Zaxby's Zensation, Takes 1 & 2

Wow, have I fallen behind on the blog posting! But I have been eating the salads and taking mental notes on each one. The salad discussed here is the Zensation from Zaxby's, an oriental-themed salad offering.

I loved this salad!

The mixed greens and red cabbage made for a nice blend of flavors. The chicken fingers had a bit of a sweet glaze over them that gave them a nice new taste. The carrots and wontons gave a nice snap to the salad, and the citrus vinaigrette was a nice complement to the sweet taste of the chicken.

But the crown of this salad - and I can't believe I'm writing this - was the Asian cole slaw. I hate cole slaw! This vinegary mix of shredded veggies really hit the spot!

Oh, and the vegetable egg roll was a nice touch as well.

Unfortunately, this salad did not hold up for leftovers on Friday. The cold sesame chicken was too rubbery and not as tasty. Worse, the wonderful Asian cole slaw had soured, with the vinegar taste overwhelming all of the vegetables. After a few bites, these leftovers went into the trash.

Still, I look forward to trying this salad again fresh some time!

Zaxby's Zensation: A+

Zaxby's Zensation as leftovers: D-

Mis-steps on the Green, Leafy Path

As I travel this road of eating salad every day for a year (Yes, the tally of the video vote ended up as 365 days of green, leafy goodness - though a few 'friends':) tried to push for double the time!), I'm learning that the most difficult part is not making myself eat a daily salad. In fact, I have quickly learned that I rather like some elements of the common garden salad!

Rather, the struggles come in three other parts of the process. FIrst, blogging itself. I love to write and thought that sitting down to post every day about salads and CASA would be easy work. I was wrong. So many nights, I find myself worn out after a day of work and an evening with a toddler, and the last thing I want to do is write anything more than a Facebook post and a comment or two. Nevetheless, I can't believe I have allowed two weeks to pass without posting! I apologize and will try to do better.

The second struggle is is making sure I have the right ingredients for salad recipes sent to me. (There haven't been many sent to CasaGregGoesGreen@bellsouth.net, but a few.) I failed to consider the time needed to procure these ingredients and the fact that we don't have a plethora of shopping options in Tifton for anything exotic. Frankly, we've never been folks who do a lot of homemade cooking, so I'm having to learn to shop for ingredients rather than pre-packaged meals. (And I'm having to learn my way around the produce section! LOL) Because of this factor, I have been eating variations of a basic garden salad and not gotten into unique recipes. Rest assured that I will, though. I have to make a grocery run today, and I'll plan my list accordingly!

Finally, the most egregious mis-step of all - I have missed salads on two occassions. I have eaten them every other day and intended to on these two, but I failed. It has proven a struggle, at times, to work a salad into meal-times with a toddler. First - a week ago Thursday. I ended up without any leafy greens at home. I should have gotten a salad for lunch (lesson learned)in retrospect, but instead decided to wait for dinner, thinking I could make something up at home. Unfortunately, the lettuce we had was no longer any good. Denise had meetings until almost 9pm, and toddler Andrew was in no mood for a run to the grocery store. I had to go with his needs over the needs of the challenge and will 'make it up' by adding two days at the end.

Then, Tuesday. I actually had a salad ready today, then knocked it off of the table and all over the dining room floor. Aaargh!! Andrew was already at the table and half way through dinner with mom. I decided to sit and eat the rest of the meal with them, planning to get a salad later on as a snack. But I just wasn't hungry for a late-night salad. So, two more days at the end of the challenge.

One thing that I have learned through the days lacking a salad - my whole metabolism seems to have changed. On both days following the missed salads,, I was terribly hungry all day long despite eating at least as much as usual. I think my stomach was actually craving green leafy stuff! Hard to believe, I know, but the only explanation that makes sense to me!

Sorry, folks, that I have fallen short of the every day challenge. It is not for lack of desire to follow through successfully; I will try to do better and will make up the days. I am actually liking the green stuff now. And I'll try to make sure we always keep fresh, leafy greens in the house (and on the table)! :)

And I'll post the pics and comments on the salads I have eaten very soon.

Green Leafy Side Salad

For Wednesday, I tried a departure from the salad-only meal, combining a McDonald's side salad with a Quarter Pounder. I was hungry at lunch for more than a salad, and we had a family cookout planned for dinner; the side salad was my best option.

I was actualy quite impressed with the simple side salad from McDonald's. It had a variety of greens in the mix, more than I've seen in any other salad thus far. They provided a tasty mix of flavors and textures. I had to pass on the tomatoes. I plan to try some other varieties, but I was not ready during this meal. Also, I tried some ranch dressing on this salad. As I expected, I'm not crazy about it; the taste was okay when it got well-mixed with the other tastes, but I was rather unhappy to find dollops of ranch here and there!

Perhaps the most important lesson of this meal was the fact that my tummy can be satisfied by a burger and small salad. I do not need the fries to be full. I often tire of fries due to the frequency with which we eat fast food. The salad substitution gives me a good alternative and may even become my regular side. I know - still not incredibly healthy when eaten with a quarter pound of beef. But certainly a dietary improvement!

McDonald's Side Salad w/ Ranch Dressing: A surprising A-

Green Leafy Salad w/ Fruit & Nuts

I'm learning that the hardest part of this deal is not eating the salads - I may actually be on my way to enjoying the green! - but making time to post the pictures and reviews in a timely fashion. I am intent on catching up by the end of the week.

The salad reviewed here was eaten for lunch on Tuesday during a meeting of the Tifton Alzheimer's Memory Walk. My paternal grandmother has been stricken with the disease and is currently in the moderate-to-late stages. My parents are her primary caregivers and are very devoted, visiting her at least once almost every day at her home in a local assisted living facility. I am proud to serve on this fundraising committee seeking to end this horrible affliction.

For lunch during the meeting, I tried Wendy's new Apple Pecan Chicken Salad, suggested by friend Melissa Simms. I found a lot of good flavors in the salad but had trouble getting a sense of the whole because the apple and pecan pieces were so big they pretty much had to be eaten individually. Still, the pecans were very tasty - fresher than I expected - and added a cruncht texture. The appples were good. I did not enjoy the small purple-red berries in the salad (Sorry! I don't know what they are). I am also not crazy about the bleu cheese crumbles because of their bitter taste. I am not a fan of bitter.

Overall, I enjoyed the salad and may try it again. Still, it is not one of my favorites due to a dislike of some ingredients and the fac that some of the pieces are too big to enjoy as part of the salad.

Wendy's Apple Pecan Chicken Salad - Grade: B

Green Leafy Snacks

Life being what it is, sometimes there's only time for one good meal in a day. On Sunday, my toddler son took a nap practically from noon to 3:30, putting lunch very late in the afternoon. On Monday, yard work with my father-in-law also pushed the midday meal well into the afternoon. And for me to eat a salad for the ONLY meal of the day? That really is asking a lot.

Still, a deal's a deal. So I turned to salad for a late-night snack each day. And I found a way to make each salad a bit unique from what I've tried before. Here's the results:

On Sunday, I added a dash of black pepper to my salad and realized why people choose to do such a thing. I've always thought it odd to put pepper on vegetables, but it actually brought out some new flavors, especially in the green peppers. Oh, BTW, I have decided that I really like green peppers. Even though I wasn't hungry enough to eat all of even the small salad I made for Sunday night, I made a point of picking out the peppers. I am amazing myself at how tasty I find some of these green things that I have avoided for more than thirty-five years!

On Monday, I was able to add cucumber, another vegetable I have avoided with a passion. Though there were none available at our farmers' market over the weekend, I did get a chance to pick one up while grocery shopping late Monday afternoon. So my salad snack on Monday night consisted of lettuce, carrots, turnips, onion, green pepper and cucumber. Oh, and black pepper again. I've got to say, I'm not thrilled by cucumbers. They don't taste bad, mind you, but I really got very little flavor at all. If anyone has suggestions on making cucumbers more tasty, I'm open to trying it.

Still haven't given tomatoes another try. I know they are a central ingredient to most any garden salad, and one of the few items that give color variance. I just don't know if my taste buds will embrace the tomato flavor. I do intend to try another variety soon and will, of course, report my findings.

Thus far, I have avoided the use of salad dressings on most of my salads, but I plan to try at least all of the major dressing groups as well over the next weeks and months. Please send any unique salad dressing recipes, as well as your favorite green salad mixes, to my email: CasaGregGoesGreen@bellsouth.net. I'll hope to hear from you soon!

Farmer's Market Fresh

We finally made it to the Downtown Tifton Farmer's Marketon Saturday. Got some fresh onions, green peppers and tomatoes to put on the green, leafy salad stuff. We also bought some yellow squash and Georgia peaches for good measure. I was amazed to note that our total bill was about $1300!! That alone may be a good reason to start eating healthy on an ongoing basis!

Due to the growing season in south Georgia, we had to go with a bag salad for the lettuce - also included shredded carrots and radishes. You can see all of the ingrediants put together for my daily salad in one of the pics above.

Much to my surprise, the onions and peppers were quite good! The onions are a sweet variety, the seller told us, and added a nice flavor. The peppers gave a nice kick and a bit of a crunch. I even liked the carrots and radishes, though they were not exactly fresh.

I'm still not sure about tomatoes, though. These tomatoes (Early Girl variety, if we heard correctly) were better than the grape tomatoes on the fast food salad, but I still wasn't crazy about them. I gave it three bites and will try again over time. So far, not expecting to embrace tomatoes beyond this challenge.

My wife is certainly happy that I am eating - even beginning to enjoy - salads. She's been trying to get me into salads for 12 years of marraige, and hopefully we can get our toddler son into healthy eating through the good example of both of his parents.

Well, that's about it. I'm actually looking forward to future visits to the farmers' market - definitely not a statement that would have sprung from my mouth as little as two weeks ago! :)

Good night, and happy eating!!

Green Leafy Leftovers

Today was leftover Grilled Chicken Ceasar Salad from Zaxby's. Those Zaxby's salads are big! I must say that I'm looking forward to getting to the Downtown Tifton Farmer's Market tomorrow for some fresh veggies. Please send your recipes on in to CasaGregGoesGreen@bellsouth.net so I know what to buy.

I gave a full review of the Zaxby's ceasar in yesterday's post, but I can add a few observations about the leftovers. No surprises here, probably. Primarily, everything was just not as crispy. This fact was especially apparent in the Texas toast bread pieces, which had the texture of croutons yesterday byt were more like soggy toast today. The lettuce was likewise less crispy. The grilled chicken, now cold, had lost its great grilled flavor. To Zaxby's credit, my wife (who has always regularly eaten salads) says that it's rare to even have chicken left on a salad during the second day.

Tomorrow to the farmer's market! Check back Saturday night for a report on my first venture into a fresh, homemade salad.