Broccoli Salad v.1

A few months back I started using Caloriecount.com to track my eating.  I had no real idea of how many calories I was consuming in a day, or where I needed to be at to lose some weight.  One of the features I like about the site is that it provides you a nutritional report card based on the foods you eat each day. Because I'm a little bit competitive, even with myself, my goal is to eat in such a way that I'm getting at least an A- on most days.  What I found as I started logging the foods I ate, was that I didn't have enough variety in what I was eating and I wasn't hitting the nutritional guidelines I wanted.  So, in order to try and reach those goals, I've been making an effort to eat a bigger variety of foods, especially fruits and veggies.

I really like salad.  However, eating the same exact spinach salad, with the same veggies, day after day simply gets boring.  So, I've been pinning lots and lots of ideas on my Pinterest boards and trying them out as various fruit/veggies come into season and/or are on sale.

One of the recipes I've found is for a broccoli salad that I've now made about 3 times because it has lots of yummy bits that probably aren't so good for you, but also has a lot of yummy bits that are good for you, so it balances out!

The recipe for this salad is here: Broccoli Salad with Bacon and Cheese  

I've made a few changes to the recipe.  It calls for both cranberries and raisins.  Depending on what I have on hand at the time, I've used Craisins, raisins, and various dried fruits.  So far, all of them have worked out well.  If you know me in real life, then you probably know I have an aversion to mayonnaise that I *know* about in a recipe.  So that means I'm never going to willingly put mayo into anything.  If it sneaks into my food and I don't *know* about it, sometimes I'm ok with it, but as a general rule, ick, yuck, no way.  So for the dressing on this recipe I've tried two different options.  I've made it with plain greek yogurt, and also with a combo of plain greek yogurt and light sour cream.  The version with the light sour cream/greek yogurt is a little tangier, so that's really my preference.  However, both options work out well, and in my opinion are actually a healthier alternative to using mayo.  I'm not sure how much of a difference in taste there would be with using the actual mayo, but I'm not going to try it out, so you're on your own if you go that route!  The other addition I've made to the recipe is to throw in a handful of sunflower seeds.  It goes well with the other flavors in the salad and I like the extra crunch.

Overall, this is a hearty salad, easily filling enough for a lunch or maybe even a light dinner.  I also like that the recipe is versatile in that you can really sub out a lot of the ingredients for things you have on hand without difficulty and still have the salad turn out tasty.  This one definitely makes a regular appearance in my house now!