Apple Celery Cranberry Chicken Salad

 This is a copy of a salad from a restaurant from the west side of Washington where I used to live.

This is their website: https://www.purplecafe.com/woodinville/






Above is the description for the salad. My mom used to make this a lot, and now I make it often when I need an easy meal during school days.

Ingredients for the salad:
1 Granny smith apple cut up
3 Large stalks to celery cut up
5 oz Spinach
1/3 cup dried cranberries (or to taste)
2.25 oz Sliced almonds

Ingredients for the chicken:
3 chicken breasts
Garlic Salt, Pepper, Italian Seasoning to taste (really whatever seasoning you think goes well on chicken. How I season depends on my mood most days)
A drizzle of olive oil to coat each chicken breasts

Ingredients for the vinaigrette:
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar 
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tbsp cranberry dijon mustard (or regular dijon mustard and cranberry juice) 
2 tbsp honey
Salt and Pepper to taste

I started by brushing the chicken with olive oil, sprinkling on seasonings, and then baking it in the oven at 375 F. Cook time will depend on the chicken you're using, but you're looking for an internal temp of 165 F.

While that baked, I cut up the celery and made my vinaigrette by just mixing all the ingredients together. Wait on cutting up the apple until everything else is done like the chicken and dressing so it's sitting there oxidizing for the least amount of time.
I then dumped everything on top of the spinach, poured the dressing on top, and tossed the salad. After that, I cut up my now cooked chicken breasts.
To serve, I just divided up the salad on plates and topped that with the chicken. This salad felt nourishing, which is what I needed since I'm taking the final of one of my cyber security classes after dinner.















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