What I had for lunch today

I had a great big honkin' salad.

 

I'm lucky that, at work, we have a salad bar as part of our cafeteria.  There are lots of awesome options at the salad bar and it's charged by weight so you don't necessarily have to break the bank to eat well.

My salad today came in just under $6, which isn't bad considering I loaded up on mixed greens, mushrooms, green peppers, cauliflower, red onions, chickpeas, chopped egg and corn salsa.  I also indulged in a wee bit of pasta salad and a sprinkling of bacon bits.  And I topped it all off with balsamic vinaigrette.  

There are lots of other great options at the salad bar, so I'll probably start being more selective with my salads each day so I don't get bored.  Other things I can add are roasted red peppers, orange segments, apple slices, cottage cheese, Parmesan cheese, sunflower seeds, carrots and broccoli and each day the cafeteria does 3-4 special salads (the pasta salad was one of today's).  Normally these salads are loaded with pasta, creamy dressings and other not-so-healthy things but sometimes there's beet salad or sweet potato salad, which will be good to try.

Also, the selection at the salad bar will help me to eat low g.i./high fibre foods (i.e. LOTS of veg).  I just have to exercise restraint and not go for pizza instead.   And because it's veg, I'm not so worried about my portion sizes, although I do try to keep my dressing to a minimum.  Even the healthy stuff adds up in calories.

For awhile I was trying to bring my own salads for lunch but I quickly realized that the cost and effort to keep the fresh produce and make my salad was quickly outweighed (heh) by the cost and ease of salads at work.  As long as I make breakfast at home and bring my own snacks, I should be able to keep my lunch-buying costs down.  

(I WILL be posting about my finances and budget, I promise!  I've started getting my tax forms so once I've got them all and have the black-and-white proof of where I stand with my student loans and other financial info, I'll be able to delve more into how I'm going to improve my financial health this year.)