Spring Fresh Salads

Last week I went grocery shopping for the first time in quite a while, and went a little nuts in the produce aisle. I was so excited to see all those gorgeous fruits and vegetables that seem to disappear during the winter time here in the tundra! I guess I should clarify...I tend to shop at Aldi because they are so much cheaper than nearly every other grocery store, even dare I say, Walmart. Nevertheless, Aldi has a lot of good quality food.  You may not be able to find everything there (aka the out of season produce during the winter), however you can stock up on the basics and save a lot of money.  Now, back to what I was originally getting to...fruits and vegetables galore!   I ended up coming home with all sorts of goodies, and with some of it, I made two different salads that could be enjoyed during the spring and summer...Mango Chicken Pasta Salad and Zesty Rainbow Rice.  I wanted to test the recipes before I suggested using them for a cooking demo I will be doing in July with Anne, one of the RD's I'm working with this summer.  They were both delicious, but I ended up just picking one, as we will only have a short amount of time for the demo.

The Mango Chicken Pasta Salad is kind of a catch-all type of salad, and I ended up eating it for a few days in a row as a meal 1) because it made waaaaay more than I expected and 2) it was just so good!  It has something from every food group: whole grains (pasta), fruit (fresh mango!), vegetables (fresh spinach, carrots, red pepper, orange pepper, yellow pepper, tomato, red onion, cucumber, you name it!), lean meat (white meat chicken), nuts (almonds and sunflower seeds)....the only thing it is missing is dairy, but a little bit of feta or mozzarella could fix that!

Despite having a long list of ingredients, everything works so well together in this salad.  What brings it all together is the dressing!  I will admit, I used a store bought dressing, which are notoriously high in sodium content, however for the size of the salad compared to the amount of dressing you use, it turns out to be a surprisingly reasonable amount of sodium.  I used about 3/4 cup of Kraft's Zesty Lime Vinaigrette, and it was so tasty! I got to thinking that I should try to make up my own vinaigrette, just to see how easy it is....well let me tell you, I was wrong! Haha.  Don't get me wrong, there isn't much to making a vinaigrette, as long as you have the right recipe.   Trying to make one up from scratch when you have no experience in it at all?? Well, that's a different story.  After a few scratched batches, I finally came up with something I liked, and that was the Honey Lime Vinaigrette.  It's super simple and definitely a sweet and tangy dressing, so I thought it would work well with this salad.  In fact, both recipes today use FRESH lime juice! :) nom nom...there's just a soft spot in my heart for limes compared to lemons...but shh! don't tell the lemons I said so.

To get the recipe and nutrition facts for the Mango Chicken Pasta Salad and vinaigrette, click HERE.

The Zesty Rainbow Rice I made the following day, and this one has much more of a southwest flavor, rather than that of the sweeter flavor of the pasta salad.  It also has a lot of vegetables in it, with long grain brown rice providing a nice alternate grain, and a zesty lime and cumin dressing.

What I also loooove about this one is the freshly chopped cilantro and parsley!  They add so much more flavor than their dried counterparts.  For the full recipe and nutrition facts, click HERE.

The song I'm sharing today is also from a newer group that I have been obsessed with lately, Imagine Dragons (which I will be going to see at Summerfest in Milwaukee in the end of June with by boyfriend, Nick!!! Can you tell I'm excited?!!).  And because of recent events, I know exactly which song to pick. :)  Here is "On Top of the World" by Imagine Dragons.

Thanks for stopping by!