Today I invited a fellow business woman and entrepreneur to write a guest blog post. Let me introduce you to Jeanette Donnarumma, a culinary consultant offering in-home cooking classes. Jeanette loves teaching people that food that’s healthy doesn’t have to be gross, that it can be affordable, and fast and easy along the way!

You’re familiar with the weekly lunchtime drill- Sunday: “OK, time to clean it up this week!”; Monday: “YUM! This salad is delicious!”; Tuesday: “That was fine but Chinese takeout sounds better.”; Wednesday: “OK, I’m bored, pass the pizza.” HOLD UP! Stop there. I’m here to help your midweek lunchtime blues!

Hello! I’m Jeanette Donnarumma! Your neighbor in Ridgewood, Senior Culinary Producer at the Emmy Award winning Rachael Ray Show, and sad salad hater.

How does one shake up the salad game? Here are a few tips to keep up the healthy eating routine.

  • Heat it up! My friend and I call it “hot salad”, which sounds a little strange, but what we mean is to make sure 1-2 components of the salad are warm. It helps the flavors meld together much better and also makes for a much more satisfying lunch situation. For example, top your salad with hot grilled chicken, quickly sauté some shredded brussels sprouts in some olive oil, or add some oven roasted cherry tomatoes. If you’re bringing your salad to-go, keep the “hot salad” components separate, toss in the microwave, and add to your salad. Mix them in and find your lunch salad is suddenly more satisfying.
  • You DO make friends with salad- share the healthy eating responsibility with your BFF. Commit to prepping for 2 instead of 1. It’s hardly any more work to brown up an extra chicken breast or chop a few more tomatoes and the best part is you won’t be bored with lunch day two because your meal prep partner dished it up! In my opinion, a salad made by someone else is the best salad!
  • Salad sandwich?! Who says salad can’t be served between two slices of bread? This perfect on-the-go lunch idea is the easiest way to eat a salad while running from one meeting or school pickup to the next and it’s surprisingly more satisfying to crunch into all your salad ingredients than chasing it around the bowl with a fork. Give it a try – find my recipe here!

Let me know how you shake up your salad routine. Shoot me an email at jeanettedonnarumma@gmail.com or DM me on Instagram @jeanettedonnarumma. And find more lightened up (and some not so lightened up) recipes on my website, JeanetteDonnarumma.com.