Healthy AND Delicious Asian Salad

And I should mention EASY too!!  This is a salad with a simple dressing that comes together and tastes great.  It's low carb, and low in saturated fat.

The inspiration came from "Healthified" Crunchy Asian Salad from eatbetteramerica.com. 

Dressing

1/3 cup canola olive oil

1/3 cup rice vinegar 

3 2 tablespoons sugar Splenda (for the hubs)

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

Salad

1 package (3 oz) ramen noodle soup mix (any flavor)

1 bag (16 oz) coleslaw mix (shredded cabbage and carrots)

8 medium green onions, sliced (1/2 cup)

1/2 cup sliced almonds (2 oz)  *I've used almonds, I like them toasted, but I used toasted sesame seeds this time (but I didn't measure them out, sorry! Probably a tablespoon or so?)

1 medium red bell pepper, cut into 1x1/8-inch strips *Omitted b/c I didn't have any :(

2 seedless oranges, peeled, coarsely chopped (1 1/2 cups)

2 cups coarsely chopped fresh baby spinach leaves

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast cut into chunks (seasoned with salt, pepper, rosemary)

bag of large shrimp (cooked in a little Smart Balance Light) - I cut these in half, so the size of the shrimp doesn't matter - it's just what I happened to have.

1. In large bowl, beat dressing ingredients with wire whisk until sugar substitute is dissolved and mixture is well blended.

2. Break up ramen noodles in bag before opening. Discard seasoning packet from soup package. Add noodles and all remaining salad ingredients except oranges and spinach to dressing; toss to mix well. Stir in oranges and spinach, chicken and shrimp. Top with sesame seeds.  Serve immediately or refrigerate up to 8 hours. 

In my opinion, this was better chilled.  We ate it immediately after preparing (at warp speed) b/c we had to be out at Number One's school for her 4th grade music performance (preceeded by a PTO meeting where the principal talked about bullying!), so when we got home, I pulled the salad back out of the fridge and ate some more! B/c you know how it is...when you're a mom and the kids have to be somewhere, you are the one running around finding the white shirt they have to wear for the program/ironing if needed - or throwing it in the dryer!/getting plenty of 2 y/o safe snacks and quiet toys to keep said 2 y/o occupied/finding something to wear that fits other than the sweatpants you've been in all day b/c your fat tail has gained weight and jeans are too uncomfortable to......oh, sorry. Got distracted.  That's MY life.  Of course, I'm doing something about the being-to-fat-to-wear-my-(sister's)-jeans.  Details will come about that in a couple of weeks!

For the kids, since they wouldn't touch this salad with a 10-foot Oreo, just ate the boneless, skinless chicken that I had prepared for the salad (I kept them out some separate) and brown rice that I cooked in my rice steamer.  Do you have a rice cooker?  They are super convenient.  Mine is 12 years old! It was a wedding gift, but on the rare occasions I use it, I love it.  It will cook/steam other things, but I don't ever think to use it on veggies/etc.  Anyway, getting off track (as usual)...I added some brown rice to my salad too.  I had fresh ginger, but did I remember to use it?  NO.  But it would have been an excellent addition.

So anyway, if you want a very hearty salad, give this a go.  I thought it was really good.  The original recipe is also tasty!  Of course, with all this low carb stuff going on, today I want to bake some BREAD :)

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