Cranberry Avocado Almond Spinach Salad with Roasted Chicken, Feta Cheese and Orange Poppy Seed Vinaigrette

Looking through Pinterest for dinner recipes after my one week clean eating detox, I found a few spinach salad recipes.  What I have been looking for are ingredients that I would normally have in the fridge/pantry, agreeable palate for everyone in the family, wallet friendly and just plain awesome tasting.

I started off with a roasted chicken using the Big Batch Roasted Chicken recipe.  The recommendation here is to take out the chicken, place it on the roasting pan, season it and leave it out for thirty minutes so the meat can absorb some of the simple flavors as a marinade.  Once the kids came home for school, I roasted the chicken then turned off the oven while we went to dance class so that when I came home, I could remove the skin off the chicken and the chicken off the bone.

Next, I called my kitchen helpers into the room and began making the salad.  My helpers were aged 5 and 6 so sharing was very important as was them not using a knife. I was sure to keep a set of thongs nearby so they could easily toss the toppings into the already prepared, pre-cut spinach.  The girls laughed and giggled about avocado.  Then feta cheese then they asked each other what was on their list of favorites:  food, color(s), drink etc etc.  The conversation could go on for hours.

We followed this recipe and I know adaptations would work well.  It's a great salad to mix in fruit like mandarin oranges or blueberries, make vegan by removing the cheese and chicken as I felt the cheese was unnecessary.  The Cranberry Avocado Almond Spinach Salad with Roasted Chicken, Feta Cheese was a grand slam, even with my young kitchen helps.  The AWESOME Orange Poppy Seed Vinaigrette should be bottled, it's that good!  Phenomenal.  Fresh.  Perfecto!

Hope you enjoy,

Enriching Ego

Estimated Nutritional Value:

Calories: 370 Carbs: 19 Fat: 22 Protein: 26 Sodium: 281 Sugar: 12

(provided by:  Food Diary)

Day 4 of the Clean Eating Challenge

Here we roll into day four.  The deal with this challenge is not that the meals are hard to put together but I am feeling a little uneasy about next week's menu.  I am going to pray about branching out to a total strange to me menu.

The morning meal was a fantastic feta cheese and scallion omelet.  I think this meal is great and I feel more confident with making omelets.  If I were trying to adhere to this challenge, I would have sliced tomatoes.  I did add shallots and asparagus to my husband's breakfast and he was pleased!

Ease of preparation: I rate this a two or three.  You have to feel comfortable enough cooking eggs, but really, its all in the oil.  I sauteed the scallions a wee bit then add in scrambled egg finally adding feta cheese.  Not hard, just watch it not to burn.
Satiety:  This was a forkful for sure.  Really a go to breakfast for me and its a great basic omelet.  
Serving Size: I used two eggs in the omelet I am showing  you in the picture.  
Flavor:  Great basic breakfast.  Salt and pepper this and having feta cheese with my breakfast is a real treat!  

For a late lunch I bring you a Greek Style salad with lentils and lime vinaigrette.  

Ease of preparation: all I had to do here was cut the cuke and tomato! Bagged spinach, leftover lentils and a sprinkle of feta.  Pretty simple!   

Satiety: I can't comment on this section because I could not get through five forkfuls of this recipe.  

Serving Size: I grabbed two decent handfuls of spinach and added as much of the rest that I wanted.  

Flavor:  BLAH.  I couldn't get through this salad. What made the salad inedible were the lentils. They were mushy and congealed.  

Day 4 dinner was reheated roasted chicken with spinach and roasted spinach.  My picture shows a dissembled plate.  Sometimes I prefer my food separate rather than mixed together.  The picture found on the Buzz Feed Clean Eating Challenge shows their take which is a salad.  Eat your food however it works for you.  

Ease of preparation: Roasted most of the meal so it was fairly simple.  Not to mention grabbed a handful of spinach.  

Satiety: The portion size was good and I would imagine it will fill me a good while.  I am not sure anything but the protein will sustain me until morning.   

Serving Size: I grabbed two decent handfuls of spinach and added as much of the rest that I wanted.  

Flavor:  I enjoyed the roasted fennel.  It was like eating a roasted onion, smooth and a wee bit sweet.  Everything was fine, I am not sure I feel like the combination was great.  The meal was certainly missing something.  As far as a recommendation, this would not be on my list of recommendations simply because I feel like it was plain.  I feel there could have been a better execution of all of these flavors combined and still provide for a clean meal.  

Best meal of the day by far was breakfast.  Tomorrow is another good day so let's get some sleep and dream of growing our own spinach and fennel plants.