Frieda, during the winter i make a big pot of homemade soup on Sunday for my lunches during the week, and during the summer i switch that to making a big salad once or twice a week... i keep it in a gallon ziplock in the refrigerator without the dressing so that it keeps better. A lot of the time we think a salad means it has to have lettuce, but you might want to go to your library and take out salad cookbooks to get more variety. Really ANYTHING can be put in a salad! Some of my favorites are:
Greek (spinach, feta, cuke, radish, calamata olives, thinly sliced ham or turkey deli meat, tomatoes, red or green onions, anchovies optional)
My "summer salad" (chopped tomatoes, green pepper, canned chickpeas, plenty of cubed half-skim mozzarella, FRESH basil, salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar and olive oil... no lettuce!)
French (Romaine lettuce, homemade croutons made with torn French bread toasted in a frying pan with salted butter, and torn bits of Brie cheese.
Tabouli (cooked and cooled bulgur wheat, chopped cucumber, tomato, lemon juice, parsley, olive oil)
Fruit salad (whatever fruits i find, sometimes undressed and sometimes i put in a little vanilla yogurt)
Curried chicken salad (chop chicken breast, celery, mayo, curry, serve on a green salad with whatever other fresh veggies you want).
Carribean (equal parts of cantaloup melon balls, frozen corn thawed and drained, and canned black beans drained,... add lime juice and minced jalepeno... again no lettuce)
Salad Nicoise (boiled and cooled new potatoes and green beans, red onion, a little fresh spinach, canned tunafish, olives, olive oil, raspberry vinegar, salt, pepper)
You can see there is a lot of variety... the trick is to change the main ingredient often.. spinach, potatoes, tomatoes, beans, fruit, bulgur...i didn't even mention rice or lentils but they make good salads, too.
