Give me a hearty salad over a limp-looking lettuce and tomato concoction any day! This salad is certainly filling enough to serve as a main meal. We’re talking:
Nutty red rice (replace with wild or brown rice if you prefer) Smoky paprika fried chickpeas Hard boiled eggs Chunks of perfectly ripe avocado A creamy goats cheese dressing
Plus tonnes of other goodies to give you that rainbow of veg (and fruit!) that makes you feel, well, healthy!
I’m totally into my salads now that the weather’s warming up. Since reaching my weight loss goal (I’ve lost a stone over the past couple of months), I’ve been working really hard to make sure healthier eating and getting plenty of exercise becomes a routine. For me this involves:
Exercising at least 4 times a week (usually a mix of jogging and HIIT, with some occasional weights or yoga thrown in) Eating a healthy, filling breakfast and lunch (usually weetabix/granola with berries or a smoothie for breakfast and a salad with meat/fish, couscous and hummus for lunch) Having one or two snacks during the daytime (nuts, a protein bar or a few chunks of chocolate) A tasty homemade dinner - whatever I like, so long as it has some veggies and I don’t go back for second helpings! A 14-hour fast every day. That might sound a little strange, but really all it means is that I don’t snack after dinner. If I finish dinner at 7pm, I don’t eat until 9am the next day. it was difficult for the first couple of weeks, but I’m pretty used to it now. It’s something I learned from Alexa Schirm’s podcast Simple Roots Radio (episode 6 - The Science of Intermittent Fasting). The fast gives my body time to digest food, stops me overeating, and means my body isn’t going through that rollercoaster of releasing insulin constantly - which can have an impact on fat burning (I’m certainly not a doctor or nutritionist, so check out Alexa’s podcast if you want more info). A couple of cheat meals at the weekend (meals out or a couple of glasses of wine and a dessert)
I feel like this is flexible enough so that I can enjoy life without feeling restricted all the time. Hopefully that means I won’t throw it all in and go back to lazing on the sofa with large bars of chocolate or homemade cakes several times a week! This salad is one of those healthy-but-filling meals I can enjoy for lunch or dinner without feeling like I’m on a diet. My Cobb salad first appeared in Superfood Magazine
The Cobb Salad with Smoky Chickpeas Recipe:
