Chicken mango salad
Every year when spring is slowly approaching I suddenly realize that the ‘bikini’ season is about to start sooner rather then later and after having spend most of the winter happily munching on not so lean foods…. you know where this is going right? Today was that moment when it hit me; “You better start preparing for the summer months ahead or else..!!” Now I am a firm believer of healthy rather then crash-diet so you will not see me eating apples all day nor will you see me try to survive on a few crackers. I just don’t believe that works, so I tend to go for the more sane option a.k.a. I try and limit my intake of fatty foods and – most importantly – set myself the goal to go to the gym at least three times a week!
I’m more active in the summer anyway (does running around at weddings count as exercise too?) as I love cycling. I do spinning during the winter months, but since I go to the classes in the morning; sometimes work just gets in the way and I have to cancel spinning and go to work. Now how ridiculous is that! It’s almost like I have a normal job…:)
I did have time to go to the gym this morning, so I enjoyed a rigoreus spinning workout by Rene, who I think invented the word “intervaltraining”. I’m sure I will be sore tomorrow! I also read they have ‘core’ trainings coming up starting this week, which means focus on lower back and abdominal muscles. Sounds like a very good plan, especially since the people that ‘build’ me all those years ago, didn’t do a very good job. I’m a bit half baked really. Not that you can tell just by looking at me, but closer inspection will reveal that my spine is not straight but goes in such an arc from left to right that they needed two X-ray photos instead of one, when they took a photo of my spine.(scoliose)
Now that is literally ages ago, so I am not sure if the X-ray lady was joking or not. Anyway, it doesn’t bother me as long as I keep doing sports. As soon as I stop for too long… my muscles just give up and start a life of their own..:)
How did I get there? Yes, exercise, exercise and even a little more exercise. As I said I might take up the core-training thing, but for now I also need to start eating a bit healthier too. So today I decided to give it a good start with a lovely salad that I found in the magazine of dietguru ‘Sonja Bakker’. She is Dutch, so anyone outside of Holland will most likely not know of her, but anyone inside of Holland must have heard from her. Unless they live underground and do not regularly interact with the world.
She has a dreadfully boring diet, but one that does work if you stick to it (but then every diet works if you stick to it..) We followed it a couple of times, but while it is a very easy diet to follow, it is also not very imaginative, so I get bored after two days of eating potatoes, vegetables and a little bit of meat. There is sooooo much more out there in food-land! So I don’t follow Sonja’s diet but some of her recipes are quite good and today’s lunch was one such recipe that I would like to share with you here. If you’re not on a diet or maybe want to gain weight; I think blue cheese would also be really good in this salad!
Chicken mango salad
Ingredients
- 2 chickenfilet spiced with chickenherbs (instead of this I used smoked chickenfilet, which is quicker and means you don't need to cook/bake anything)
- 1 mango
- 3 spring onions
- 1 bag of rocket
- 7 small gherkins
- 5 pcs of sundried tomatoes
- 3 tbsp lowfat mayonaise
- 1 tsp of honey
- 1 tsp of mustard
- 1 tbsp of oliveoil
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Bake the chicken in oliveoil for about 10 minutes. Peel the mango and cut in thin slices. Cut the onions and gherkins in small pieces. Put the rocket on a plate. Add the pieces of mango, onion, tomatoes and gherkins. Cut the chickenfilet in thin strips and add those to the salad.
- Make a dressing froom the mayonaise, honey, mustard, dalt and pepper. Mix everything well en pour over the salad. This salad goes really well with a whole rye sandwich.
Disclaimer
The nutritional values above are calculated per portion. The details are based on standard nutritional tables and do not constitute a professional nutritional advice.
A beautiful fresh salad so full of flavour and just perfect for getting ready for the bikini season!
I agree, swimsuit season sneaks up on me every year. In fact, I just realized that we are going on a vaca in a few weeks! This salads looks great though, and the mango would certainly curb my sweet tooth.
You should definitely try the salad as it is really tasty and quite filling for such a light salad. I think it’s about 350 kcal for one person… Nice and light lunch or even dinner!
The salad looks really beautiful! Love the colours and flavours.
First, I absolutely love the tablecloth: so fun!
I also love chicken salad with fruit: and mangoes are my favorite!
You have such a great approach! Good for you!
The salad looks beautiful, and sounds delicious. That’s a perfect combination!!
Thanks Ann, yes, the colors remind me a bit of spring coming don’t they?
Thanks Olga! I have a thing for tablecloths… Can’t resist buying more and more of them.
Thanks Nicole!
I am also a firm believer that eating right is as important as exercising. There are no easy or magic ways to be fit and healthy. That’s why the people who are are admired by the rest of us 😀
Great salad, I love mangoes!
Oh my, I love mango and chicken, and Ian love’s rocket! (it’s called arugula here but it took him a long time to realize that they are the same thing. He always hears Jamie Oliver say ‘rocket’) I am saving this for next week, the fruit store has some amazing little yellow mango’s. I’m sure you will hear about how it turns out! Oh yeah, for the oatmeal, I would assume any type of oats would work considering it is in the oven for 20-25 minutes. As a rule of thumb, just bake it until all the liquid is gone.
This is a great salad and I love the dressing and can see how that would compliment so many things!!!
Great looking salad! I go to spinning classes too, but luckily the ones I attend are in the evening. I can’t seem to do morning exercise.
Ok, update, I just made the oatmeal again (reading your comment made me want some for dinner!) but I made it in a much smaller baking dish. The apples didn’t all bake so I would advise sticking with a large surface area baking dish.
So fresh and delicious. It’s really making me look forward to summer!
Mango.. I just lurve mango… Again, your photography is great!