Note: This post is part of an ongoing blog series called #costamesa365 where the author is striving to shop only in her city of Costa Mesa, for a year.

Yes, I am writing this post with a clear head. No, I’m not talking about giving up the drink.

But the headline is more appropo than you know because I am currently in the throes of some seriously cold-turkey detox…

…off my deep dependence on Stonefire salad*.

Sigh.

Stonefire Grill salads are just really, really good. They are made fresh, come in interesting and healthy combinations, are inexpensive and I can phone ahead to order one then swing by the takeout entrance to grab-and-go.

It’s like the ease of fast food + the healthy benefits of, well, SALAD!

And not lame salad. Good salad that you want to put in your mouth and eat.

Sadly, we do not have a Stonefire here in Costa Mesa, which means it’s not #costamesa365 approved, which means no more Stonefire… at least through 2019.

Honestly, of all the things I realized I would have to give up with the #costamesa365 challenge, this one caused me a lot of premptive pause and panic.

Over the past two years, my Stonefire habit had just become this really convenient (and healthy) food hack I relied on pretty heavily.

So flash forward to yesterday, I was throwing myself a little withdrawal pity-party in our Facebook group. When suddenly, my phone started to ping, ping, ping and… tada! Costa Mesans to the rescue!

You all pitched in and gave me so many excellent recommendations. I now have a giant list of your best places to get a quick, fresh, yummy lunchtime salad here in Costa Mesa. Tabouli salads, kale salads, chicken salads, chopped salads, build-your-own salads…. all the salads!

Turns out we have a salad-bar’s worth of salad options here on the Mesa. Some of which even offer the convenience of curbside pick-up so I don’t have to get out of my car! (Chew on that, Stonefire.)

In the months ahead, I’ll be running some Roughage Reconnaissance and report back with my salad stats. In the meantime, head over to our Facebook group and add your favorite veg purveyors to our growing list.

Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s lunchtime, and I have some beautiful Costa Mesa salads to sample. ♥

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* Does anyone even read the footnotes? Let’s have a little fun to find out. The first three people to count up the number of times I said “salad” in this article, and posts it to our Facebook group, will get a free I Heart Costa Mesa tee-shirt. Just write a new post that says “You said ‘salad’ XX times,” and if you’re in the first three, you get a shirt – free!