped salad from Portillo's.  If you are from around here, you know you go to Portillo's for a beef sandwich, so this salad has to be good in order for me to choose it over a beef! LOL

So I created my own version of Portillo's chopped salad and I try to eat it for at least one meal each day - either lunch or dinner.  That way I can save on points, and it's really good!

Now remember, this is my version.....so I may have changes a few ingredients to my liking.

So here's what you need:

Lettuce

 (Portillos use a combo of romaine and iceberg - I prefer green leaf lettuce)

Red Cabbage - you only need to chop up a little bit

(One head lasts me literally a month before I have to throw it out)

2 tomatoes

Red onion

Green onion

Cucumber

(not in Portillo's but I added it)

Ditalini pasta

(Barilla is the only I've ever found)

Grilled chicken

(I buy the already grilled kind)

First, chop up your lettuce and red cabbage into small bite size pieces.

Next, I chop up my tomato and peel and chop the cucumber.

Now here is my secret to my salad lasting me all week.

This handy little tool I got from Pampered Chef many years ago.

 I use it to remove all the seeds and gunk from inside the tomato and the cucumber, 

which helps the salad last longer.

 Then I chop up my red onion, green onion, and grilled chicken into bite size pieces.

Meanwhile, while I'm chopping, I am boiling my ditalini pasta.  I measure about 1/2 cup dry pasta, which comes out to be about a cup when cooked.

Run it under cold water, and drain really well.

Add the pasta to the salad and toss.

I think the pasta also helps the salad last longer by absorbing moisture from the veggies.

This is important to me because I'm the only one in my house that eats this salad, so I make it on Sunday, and it lasts me the whole week.

 Right now, before you put dressing on, your points (old points) look like this for one serving:

Lettuce - 0

Cabbage - 0

Cucumber - 0

Red Onion - 0

Green Onion - 0

Grilled Chicken - 1 point

Ditalini pasta - 1 point

Total - 2 points!

Now let's talk dressing.

My sister Barb found a dressing that is very similar to the dressing they give you at Portillo's.

It's Kraft Creamy Balsamic.

1 serving (2 tbsp) = 3 points

Problem is I'm having a really hard time finding it.  It's so good though.

My other favorite dressing is 

Paul Newman's Lite Balsamic Vinagrette

1 serving (2 tbsp) = 1 point

It's really low in points, and it is delicious!

If you need to have a creamy dressing, you can always do what I do when I have to have the creamy garlic.....you can just have it on the side and dip your fork in it for each bite.  You will be shocked at how little dressing you get away with using!

A few variations.......

The original Portillo's salad has bacon bits and gorganzola cheese, 

but I leave those out usually, just to save calories.

So eating a salad for one meal a day is one of the ways that I have found to help lose weight, 

but it has to be a salad that you like and is satisfying.

So give this one a try.....or invent your own!