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6 Flavorful Salads with Dried Fruit

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Affiliate Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, I may earn commissions from qualifying purchases from Amazon.com. 

I love a hearty salad and especially appreciate the Panera Bread salads. But at $11 per salad, dining there can get costly! My go-to order at Panera is the Fuji Apple Salad with Chicken. So, to make it myself, I decided to dehydrate apples and create a copycat version. As a bonus, I’m including a round-up of heart-healthy salads from several food blogging friends.

These scrumptious recipes can be made during their week to tote to work for lunch as a lighter dinner option. Enjoy!

Gala Apple Salad with Rotisserie Chicken, Goat Cheese, and Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing

Made with mixed greens and tossed in balsamic vinaigrette, this salad combines tangy and sweet flavors. My salad recipe is made with dried apples, freshly shredded rotisserie chicken (buy one at the store!), tomatoes, goat cheese crumbles, red onion slices, and almond slices. I also love adding dried cranberries or golden raisins when I want more fruit flavor.

Preparing this salad is as simple as coating a large bowl with your desired amount of homemade balsamic vinaigrette (recipe below), adding the salad ingredients, and using tongs to toss the salad mixture until evenly coated with dressing. I think you’re going to love it.

You will need Agave Nectar (or honey) for this dressing recipe.

Gala Apple Salad with Rotisserie Chicken, Goat Cheese, and Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing

About 1 cup

Balsamic Vinaigrette

This tangy yet slightly sweet vinaigrette can be used as a dressing over almost any salad.

10 minPrep Time

10 minTotal Time

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Ingredients

  • 2 T. Agave Nectar Light
  • 1 T. Dijon Mustard
  • 1/2 tsp. sea salt
  • 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
  • 1/4 balsamic vinegar
  • 1/2 c. olive oil
  • 1 finely diced garlic clove

Instructions

  1. Whisk all of the ingredients together in a bowl.
  2. (You can also add all of the ingredients to a mason jar, add lid, and shake vigorously until well mixed.)
  3. Serve immediately.
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93
https://onedelightfullife.com/salads-with-dried-fruit/

Nutrition

Calories

1863 cal

Fat

148 g

Carbs

82 g

Protein

85 g
Click Here For Full Nutrition, Exchanges, and My Plate Info

Farro Spinach Salad with Dried Fruit and Nuts

Yay! For Food’s salad is described as a sweet and savory vegan salad featuring the healthy whole grain: farro! Marie’s Farro Spinach Salad with Dried Fruit and Nuts recipe brings all the flavor and is nutritious. Farro, a grain that is nutty in flavor but a bit sweet, is high in fiber and a good source of protein and iron. Like rice, it is sold dried and prepared in water until it softens.

Recipe: YayForFood.com

Moroccan Couscous Salad

Contributing food blogger Marlee from ijustmakesandwiches.com, says her Moroccan Couscous Salad is made with dried fruit such as apricots and raisins tossed with a lemon vinaigrette. She suggests serving this cold couscous salad with roasted chicken or salmon. The Mediterranean couscous adds texture to this highly flavorful salad!

Recipe: I Just Make Sandwiches

Apple Fig Walnut Rocket Salad

This recipe is a winner! It combines some of my favorite flavors, including fresh figs. Rhian of hintohealthy.com made it using “crunchy apples, jammy dried figs, earthy walnuts, and peppery rocket (arugula) coated in a garlicky pesto dressing!” Learn how to make this gluten-free, vegan Apple Fig Walnut Rocket Salad for your next brunch or lunch with friends.

Recipe: Rhian’s Recipes

Kale Salad with Apples and Cranberries + Tahini Dressing

The best part of making a salad is that it is versatile. This hearty kale salad made with tahini dressing gets its texture from the leafy bits of kale, pumpkin seeds, chunks of apples, and dried cranberries. All you have to do is combine the ingredients in a bowl and toss it with the dressing! Not a fan of Tahini? You could serve Hint of Healthy’s Kale Salad with Apples and Cranberries with a vinaigrette dressing as well.

Recipe: Hint of Healthy

Roasted Butternut Squash Quinoa Salad

A perfect salad to make during the fall, Cooking Carnival’s Roasted Butternut Squash Quinoa Salad combines the rich flavors of chopped kale, onion, butternut squash, quinoa, pecans, cranberries, and balsamic vinaigrette. I could see making this healthy salad as my entire dinner.

Recipe: Cooking Carnival

Love what you see here and want yet another salad option? If you’re hunting for a mostly fruit salad layered on a bed of fresh greens, you’ll adore my Spinach Fruit Salad with Raspberry Vinaigrette.

I’m always eager to add another fresh salad to my line-up of weeknight stars, so be sure to add your recipe idea to the comments below!

 

Keto Dinner Recipes That You Can Make in 30 Minutes or Less

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After months of yo-yo eating (we eat what we want when we want only to regret it later and try to eat healthily), we’ve committed to living a Keto lifestyle. If you’re reading this post, you’re either already eating a low-carb diet or would like to make healthier eating decisions.

In my opinion, Keto* is not a diet, it’s a lifestyle. So, our household has decided to get back on the eat-healthier bandwagon and adopt a new standard of better eating. I’m glad we did! Eating better just makes me feel better.

Like me, I’m sure you are strapped for time after getting home to prepare dinner. So, this post includes several dinner recipes that are low-carb and high on flavor that can be made in 30 minutes or less. Thanks to some wonderful fellow bloggers, I’ve created the ultimate line-up of dishes!

My version of Hibachi Steak Lettuce Wraps includes using soft ribeye steak cut into small chunks, then marinated in a soy sauce and canola oil marinade, and later cooked to perfection over medium heat. I prefer to cook my steak to medium-rare or medium. Spooned over romaine or green leaf lettuce, the steak wraps are delicious when combined with shredded carrot, red cabbage, and optional yum yum sauce.

If you’re someone who loves chicken, you’ll love indulging in Low Carb Spark’s Chicken Marsala recipe! If you’d rather swap out the wine for a substitute ingredient, there are smart options provided as well. The pan-seared chicken is smothered in a rich marsala wine mushroom sauce to create a scrumptious, easy weeknight dinner. The best part of this dish is that it is decadent in taste but low in carbs!

Looking for a dinner entree with a kick of spicy heat? Consider preparing Whip & Wander’s Cuban Picadillo, an entree with flavors of Latin American cuisine. The dish is a combination of ground turkey meat, tomatoes, olives, green onions, spices, and plenty of chili peppers, and it goes great when served on a bed of low-carb cauliflower rice.

Sometimes I think I could eat salad for lunch and dinner daily. I love a hearty salad made with ingredients that bring a flavor punch! If you love an Asian salad, then you’ll appreciate Drive Me Hungry’s Healthy Chinese Chicken Salad made with healthy ingredients. Because Jamie doesn’t include fried wonton strips or rice noodles in her recipe, the salad is low-carb. Making it is as easy as assembling the fresh ingredients in a bowl and preparing a shaker dressing made with soy sauce to pour over the salad!

One of my go-to meals almost once a week is preparing a seafood dish because it’s incredibly healthy and can be made in less than 30 minutes. That why I love the idea of Savory Tooth’s Keto Salmon Patties made by creating a salmon mixture, forming it into patties, and then pan-searing until they are crusty on the outside and tender on the inside. Julia also includes a dill-garlic dip to use for dipping (or smothering!) on the crispy salmon patties — the ultimate flavor bomb!

These Keto-inspired recipes are just the line-up you need to create delicious low-carb recipes for the work week. As long as you have the ingredients on hand and prep your workstation in advance, you will be able to get these meals on the table in 30 minutes or less!

Want a refreshing yet healthy drink to add to your meal? Try my Cucumber Mint Detox Water! Or perhaps you’re craving dessert after dinner? Give my Mixed Berry Popsicles with Coconut Water a try, a healthy alternative to ice cream.

I’d love to hear what you think of these recipes in the comment section below. Share your thoughts!

*Be sure to research the Keto diet and ask your doctor if it is right for you.

 

Soft Carrot Cake Energy Balls

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Soft carrot cake with cream cheese icing. For over a decade of my childhood, I ordered carrot cake for my birthday cake when dining out OR when my mom asked what kind of celebratory dessert I wanted. Every. Single. Year. Today, I eat fewer heavy desserts like dense cakes or cookies, but I still love sweets and I know you do, too!

My Soft Carrot Cake Energy Balls are delicious and filling enough as a breakfast bite or snack that you won’t be hangry by meal time. The recipe’s mixture consists of nature’s best ingredients including dates, raisins, chia seeds, and say it with me…carrots! Admittedly, I use peanut butter as the binder so if you’re someone with a peanut allergy, this is not your recipe.

This is the right consistency for the mixture to form into balls.

Did you know carrots are a power food packed with nutrients and vitamins essential to our body’s good health? We all know that eating carrots improves one’s vision, but they also slow the aging process. Yes, please! (And there are 8 more reasons to eat them!) I know you’re going to love how simple it is to make this recipe and the clean-up couldn’t be easier.

You may also like my recipe for No Bake Energy Bites made with chocolate chips and dried fruit! That recipe also includes chia seeds since they help keep hunger at bay and are super healthy as well.

Ingredients

  • 1 c. rolled oats
  • 3/4 c. shredded carrot
  • 1 c. smooth peanut butter
  • 1/2 c. diced dates
  • 1/4 c. raisins
  • 1/2 tsp. chia seeds
  • heavy pinch sea salt

Instructions

  1. Add all ingredients to a food processor and pulse until completely combined.
  2. Test the mixture to see if it binds to make a ball. If it isn't quite ready, just add more peanut butter.
  3. Remove the blade from the food processor.
  4. Using your hands, roll the mixture into tight balls about the size of a quarter.
  5. Transfer the carrot cake balls to a Ziplock bag or storage container and refrigerate until you'r ready to eat them. They last a couple weeks, if refrigerated.

Notes

Some people enjoy this recipe with shredded coconut added.

Tags

Allergy
dairy free
egg free
seafood free

7.8.1.2
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https://onedelightfullife.com/soft-carrot-cake-energy-balls/

Nutrition

Calories

2303 cal

Fat

135 g

Carbs

181 g

Protein

86 g

Click Here For Full Nutrition, Exchanges, and My Plate Info

No Bake Energy Bites: A Mid-Day Snack to Keep You From Feeling Hangry

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Hangry – The word ‘hangry’ is a concise way to describe a common feeling. Hangry is a clever word combination of hungry and angry, and an adjective that describes being irritable due to hunger, according to Webster’s Dictionary.

Anyone who works with me knows that I keep snacks in my drawer (fruit roll-ups, whole fruit, or granola bars) so that in the event I begin to feel hangry, I’ve got relief nearby. Sometimes I can feel myself getting hangry mid-morning and nobody wants me to get hangry. Nobody. So, I grab a healthy snack.

Inspired by our healthier “lifestyle” (we’re not calling it a diet), I was inspired to make No Bake Energy Bites: A Mid-Day Snack to Keep You From Feeling Hangry. They taste like no bake cookies and curb your hunger thanks to the addition of oatmeal and chia seeds, a popular ingredient in smoothies and granola bowls. Chia seeds are a trending super food high in nutrients that provides boost of energy. You can purchase them in bulk at any health food store. Because they expand a bit when wet, they make you feel full! Oh, and total bonus…chia seeds are suppose to promote healthy skin and reduce the signs of aging. Well, duh! I think I’ll add them to every early morning breakfast.

These No Bake Energy Bites taste like a cookie but they’re healthy for you. This recipe included cocoa, chocolate chips, peanut butter, almonds, vanilla and honey add-ins. See the recipe card below.

Using quick oats as the base, the mix-in ingredient options are about as endless as your imagination. For example, you can make ingredient substitutions or try these flavor combinations:

  • butterscotch chips for chocolate chips
  • chopped dried bananas, bacon bits, and peanut butter
  • dried apple chips with raisins and cinnamon
  • sunflower seeds instead of peanuts or almonds
  • Nutella and dried berries like cherries or blueberries
  • crushed honey oat cereal and peanut butter
  • cranberries, raisins, and toasted coconut with Nutella (see photos below)

Making No Bake Energy Bites is as easy as combining all of the recipe ingredients in a bowl, mixing them (your hands are a great kitchen tool but beware – the added honey will leave your hands sticky), and rolling them into one inch balls after the mixture refrigerates for 30 minutes. It’s a cinch!

This recipe version of No Bake Energy Bites includes cranberries, chopped peanuts, chia seeds, toasted coconut, raisins, Nutella, honey, vanilla, and oatmeal.

Work together all of the ingredients by pressing your spoon into the walls of the bowl and then finish mixing.

If you initially have a hard time rolling the mixture into balls, squeeze it in your hand until the mixture is tight and then use both hands to form a one-inch ball. Tip: Layer parchment paper (or wax paper) between the layers of energy balls in an airtight container before you store them in the refrigerator for at least two hours. I’m impatient and put my Tupperware container of energy bites in the freezer for one hour. A-c-t-u-a-l-l-y, I must admit that I ate one before the rest even made it into the refrigerator. They’re simply delicious!

Cranberry Raisin with Nutella No Bake Energy Bites

There you have it! No Bake Energy Bites are healthy for you and will save you from hunger pains at work so you don’t “bite” your co-worker’s head off. Yes, I went there (insert eye roll). Grab some oatmeal and your favorite mix-in ingredients and get started making tomorrow’s mid-day snack (or breakfast)!

Ingredients

  • 1 c. quick oats
  • 1/2 c. natural peanut butter
  • 1/3 c. honey
  • 1/4 c. cocoa
  • 2 T. chopped almonds
  • 2 T. milk chocolate chips
  • 1 T. chia seeds
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

  1. In a large bowl, mix all ingredients with a spoon.
  2. Refrigerate mixture in the bowl for 30 minutes.
  3. Remove bowl from the refrigerator and shape it into one-inch balls.
  4. Place energy bites into a airtight container. Separate layers with wax paper or parchment paper.
  5. Refrigerate at least an hour before serving.
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https://onedelightfullife.com/no-bake-energy-bites-a-mid-day-snack-to-keep-you-from-feeling-hangry/

Nutrition

Calories

98 cal

Fat

3 g

Carbs

16 g

Protein

3 g

Click Here For Full Nutrition, Exchanges, and My Plate Info

Enjoy friends.

Refrigerator Overhaul: How to reduce food waste and slim your waist

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Sometimes we have to admit that things have gotten away from us.

This week I had one of those moments when I opened the refrigerator only to find teetering takeout boxes and a lack of vegetables. I know you’ve experienced this moments at least once too.

So, how do we cut down on our refrigerator waste while trying to slim our waist? If you’re like me, sometimes you buy healthy food but don’t prep it for the week and end up tossing it later. Perhaps you don’t even know what’s in your refrigerator right now.

Reducing food waste and restocking it with healthy food starts with a total refrigerator overhaul. Follow these six steps:

  1. Toss food. You work hard for your money, which everyone can respect. But the food you buy just sits in the refrigerator and doesn’t get eaten. That’s a waste of your money. Example: Look at all those condiments! How many times a year are you going to actually use three kinds of horseradish? If it is expired or not something you’ll ever use, admit it and pitch it.
  2. Clean it. Remove all items from the refrigerator from every bin and door compartment. Use a warm sudsy sponge to remove grime. For those difficult to remove stains or bits, I spray diluted Simple Green and they scrub away with little effort.
  3. Check your thermostat settings for your refrigerator spaces. Make sure they are set to temperature for the items they house.
  4. Return items to the refrigerator by category and face them (labels towards the front.) Have a hankering for pickles? Store them on the door near the ketchup and mustard. Like items should be placed with like items. Place taller items towards the back.
  5. Visit the produce section of your local organic grocery store. Recently, I bolted to our city’s new Sprouts Farmers Market and came home with bags filled to the brim with berries to leafy greens. As you know from earlier an earlier post, I’m quite the hunter when it comes to tracking down low-cost produce and clearance grocery finds.
  6. Clean and store your prepped veggies in transparent containers with secure lids. Lettuce should be washed and completely dried before storing it in new Ziplock bags. The only way you’re going to actually make time for smoothies before work is if you clean and dice all your newly purchased fruit!

Open bags and packaging, rinse with water, and allow them to completely dry before placing vegetables in new see-through containers. Place grab and go items at eye-level.

Admitting that you’ve fell off the “healthy diet” wagon isn’t easy but the shame doesn’t last long if you own it. If you admit that you live a rushed lifestyle and that the only way for you to eat healthy on a regular basis is to have grab and go produce or meal prepped food, then make sure your refrigerator (and pantry) contain those items. Taking a couple hours each weekend to prep your refrigerator for the week, will pay off.

I’ve included two produce driven recipes that are easy to pack for lunch or prep for breakfast. Try this fruit-filled spinach salad or one of five smoothie recipes!

If I can do it, you can too. Walk over to your refrigerator, open the door, and be honest. You got this!

Let me know your tips for overhauling the lazy eater’s syndrome and getting healthy in comments section below. I’d love to hear from you.

*While Sprouts Farmers Market did recently like this Instagram photo, they are not an affiliate.

Crunchy Asian Turkey Lettuce Wraps

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Maybe the reason I decided to eat healthy for dinner was because I cancelled my YMCA membership this week. If I’m going to be lazy, I better eat low-fat dishes.

My Crunchy Asian Turkey Lettuce Wraps are my first step to reprogramming my mind to eat healthier and get back into shape, even if that’s not in front of strangers at a high-priced sweaty gym. Maybe you feel the same sometimes?

Full of sweet but tangy flavor, these delicious lettuce wraps remind me that eating healthy is not only easy to prepare but pretty tasty too.

The key to keeping these lettuce wraps on the lighter side is to use ground lean 93/7 turkey meat as the base with fresh broccoli slaw and bib lettuce. The crunch comes from added fried wonton strips (optional) and the slaw, which nicely balances the soft meat mixture and bib lettuce exterior. I don’t add extra sugary or salty sauces on top leaving the wraps on the lighter side. There is enough flavor from the marinade ingredients. While these wraps can be served for a lighter-fare dinner entree, they could also be served for lunch.

crunchy-asian-turkey-lettuce-wraps

If you want to add heat to the meat mixture, you could add Sriracha or a pinch of red pepper flakes to the marinade. This colorful entree looks bright and appetizing when plated on white or dark contrasting plates. If you have leftovers, you can deconstruct the lettuce and create a bowl of “salad” out of the ingredients too.

My Instagram post of this recipe was quite popular yielding more likes than any of the 130 posts yet. Follow One Delightful Life on Instagram!

Signature ODL 170x70px

Ingredients

  • Bib lettuce
  • 1 lb. 93/7 lean ground turkey cooked until its browned
  • Marinade:
  • 1/3 c. hoisin
  • 3 T Thai chile sauce
  • 1 T sesame oil
  • 1 T soy sauce
  • 1 T rice wine vinegar
  • 2 cloves minced garlic
  • 2 chopped green onions
  • salt and pepper
  • Toppings:
  • broccoli slaw (purchased prepared in a bag-add as much as you like)
  • sesame seeds to garnish
  • wonton strips (buy in a package in the produce department)

Instructions

  1. Mix marinade ingredients in a small bowl and set aside
  2. Cook 1 lb. 93/7 ground turkey until its browned
  3. Add marinade to ground turkey, mix well, and simmer on low until fully heated.
  4. Spoon turkey marinade mixture into individual bib lettuce leaves.
  5. Top with broccoli slaw, sesame seeds, and wonton strips.
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https://onedelightfullife.com/crunchy-asian-turkey-lettuce-wraps/

Nutrition

Calories

131 cal

Fat

2 g

Carbs

24 g

Protein

3 g

Click Here For Full Nutrition, Exchanges, and My Plate Info