Tastes Like Disappointment:
When prepping lunches, I try to find a balance between being healthy and tasting good. I don’t want to spend hours prepping a meal that turns out to be inedible. And, of course, it won’t help if the meal is so bad that I end up picking at my lunch, then binge eating junk later. So I try to take meals I like and find healthy, altered versons.
For this meal, I used this Heathy Egg Salad recipe. It uses plain non-fat Greek yogurt instead of mayonnaise, dijon mustard and fresh dill for a touch of zing, and celery for a bit of crunch. I made the egg salad exactly according to the recipe. For serving, I used pita bread instead of whole grain bread, and for toppings I only added arugula, both stored seperately to keep from getting soggy. I thought I had found a great balance between healthy and tasty.
The Zesty Mediterranean Quinoa Salad was pretty delicious. While a bit heavy on the onion, I will be making this again.
How I F*d Up:
While plain non-fat Greek yogurt probably would have gone great with the previous weeks Waldorf Salad, as fruit and yogurt tend to go well together, it did not do anything for egg. The egg salad itself was bland and tasteless, despite the added dill and mustard. The yogurt seperated quite a bit overnight, so instead of being thick and creamy, it turned a bit watery and runny, despite mixing before stuffing into the pita. Lesson learned, plain non-fat Greek yogurt is not always an acceptable substitution for mayonnaise. There was such a small amount of mustard added, there might as well have not been any added at all.
In attempt to cut back on some of my food costs, I decided to try cheap pitas. However, you get what you pay for. Pita’s is not something you want to cheap out on, especially if you plan to stuff it full of runny egg salad. The pita was extremely thin, so shoving it full of egg salad soup caused it to get soggy and start falling apart before I was done eating. Putting a layer of Arugula into the bottom of the pita before pouring in the egg salad helped to give it a protective layer, as well as adding to the flavor.
Suggestions for Improvement:
The two biggest improvements to this would be to use light mayonnaise instead of greek yogurt and using quality pitas. While light mayonnaise will add in a bit more fat and calories than fat-free greek yogurt, it will taste much better, while still being more healthy than full-fat mayo.
How I F*d Up 