Cottage Cheese Salad

I’ve had many of you ask me what my normal lunches are and to tell you the truth, they aren’t that exciting…I’m like most of you:  I don’t have a lot of time for lunch and I’m usually eating it at my desk.  But I still try to eat healthy lunches and that means I usually have to pack them.  The next couple of posts will be for quick and easy low calorie lunches; I hope you get to try them!

This is one of the simplest things to throw together and it’s packed with protein and yummy veggies.  It will fill you up when you’re on the go…or like me, can’t get away from your desk for long.  I will eat this alone (doubling up the recipe is still a very light lunch at 230 calories), or as a side to a sandwich or some grilled chicken or tuna or…you get my drift...

Cottage cheese is one of my favorite foods; it’s nostalgic for me and brings me back to when I was a starving college student and all I could afford in the cafe was a bagel and cottage cheese…I heart it and I always will.

Ingredients:

·         1 mini English cucumber (or about 1/4 cup of regular cucumber), diced

·         4-5 cherry tomatoes, diced (I also use regular sized tomatoes, just dice them)

·         2T sliced black olives (from the can)

·         1/3 cup GOOD cottage cheese; you can skimp and get fat free for fewer calories, but it’s just not as tasty and this dish is already pretty low cal!

·         1 tsp of dried herbs (I used oregano and a Sicilian blend I have which is garlicky and spicy; make it your own!)

·         Salt and Pepper, to taste

Preparation:

Basically, all you’re going to do is build & mix!  Like I said, it’s got to be easy and quick for me - so you can just throw all of this into a container and mix it up later if you like.

Here’s the order in which I build it:

Cukes:

‘Maters:

Olives:

Cottage Cheese – this stuff is “close-your-eyes-amazing”…yes, I just described Cottage Cheese as amazing…whaaatt??  Plus it’s from Vermont and ILoVermont (some of you will get that reference).

Spices:

MIX (it ain't pretty but it's yummy!)

Nutrition:

Serves 1

Calories 115 / Carbs 8g / Fat 5g / Protein 11g / Fiber 1g / Sodium 372mg