<p>Olives, tomatoes, carrots, garbanzo beans, hard boiled eggs, sprouts, sunflower seeds, tiny broccoli florettes, marinated mushrooms, feta cheese, red onions, avocados, black bean salad. I like Romaine, mesclun mixes, arugala. I like hummus with carrot sticks, but try to avoid extra carbs. I love ranch dressing and never buy it for home, but other wise want oil and vinegar (with some balsamic vinegar).</p>
<p>Croutons, blue cheese dressing, green and black olives. I also like cottage cheese on the side.</p>
<p>Actually just add the croutons, and I’ll go to Mathmom’s salad bar!</p>
<p>Thank you all for responding. Have to say, I’m surprised how many people choose beets! I would choose them but didn’t realize they’re so popular. Now I need to take a trip to Costco and price everything. I’m also going to consider whether offering a trio of prepared salads might be cheaper than the salad bar route. Maybe I could handle the cooking/prep if I just offered fewer choices. Decisions, decisions. I appreciate your input!</p>
<p>We go to Gourmet Heaven here in New Haven. My fave is the tofu that has been sliced/cut into triangles and marinated in some type of soy(dark, but not too salty) sauce…with minced garlic, scallions and red pepper flakes! Delicious.</p>
<p>I won’t eat your beets! But they are pretty. :)</p>
<p>Also pretty and tasty in salad are sliced mangos or clementines.</p>
<p>These all sound like really amazing options! YUM!! You are so nice to do this. :)</p>
<p>The only thing you might add, but you don’t really have to, might be iceberg lettuce wedges. Some people like the salads with the wedge, blue cheese, bacon, and blue cheese dressing. </p>
<p>I don’t know if anyone mentioned matchstick carrots but my boys like these in their salad.</p>
<p>I like iceberg lettuce, clementines, and croutons. Thin sliced strawberries, too. I eat my salads dry but I like ranch and Italian. I had an orange dressing recently that came with a bagged salad that was delicious, that would be my favorite if I knew what it was! </p>
<p>If I were doing this I’d probably go for the basics, which to me are romaine, croutons, cheese, grape tomato, maybe onion. I’d probably get ranch, bleu cheese, and some kind of vinaigrette… Maybe Italian instead of the bleu cheese. We always have bleu cheese because its my dads favorite but I’m not positive how wide the appeal is.</p>
<p>I loathe, loathe, loathe blue cheese, but I think you can have a choice of a 2-3 dressings that will make everyone happy. (One should be a basic oil and vineger, the rest can be whatever floats your boat.) I do think blue cheese is a love hate thing.</p>
<p>The trio would probably turn out to be easier and less messy. I like ranch dressing or oil and vinegar. Has anybody mentioned fruit?</p>
<p>I’m surprised no one has mentioned nuts–I know allergies and all–but I sometimes put slivered almonds or walnuts in a salad. I like the crunchiness of the nuts–it’s a good substitute for croutons. I’ve also see people add sunflower seeds.</p>
<p>Yes, I mentioned almonds and I do use them in place of croutons.</p>
<p>My favorite nut to put in salad is walnuts. I brown them with some butter and salt and then add a little maple syrup and cook it till it’s caramelized. Those are so yummy thrown into a salad!</p>
<p>The trio idea would probably be much easier. Maybe a Caesar, a tossed salad and an Asian-style salad.</p>
<p>Jicama is also good for crunch.
I like sunflower seeds too, although I also use pan toasted almonds.</p>
<p>I like everything mentioned, and I’ll also add edamame. I too am a beet lover.</p>
<p>Costco has double jars of wonderful artichoke hearts- very reasonably priced!</p>
<p>I’m lazy, and often go to Whole Foods for toppings, which I add to my lettuce and basic ingredients. A few things not mentioned are corn and peas.</p>
<p>Thanks, everybody. I’m back reading over the replies once again. I don’t do any entertaining, so I end up with analysis paralysis trying to make decisions in this kind of situation. There are a small number of widely-shared choices but, beyond that, people’s preferences are so varied! Last year I spent way too much money (and time). </p>
<p>Bookworm, you’re clever to pick up toppings from Whole Foods and add them to your own lettuce.</p>
<p>I have lost 20# in the past 4 months eating the following salad for lunch every day:</p>
<p>Arugula, grape tomatoes, cucumber, avocado, fresh mozzarella, pecans w balsamic vinegrette.</p>
<p>I buy the organic arugula from trader joes.</p>