Fit4GenCon: The First Rule of Salad Club

On my quest to become Fit4GenCon, I’ve invented a club over at my day job at ThinkGeek. It’s Salad Club, and the simplest way to describe it is a potluck salad bar.

How Salad Club Works

1. Members sign up on a Google Docs spreadsheet and commit to bring 1-2 salad ingredients for the week. For example, this week I’m on greens duty.
2. On Monday, everyone brings in their item and places it in the crisper bins of our fridge.
3. When lunchtime rolls around, Salad Club members pull out the ingredients, make up their salads and nom away!

Benefits of Salad Club

• Healthy lunch that involves next to no planning. How many times have you gotten to work and realized you left your lunch in the fridge at home? How many times have you overslept and not had time to make a sandwich? …and then what happens? You go out somewhere and grab a burger or some wings or whatever.
• Trying new vegetables, toppings, or salad dressings. Since other people are purchasing ingredients, they might bring in something you wouldn’t normally buy. Salad Club is a place for experimentation and safe “risks” when it comes to food.
• A different salad every day. Maybe one day you want something with lots of crispy veggies, croutons, and ranch dressing. The next day you want a simple greens & tomatoes deal with a light vinaigrette. Things can change up every day depending on whose fixins you use!
• Money saved. The nutritional benefits are great, but let’s talk about money. Assume your regular lunch routine is to bring in food from home for 3 days and eat out for 2. Those two days you eat out will cost you somewhere between $5-12 each. A whole week of Salad Club lunch will cost you between $5-12, depending on which fixins you buy that week.

It’s totally fun!

I love salads, but I hate making salads at home because they’re predictable and boring. I have to eat the same salad every day and hope I make it through all the veggies before they go bad.

Salad Club has made salads interesting and fun. Oh, and I’ve been trying to tweet a picture of my salad every day. Check them out on my Twitpic page.

If you’re interested in starting a Salad Club at your work, let me know in the comments and I’ll email you more detailed instructions on how to get a Salad Club rolling.

I hope you’re all doing well in your quest to get Fit 4 GenCon!