Strawberry Spinach Chicken Salad

This is the very first recipe in the magazine and it is classified in "All the Greens" section. I am going to rotate through the sections, so we don't end up with heavier carbs salads all at one time. This one is similar to a family recipe that we used to make that included a red onion vinaigrette, I will include it at the bottom.

I am not great at following recipes, so here is how I made it: I skillet fried chicken breast strips with some olive oil and pepper and when they were almost cooked I added some lemon juice and quite a lot of Dijon mustard to the pan, like really 4 HUGE squirts. I covered my chicken and let it simmer for 5 more minutes after mixing. I changed the spinach for my husband, he can not eat foods high in oxalates- as he is prone to kidney stones, to a mix of arugula and romaine lettuce. As well my husband should minimize the amount of nuts he is eating, and on WW that is also a higher point food, so I reduced the amount of pecans in this recipe for us. I added celery, because why not? And also sliced up some pear and kiwi to add since I had some on hand. I mixed up all my greens, and added some curley parsley with some Maple dressing I had. Then added loads of chicken and fruit and sprinkled with my toasted pecans. This salad is super easy to make. A beautiful summer salad to serve for sure. You could easily make this with peaches when in season. I think I would prefer it with goat cheese, and actually forgot to put Feta on at all.

This is my actual salad.

The salad my family used to make was romaine lettuce, strawberries and sliced toasted almonds, as well as red onion, but the dressing was the big difference (1/2 cup sugar, 1 cup oil, 1 tsp dry mustard, 1/2 small red onion,2 tbsp water, 1/4 vinegar and 1 tsp lemon juice). This dressing has sugar, so not as friendly as the dressing in this magazine recipe (but I ended up adding a maple dressing anyhow, so I am sure that also had sugar), and watch how much onion you put in or it overpowers it, but it is a pretty pink colour and you will have lots of leftovers for the fridge with this recipe.

Try your own variation of one of these salads and let me know how it goes. Even my son liked it and he is not a huge lettuce guy!