Salad: 5 ways to take your leafy greens to the next level

When it comes to enjoying something fresh, light, and delicious in the summer, a salad is always a great answer for a tasty meal. And while we may be Guilty Eats, that doesn’t mean we don’t love keeping things healthy too.

On top of the fact that a fresh salad can be a great way to add in those fruits and veggies to your diet, but they are a great vehicle for some amazing flavor combinations. And honestly, there are plenty of ways to make your salad seem like a guilty eat too.

From changing up the dressing that you use, or maybe even the cheese, there are any number of ways for you to take your salad to the next level. And we have picked five ways to shake up your salad this summer. You can mix, match, or just choose one that works for you.

5 ways to elevate your salad this summer

• Pick the perfect Perdue Chicken option – When it comes to adding a protein to our salad, we have a tendency to opt for chicken. And the brand that we often turn to is Perdue. While we like grilled chicken in our salad, we are also big fans of their dinosaur nuggets (especially the Simply Smart Lightly Breaded Chicken Breast Dino Nuggets), crispy chicken strips, and even their new Chicken Plus Chicken Tots. We have a lot of fun picking the perfect chicken, whether that means throwing some dinosaurs in the mix or acting like an adult and going with a chicken strip or two. It certainly helps that they also offer Perdue Short Cuts, which give us grilled chicken that is ready to toss on any salad, and in some cases comes seasoned or marinated!
• Kraft Dressing offers a wide variety of flavors – If you really want to shake things up with your salad this summer, why not try a new flavor of salad dressing. And that is where Kraft dressing comes in to the picture. After all they offer so many amazing flavors, that you can try something new every day and never get bored. What are we trying this summer? For us it is all about garlic and intense flavors. That is why we are excited for their Green Goddess dressing, the Deluxe Robust Garlic and Parmesan Dressing, the Sun-dried Tomato Vinaigrette, and even their Zesty Lime Vinaigrette Dressing. (The fact that we can also use the vinaigrette dressings as a marinade also makes these the perfect choice for pulling double duty in our kitchen.)
• Throw in some crunch with nuts! – This summer we got to try the NEW Planters Sweet & Spicy Dry Roasted Peanuts and after snacking on them straight out of the container, we couldn’t resist adding them to a fresh salad. The fact that they were sweet and spicy meant that they truly took our salad to a whole new level. But those weren’t the only nuts we tried in a fresh, summer salad. Other nuts we tried this year included the Kirkland Signature Butter Toffee Cashews (which are a tasty, sweet treat on their own), the Planters Sea Salt & Vinegar Peanuts, and the Sahale Snacks Pomegranate Vanilla Flavored Cashews. Not only do these nuts add some crunch, they also bring new layers of flavors to our leafy greens.
• Cheese it up – We love cheese and we really love adding different cheeses to our salads, not only do we love adding fresh feta or shredded cheddar to our salads,  ur we also love mixing it up. So what does that mean? It means we are all about tossing in mini mozzarella balls, blue cheese crumbles, and even strips of Swiss or Provolone. Just think of the soft cheeses with those crunchy nuts and vibrant dressings and you have a winning salad!
• Dried fruit for the win – While I do love adding fresh pieces of strawberries, whole blueberries, and even slices of green apples to my salads, thanks to Panera’s Fuji Apple Chicken Salad, I have found myself turning to dried fruit as an alternative to the fresh fruits that can sometimes water down our salad. From dried cranberries to dried apple slices and even dried apricots, this is a great way to play with your salads and add a hint of sweetness to the mix.

How do you jazz up your salads? Are you a fruit in the salad person? Or do you prefer keeping it savory? What do you think of nuts instead of croutons? We want to know what makes your perfect salad.