Looking for salad ideas for lunch? Check out some of my favorite ways to throw a last-minute, simple salad together! These are the salads I’ve made over the past 10 days.
Healthy Salad Ideas for the Week
Want to eat more fresh vegetables? I shared earlier this week how I eat 2 salads each day. (If you missed that post, read it here.)
I feel so much healthier and energetic when I eat a lot of salads and fresh fruits and veggies, so I’ve worked to find creative ways to make more salad eating possible without spending a lot of time and money to do so.
My Weekly Salad Ideas For Lunch (10 Different Examples!)
Since I’m a visual person, I thought it would be fun to take pictures of my salads every day for two weeks to show you examples of what my daily salads look like.
You’ll notice the 10 salads below are super simple. I just throw together whatever I have on hand for yummy variations each day.
I hope this inspires you to maybe eat more salads — or to see that it doesn’t have to be expensive or time-consuming to eat healthfully!
Spinach, leftover $0.99 pineapple from dinner the night before, and some Swiss Cheese from last week’s Sargento cheese deal
Arugula, marked down apple, marked down avocado, and a hard-boiled egg.
Marked-down mixed organic greens, roasted broccoli from dinner the night before, hard-boiled egg, and a marked-down apple
Marked down mixed organic greens, leftover Sweet Potato Fries from the night before, and a hard-boiled egg
Leftover refried beans and cheese from dinner the night before, marked down romaine, marked down tomatoes, a side of chips
Marked down mixed organic greens, wonton strips, hard boiled egg, and a drizzle of dressing
Marked down romaine, hard-boiled egg, leftover kielbasa from dinner the night before
Marked down romaine, toast cut up for “croutons”, dried cranberries
Marked down romaine, marked down pork loin roast leftover from dinner the night before, hard boiled egg
Marked down romaine, marked down tomatoes, marked down sour cream, marked down turkey that we made into taco meat, sprinkled with cheese
Green Salad Ideas: Why You’ll Love Eating Daily Salads!
Daily salads are a great way to use up ALL your leftovers, regularly clean out your fridge and pantry, and incorporate lots more greens and veggies into your diet.
You’ll save yourself so much money buying specific lunch foods (or going out for lunch), you’ll save time as you don’t need to prepare anything from scratch, and you’ll likely save a few calories as well!
Also, daily salads are a great option if you get bored eating the same things over and over again as no two days are ever alike with my leftover salads.
Meal Prep Salad Ideas: Tips to Make It Easier
Instead of thinking of it as “making a salad”, you might consider thinking of it as “serving your leftovers on lettuce” because that’s essentially what I do with my daily salads!
Truthfully, you can stretch almost any food by simply plating it on a bed of lettuce or other salad greens. A forkful of chicken might not be enough for an entire meal, but added to a bed of lettuce with some cheese and a hardboiled egg gives you a protein-packed lunch that will really fill you up!
Look through your fridge and pantry and pull out a few items that sound good to you. Put them on a bed of lettuce, add a little cheese, toppings, and a favorite dressing/oil — and voila, you have a salad! Some of my favorite toppings include marked down fresh fruit and veggies, leftover steamed or roasted vegetables, hard boiled eggs, or leftover meat.
It typically takes me no more than 3 minutes to put together my lunch salad. Who says eating healthfully has to take a bunch more time? No meal prep is even really required!
More Easy Salad Ideas:
Here are a few more frugal, easy salad recipes and tips.
Salad Ideas For Lunch
Ingredients
- lettuce, spinach, or other salad greens
- cheese whatever you have on hand
- meat leftover chicken, turkey, ground beef, taco meat, brisket, salmon, bacon
- hard-boiled eggs, beans, or another protein
- veggies raw or cooked — whatever you had in the house
- fruit fresh or dried are both yummy
- something crunchy sunflower seeds, nuts, croutons, crushed chips
- a favorite oil, dressing, or marinade
Instructions
- Fill your plate with lettuce, greens, or bagged salad.
- Add odds and ends you have in the fridge. (Think leftovers, proteins, fruits, veggies, meats, etc.)
- Add extra toppings you love. (Cheeses, nuts, seeds, dried fruits, etc.)
- Drizzle with oil, vinegar, or your favorite dressing.
- Eat and enjoy a deliciously frugal, healthy lunch!
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What are YOUR favorite toppings for salads? I’d love to hear!
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Reader Interactions
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I feel like I’m losing weight, saving money and always eating healthy. Some salads are so yummy, I can’t even describe!
Isn’t it great when your body feels so good after eating healthy? -Jordan, MSM Team
Well, I’m clearly making our salad goals way too complicated! Your pictures ARE inspiring, and I’m going to start adding more salads to our week by copying your creative add-ins. Thank you!
I have nut allergies, so I love pumpkin seeds (unsalted) on my salad for crunch.
I also have issues digesting some lettuces, so most of my salads have a black bean base!!
One of my favorite salads to make is strawberry, balsamic, feta and leftover shredded chicken.
I go through phases where I want salad (typically when it warms up…I need something hot when it’s cold outside). But, during this phase I use a huge Tupperware container to mix up chopped iceberg (I need the crunch) and either spinach or mixed baby greens with mandolin sliced red cabbage, carrots and celery. Then we grab a handful for dinner or lunch and add what we want. I PREFER taco salad to any other (so taco meat, cheese and a little plain greek yogurt). But, really adding tuna or rotisserie chicken or diced egg and bacon bits (I like meat) is sufficient. Sometimes I add croutons. All, but the taco salad ,with my favorite greek yogurt ranch dressing…
Thanks for sharing what you do. It looks similar to what we/I try to do when I’m craving salad.
YUM! I’ve always hated how healthy recipes have 5 obscure and expensive ingredients to them. These look delicious and love that most of them are made from leftovers. I feel so inspired!!
Thanks for sharing a good dish.I really like it.
I made salad for lunch and felt so good at work after eating it! Thanks for the pics. I have a mental block eating salads because I don’t like eating cold foods (I cannot make myself eat cereal either!) so if I have a lot of leftover romaine lettuce, I cook it as wilted greens and it tastes like bokchoy. It makes a nice substitute for wilted spinach too.
Oh yay!! This makes me SO happy!!
My favorite salad is organic greens, strawberries or oranges, nuts and goat cheese with a raspberry vinaigrette! I could also eat taco salad every day!
Thanks for sharing all these simple, delicious ideas!
I second the vote for Trader Joe’s Green Goddess dressing. It’s delicious, full of healthy ingredients and only 20 calories per serving! A little goes a long way toward adding flavor to your salad. The other Trader Joe’s product that I love on salads is their “everything but the bagel sesame seasoning blend.” It is the perfect kick of flavor and a little crunch. Yummy!
I’ve been doing almost daily salads for a couple of years now but at times, I would get bored. Your tip to add whatever is leftover in the fridge has been sooo helpful! Today my salad was romance lettuce, leftover steamed carrots from the other day that I warmed up first, topped with some warmed up leftover chilli. It was really good and so simple.
Oh yay! I’m so glad this inspired you!
You have inspired me! I have been trying to eat a big salad for lunch and a small one for dinner. I am working up to the “Money Saving Mom Diet.” Thanks for the inspiration!
Woot! Woot! 🙂
I never considered using left over cooked vegetables on salads and was inspired to try it last week because of this post. I dumped leftover roasted sweet potato and brussel sprouts on some mixed salad greens from Aldis, I think it was spinach and arugula, and it was pretty tasty. What a good, easy way to give leftovers new life.
Oh yay! This makes me so happy!!
You can turn leftover toast or bread ends into amazing croutons! I also love including sunflower seeds and warmed up edemame (microwaved with salt and garlic powder) in my salads. I make a dressing with olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, salt, pepper, dijon mustard and apple cider vinegar that I love.
We used to make croutons a lot growing up. I need to do that again!
Thank you for the great reminders that salads, and food in general, doesn’t need to be fancy or complicated!
I often buy” Kale salad kit” from Aldi, but I only dress it with olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper, sometimes I add bacon bits, or Parmesan cheese if I have it.
Most times I use romaine, and make my own balsamic vinaigrette. Lately I have been using jarred artichokes on my salad – delicious!!
Thanks for sharing!
I am in Spain so some things are cheaper here. But my favorite things in a salad are arugula and mixed greens. I put on beets or sometimes picked beets and artichokes. Sometimes some cheese. Always olive oil and vinegar like they do here. Sometimes avalado and Apple like you had too. I crave my salads and have one as my first lunch everyday (we eat a late lunch so at noon I have my salad when they usually have a little snack). Eating salads at night are harder to digest.
Thanks so much for sharing!
Thank you Crystal. You are one of my favorite people. I love this site.
I eat salads everyday. Yours look yummy.
Aw, thank you so much!
Hi Crystal, I don’t know if you know this, but it’s important to eat a fat with your salad in order to digest the greens fully. Simply adding a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar to the salad goes a long way!
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.thekitchn.com/scientists-say-salad-isnt-as-healthy-without-salad-dressing-173220
Thanks for sharing! I’ve heard this, though I haven’t noticed a difference either way!
Every salad she showed has fat in it (cheese, egg, avacado, etc) except the one with cranberries and toast.
I’m soooooo jealous!
I miss spinach salads.
Unfortunately with all the abdominal surgeries I had with my dc, I can’t handle a lot of ruffage.
I will definitely drool over your photos!
Oh, I’m so sorry! 🙁
I use balsamic vinegar for dressing or The Food Network has one that is low in sugar. I love avocado on my salad.
I haven’t been eating salad but I’ve been doing 3 oz of instant pot chicken leftovers and 3-4 servings of veggies for lunch. Usually brussel sprouts, asparagus, green beans, zucchini, and/or broccoli.
I too Denise have been doing instant pot chicken & veggies for lunch and dinner. I’m loving me some brussel sprouts since I got my pot for Christmas. So easy to prepare and love the saute option first to brown the sprouts before pressure cooking. I also do a salad 2x-3x a week with romaine, chicken, avocado and a dressing made from oil, vinegar and splenda. Delicious! Happy, healthy eating!
Yum! And way to go on eating so many veggies!
We have a huge 40 cup/9.4L Tupperware we use for our salads. Every 3 days, we chop up a ton of romaine, spinach, red leaf lettuce, and green leaf lettuce. We love to add baby kale, too, if we can find it on sale. We add to that sliced cucumbers, diced golden beets, diced jicama, green onions, and sliced radishes. Sometimes we dice a turnip, parsley, bell pepper, or whatever else we may have on hand. It’s just the two of us, so you can tell we eat a serious amount of dinner salad at our house! We eat them out of big mixing bowls. Mine is probably 3-4 times the size of one of yours. We like dressing, though, either Hilary’s or Primal Kitchen since they’re both free of sugar and nasty oils like soybean.
I LOVE this! Thanks so much for sharing — that sounds so yummy!
I usually eat a salad for lunch and feel so well doing it. Thanks for the photos!
I wanted to mention for anyone looking for dressing (since you said you don’t often use it) – Trader Joe’s has a refrigerated dressing called Green Goddess that is so good and so healthy. Nothing bad in it. It’s worth trying if there is a TJ’s near you!
Thanks so much for mentioning this!
Cucumber and tomato on any kind of greens is my favorite. Then I add other ingredients like eggs, avocado, olives, stawberries. My favorite that you posted was the taco salad which I would make on purpose. The oddest thing I put in my salad was bbq chips because i wanted a crunch. ?
The taco salad was SO good!
Feta, olive oil , pepper and avocado!
Yum!
I have three favorite salads. My favorite salad is lettuce, olives (green, black, and others), fresh green peas, hard boiled egg, cucumbers, carrots, and sunflower seeds. Some times I add bacon. Another salad I enjoy is lettuce, chicken, mandarin oranges and sliced almonds. My last favorite is lettuce, chicken, dried cherries or cranberries, pecans or walnuts, and goat cheese. I usually use a lite drizzle of oil and vinegar, balsamic vinegrette, or something like that for a dressing. I’m getting hungry just thinking about it.
Yummy!!!
Roasted diced butternut squash, mixed greens, canelinni beans, feta, balsamic dressing.
Yummy!
These look so yummy!
My favorite salad is chicken avocado salad. I add lettuce to this recipe.
https://natashaskitchen.com/avocado-chicken-salad-recipe/
I also will not say no to any type of taco salad. Thanks for the great ideas!
That sounds so yummy!
What dressing do you use?
I rarely use dressing. 🙂
If you HAVE to have dressing, try cottage cheese, salsa, avocado, or a balsamic vinegar. A little of any of those goes a long way.
Oh my goodness I am loving this! I’ve been eating my dinner on a bed of greens every night and my husband asked why. I told him I was on the money saving mom diet. Lol! He thought it was very clever. I buy a big box of salad at Costco every week and I am set!
I’ve also been trying to eat salad ever day for lunch but with limited success. All these ideas you’ve shared are so easy and achievable. I’m inspired to try again. Thanks for posting! ?
Oh yay! I’m so glad this was helpful. Also, I love the “Money Saving Mom Diet”! 😉
I appreciate the pics. I am going to try it!
We have a hashtag we’re using on social media (especially Instagram) if you want to join in: #msmsaladclub
My SIL is soo good about eating daily salads, I stocked up on produce yesterday and am deteremined to eat more salads- this post was just in time! Ill have to join the #msmsaladclub! yay!
Woohoo!!