I do veg OR salad, not both.

I usually do a salad OR a green veggie.

Side note: I have great success making salads ahead of time. I spin the heck out of the greens and only add items that are not particularly 'wet'. No cucumbers, tomatoes. Yes to dried beans (placed on a dishtowel after rinsing), scallions/green onions, shredded carrots, etc. I put them in individual containers for work and only very rarely do they fail to make it through the week. Romaine that I prepare myself works way better than bagged lettuce or spring mix.

If I'm going to the trouble of making a salad, then I'm usually making it a featured part of the meal, not really a side dish. Usually, I'll serve the protein right on the salad and if there are other veggies I'll incorporate them. Then I might or might not serve a side.

Three "salad for dinner" meals we like:

"Taco Salad": greens, taco meat, or cut up Trader Joe's cilantro-lime chicken burger, with cheese, salsa, guac, corn, crushed taco shells

"BBQ wonton salad" greens, pulled chicken, coleslaw with ginger-soy dressing, toasted wonton skins

"Blackened Tilapia Caesar Salad": ingredients are pretty obvious, I usually serve this with corn on the cob

I do. I'm almost exactly like the last PP, in fact!

We love salads - typically have that, then meat/starch/veggie for the main course. I just make the main course (esp the starch) a little smaller when we have a salad, which is about 5 nights per week.

I like the clamshell containers of baby romaine (I remove the plastic bag and dump the lettuce into the clamshell on a damp paper towel). A dinner salad = handful of lettuce, handful of cherry tomatoes, cucumber slices, and possibly some bell pepper if I'm feeling ambitious. Easy peasey.

We also usually have a protein, veg and starch for dinner. I also always have one of those large clear plastic containers of pre-washed mixed greens - I have no idea why, but the leaves seem to stay fresh for a week or so in those containers (unlike the bags which get wilted fast). So most nights in addition to the protein/starch/veg, I dole out a handful of that onto the dinner plates, and slice a few cherry tomatoes on top - it literally takes 2 minutes. Or for my own plate sometimes I'll put a large handful of the greens on the plate as my "base," and just put the protein, veg and a small amount of the rice on top.

We usually do meat, vegetable, salad and fruit. Sometimes we sub in rice or have a pasta meal instead.

Not usually. Mainly because I'm lazy. I'd rather saute, blanch, steam, roast, etc. a vegetable than chop the salad ingredients.

You don' t need to balance each meal. Sometimes I'll do salad, veg, protein, starch sequentially on different days.

I sub salad for the veggie. Often its with something like a baked ziti, chicken broccoli rice casserole, lasagna, etc. When the meat & carbs are together I tend to serve salad. Like PP we also have salad with pizza.

I eat salad pretty much every day for lunch at work though so I'm not feeling the need to eat as much at home.

I sometimes do meat + vegetable + salad and sometimes I sub the vegetable for salad.

2 suggestions: make a very small individual salad for each person that fits on the plate. It's actually very easy and quick. Then none goes to waste.

Incorporate salad in 1 -2 nights a week. We have taco salad night often or salad when we have pizza on Friday nights.

do you also serve a salad?

I want to eat more salad, but I generally make fish/chicken/meat with potato/rice/pasta and broccoli/zucchini/green beans for dinner. It seems like so much extra food to maike a salad too and since salad never seems to keep well, I feel like it will all go to waste.

Yes, I know I could get rid of the starch but I like it and so do my kids.