It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure it out, but eventually I realized that Darren’s sweet tooth can really work to my advantage.  For example – I’ve been on an epic quest to get the both of us to eat more veggies and salads, but he’s not as much into lettuce and assorted savory items like I am.  Sweet things, however, he can’t get enough of.  So over the past few weeks we’ve discovered two restaurants in the area that serve a similar sweet/summery salad.  It involves salad greens, berries, citrus, a bit of chicken for protein, and nuts, in a sweet vinaigrette.

As awesome as this finding is, I can’t very well demand that we go out to eat every time I want Darren to eat a salad.  And honestly, it’s salad.  It’s stuff on top of lettuce.  A little thought and planning, and you can pretty much make any salad you wish.

The goods:

1 heart of romaine lettuce, cut or torn into bite-sized pieces

handful or two of strawberries, sliced

handful or two of blueberries

1 large navel orange, peeled and sectioned (or, to save on time and effort, get some canned mandarin oranges and drain them.)

handful of pecans (optional)

cooked chicken breast, sliced thin

raspberry vinaigrette (store-bought.  we managed to find raspberry and poppyseed dressing – AWESOME!)

The method:

Either toss everything into a boll with the dressing, mix and plate, or arrange everything on top of the lettuce.  And then – dig in!