How Very Cherry {Cherry Almond Salad}

Remember when we had lunch at Panera Bread a few months ago? Well, I do. I never forget a flavor that I like. I really liked the cherry-flavored dressing on their Orchard Harvest salad; it was a great combination of sweet and sour that complemented everything else. It took some searching, but I finally located a bottle of cherry balsamic vinegar at Nature’s Pantry in Newburgh!

Almost $12 for that little 8.5 oz bottle! So, yes, I will cry over spilled milk vinegar when I am trying to delicately measure out 2 TBSP and spill some on the counter.

Enter incomplete lightbox: Cherry slivered almond salad with Danish blue cheese, baby cucumber, and organic dried cherries (no sugar added, just cherries) on a bed of mixed leafy greens (kale, romaine, arugula, baby spinach) with 2 TBSP cherry balsamic vinegar and 1 TBSP extra virgin olive oil.

Along with tuna salad (Starkist low sodium pouch, 90 cal + mayo + Alouette light garlic & herbs), Mary’s Gone Crackers caraway variety, Pretzel Crisps supreme, 2 gherkin pickles, and a few no salt added bread & butter pickles.

This meal was INCREDIBLE!!!! The salad, OMG, so, SO, SOOO good! The cherry balsamic mixed with the hints of blue cheese = amazing. And the slivered almonds offer such a fantastically crunchy texture. YUM! Oh, and caraway Mary’s Gone Crackers are beyond wonderful if you like rye bread, which I do! But they’re gluten-free, so all the flavor, no tummy problems for those that can’t tolerate wheat. The Pretzel Crisps I had to ration out quickly because I could seriously eat all of them. I gave ONE to my mom and then hid the bag, she’s devour them, too, LOL. Tuna never tasted so good. YUM!!

Keeping up with the cherry and slivered almond theme, dessert followed suit.

Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia frozen yogurt in a ramekin:

I added on some raw slivered almonds, which makes it just like the salad (!!) only frozen… and sweeter… and chocolate-ier… and… less green, lol!

If you’ve never tried slivered almonds on a frozen treat, try it NOW! The crisp, but light texture is heavenly.

While I was still in a fasting state, I did 45 minutes of indoor obstacle course, 20 minutes of HIIT on my recumbent bike, and a little upper body lifting—not a complete workout, though. I was fine throughout all of it, but a hunger headache set in around 17-hours. By the time I prepared my food and took pictures, a little over 18 hours passed since I last ate, so even with a moderately intense workout I was still good to go for the most part. I cannot wait for the weather to warm up and the muddy slosh to go away. I want to be outside soaking up vitamin D and moving my big booty!

Questions: Do you like different flavored balsamic vinegars? I have an unopened bottle of berry balsamic that I’m looking forward to trying. So far I’ve had regular, white fig-infused, and cherry balsamic, and I’ve liked them all.

Do you like slivered almonds? I swear it completely changes the dynamic of those tasty little nuts. Just shows you how important texture is to our palates, huh?

Tagged as: balsamic vinegar, Ben & Jerry's frozen yogurt, cherries, cherry almond salad, cherry balsamic, crackers, intermittent fasting, Mary's Gone Crackers, Pretzel Crisps, pretzels, salads, tuna