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Love Those Bag O' Salads
I confess! I love having those bags of ready-to pour salad greens in my crisper. In my defense, let me add though that I always get them on sale. I'm probably in reality saving myself, what, a measly 5 minutes? But this is an example of mind over matter. It "seems" so much more convenient to throw a salad together that you are that much more willing do it. The two bags of greens I tend to buy? Hands down, baby spinach and chopped romaine lettuce (we love light caesar salads in my house).
Just having the lettuce part of the salad be done already, just helps, what can I say. I often have the sliced carrots and the sugar snap peas (they come in small bags) handy as well, then all I end up doing is throwing in some cherry or grape tomatoes and some sliced cucumber. Sometimes I open a can of kidney beans, rinse them while they are still in the can, and sprinkle them over the top of the salad. I've never timed myself, but I'm guessing all of this comes together in about 5 minutes.
The Spinach and Romaine lettuce options are going to be your best in terms of phytochemicals and nutrients. Spinach is way up there nutritionally; after all, it's a member of the acclaimed "dark green leafy" vegetable grouping!
Check out these numbers:
[2 cups]
Spinach leaves, chopped
25 calories, 3 g fiber, 88 mg sodium
% Daily Value for:
vitamin A 94%, vitamin B1 8%, vitamin B2 16%, vitamin B3 5%, vitamin B6 14%,
folic acid 121%, vitamin C 52%, vitamin E 24%, calcium 14%, magnesium 32%,
potassium 31%, iron 20%
[2 cups]
Romaine lettuce, chopped
18 calories, 1.5 g fiber, 9 mg sodium
% Daily Value for:
vitamin A 37%, vitamin B1 10%, vitamin B2 8%, vitamin B3 4%, vitamin B6 3%,
folic acid 85%, vitamin C 45%, vitamin E 6%, calcium 5%, iron 8%,
potassium 16%
Are you a bag salad fan?
~~Elaine
Related Topics: Farmer's Market Finds, 10 Tips & Tricks for Healthy Summer Salads
Technorati Tags: bagsalads, salads, lettuce, spinach, phytochemicals
Just having the lettuce part of the salad be done already, just helps, what can I say. I often have the sliced carrots and the sugar snap peas (they come in small bags) handy as well, then all I end up doing is throwing in some cherry or grape tomatoes and some sliced cucumber. Sometimes I open a can of kidney beans, rinse them while they are still in the can, and sprinkle them over the top of the salad. I've never timed myself, but I'm guessing all of this comes together in about 5 minutes.
The Spinach and Romaine lettuce options are going to be your best in terms of phytochemicals and nutrients. Spinach is way up there nutritionally; after all, it's a member of the acclaimed "dark green leafy" vegetable grouping!
Check out these numbers:
[2 cups]
Spinach leaves, chopped
25 calories, 3 g fiber, 88 mg sodium
% Daily Value for:
vitamin A 94%, vitamin B1 8%, vitamin B2 16%, vitamin B3 5%, vitamin B6 14%,
folic acid 121%, vitamin C 52%, vitamin E 24%, calcium 14%, magnesium 32%,
potassium 31%, iron 20%
[2 cups]
Romaine lettuce, chopped
18 calories, 1.5 g fiber, 9 mg sodium
% Daily Value for:
vitamin A 37%, vitamin B1 10%, vitamin B2 8%, vitamin B3 4%, vitamin B6 3%,
folic acid 85%, vitamin C 45%, vitamin E 6%, calcium 5%, iron 8%,
potassium 16%
Are you a bag salad fan?
~~Elaine
Related Topics: Farmer's Market Finds, 10 Tips & Tricks for Healthy Summer Salads
Technorati Tags: bagsalads, salads, lettuce, spinach, phytochemicals
49 Comments:
Hi, every time I buy pre-bagged lettuce it seems there is always a slimmy piece hiding somewhere. I prefer just buying a head of romaine it seems to stay fresh the longest.
The bagged lettuce you buy in the grocery store is washed in clorean.
so i like to wash my lettuce after i take it out of the bag before i eat it.
I prefer to buy organic so I get the large tubs of organic mixed baby greens and spinach. On Sunday night, I wash them and mix them together into 5 large ziploc bags, along with whatever else I want to include in my salads that week. I keep a bottle of salad dressing in the fridge at work and replace as necessary. So each morning I just have to grab the bag and go.
To eat, I just add some dressing, shake it up and eat it straight out of the bag. It works great!
The Wishbone Salad Spray is great--one calorie per spray. You can just spray in the bag for a great salad.
Yes I too like the bagged salads. I recently started buying bagged cabbage and carrots to add to my lettuce. I love salads, hate the chopping, this makes it simple.
I like the idea of separating into five bags on Sunday night....
THE BAGGED SALADS TASTE BETTER IF YOU RINSE THEM. I STOPPED BUYING THEM AFTER THE E-COLI AND SALMONELLA PROBLEMS.
Will the lettuce stay fresh after you wash it than repack it for another five days in bag?
Yourlettuce and bagged washed veggies will stay fresh if you place a paper towel in the bag and be sure that the towel is on the bottom of the bagged veggies as it will absorb the excess water from washing it and from condensation inside the bag. When you open the bag and remove some lettuce, check the paper towel to see how wet it is. If it is wet, replace it and make sure it is on the bottom of the bag when you place the bag in the refrigerator.
This technique also works when you cut vegetables (tomeatos, radishes, etc.) and store them in baggies in the refrigerator
Bagged salad is high in parasites.
Unless you wash it in a good vegetable wash, your blood parasites will climb incredibly high.
Just do a live blood analysis under
a microscope before and after by a hematologist. That's why I stay away from salad bars for good.
i have mixed emotions aout the prewashed lettuce. I have found a worm or 2 hiding in the picked lettuce. it seems to me you can see and separate the lettuce for washing when it is in larger pieces. Safer for me.
joyce
I love to buy the pre-bagged romaine with carrots, cabbage, and broccoli and then add sliced mushrooms and cukes.
What is really safe to eat nowadays? Even if it's washed.
Something is going to kill us because of too many presticides, etc.
But it won't keep me from this low-cal nutrition.
We pay dearly in money and nutritional value when the lettuce sits around all chopped up.
Oxygen gets to the cut edges and destroys vitamins.
I trust the whole heads of lettuce and cabbage, the whole carrot, etc. better than having them cut into bite size pieces.
It takes time to be healthy.
I can't stand the smell of the salad mixings after I cut the bag open....in fact I got sick after I ate salad from a bag not to long ago.....that was and will be the last time I eat salad out of a bag.....I will take the time to wash and cut my salads up for myself......it does not take that long to cut up salad mixings.
Gotta get the salads that come in the ziploc bags. It's the only way to go.
I don't even bother with lettuce anymore. You get much more bang for your nutritional buck with spinach. I just add all kinds of yummy vegies and voila - I'm good to go :-)
I just wanted to thank all of you for giving me things to consider.
I really like bagged lettuce mixes. They save a ton of time. However, being in the food service industry and being serv-safe certified, people can become sick (the recent e-coli outbreak) if it is not handled propperly. Keep all vegetables at 40 degrees or lower. Anything that is held at 40 degrees to 140 degrees is in what is called the "danger zone" and has the greatest potential for the quickest bacteria growth. Wash your produce well. Also being that I live on the California central coast (Salinas) where fresh express, dole and earth bound farms are located, and other large produce companies, I literally drive through their growing fields daily. Head lettuce is hand picked in the field, then bagged right there - in the field. The bottom line is; wash your produce well and use within a few days of purchase.
I prefer to purchase organic romaine heads of lettuce but do purchase bagged spinach. I always rewash the spinach. Of course, right now I have loads of spinach in my garden ready to eat!
All I can say is that bagged salad greens have been a life saver for me. I have a very bad back and can't stand long enough to do all the chopping it would take to make my own salads. I am on a diet to loose the weight to help my back so I can join the rest of the world.
My kids say yum, homemade salads! If I buy the ready made salad mixes then I don't put much effort in to fixing them up. Making my own from all fresh ingredients forces me to get creative.
I too prefer the whole organic romaine that is also pre-washed. I don't mind the minute or two it takes to tear the whole leaves - it's the washing I'm happy to pass on.
Wow!
Awesome comments and points made by everyone!
I love the packaged salad mixes especially spinach and any lettuce that is dark and leafy it;s the best. We did have a problem with using all the salad mix before it turned brown until I bought one of those food saver vacuum sealers, just make a bag dump the salad in with a damp paper towel and seal stays fresh a lot longer.
I'm not a big salad eater so prefer to buy my lettuce in heads. It stays fresh so much longer and I just peel the outer leaves as I use it.
What is the big deal about fixing the greens yourself? It doesn't take very long. When I have bought the bagged greens, I found that they had a strange smell afer a few days.
How long were they in the bag before I purchased them? At least with the heads I can examine them to see how fresh they look.
Having a garden is great since you know what was on the items but some things just won't grow in my yard.
I don't know what they put on green peppers in the stores, but they sure do last longer than the ones in my garden
I heard that bag salad has contained ecoli.
I buy the mixed greens in the plastic box, but check it carefully to make sure it doesn't look slimy or old. Also baby spinach which keeps better. Then I buy the boxed hydroponic lettuce which is still growing in the box. It keeps for much longer.
Then I add lots of raspberries, blueberries, cucumber, baby tomatoes, basil and tomato flavor feta cheese and a few walnuts. A drizzle of raspberry vinaigrette tops it off. Yum!
When you eat my salad - and I vary the ingredients each time - the restaurant ones are just plain BORING!
I buy romaine hearts, which are easy to rinse and cut (when you get the right technique it is only a few minutes) same with purple cabbage and celery. There is only 2 of us, but I make a large salad and save in a gallon plastic zip- lock bag. I buy spring mix in the salad section and add daily to the home bagged mixture, plus any other additional items to make a different salad every day. I have a salad spinner, which takes out a lot of the water.
i heard those bagged salads are at a rish for e.coli..so i dont buy them anymore.....
I have never gotten sick from bagged salads. They are very convienient. I like mixed greens. If I purchased lettuce whole, I wouldn't get as much as a variety.
I enjoy the bagged lettuce with the carrots, etc, included. It's so convenient for people who are too busy or too lazy (like me) to make the salad from scratch. To keep the bagged lettuce fresh, I keep it in a plastic Tupperware lettuce crisper.
Why would salads have ecoli?? They are so easy to use and I always wash it before. Thanks for the hint about the paper towel in the bag to catch the moisture.
How to make a healthier lifestyle for the whole family is a question I might die searching for. –I do think there are alternative ways, other than using bag lettuces.
I am always excited about purchasing something that can make life easier for families in the kitchen, especially at the end of a long day; but this salad in bag stuff
(Although- I occasionally consume it) poses a question in my mind... is it or could it become a possible health risk if consumed all the time? This salad must be washed with a substance to keep it "looking marketable" and also making it "shelve stable."
Regardless -if it is “non toxic" it's weird for me. How does cut lettuce stay for days in a package and not completely turn brown; without the addition of ascorbic acid- which is naturally found in citrus and Vit C?
Not to mention - something that can be made in significantly the same amount of time it takes to rewash this lettuce is so costly it really has had me walk away.
I am an advocate for foods that are fresh- fast and and ready available for families. Come on- really? I'll say good try. If it’s too good to be true, it just might be too good to be true.
As I'm inclining to suggest- when it comes to healthy and fast... marketing is our worse enemy. It makes us think its ok when really in the long run... its not. We need to pay close attention and do the research ourselves.
gigi - From, Kids culinary adventures.
i RECENTLY HEARD A REPORT ON ONE cnn channel that there has been some concern of cancer link to salads-in-bag products.
Has anyone else heard or can recall this story?
JR RAY TEXAS
Salad in a bag? Why when it only takes a few minutes and a little creativity to make tasty beautiful salads every night of the week. I tried the bagged lettuces, etc. and even post-washing they tasted funny, give me the head of lettuce or a bunch of spinach or other lovely fresh greens. Salad, to us is a very individual thing and even when our kids were growing up, it was easy and popular even as snacks. So you lazy people, get off your behinds and use your hands, as well as the creative side of your brains; just take a few minutes, mix some beautiful tastes, textures, colors, sweets, and savories and enjoy your salad be it with a dressing, a vinagarette, or just some ex. virgin olive oil, it's lovely and good for you.
If it wasn't for bagged or tubbed Oreganic lettuce I don't know what I would do. I'm not one for chopping and preparing vegetables so I love the convenience. I found the tubbed baby greens are my favorite and they are so clean and dry when you open the tub. No washing and making them soggy. I pile the baby greens so high in a nice size bowl, add my pre-sliced turkey meat on top, roast up a handful of pine nuts in a teaspoon of olive oil in a small skillet, a few teaspoons of feta sprinkled across the top, pour the roasted pine nuts over top and listen to it sizzle and just enough balsamic vinegrette to taste. I am in heaven!
What I can't stand are all those hard pieces of lettuce stems in the bags-especially the salads with iceberg lettuce. It takes more time to pull those out or to tear off the edible part that it is faster to just buy a head of leaf green. I prefer the baby greens and spinich if I am going to buy in the bag.
Well I must be missing the boat. I use to throw the salads together in 5 minutes or less. Then one day I thought I would show my daughter the love of cooking and how salads use to be made. It took 20 minutes. Not because of the size of the salad but because I got to know my daughter. I will now pass on any pre-prepared food item for a few quite minutes with my children preparing a meal for the family. From a father has learned to value time!
Well, I'm blind and do not trust chopping anything up as I've gotten a finger here and there. So the bagged salads are a life saver for me. I always use it the day I buy it and I will definitely start washing it, as I thought that was a perk of buying it as well. However, I've never seen vegetable cleaners. Does anywhere know where I'd buy that? I live in Northern California. I would love suggestions.
The only salad that comes in heads that I know of is Iceberg lettuce.
It is devoid of many nutrients and taste.
I much prefer mixed greens or spinach. Bundles of spinach have to be rinsed to get the sand dirt off so what's the big deal with rinsing bagged greens?
Mixed greens have much better flavor and without premixed bags I would "never" get a good salad or any salad. This comes from over 25 years experience as a husband. Now I get a salad every night plus some cukes, tomatoes, carrots and dried "craisins" with my dinner. Much healthier!
BTW how much e-coli is on your chicken many of you eat???
I have a suggestion for the post-er who has trouble standing long enough to chop. I have the same problem. I went overseas once and joined a lot of women in chopping an unbelievable amount of vegetables. But even for the small amounts they chopped on a daily basis, they all sat on the floor. I adapted that back in America and now sit at the kitchen table (can't get up and down safely anymore). I take a bowl for scraps and a bowl for salad and my cutting board. If you lay down plastic wrap first, it makes cleanup a breeze.
Of course the bagged salads make all that unnecessary but I've even sat to put together turkey sandwiches or mix up tuna fish salad.
Hope this helps.
I stopped buying bagged lettuce after I found a dead fly in mine and a friend of mine found a dead bettle in hers. So I refuse to buy them anymore. I prefer to cut my own lettuce up, this way I know whats in it.
Bagged salads - contain preservative chemicals of some kind - I grew up where the stuff was grown - I do what some of the posters do - buy my stuff fresh, tear it up in a colander and rinse the *&^% out of it - then roll it over and over in a lonnnnng piece of paper toweling to get most of the moisture out of it. Then it is stuffed into family size zip lock bags and stays fresh and crisp for 3 days.
Never put other veggies in with the lettuce. :-) A farmer's daughter.
I will never ever buy another pre-bagged lettuce again. I was always a little suspicious about how it was prepared. now since I have read all your comments, it just confirmed my suspicions.
I can not believe you people can't taste that chemical taste in those bagged lettuce. I can not eat at restaraunts that use that crap.
The Big Mac is no good, Taco's are no good, Salads at ANY restaraunt are no good. I do not understand why you can't taste it? In my own personal study of the people around me, about 1 in 3 can taste the icky, 2 can not? How can that be. I want to eat easy bagged things too, but can not stand the taste. If someone says wash it first I will puke.(like I haven't tried that)
Hi,
I have a heart disease, high blood pressure, cholesterol, and Reynolds disease. I am trying to become vegetarian but the problem is that I don't know what kind of vegetables I should eat.
Thank you,
Ananias Mena
Has any one else had the so called
stomach flu from eating at a salad
bar? What is the mess they can use
to keep salad bars looking so good
for so long?
I bought a bagged salad 2 days ago and ate it for dinner. That night my stomach started cramping and got diarrhea....... now almost three day's later I feel as if I have the flu.........stomach is cramping and I don't feel good and diarrhea still. I have low sugar........... so I need to eat but i'm hurting. I ate noodle soup and gingle ale.......treating it as the flu..........That will be my last bag. I know it's not my tomatoes because I never cut them up.
A couple years ago I went to a gasterinal doctor because I was having diarrhea several days a week. She told me to stop eating bagged salads because the preservatives are difficult for a lot of people to handle. I had never associated my diarrhea with eating salad, but when I started paying attention sure enough I could see the direct correlation. Now I buy a head of lettuce and wash it to make salad with. Every now and then I eat salad at a friends house w/o asking if it came from a bag . . . needless to say I pay very dearly. The rest of the night is usually spent in the bathroom.
Just been sick (and still am) for three day after bagged spinich. I've learned my lesson. No time saving trick is worth this pain and discomfort!!!
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