~Fall Salad~

I don't make salad for dinner very often, but boy oh boy--what a simple, healthy and delicious salad! I only wish I had mushrooms (mmmm mushrooms) to add to this delish dish. My favorite part of this salad is the candied nuts. I candy my own nuts (it's ridiculously easy) and I love the flavor and juiciness pear provides in a salad.

You can add virtually anything to this salad. I added cranberries, cucumber, pear, candied nuts and chicken breasts.

For a dressing, I chose light ranch dressing (and a very little amount at that!). Jeremy chose my homemade poppyseed dressing. I will post that recipe another day.

you'll need:

1-2 cooked chicken breasts, depending on how much chicken you want

1 bunch of romaine lettuce, spinach leaves or arugula

handful of cranberries

diced cucumber

handful of candied nuts

1 pear, sliced

2-3 mushrooms, diced

shredded carrots

dressing (light ranch or poppyseed are good)

sliced strawberries (optional: if you add these, do NOT use ranch dressing. Eww)

get busy:

Cook the chicken breasts in a saute pan with olive oil seasoned with Lowry's Seasoned Salt, or grill. Cut into small pieces. To candy nuts: throw some nuts and 1 Tbs. sugar in a small pan; cook on medium high heat until the sugar melts. Quickly stir the nuts to coat with the sugar and remove from the pan so they don't burn. I used slivered almonds and pecans tonight. Mmm. Add the rest of the ingredients. I placed my pear slices all pretty, but in the end it gets covered with dressing, so whatever. All in all, this is a very healthy dinner with less than 300 calories per serving. Enjoy!