Dinner Archives | with a Side of Sneakers

Cranberry Pecan Chicken Salad

This easy healthy chicken salad recipe with pecans and cranberries takes just minutes to whip up and makes the perfect entree, appetizer, or snack. It’s gluten free and dairy free too. Jump to Recipe

One of the things that comes along with moving is restocking the pantry. Of course, I hauled over a cooler of snacks the very first day we had keys to the house, but since we couldn’t actually move in for a few weeks after that, I impatiently waited to do a full re-stock.

We didn’t move that far, but I’m still learning the area and what’s closest to us. First up: grocery stores.

The prices at the first one I checked out were pleasantly surprising, especially the produce section, and though not super extensive, I was impressed with the gluten-free/allergy-friendly sections. I saw one right off the bat when we walked in the door and found another mid-way through our journey. As much as I like seeing gluten-free options on the shelves right along side everything else, it’s nice and convenient to be able to go to one section and grab and go instead of hunting.

Healthy Chicken Salad Recipe with pecans and cranberries

Food Lion also has a new online recipe portal that was helpful for coming up with ideas for some meals to cook in our first week in our new home. I’m used to having staples in the kitchen, so it was a good reminder of what I needed to toss in the cart for this first big shopping trip. The portal is easy to navigate, user-friendly, and has a good variety of ideas. I jotted down some gluten-free cinnamon rolls, paleo zucchini muffins, and pesto pizza rolls for the husband.

I’ve also contributed to the recipe portal with one of my favorite grocery store deli counter inspired options: cranberry pecan chicken salad.

Healthy Chicken Salad Recipe with Pecans and Cranberries {Gluten Free, Dairy Free}

Cranberry Pecan Chicken Salad

This cranberry pecan chicken salad recipe takes just minutes to whip up and makes the perfect entree, appetizer, or snack. It's gluten free and dairy free too.

Prep Time 5 minutes

Total Time 5 minutes

Servings 6

Ingredients

1 rotisserie chicken shredded
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup diced celery
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 tsp honey
1 tsp lemon juice
1 T minced parsley
1/4 tsp apple cider vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Combine mayonnaise, honey, lemon juice, and apple cider vinegar. Set aside.
Combine chicken, cranberries, pecans, celery, and parsley.
Mix in mayo mixture.
Add salt and pepper to taste.

I love using rotisserie chickens because they’re already cooked and ready to go, plus they have a ton of flavor, but feel free to use any kind of chicken you have.

This healthy chicken salad recipe is one of my favorite easy recipes for the whole family, especially because it’s on of the few “normal” entrees my three year old eats without complaining. The secret to all things toddler food: Craisins. Shh don’t tell.

So next time you’re looking for an easy chicken salad recipe, try this. I like making a big batch at the beginning of the week and snacking on it for a few days. We use it as a sandwich filler, an appetizer served with tortilla chips, and a green salad topper, although most of the time we eat it right out of the bowl with a fork.

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

Click here for more Gluten Free Dairy Free Recipes that won’t leave you trapped in the kitchen for hours or hunting down a million bizarre ingredients.

18 Fabulous Spiralized Recipes

Entree

Awhile back I wrote about how much I love using my spiralizer for making easy, healthy meals with lots of veggies. Here are a few delicious recipes for you to try:

[Tweet “18 Fabulous Spiralized Recipes for Your Spiralizer #fitfluential”]

Vegetable Cornmeal Fritters

Garlic Asiago Baked Spiral Fries

Purple Cauliflower Thai Green Coconut Curry with Carrot Noodles

Spicy Spiralized Shoe String Jicama Fries

Broccoli Carrot Slaw Salad

Avocado Basil Zucchini Noodles with Chile Lime Shrimp

Creamy Garlic Alfredo with Arugula & Zucchini Linguine

Smoked Chorizo & Kale Butternut Squash Noodle Skillet

Cucumber Mint Noodles with Ginger Dressing

Paleo Chicken Tetrazzini

Salmon with Butternut Squash Noodles

Creamy Vegan Red Pepper Alfredo Zoodles

Thai Red Curry Coconut Sweet Potato Noodles

Carrot Pasta with Creamy Zesty Garlic Sauce

Carrot Noodles with Peanut Sauce

Skinny Shrimp Scampi with Zucchini Noodles

Thai Basil Sambal Noodles

Plantain Rice & Beans

Do you have a favorite to add to the list?

You can also follow my Spiralized Recipes board on Pinterest for more ideas!

Sweet Potato Chicken Patties {Paleo}

Entree

These sweet potato chicken patties are a great make ahead meal. They’re gluten free, dairy free, and paleo. They’re great straight out of the oven or frozen and reheated for a quick weeknight meal when you’re in a hurry.

One of the hardest things about following a “special” diet is coming up with a new set of family-favorite staples. Something that meets the odd dietary needs of two family members, keeps the Husband happy, and pleases the palates of both toddlers and adults. Instead of revamping our old staple dinners and having them be not just-quite-right, I’ve been trying to coming up with things that are entirely new, but not extravagant.

Despite an old need for creativity of meals in my pre-family days, I’ve learned that the easiest way to come up with a delicious, crowd-pleasing meal that I’m actually interested in making for dinner in the middle of the week, is dropping the standards of creativity and newness. Instead, sometimes it’s better just to go back to basics and perhaps add a little twist. So often the best meals are discovered when you have “nothing to eat” or failed to plan a meal. That’s exactly how our new favorite meal was born: sweet potato chicken patties.

Sweet Potato Chicken Patties

Hardly genius or original, but new and different to us. Plus, these chicken patties naturally lack dairy, gluten, and soy, and are full of both veggies and protein, making it perfect toddler and adult food. I’ve been making these about once every two weeks, enjoying the leftovers {and thus already-made meal} just as much as the originals. If we begin to tire of them, at least it’s a recipe that’s easy to change up with the different vegetables and seasons. As usual, I don’t do the best job measuring or exactly recreating the recipe each time, so consider it more of an idea or suggestion than strict rules.

Sweet Potato Chicken Patties

by with a Side of Sneakers

Ingredients (6-8)

1 large sweet potato, cooked & mashed {chop skin if including}
1 pound ground chicken
1 egg
1-2 Tablespoons coconut flour (or other flour of choice}
1/2 onion, diced
1/4 cup roasted peppers, chopped
1 tsp poultry or steak seasoning
1/4 tsp curry powder

Instructions

Blend all ingredients together. You’ll probably need to use your hands. Form into patties. It’ll make about 6 to 8 depending on size. Pop in the oven at 350 for 25ish minutes and you’ve got dinner on the table.

These chicken patties are great served over wilted greens like kale or spinach. Of course I chose to photograph them the day I made them with only parsnip fries. Doesn’t make a stunning photo but man parsnip fries are way better than any vegetable should be.

Paleo sweet potato chicken patties - gluten free, dairy free. Great for making ahead of time and freezing for a quick weeknight meal.

[Tweet “Try these #paleo Sweet Potato Chicken Patties for a quick, healthy meal.”]

What’s your favorite go-to weeknight meal?

If you like this, check these recipes out:

Paleo Tuna Cakes with Jalapeno Mustard Sauce

Cranberry Pecan Chicken Salad

Salted Caramel Snack Balls

Click here for more Gluten Free Dairy Free Recipes that won’t leave you trapped in the kitchen for hours or hunting down a million bizarre ingredients.

15 Minute Thai Simmer Sauce

Recipe

You’d think as a dietitian it’d be easy for me to come up with easy, nutritious dinners night after night.

You’re wrong.

I tend to get caught up in the idea that dinners need to be new and elaborate and different every week. I try to make big batches of some of our favorites to freeze, like pineapple enchiladas, but I’m not always on top of it. And you know what? There’s no reason every meal has to be new and completely different than the night before.

That’s where this sauce comes in.

Thai simmer sauce. One of my absolute faves. It’s yummy, versatile, and easy. “15 minutes” is being generous- you can easily have it done faster.

Thai Simmer Sauce

by with a Side of Sneakers

Ingredients

1 can coconut milk
1 cup vegetable broth
2 Tbsp Thai red curry paste
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 Tbsp minced ginger
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp fish sauce {optional}
dried basil to taste
sriracha to taste

Instructions

In small saucepan, combine coconut milk, vegetable broth, red curry paste, peanut butter, ginger, and garlic. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer for about 10 minutes. Sauce will thicken slightly and will continue thicken as it cools.

{Don’t fret if you don’t have fish sauce- just skip it.;)}

Serve over brown rice noodles, stir fry veggies, or grilled chicken or shrimp.

I like to make a big jar of it ahead of time and keep it in the fridge for nights when I don’t know what to make, don’t have a lot of time, or am on my own for dinner.

We love it over brown rice noodles with lots of sliced stir-fried veggies like snow peas, red bell peppers, onions, and carrots. Topped with sesame seeds and some extra sriracha- it’s a gourmet-tasting meal without the labor.

So simple, so yummy.

Last night we had this mixed with some leftover sesame peanut sauce- oh my goodness deliciousness. But that’s a recipe for another day.

What are you favorite easy go-to meals?

Balsamic Chickpeas

Recipe

Have I ever told you about the story about the husband’s cooking skills? Or rather, his lack of cooking skills?

My senior year of college I lived in an apartment with the husband and his best friend {and a random third roommate that I never, ever, saw…but that’s a different story}.

I forget now how it came to be, but the boys decided they were going to cook me dinner. Thoroughly excited, I kicked off my shoes, propped my feet up on the coffee table and sat back prepared to relax.

I heard some mumblings from the kitchen and then the questions started. Sooo how do you cook spaghetti? {Umm you boil a pot of water and put the noodles in?} How do you boil a pot of water? {I’m so serious}.

Needless to say it was eye opening. Then I learned how the husband “cooked” grilled cheese and I realized any dream of having dinner cooked for me was officially over. {Toast bread. Put cheese on bread. Microwave. <– Not grilled cheese in my book}

As you can imagine, having the husband help with meal prep is really not helpful at all. The idea of him cooking dinner while I take care of the baby is just absurd. For some reason I got it into my head the other day that I had to have chana masala. The only problem is the husband doesn’t like it. So I dug through the pantry and came up with what I thought was an acceptable alternative.

I took advantage of my motivation to cook and got things rolling: I had the rice and water boiling; I’d minced the garlic; I’d chopped half an onion.

And then the inevitable happened: it was time to feed the baby. I had two choices: kiss dinner goodbye as it burned away on the stove, or enlist the husband’s help.

I think the only reason he agreed was because he was starving and I don’t exactly cook much these days.

So there I sat on the couch, shouting explicit instructions into the kitchen.

Open the can of chickpeas. Rinse them. Open the cans of tomatoes. Don’t drain them! Have you checked the onions? You’ll need a spoon. Turn the temperature down.

I knew better than to tell him to put the spices in, so I carefully avoided mentioning them. I’d sneak them in later when I had my hands free.

This ended up being the perfect dish to tag team. It’s pretty hard to mess up {ok, the rice might have burned to the bottom of the pan} and it doesn’t matter how long you cook it. Translation: it can sit simmering away on the stove while you give a baby a bath and put him to bed. Although the smell of dinner waiting downstairs is rather tortuous when bedtime is a multi-hour event.