GF: Pomegranate & Romaine Heart Salad

A quick lunch or dinner sometimes is just what one needs to rebalance. Something light and filling at the same time.

When I first got married, I spent way too much time making some fabulous salad with grilled chicken and hand-chopped cute veggies for my love one night.

He devoured the dish and then, while I was washing dishes, he asked “When’s dinner?”

Umm… yea. Babe. We just ate.

“But there wasn’t any meat,” he replied.

“There was chicken on the salad,” I said.

“That doesn’t count!” was his reply.

Good grief. Some men are just a different species completely. LOL. I asked my friends at work who promptly informed me that this was a normal male-newly-married-male idea of “food” = major meat product accompanied by little or no veggie. This was going to be a bit of a hurdle as I was known for only eating squash, a half of a grilled cheese sandwich or garlic-rice soup for dinner. (Can you see the pre-Celiac diagnosis diet there? Nothing much to eat because everything made my stomach hurt.  That’s just the way it was.  I’m sure you can relate, huh?)

Thankfully after seven years of marriage – this Thanksgiving is our 7th 🙂 , things have changed a little bit. Now that salad I made would have counted for dinner… and he would have had a snack two hours later, but not asked where dinner was. 😛 Funny guy.

Even better, he helps create new salad dressings with me as he knows I love them semi-sweet and not super tart. This dressing was a guess at the time but I have since made it twice more- one time I made it thicker to use as a spread for my sandwich for work.

Do you have a favorite salad dressing? Seriously, I always find a new one around Thanksgiving and fall in love with it for the next year. I’m not sure this dressing is up there with our favorite maple dressing, but it’s pretty close.

Pomegranate & Romain Heart Salad for 2
Dressing Ingredients:
2 Tablespoons mayonnaise or fat free plain yogurt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon champagne or white wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon dried sweet bell pepper flakes
2 tablespoon pomegranate juice (see note about salad)
1/3 cup olive oil or walnut oil

Directions:
Whisk together dressing ingredients (all except oil).
While whisking, slowly drizzle in oil and blend until thick and creamy.

Salad Ingredients:
3 Romaine hearts, cut into 1 inch slices, washed and spun dry
2/3 cup candied pecans, coarsely chopped
4 tablespoons pomegranate seeds (Seed 1/2 of a medium pomegranate, reserve 3-4 tablespoon for the salad and press the other seeds for the juice necessary for the salad dressing).
3-4 tablespoons dried cherries and cranberries
1 chicken breast, grilled and sliced (optional)

Happy salad days!
-Kate