'Tis The Season

I love spring. I love spring weather, spring clothing, and most of all, spring produce!!! There's just something about freshly picked produce in the spring that you can't get any other time of the year. As an homage to spring produce, Sweet Green introduced their May salad- a combination of romaine and arugula lettuces, fresh strawberries and asparagus, feta cheese, sunflower seeds and chicken, topped with a homemade balsamic vinaigrette, served with a thick and crunchy piece of the best bread I have ever tasted. Seriously.

Now that I am home for a month I have had a decent amount of time to cook again! Love. I wanted to recreate the Sweet Green salad for a light dinner and show my mom why I'm so obsessed with the place. I did everything the same except I cooked the asparagus, marinated the chicken, and made a homemade strawberry balsamic vinaigrette with a strawberry balsamic vinegar I picked up in Savannah, Georgia. Please, please, enjoy this recipe. I would eat this salad every day if I could.

Makes 4 Dinner- Sized Salads

chicken

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts- sliced into tenders

1 tsp each of salt, pepper and dried parsley

1 tbs olive oil

zest and juice of 1 lemon

salad

1/2 bag (about 4 cups) each of romaine and arugula lettuce

1 cup sliced strawberries

1 cup chopped asparagus

salt pepper and olive oil

1/2 cup feta cheese

1/4 cup sunflower seeds

vinaigrette

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 tbs strawberry (or regular) balsamic vinegar

zest of 1/2 lemon

salt and pepper

Marinate the chicken tenders in the olive oil, salt, pepper, parsley, and lemon juice and zest for about 5 minutes. Over medium heat, cook the chicken in a pan, about 4 minutes per side. Remove from heat.

Toss the lettuce, feta and sunflower seeds in a large bowl.

Toss the asparagus in salt pepper and olive oil, just enough to coat. Using the same pan from the chicken, cook the asparagus over medium-high heat until tender but still crunchy, about 7 minutes. Remove from heat.

Once cool, add the chicken and asparagus to the salad. Add strawberries.

In a separate bowl, combine the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, lemon zest, salt and pepper. Toss over salad and serve with fresh multigrain bread (for the true Sweet Green experience!). Enjoy!