FoodBozo.com

Maybe your kids are screaming for fast food. Or your partner is dying to hit the local rib joint. Or your company is holding its employee appreciation lunch at Fat Joe’s House of Lard. Regardless, you’re trying to watch your weight. So what do you do when the waitress slides a greasy menu into your hands?

Easy. Just order the salad. And if your family and friends tease you for ordering the “wimpy” food? Well, that’s the price you pay for cutting calories, right?

Read more here: 6 Salads Worse Than a Whopper!

It’s high time to think beyond the iceberg. Chef Stephen Kalt shows us how to cook up three creative salads featuring in-season fruits and vegetables in unexpected, summery combinations. Move over, lettuce; there are some new stars in the salad bowl.

View video here: Make over my summer salad! Three new fresh seasonal recipes

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has issued a warning to consumers not to purchase or eat certain brands of bagged lettuce.

The ready-to-eat products may be contaminated with salmonella.

A number of brands of Fresh Express Romaine-based salads are included in a recall issued by the manufacturer, Fresh Express Incorporated.

Read more here: Salads recalled over salmonella contamination concern

Those fresh, delicious summer salads that sustain life in sauna-like weather? They can do a lot more than keep you cool. In fact, five salad veggies turn out to be antioxidant superstars. Toss a handful into any bowl and you’ll instantly up your defenses against everything from wrinkles to heart disease and even help make your RealAge younger. Then season some olive oil and vinegar with a few of the herbs and spices below and you’ll punch up the antioxidant power even more. Health food doesn’t get any easy-breezier!

Read more here: Five veggies that make any salad super-healthy

When the weather’s hot, toss up one of these salads for a wonderful meal or side dish

Read more here: Easy summer salads

• Also see: Test Kitchen’s Recipe Box: Spectacular Summer Salads

I really truly love salad. When the weather gets warmer, I have one for either lunch or dinner every day—sometimes both. (Get 25+ recipes for side salads and main-dish salads.) I always have one or two varieties of lettuce in my fridge, plus I grow my own salad greens. And if I’m pressed for time, I head to the salad bar at my local supermarket in the morning when I’m shopping for the ingredients I need to test recipes in the EatingWell Test Kitchen.

Read more here: 4 tips for making a power salad at the salad bar

You’ve scanned the restaurant menu and given yourself a little pat on the back for choosing a salad instead of fries on the side. Now comes the “top” question: “Which dressing would you like on your salad?” It seems like such a small detail, but your dressing decision can make or break your salad and either support or undo your initially healthy choice! Egad! Panic! Worry! Nah, just calm down and follow these do’s and don’ts for dressing your salad.

Read more: Salad dressing do’s and don’ts

Gross Alert! Fecal Bacteria Found in Bagged Salad Greens-

Even prewashed, nay, triple-washed bags of salad mixes aren’t so clean after all. Consumer Reports tested 208 bags of salad greens from 16 different brands and found that 39 percent of the samples had traces of fecal contamination. Researchers also found that mixes containing spinach had higher levels of bacteria and that greens tested at least six days before their “use by” date had lower levels of contaminants. Luckily, no traces of deadly pathogens like E. coli or salmonella were found. But still, the thought of cow poo on my baby arugula is totally gross.