Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Simple Salad

I LOVE salad. I love that it is healthy. And versatile. And tasty. And can be frugal.

We've gotten some great lettuce out of our garden this year and it's made for some great meals. We easily make an entire meal out of salad, and we did that tonight. Cut the lettuce this morning, cleaned it, added some strawberries (that are still for a great price around here), found some mandarin oranges in the cupboard, had some already-cooked chicken in the refrigerator, then added some cashews and dried cranberries for toppings. And then topped it with some dressing I had made last week. A Poppy seed dressing. What a great combo!


We normally make the salad right in the bowl we are going to eat it out of, so an even amount of lettuce and toppings in each of two bowls (we like a good amount of toppings, but measure to your preference):

Salad:
Fresh lettuce
Strawberries
Mandarin oranges
Sliced chicken (cooked of course)
Dried cranberries
Cashews
Poppy Seed dressing

Dressing (adapted from Jamie Cooks It Up and Annie's Eats):
1/2 C Apple cider vinegar
1/2 C sugar
1/2 C splenda
1 Tbs Dried minced onion
1/2 tsp dried mustard
1 tsp Salt
1/2 C Light mayonaise
1/3 C apple juice
6 Tbs vegetable oil
2 tsp Poppy seeds
Combine all ingredients through juice in a food processor and blend well. With feed tube open, gradually add oil while blending, continuing until fully blended in. Add poppy seeds and pulse until just blended. Store in air-tight container in refrigerator until ready to top your salad.
Enjoy!

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