15 in 3: Dinner 4 Summer Salad with Chicken

Welcome to the fourth installment of 15 in 3!  This is the place I am sharing my 15 favorite dinners over the next 3 weeks.  Stay tuned for easy homemade dinner recipes containing lots of whole foods, minimal processed ingredients, and straight forward recipes with everyday healthy ingredients.  Some posts will contain bonus breakfast and snack ideas.  Happy cooking!

Dinner 4:  Summer Salad with Chicken

This is my favorite way to eat salad:  a mix of greens, lots of veggies and toppings, with poppyseed dressing.  It has all the benefits of a salad while satisfying my craving for sweetness.

Ingredients:

2 cups spinach, loosely packed

2 cups lettuce, loosely packed

10 grape tomatoes, chopped

2 T. nuts, chopped

2 T. dried cranberries

1/8 bell pepper, chopped

4 oz. sliced grilled chicken breast

1 T. poppyseed dressing

Directions:

1.  Um, this is a bit of a no brainer:  You see, you put the lettuce and spinach all over your plate.  Then you put everything else on top.  Wait for it, ... the dressing goes on last.  Enjoy!

Tip 1:  Instead of pouring or even drizzling your dressing, try dropping little dabs of it all over your salad.  Leave space between the dabs for heaven's sake!  There's so much goodness on this salad, that you don't need or want to cover up the flavor.

Tip 2:  This is related to Tip 1.  I'm no expert or anything here when it comes to dressing, but I do know myself and others often add way more of it than necessary.  It's the good part, right?  It doesn't have to be the best part.  As someone who was there during the original "ranch river" I have figured out one great way to eat less dressing.  Eat "down" your salad instead of across it.  If you eat top to bottom in a small area of your plate before moving on, everything gets its fair share of dressing, and you don't end up with a heap of naked lettuce at the end of your meal.  Ew, naked lettuce!

Side note:  Most people have a grill, but we're not most people...well, not yet.  Hopefully sometime this summer we'll get a small little charcoal grill.  For now, though, I just pan-fried the chicken breast with a bit of salt, pepper, olive oil, and my trusty Mrs. Dash Chicken Grilling Blend.  

Calorie total:  480!  This salad was sooooo good, too!

Husband has been coming home at midnight all week.  Yep, I have yet to enjoy a single one of these 15 in 3 dinners with any company besides the dog staring up at me.  Maybe I'll see him again next week?  A girl can dream:)

Anyhow, there was no way I was going to expect my husband to eat a salad at midnight.  Even I would not, could not eat a salad at midnight...yuck.  Salads require daylight or at least twilight. 

Instead I made him what looked to be a delicious Grilled BBQ Chicken and Cheese Sandwich.  Prepare similarly to a regular grilled cheese sandwich, except layer the inside this way:  low fat provolone cheese, barbecue sauce, 4-6 oz. sliced grilled chicken breast, barbecue sauce, low fat provolone cheese.  

Calorie total:  720-820, yikes!  Sorry Love!  I guess I should have made you eat the salad?!

FYI:  Favorite "New" Snack

Craving something creamy?  Enjoy a spoonful of peanut butter with a glass of milk.  Now that is good!

One more dinner for the week to be debuted tomorrow.  You will not be disappointed!!