Happy Thursday friends! I hope everyone is doing well and excited for the weekend! I know I am!! This month I am featuring summer inspired dishes. With warmer weather on the way and summer right around the corner, I am ready to start spending more time outside in the sun. Today I am featuring Mare’s Summer Salad. My favorite thing to eat for lunch is salads, especially during the summer months. I can eat them all day everyday. When I was younger, I used to love making different salads and dressings to go along with them. It was one of the first things I learned how to make. I actually made this salad by accident one day and fell in love with it! I always like to say it’s the dishes that are made off the whim that turn out to be the best ones. It’s so colorful, fresh and light! Everything about it reminds me of summer, from the balsamic honey chicken, sun dried tomatoes, feta cheese and rosemary balsamic vinegarrette. If you are looking for a fun and healthy salad definitely try this one out! I promise you will love it!! Stay tuned this month for some bonus recipes I’ll be sharing as well as a new collaboration. Lots of fun and exciting things planned for my blog this summer 🙂

Mare’s Summer Salad

Serves: 1-2

Ingredients

1 chicken breast

1 teaspoon honey

3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Salt

Pepper

2 cups romaine lettuce, chopped

1/4 cup shredded carrots

1/4 Sun dried tomatoes, halved

2 tablespoons feta cheese, crumbled

1/2 seedless cucumber, cut into half moons

1 tablespoon parsley, chopped

Dressing

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Salt & pepper

1 teaspoon dijon mustard

1/3 teaspoon dried rosemary (feel free to use fresh if you prefer and chop it)

Instructions

In a plastic ziplock bag, place chicken along with extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, honey, salt and pepper. Shake bag very well and make sure chicken breast is coated in marinade. While chicken marinades for about 10-15 minutes, chop up all the salad ingredients (lettuce, carrots if you didn’t buy them shredded already, sun dried tomatoes, cucumbers, feta cheese and parsley). Add all salad ingredients to a bowl and set side. In a small bowl mix all the ingredients together for salad dressing and set aside. Take your chicken breast and add it to a hot sauté pan with a little oil. Make sure chicken is cooked thoroughly and is not pink inside. After chicken is cooked, transfer to a cutting board. Slice chicken breast length wise and serve on top of salad. If you have any extra parsley sprinkle it on top of salad. Pour salad dressing all over salad and toss until well combined, Enjoy!

*Note* Feel free to grill chicken breast instead of sautéing it.