Chicken, Mandarin Orange and Spinach Green Salad
This recipe takes 45 minutes to prepare in addition to any cooking time necessary for your choice of chicken. Makes 4 Servings
Dressing:
4 Tbsp. orange juice
4 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp. sesame oil
1 tsp. spicy chili oil to your taste (or an additional tsp. of sesame oil, either is optional)
1 Tbsp. minced green onion (about two green onions)
Juice retained from the mandarin oranges used in the salad
Salt and pepper to taste if the chicken is not seasoned.
Salad:
4 cups fresh spinach leaves, washed and picked over
2 cups cooked chicken, cut into strips
1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
4 Tbsp. chopped ren onion
4 Tbsp. chopped sweet red bell pepper
1 8-oz can mandarin oranges packed in jucie, drained (retain the juice for use in the salad dressing)
To prepare dressing:
Combine all of the ingredients in a blender or food processor; blend.
To prepare salad:
Pour 3/4 of the dressing into a salad bowl and toss with clean spinach leaves. Divided the dressed spinach among 4 plates. Arrange the cooked chicked strips on top. Then divide the mushrooms, onion, peppers, and mandarin oranges equally on top of the chicken.
Drizzle the remainder of the reserved dressing onto each serving; serve chilled.
Nutrition Facts:
Serving size - 1/4 of recipe with dressing (not including optional ingredients)
Lean Meat Exchanges: 3
Vegetable Exchanges: 1
Fruit Exchanges: 0.5
Amount per serving:
Calories - 220
Calories from fat - 80
Total fat - 9 grams
Saturated fat - 2 grams
Cholesterol - 62 milligrams
Sodium - 88 milligrams (without added salt)
Total Carbohydrate - 13 grams
Dietary Fiber - 2 grams
Sugars - 9 grams
Protein - 22 grams