Dinner Salads with Chicken

You often see dinner salads on the menu at restaurants these days. These can be quite nutritious and can work for Zone.

Panera has a couple of salads that fit this pattern. These meals each be about 400 calories, within a reasonable Zone balance, and acceptable nutrition:

Panera Asian Sesame Chicken Salad - with bread or a piece of fruit
If you eat this with the bread, it will be Zone, but less nutritious than if you skip the bread and eat a piece or two of fruit - an orange, an apple, two plums, a bunch of grapes, a bowl of strawberries or a banana.

Panera Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad -
Ask for dressing on the side - use only 1/2 of the amount they give you. Do not eat the bread. Either eat the croutons or leave them and eat a piece of fruit for more nutrition.

One thing I do not like about these salads is that the dressings are not as healthy as one you can make at home. They contain soybean oil rather than healthier olive oil. Make your own from a recipe - or use the Good Seasons packets with good olive oil. Another alternative is to use an ounce of feta cheese and a tablespoon of lemon juice in place of dressing. This is an excellent alternative that is actually quite nutritious.

It's a good idea to try to achieve Zone-level fats with any salad you eat. Oil is necessary for absorbing the oil soluble vitamins from lettuce.

If you want to make a dinner salad at home, this is really easy. You can buy a roasted chicken from the grocery store or just cook your own chicken breast. Here's the recipe for a meal based on cooking the chicken yourself:

Homemade Chicken Dinner Salad

4 oz raw chicken breast
Season salt
teaspoon of olive oil
1 oz feta cheese
1 1/2 cups of romaine torn into small pieces
4 grape tomatoes
3 baby carrot sticks
1 tsp lemon juice
large bunch of grapes or 2 plums or orange

Trim chicken breast and cut in half across the thickest part (like butterflying) so it's 1/2 the thickness. Coat a skillet or grill pan with the olive oil. Saute chicken until cooked - 10 minutes or so - on medium heat. Cut carrot sticks into quarters. Combine all ingredients (except fruit) and toss.

This meal is around 400 calories and provides 47% of the RDA on average. P/C/F ratio is 33/32/35. This provides a good balance of nutrients.

If you make this with roasted chicken from the grocery store deli section - just use 3 oz of cooked chicken.