Signature Salad

I made my salad for lunch again today. While I chopped up the ingredients I looked up the calorie content of each one in my book The Nutrition Bible [if I didn't have the packaging for it, like an apple].  I was pleasantly surprised that my giant salad only has about 670 calories. Keep in mind that I don't put dressing on it, and the big-calorie items like cheese & chicken are added in very small amounts. I'll talk more about calories and why I care in a different post. For now, here's what I found:

• organic greens/spinach [2 c.] = 20 calories (+ 2 g. fiber, 2 g. protein, 70% Vit A, 10% iron)
• apple [1/2] = 81 calories (+3 g. fiber)... an apple's nutrients are based on size, not variety so much
• chicken [1/2 of skinnless breast] = 128 calories (+24 g protein)
• craisins [1/8 c] = 60 calories (+12% fiber, 26 g sugar)
• blue cheese [1 oz] = 100 calories (6g protein, 5g sat fat, 21mg cholesterol, 149mg calcium)
• walnuts [1 oz] = 182 calories (4g protein, 2g sat fat, 1g fiber)
• croutons - I have no idea how many calories are in my homemade, vegan croutons. I only ate a few of them. They are sugar free and whole grain so I'm not too concerned.

I used walnuts instead of pecans [1 oz pecans have 240 calories and are 70% fat - no wonder they are so delicious!]