Simply Norma

My husband likes to have chicken salad for his lunch so I try to find different recipes on the internet to make for him. This is one I made that he liked. Yippee!

The recipe uses an avocado but I didn’t add that to the salad when I first made it. Instead, he took an avocado with him and had it “fresh.”

This Chicken Salad with Grapes, Apples and Cranberries is very easy to make. Easy is always good. I love easy!

We buy frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts at Costco in a large bag. It works beautifully for these lunch salads.

Not too many ingredients …

Ready to try it? Here ya go!

Ingredients

• 1 lb chicken breast (cut in half), thaw if frozen
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1 cup celery, chopped
• 3/4 cup green grapes, halved
• 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
• 1 avocado, peeled, pitted and diced
• 1 apple, peeled cored and chopped
• 1 cup Paleo mayonnaise
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1. Boil water in a medium sized pot that will hold your chicken pieces then bring to a simmer.
2. Add the chicken and cook for approximately 10 minutes. Use a thermometer to check the temperature of the chicken so it’s not overcooked.
3. While waiting for the chicken to cook, get a large bowl and add the cranberries, celery, grapes, walnuts and the apple. Give it a good toss to combine it all.
4. In a separate small bowl, combine the mayonnaise with the lemon juice then season to taste with salt and pepper. Set this aside.
5. Once the chicken is cooked, pour out the water and allow the chicken to sit until it’s cool then shred it with your hands or (as I did) dice it in bite size pieces.
6. Add the chicken to the cranberry mixture.
7.  Pour the dressing into the large bowl with the chicken, fruits and vegetables and combine everything well so that all the ingredients are coated with the dressing.
8. Eat right away or refrigerate for a great lunch salad.

Enjoy! Enjoy!

Ready for a new paleo salad recipe? I probably won’t make this one too often but not because it wasn’t good. It’s the pomegranates. They are expensive. I bought a container with the seeds in them instead of buying an actual pomegranate and fighting with it to get the seeds out.

The first time I saw a pomegranate my friend was sitting with it in her hands, peeling it and removing the seeds — one by one. It didn’t look like much fun.

This salad is worth making though. I know a lot of people have Sunday family dinners and this would be great for such an occasion.

The dressing was a little too balsamic-y for me but I followed my usual pattern of serving it on the side so I was able to manage how strong it was in the salad.

Here’s the recipe for you to try. Let me know if you “play” with the dressing.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1/8 teaspoon ground pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon sea salt
• 4 cups trimmed baby arugula
• 4 cups baby spinach
• 1/4 cup pomegranate seeds
• 1/4 cup fresh blueberries
• 1/4 cup toasted slivered almonds

Directions

1. Bring the vinegar to a slow boil over medium-high heat.
2. Reduce heat and simmer for 2 minutes. The vinegar will start to resemble a syrup.
3. Remove the pan from the heat and add the honey.
4. Set aside while you assemble the salad.
5. Toss the arugula and spinach with olive oil, salt, and pepper.
6. Add the pomegranate seeds, blueberries, almonds and balsamic reduction.
7. Serve immediately.

See how simple that was? It’s a pretty salad too!

Special thanks to Against All Grain for this recipe.

This Sweet Carrot Paleo Salad is great as a side dish and/or can be used during Thanksgiving or another holiday because it has a nice sweetness to it.

Just a few ingredients are needed and the directions are simply easy.

Ingredients

• 1 pound carrots, grated
• 1 cup crushed pineapple (or use pineapple tidbits and cut them up or leave them as is)
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 tablespoons paleo mayonnaise
• Dash lemon juice

Directions

1. In a large bowl, mix together the carrots, pineapple and raisins.
2. Stir in the honey, mayonnaise and lemon juice until everything is evenly coated.
3. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving to let the flavors blend together.

That’s it!  Very easy to make and most people have the ingredients in their cupboards.

Oh — one quick comment. This recipe doesn’t do very well after the second day in the refrigerator. It’s “okay” but doesn’t taste as great so I’d recommend you eat it fresh.

This recipe was revamped just a tad, i.e. I didn’t add the blueberries or vanilla bean. For the blueberries, I substituted dried figs. It came out tasting just great! Feel free to substitute your own nuts and/or dried fruit. Using the “base” is what makes this recipe tastes delicious. I’ve eaten it for breakfast and also for snacking.

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons coconut oil
• 2 cups sliced almonds
• 1/2 cup raw pecans, chopped
• 1/4 cup raw walnuts
• 1/4 cup raw pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
• 3/4 cup natural coconut, shredded
• 1/4 cup natural coconut, finely shredded (optional)
• 1/4 cup raw honey
• pinch sea salt
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• 1 cup dried blueberries (I substituted dried figs)
• 1 vanilla bean, seeded (I substituted one teaspoon of vanilla for this)
• 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Directions

1. Melt the coconut oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
2. Add the almonds, pecans, walnuts, pepitas, and coconut to the skillet.
3. Drizzle this with the raw honey.
4. Cook over medium heat until the honey and oil cling to the nuts and begins to “boil”.
5. Add the remaining spices and fruit(s) to the skillet.
6. Stir to coat everything together.
7. Pour everything onto a large piece of parchment paper and allow the granola to  air dry and cool for up to an hour.
8. Transfer the granola to an airtight container.

And the final product …. delicious!

Special thanks to Cheeky Kitchen for this recipe.

If you’re not a lover of pomegranate, don’t let the name of this recipe deter you from trying it — Pomegranate Chicken. The chicken was quite tasteful and didn’t really have much of a pomegranate-y type taste. Don’t get me wrong — it did have some pomegranate flavor.

Normally unsweetened pomegranate juice tastes quite bitter, no? But you’ll be pleasantly surprised with this recipe.

There aren’t too many ingredients for this recipe BUT the POM juice is a tad expensive.

The chicken will be grilled on a skillet on your stovetop. At the last minute, I added some raisins to the sauce since I thought it might come out too bitter (I had no need to worry though).

Ready to try another easy and tasty recipe? Here ya go!

Ingredients

• chicken breasts (I used four of them)
• pomegranate juice (POM Wonderful is what I used)
• garlic, minced
• olive oil
• Raisins (optional)

Directions

1. Heat a bit of olive oil in the pan on medium low and add the chicken breasts.
2. Sprinkle the garlic on the chicken and then pour the pomegranate juice over it until it reaches about halfway up the chicken.
3. Bring the pomegranate juice to a boil then turn down to a simmer.
4. Turn the chicken over every few minutes until it’s cooked through.
5. Continue to simmer the mixture until the pomegranate juice reduces to a thick sauce and the chicken is cooked through.
6. The juice should become a fruity glaze.

Here’s the final product. I served mine with a Shirazi Salad which was a good pairing for it.

Enjoy!

On the paleo diet, we don’t use sugar and most recipes that call for candied nuts have sugar in them.

However, I’ve found a workaround by replacing sugar with 2 tablespoons of maple syrup. It works just as well.

You simply add the syrup to a skillet, add your nuts and stir until the syrup is incorporated into the nuts.

Then, remove the nuts from the skillet, place them onto a large piece of parchment paper and allow them to cool.

Once cool, you can break the nuts up into smaller pieces.

Pretty cool, eh? A healthier option but they are addicting so I try not to have them too often although I love candied nuts in salads.