I made quite possibly the best salad at home this weekend.  It was a Dak’s blackened chicken salad with pears, blueberries, and a homemade poppy seed dressing with Safe + Fair’s blueberry cinnamon granola as croutons.  Swoon.  

This is spicy, savory, sweet and the dressing is perfect for everything in this salad.  Best part is, you can add your favorite salad toppings (ahem, it may also be a great way to use up the veggies in your fridge that you thought you’d eat earlier in the week, but then didn’t get around to it).

I had really big chicken breasts, so I cut them in half, liberally sprinkled them with Dak’s blackened seasoning, a bit of salt, and pan fried with about a teaspoon of grape seed oil, about 3 minutes a side, then set aside to let cool.

Poppy seed dressing is one of my favorites, but sadly mayo is the key ingredient in a lot of the recipes I found online.  Rat farts. 

But I thought Greek yogurt would be a good substitute, and while it was, it was a bit runnier than I wanted to be – so I added a tablespoon of whipped cream cheese, and used sugar free pancake syrup as my sweetened instead of honey, so the whole recipe is only 2 points!

And then the fun part!  Putting it all together!  The base of the salad is mixed greens and raddichio – I love the bitter punch of raddichio, so if you don’t like it, leave it out!  Carrots, radish, pears, blueberries and the blueberry cinnamon granola on top for a bit of sweetness and crunch.

The chicken is spicy, but it was a great combo with the sweetness of the pears and blueberries, then the poppy seed dressing brought it all together.  The dressing has a bit of a vinegary taste to it, which I love, and if you taste it on it’s own, you’d tell me “Biz – too much vinegar!” but I needed the acidity in the dressing to balance all the flavors in the salad – trust me – it works!

The perfect bite!

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If you haven’t tried Dak’s seasonings, I’ve loved them all.  They are salt free and there are about 17 varieties to choose from.  My favorites: blackened, steakhouse, lemon pepper, green zest, original red, super greek, citrus groove.  If you use my code Bizzy10, you’ll get 10% off your order!

And I can’t say enough good things about Safe + Fair products.  This company is all about providing allergy safe products at a fair price.  The granola’s are only $4.99 – yes the 1/3 serving is 5 smart points, but it’s only 130 calories.  You won’t be able to find a lower calorie granola out there for that serving size – I’ve already looked for you – you’re welcome!

And check out the ingredient list for the blueberry cinnamon granola!

Oats, brown rice syrup, cane sugar, sunflower oil, dried blueberries, brown rice, millet, cinnamon, sea salt.  That’s it!!

If you buy four items from Safe + Fair, you get 1 free  – plus free shipping the month of March!  You need to put 5 items in your cart though, it will remove the 5th item at check out – you can click on this link – my discount code is BIZ.

This epic salad was only 3 points:  1 for the oil to cook the chicken, 1 for the dressing (which is barely a point!) and 1 for the 2 tablespoons of granola.

I think this is going to be my new signature salad this spring and summer!  If it ever feels like it.  While it’s -4 degrees on March 3, at least this salad tastes light and refreshing like spring!

Let me know if you make this, and be sure to tag me on Instagram if you do – I’m mybizzykitchen over there too.

Happy Monday friends – make it a great day!  And don’t eat like an asshole.

Love, Biz