Apple & Almond & Feta Salad with Honey and Chia Dressing

I thrive on learning new things about nutrition and health. I was in the bookstore and grabbed a whole stack of things to read, while waiting for my daughter. I didn't get through all of the stack but, I had a great time. That is one of my favorite things to do. There are sooo many great things out there to learn I love it. I look forward to the next time I can do that.

This salad is fantastic. It one I recently found in my quest for learning and changed it around. It is on the list of one of my favorites. Britney came over and got to have some of this too. We both loved the combination of flavors. All the colors in it make it very appealing. It is sure to be a crowd pleaser. It is a great salad for the Summer.

It was fun to use chia in the dressing as oppose to poppy seeds. They are loaded with nutrition Just 2 T of chia is 6 grams of fiber. It is thought that chia could help in lowering triglyceride levels, and increase your HDL. Some studies have shown it could suppress your appetite, reduce inflammation and decrease blood pressure. They don't have much of a flavor so they can be added to almost anything. I put them in my smoothie every morning. I found that putting them in the salad dressing made a nice thickener. The seeds expand in liquid. You could use it in recipes that call for poppy seeds too. You don't have to grind the seeds to get the nutrtion out of them like you do with flax seeds.

Ingredients:
Dressing
1/2 C honey
2 T chia or poppy seeds
3/4 C grape seed oil or another kind of oil
1/2 cider vinegar
1/4 tsp pepper

1 head of Romain lettuce washed and torn in small pieces
1 C chopped almonds and 2 T honey cook in frying pan till is nice and thick. Let cool.
2 green apples cut in small bite size pieces
1/2 dried cranberries
1/2 red onion diced in small pieces
4 oz feta cheese crumbled

Instructions:

1. Combine ingredients for dressing in blender or shaker bottle and blend or shake. Refrigerate till ready to serve.

2. Toss the salad just before serving. I added the cheese last. I didn't want it to get over mixed. We poured on our own dressing, so the leftovers wouldn't get soggy.

I served this as the main dish with some cantaloupe a great meal. Yum!

Tasty Apple Pear Salad

We had this Saturday when we had family over to watch a basketball game. I really have come to enjoy having granny smith apples in my green salad. I like the crispness they add to the salad. The combination of the salad and pear work well in this salad. I would have liked the pear to be a little firmer but it tasted good. Overall the group seemed to enjoy the salad. It was a nice meal. Ingredients:

1 lb grilled or cooked chicken cut in small pieces (I cooked it with some olive oil and herbs)
1 granny smith apple cut in small pieces
2 pears cut up in small pieces (I used the red version)
1 leek chopped small pieces
2 C spinach
2 C romaine broke up into small pieces
1 C candied nuts (I used cashews and cooked on stove with 1/4 C coconut sugar & 1 tsp cinnamon)
10 dates *optional chopped into tiny pieces
garnish freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Dressing:

1/2 C olive oil
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp pepper
6 T xagave
2-3 lemon juiced
4 tsp mustard

Directions:

1. Pour all the ingredients in a blender for the dressing. Let it blend a couple minutes. Taste and adjust if needed to your preference. Adding more sweet or salt. Put in fridge till ready to serve.

2. Combine everything for the salad except chicken and cheese. You can either put the chicken on top when you serve up plates, or combine in with the lettuce. Garnish with cheese. You can pour the dressing over the whole salad, or let people pour on individually.