Salad - Part 2 - Real Salad

A real salad with lettuce, brown rice, black beans, carrots, tomatoes, green beans and whatever else I could find in the refrigerator. Vinaigrette dressing.

There has been some feedback from my last Salad post.
I do like salad but I think that just lettuce and dressing is not very healthy.  There's just too little of the healthy vegetables and most of the calories are from fat.
So... what constitutes a "Real Salad"?

1. Vegetables!

Start with lettuce and add lots of vegetables.  Good additions include:
cooked beets
carrots (cooked or raw)
artichoke hearts
tomatoes (of course)
corn (steamed corn cut from the cob is great)
green beans 
asparagus
brocolli
... etc.

2. Beans 

Garbanzo, kidney, white, black, cannellini, etc.
They're all great!

3. Dressing

Dressing is good.  However, avoid "creamy" or cheese dressings since they usually have unhealthy animal fat.  Never buy dressing in a bottle!  It's usually full of additives and unhealthy ingredients and it's a waste of money and bottles.  It's so easy to make your own healthy dressing.

Oil and vinegar with a little salt and pepper is easy and tastes great.  Always use olive oil which is healthy and has a good flavor.  There are lots of good vinegars from light rice vinegar to white and red wine vinegar to balsamic.

Or, learn to make a classic vinaigrette.  This is easy and gives a great flavor. There are thousands of variations. Start with oil and vinegar and and add seasonings such as Dijon mustard for a classic or fruit flavors for variations.