Everyone will be dazzled by this beautiful, bursting with color, full flavored salad.  We’re starting with a bed of spring mix, adding an array of antioxidant rich berries, beets, grilled chicken and topping with crumbled blue cheese and walnuts.  It really is one of our all time favorite salads this time of year.  The crowning glory is our Skinny Raspberry Ranch Dressing.  Nordstrom’s Café makes a very popular Mixed Berry and Chicken Salad.  Their salad has 540 calories and 32 grams of fat, not including the dressing.  The skinny on our salad, including dressing, is 333 calories and 13 grams of fat. What a savings and one serving of our salad is very large.

Prep Time: 20 minutes including the dressing

Ingredients

1 recipe for Skinny Raspberry Ranch Dressing, recipe follows or see substitution tip for store bought options

1 bag (9oz) Spring Mix lettuce, about 8 cups

1 (12oz) package of grilled chicken breasts, (about 3 cups chopped), see shopping tip below

2 cups fresh strawberries, sliced

1 cup fresh blueberries

1 cup sliced steamed and peeled baby beets or 3 beets, see shopping tip below

½ cup red onions, chopped

6 tablespoons blue cheese or fat-free feta cheese, crumbled

¼ cup chopped walnuts or almonds

Instructions

1. Prepare Skinny Raspberry Ranch Dressing and refrigerate until ready to use.

2. Line each dinner plate with 2 cups spring mix.  Divide and sprinkle each salad with about ¾ cup chicken.  Place ½ cup of strawberries over each and ¼ cup of blueberries.

3. Lay ¼ cup of sliced beets around the salad along with a small amount of chopped onions.

4. Top each salad with 1½ tablespoons crumbled blue cheese and 1 tablespoon walnuts.  At this point the salad can be covered and stored in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

5. Before serving, drizzle 2 tablespoons of dressing over each salad.

Makes 4 main course salads

Skinny Raspberry Ranch Dressing

Ingredients

½ cup raspberries, fresh or frozen

½ cup Nancy’s Skinny Ranch Dressing

2 tablespoons raspberry vinegar

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon sugar

Instructions

1. Wash and drain berries, if fresh, or thaw if frozen.

2. In a small bowl, add the raspberries and smash with a fork until pureed.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together the raspberries, Nancy’s Skinny Ranch Dressing, vinegar and sugar

4. Raspberry Vinaigrette will keep for up to 5 days in an airtight container in the fridge.

Makes 1 cup

Healthy Benefits

Raspberries are an excellent source of folate, B vitamins, vitamin C and iron.  They’re also a terrific source of fiber.

Strawberries are super low in calories, sodium and are loaded with vitamin C and fiber.

Blueberries are loaded with antioxidants and rank among the highest on a per servings basis. They’re an excellent source of vitamins C, K, fiber and manganese.

Walnuts are an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids.  They’re an excellent plant source of protein and are rich in fiber, B vitamins, magnesium and antioxidants like vitamin E.

Substitution Tip

If you don’t want to make our raspberry ranch you can use a store-bought dressing.  One of our favorites is Ken’s Steak House Lite Raspberry and Walnut Vinaigrette.  It’s really good.  Wishbone’s Lite Raspberry Vinaigrette is also tasty.  Or, Trader Joe’s sells a Raspberry and Walnut Vinaigrette that’s delicious

Shopping Tip

We used a (12 oz) package of Grilled Balsamic Vinegar & Rosemary Chicken sold at Trader Joe’s.  It’s really lean and great tasting.  They also sell packages of just grilled chicken or use any cooked chicken breasts.

Trader Joe’s and most large supermarkets sell packages of steamed and peeled baby beets.  Take them out of the package, rinse in water, then slice.  You’ll use 3 beets for this recipe.  If you can’t find them, use a can of peeled and sliced beets.  Rinse them before adding to the salad.

NOTE: If you’re looking to cut down on the calories and fat use fat-free feta cheese and leave off the walnuts.
Then the  Skinny Facts are:
279 calories, 7g fat, 27g protein, 31g carbs, 8g fiber, 220mg sodium, 19g sugar

Weight Watchers POINTS PLUS 7- if using fat fee feta cheese and leaving out the walnuts

Weight Watchers POINTS PLUS 9

This entry was posted Thursday, June 2nd, 2011 at 6:47 am and is filed under Recent, Recipes. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.