The Skinny Man's Grilled Chicken Salad from The Railyard

Pursuing a healthier & simpler lifestyle these days, I'm always on the look out for low-cal recipes that taste good and are FAST.  In the past it has been pretty rare for me to order a salad over a burger but occasionally a salad came around that was SO GOOD, I couldn't not order it.

One of these salads is the Grilled Chicken Salad from a restaurant called The Railyard in Gloversville, New York.  Right out of college I lived back home &  worked at a phone company.  My friend Kevin would always take me there on our lunch break & Holy Aunt Jemima Balls that salad is GOOOOD.

Today I'm replicating this delicious salad as best I can while maintaining a smidge of weight loss credibility.  YAY!!!!

Here's our ingredients:
Bag of Spring Mix Salad
3-5 Chicken Breasts- Diced
2 T. Olive Oil
Garlic Pepper- To Taste (like a little black grinder from McCormick)
5-6 Pieces of Turkey Bacon
1/2 cup Red Onion- Chopped
1 cup Low-Fat or Fat-Free Croutons
Low-Cal Raspberry Garlic Vinaigrette (or something sliiiiiightly sweet)



First thing you want to do is grill up some chicken in a saucepan with the garlic pepper & olive oil.  Or you know, you can GRILL IT cause it's a Grilled Chicken Salad.  Don't have a lot of time?  Use the ol' George Foreman Grill.

Once they're done, set those aside in a bowl & you can heat up some turkey bacon.  You can use the same saucepan or a microwave.  I'm not a huge fan of turkey bacon cause it hardly has the consistency of real bacon but what can ya do?  Does the job.  Word.

Oh & due to the fact I've yet learned how to crop, color correct photos on a Mac, these are all probably gonna be pretty terrible pictures.  HA!

Chop up your turkey bacon, throw it in the bowl with the chicken & red onions.

Next, open your spring mix bag of salad, wash & drain.  Throw that in a serving bowl.  Dump the chicken, bacon & red onion mixture on the top.  Add the croutons & it should look something like this:

 

YUM.  :)  :)  :)

And ooooh, here's a closer look:

Finally, you want to pour some homemade or a really wonderful gourmet salad dressing over the top.

Or Ken's... because who's got the time?

I used a Raspberry Walnut Vinaigrette- a little bit too sweet & raspberry-ish for me but was nice with the garlicky, salty flavors in the chicken & bacon.

And then I plated it to make myself feel like I was going out to eat.

And I loooove going out to eat.

Or just eating in general.

NUM.  :)  :)  :)

ENJOY, EVERYONE!!  MERRY JANUARY!!!

xoxox.

MandiCrocker