Mandarin Chicken Salad

This is an aboslutely gorgeous salad. I injured myself with the mandarin orange can as I was rushing to get this done before kickball last night. The chicken breast was marinated in salt, pepper, olive oil, and carne adobado seasoning. I grilled it in the george foreman beforehand. The greens are a mix of spinach and pre-packaged romaine hearts with red cabbage and carrots. I topped it off with sliced mushrooms, toasted almonds, strawberries, and mandarin oranges.

The star of the salad is the dressing. It is a sesame dressing that was inspired by a recipe I got from Frank's old roommate Steve who got it from a chef friend. The recipe was written on the inside cover of a cookbook. I got this recipe years ago and unfortunately it was misplaced in the many many moves so I came up with something very similar.

- sesame oil (i used to toast the oil first but in a rush so didn;t do it this time)
- balsamic vinegar (i used to reduce the vinegar until it got all syrupy but not this time)
- splenda
- sugar free apricot preserves
- sesame seeds
- paprika
- ground ginger
- salt
- pepper
- seasone rice wine vinegar
- olive oil
- garlic (didn't feel like chopping garlic)
- brown mustard (couldn't find it so i left it out)