My Favorite Salad!

My Favorite Salad

Happy 2016 Fit Girls!!

It’s a New Year, a new week, and the perfect time to get start on a new healthy journey OR to get back into the swing of your healthy lifestyle after a little holiday chaos! šŸ˜‰

You may have noticed that last month on The Live Fit Girls was…shall we say, sporadic. With the holidays and parties left, right, and center (my birthday, best friend’s engagement, Christmas, and New Years), lots of traveling (can you say roadtrip from Minnesota to Connecticut?), and the very first stages of, yet another, cross-country move (YUP, we are FINALLY moving to CALIFORNIA!!)…things are pretty crazy on my end!

However, I wanted to share with you one of my all-time favorite meals with you! This my absolute favorite salad. Is so simple and usually only takes me about 2 minutes to whip up because I almost always have the ingredients prepped ahead of time, or left over from dinner the night before.

My Favorite Salad

I must have had this at least 8 times over the last 2 weeks, because like I said, it only takes 2 minutes to whip up and I could still enjoy as much time as possible with my family and friends.

The base of this salad is dark leafy kale. I LOVE kale for a quick salad because you can prepare it ahead of time and you won’t have to worry about it getting “soggy” like lettuce…In fact, the longer it marinates in the dressing, the better! So, what I like to do is prepare a bit bag full of kale that will last me 3-4 salads. 

I remove the stems, and then shred the kale leaves very thin, and put it all in a big ziplock baggy and add my favorite dressing. Then I shake the baggy up to coat all the kale and when I’m ready to make a salad I can’t complain about it taking forever to make!

I almost always have some pre-made chicken in my refrigerator too. My favorite for this salad is a super simple Balsamic Rosemary Chicken. I’ll usually make a few breasts each week specifically to top my salads with.

Then, I just finish off the salad with some cooked quinoa, goat cheese, naturally-sweetened dried cranberries, and some of my favorite almonds. On this salad I used the Honey Roasted Almond from Blue Diamond. I thought they were super festive and a great treat to top my salad with!

This salad is perfect for the holidays because you can prepare it ahead of time and bring it to you holiday party, and people love having a healthy option at get togethers, and it also helps keep YOU on track too! šŸ˜‰

My Favorite Salad

Print

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My Favorite Salad

  • Prep Time: 10
  • Cook Time: 20
  • Total Time: 30

Ingredients

Scale

For the Chicken

  • 1 chicken breast
  • 3 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
  • 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

For the Dressing

  • 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
  • 1/4 teaspoon raw honey
  • 1/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
  • pinch of salt

For the Salad

  • 3 kale leaves
  • 1/2 cup cooked quinoa (cold or hot)
  • 2 tablespoons crumbled goat cheese
  • 2 tablespoons unsweetened OR naturally sweetened Dried cranberries (I love apple juice infused cranberries)
  • 2 tablespoons Blue Diamond Honey Roasted Almonds

Instructions

For the Chicken

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  2. In a medium bowl, combine balsamic vinegar, dried rosemary, salt and pepper to create a marinade. Add the chicken breast and let marinate for at least 10 minutes.
  3. Preheat the olive oil in an oven-safe skillet over medium-high heat.
  4. Carefully lay the chicken breast in the skillet and cook 3-4 minutes per side until lightly browned. Transfer the skillet to the oven and cook 15-20 minutes, or until internal temperature reaches 165 degrees.
  5. Remove the chicken from the skillet and cut into strips or bite-sized pieces.

For the Salad Dressing

  1. While the chicken is cooking, whisk together all the salad dressing ingredients in a small bowl until smooth.

For the Salad

  1. Remove the stems from the kale and finely slice or shred the leaves into 1/4 inch ribbons.
  2. Drizzle with the dressing and toss to cover the kale. (If you’re in a hurry you can “massage” the kale gently with your hands to help break up the tough fibers and speed up the marinating.)
  3. Top the kale with quinoa, the cooked chicken, goat cheese, cranberries, and almonds. Toss to combine and enjoy!


Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 1

My Favorite Salad

What’s your favorite salad? I love trying new recipes!

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Disclosure: This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Blue Diamond Almonds. All opinions are 100% mine. Thanks for supporting The Live Fit Girls!

BlueDiamond

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