Chicken BLT Salad with Garlic Croutons

While making the monthly dinner menu for our calendar, I decided to try a new salad. Child #1 mentioned it and it sounded really good. I did add chicken breast (that we had already cooked for a previous dinner!) and garlic croutons. Yummy! Here’s what you will need to make this fabulous salad:

Chicken BLT Salad

1 head of iceberg lettuce (we had this leftover from wrap sandwiches that never got made!) You could use romaine instead, since it has many more nutrients, but far be it from me to waste food!

4 oz. fresh spinach

4, smallish tomatoes, chopped (or fewer larger ones if that’s what you have!)

1, green onion (scallion, just the green parts, chopped)

3 oz. of black olives, sliced

1, English cucumber, quartered and sliced

2 cups shredded or finely chopped cooked chicken breast

1 1/2 cups real bacon bits

1/4 cup fresh parmesan cheese

Start by removing the base and core of the lettuce. (If you’re using iceberg lettuce, just smack the base/core and pull it out.) Rinse lettuce and coarsely chop. Rinse spinach and chop with lettuce until it is in small pieces. (a rocking salad chopper makes easy work of this!) Add tomatoes, green onion, olives, and cucumber to salad. Put in the chicken, bacon, and cheese. Stir to combine. Plate up on five big dinner plates full of this delicious salad.

Garlic Croutons

2, 6.2 oz. gluten free baguettes (I used Schar brand)

1 1/2 sticks butter

1 Tbsp. minced garlic

Preheat oven to 400° F. Place a piece of aluminum foil over a jellyroll pan and spray with your favorite cooking spray. Slice the baguettes into 1/2 to 3/4 inch slices and then into four or six croutons. Place the croutons onto the prepared foil on the jellyroll pan and spread out well. Melt butter in a 2-cup pyrex measuring cup. Add the minced garlic and stir in. Pour mixture over bread pieces. Mix bread and butter mixture with your clean hands to ensure that every piece has butter and garlic on it. Bake, stirring once halfway through. Pull pan from oven and distribute the croutons over the five big plates of salad that you have prepared. Top with your favorite salad dressing (I used creamy ceasar, but you could use whichever dressing you favor!)