gluten free zen
Taking The Stress Out Of Gluten-Free Grain-Free & Dairy-Free Living
Apple Chicken Salad with Pumpkin Seeds & Raisins
Somehow, Monday is here again and our weekend flew right by us! My husband was gone the latter part of the week, had to travel through Saturday, and didn’t return home until after dinner. We made the most of Sunday though. It was a gorgeous day so we headed over to Idaho to the beautiful town of Coeur d’alene. We watched the sad ending of the Seahawk’s football game and had a cocktail in the Whispers Lounge at the resort, then walked along main street and looked in some of the shops. Not many are open on Sunday which I guess may be a blessing on the pocketbook. Once we worked up an appetite and decided against the posted menus on many of the restaurants on main street, we headed back to the resort for lunch.
Sadly, their gluten free menu was predictable, so we both settled with the salad bar. We do love a good salad bar with a large variety and they say their salad bar is 18 feet long. I would say more like maybe 10 if they’re lucky, but what do I know. It had a decent amount of choices and a variety of gluten free dressings, but only two were non dairy. Someone had slopped blue cheese dressing into the huckleberry vinaigrette. You would think if they were mindful enough to label dressings gluten free, they would have placed all of them together rather than among the other dressings. Blue cheese dressing is not gluten free. But again, what do I know?
I do dream of the day I can go into a restaurant that has both gluten free and dairy free choices on their menu. Exciting and innovative choices, not just meat, fish, vegetables and gluten free cake with dairy. I was disappointed they didn’t offer a gluten free bread basket or gluten free crackers to accompany the salads. There are many gluten free options for crackers and breads now, so I couldn’t come up with a good excuse for our missing bread basket.
With more and more people being diagnosed with food related health issues, it’s hopefully only a matter of time before we’ll be seeing more variety on allergen free menus. Something as simple as this gluten and dairy free Apple & Chicken Salad would have even been a nice change of pace from the same old predictable gluten free menu fare.
About 1 out of every 100 people are diagnosed with celiac and that doesn’t count the unbelievable number of those who are gluten sensitive. Not long ago I read a USA Today article that said that 60% of adults cannot digest dairy. More than half of adults cannot digest dairy. If a chef were to even Google “gluten free and dairy free”, he’d have hundreds of simple recipes right at his fingertips along with thousands and thousands of innovative blogs who post allergen free recipes all the time. I don’t expect a large allergen free menu or to be pampered and spoiled as this resort claims to do for their guests, but I do expect that they put a little elbow grease and innovative thinking into their dishes.
Until then, there’s always home where we know we can order anything we want.
Apple Chicken Salad with Pumpkin Seeds & Raisins
Makes 2 Servings
3/4 Cup Chicken breast, cubed
1/2 of a Macoun Apple, diced
1 1/2 Tablespoons of Diced Red Onion
2 1/2 Tablespoons of Diced Celery
2 1/2 Tablespoons of Raisins
1 Tablespoons of Pumpkin Seeds
1 1/2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil Mayonnaise (or dairy free plain yogurt)
2 Tablespoons of Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice
Freshly Ground Pepper
Chopped Romaine Lettuce
Place all ingredients except the lettuce in a bowl and stir to combine. Serve on a bed of romaine.
5 Comments on “Apple Chicken Salad with Pumpkin Seeds & Raisins”
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gluten free zen 
Your salad looks lovely though it does not sound like you were very happy with your experience at the restaurant. It is even worse out here.. just finding a good salad bar would be a joy. I do not eat meat or chicken when I go out .which leaves me with very slim choices if I want a hot meal. However I like my own food better half the time anyway!! It is the cleaning up i cannot bear.. c
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Oh yes, the cleaning up…ugh. Especially after baking!
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That’s a great salad. What a shame the salad bar at the resort was so disappointing. I can’t believe the dressings became mixed up. When you have food intolerances, it can be very trying when you’re needing to eat xx
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Yes it can. It goes with the territory but sometimes it just really irks me. lol
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