Ohhh Yes It Happened....

He did it.... he ate something green mixed with something purple, orange, red, white/yellow, brown, and more. The Answer: Michael eating a salad. I know not exciting news to most but ya'll for my husband to put GREEN vegetables, let alone lettuce in his mouth and enjoy it...stop the press!!

When we were in Orlando in May we went to lunch at a place called Houston's. Well they had a really good salad, The Chicken Waldorf Salad, well their version anyone. As most of you know Chicken Waldorf is normally mixed with mayo or I've seen some recipes mix it up with yogurt but either way there is a creamy base to it and he does not, I repeat does not like mayo. So Houston's version of the Waldorf was better because it was basically just all the ingredients mixed on top of a bed of spinach lettuce in their raw natural form (well the chicken was cooked of course). So the other day we went to the store and he asked if we could make the salad again. When he asked I knew it was his voice but I had to look around to make sure it was his body standing near me asking that question. I wasn't sure if I should take his temperature or mine.

I must say he picked out most of what went into this salad since this his request. He was like a little kid in a candy store picking out ingredients for the salad, some that were part of the Houston's salad and some that weren't. But either way it was quite a site watching him walk through the produce section of Publix finding ingredients.

He works late on Monday's so I wanted to surprise him with 'his' salad for dinner. I would have taken a picture of the final product but by the time I realized I wanted to write about this momentous occasion both our salads were half eaten....and pictures of a half eaten salad aren't that pretty. Nor was the food on our faces as we shoveled it in. But moving on.... If you'll allow me, I'd like to pause for a moment to reflect on how goooood it was....(pausing for a moment to remember the Savery Waldorf Salad)

Okay here goes nothing...

The List

• Spinach lettuce
• 1 bag of Sargento Salad Finishers with blue cheese crumbles, cranberries, and candied almonds
• 1/2 Fuji Apple (cut julienne style, Danette this means cut into strips...haha)
• Match Stick Carrots
• Purple Cabbage (finely chopped)
• Hard Boiled Eggs (1 per person)
• Bacon (cooked crispy but not burnt)
• Red pepper (chopped into small bites)
• Shredded Colby Jack cheese
• Marie Callender Whole Grain Croutons (if you haven't had these yet you are missing out. they are way better than the normal croutons)
• And of course Chicken

I cooked the chicken as follows:

• First, heat up the oil and then add 2 cloves of garlic and let cook for a few minutes
• Add chicken (which I had cut into strips)
• Kosher Salt, Lawry's Seasoning, Pepper (I'm sure any seasoning you select is fine, this is just what I picked)
• Once the chicken is cooked, I added maybe 1/4 teaspoon, could have been less because I only lightly and sparingly drizzled Red Wine Vinegar over the finished chicken (while it was still in the pan). It just gave it a slight tangy flavor but it was good.

Now serve with dressing of choice, he had Blue Cheese and I naturally had Ranch. I will admit I ate this salad again the next day for lunch and this time had Honey Mustard and it was a toss up for me as to which one tasted better.

The even cuter part to this and then I'll let you go, that's if anyone has made it this far in reading, was after he finished eating he got a piece of paper and pen and started writing down the ingredients so we wouldn't forget because he wants this again. Oh what a monster in the making!