Favorite Things Friday- Saving Dinner Giveaway and Balsamic Chicken Salad Recipe

It happens to the best of us– we have the best intentions of eating in every night, planning meals ahead of time, trying new recipes and wowing our family with our culinary creations… and then it happens… we fall into the dinnertime rut. 

I’ve been there, stuck in that rut, feeling uninspired by food, wanting desperately to crawl my way out but lacking the motivation or time to properly start planning. Then came Saving Dinner. 

I’ve tried different menu planning systems before. Some good, some not so good. None of them seemed to have all of the things that I needed in 1 system.  I signed up for Saving Dinner and then did nothing with it for several weeks. I figured that I would discover some great new recipes, that it would inspire me to get cooking and planning for a month or two, and then I would be back to feeling uninspired again… what I didn’t expect was that the Saving Dinner program would have all of the features in it that I had found lacking in meal planning systems that I have tried previously. 

Why Saving Dinner Stands Out From The Rest of the Menu Planning Services and is Friday Favorite Worthy:

The Food:

They have really great recipes and a variety of “theme” choices. I’ve joined other sites that had themes too, but you had to chose which theme you wanted to receive that month. With Saving Dinner you have access ALL of their recipes in categories like Classic, Paleo, Low- Carb and Daytime Meals twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

The Mix and Match Menu:

One of the reason I quickly lose interest in other online menu planning systems is because my family doesn’t always want to eat the food that they suggest 7 days a week.

I’ve often wished their was an easy way to combine my meal planning system (which is fabulous, but honestly… we sometimes get bored of the same old thing) and an online menu planning system (which has new and exciting recipes.)

Saving Dinner makes it easy to do that. They make suggestions for the week that you can pick and choose from and compliment with additional recipes from their complete recipe database. Want to eat one of your own, family favorite recipes or a recipe from Pinterest? Not a problem. Saving Dinner lets you add your own recipes to your menu planning calendar!

The Shopping List:

They have a shopping list feature and I love it. I’ve used other meal planning systems that gave you a shopping list for all of the ingredients that you need to make a recipe, but it wasn’t interactive so if a recipe called for chicken and I already had chicken in my fridge I would have to manually cross chicken off of my list. Or if my family didn’t want to eat one of the recipes I would have to sort through and try to figure out which ingredients were for the recipes that we weren’t going to be eating that week.

Saving Dinner’s shopping list is interactive. You click a button that says “Add to Shopping List” for each recipe that you want to cook that week.  The list adds all of the ingredients together so if you need 4 chicken breasts for 1 recipe and 2 for another you will see 6 chicken breasts on your list. You can also look through the list and get rid of ingredients that you already have.

But wait… it gets better. Saving Dinner lets you add your own items to the shopping list– So if your family prefers turkey bacon to regular bacon you can change it. Need to pick up toilet paper at the grocery store? No need for a separate list! Just add it on. Saving Dinner even has the shopping list categorized by store section so it makes shopping faster.  Shopping lists are available to print or email. I love emailing myself my list so I can check it on your phone!

The Favorites Tab:

Sometimes there are recipes that your family wants to eat week after week after week. Saving dinner lets you mark your favorite recipes so that you can refer back to them quickly, saving you time when you are creating your weekly menu plan.

The Menu Planning Calendar:

Plan your meals by the day, by the week or by the month. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and Snacks are all listed on the calendar for you to schedule if you please. Using the + button you can even schedule leftovers onto your calendar. 

The Print Function:

You can print pretty much everything on Saving Dinner! Print your recipes, print your shopping list, print you calendar! Saving Dinner makes it so easy to stay organized. 

Daytime Menu:

I’m not a breakfast girl. I struggle EVERY SINGLE MORNING trying to figure out what to eat. Usually for lunch I have leftovers from the night before, but if we don’t have leftovers… I’m lost. Saving Dinner has a huge list of breakfast, lunch, snack and side dish recipes– They aren’t just about saving dinner, they are about saving all of your meals!

Guess what?!?!? Saving Dinner is giving one of my lucky readers a 3 month subscription to their premium service! Lucky you! Enter below, but first, I made a delicious Balsamic Chicken Salad recipe from Saving Dinner recently. I thought that I would share this super yummy paleo recipes with you!

Saving Dinner Paleo Balsamic Chicken Salad

This salad is so refreshing! It’s filled with some great veggies and a bonus of chopped
bacon!

Prep Time: 15 minutes Cook Time: 25 minutes Serves: 4

Ingredients:

For the Dressing:

• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons raw honey
• 2 cloves garlic, pressed
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon sea salt

For the Chicken:

• 4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil, melted
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder

For the Salad:

• 4 cups mixed salad greens
• 3 Roma tomatoes, chopped
• 1/2 medium red onion, chopped
• 1 avocado, pitted, peeled and diced
• 1 English cucumber, sliced
• 1 1/2 cups alfalfa sprouts (or your favorite sprouts)
• 1/3 cup cooked and chopped bacon

Directions:

• DO-AHEAD TIP: Cook and chop bacon.
• Preheat outdoor grill to MEDIUM-HIGH.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together all ingredients for vinaigrette; blend well then set aside.
• Brush all sides of chicken with melted coconut oil then evenly season with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Grill for 5 to 7 minutes per side or until juices run clear; remove from grill and set aside to cool.
• Meanwhile, in a large bowl, toss together remaining salad ingredients (mixed greens through bacon). Chop the cooked chicken and add it to the salad.
• Drizzle vinaigrette over the top and enjoy!

SERVING SUGGESTION: You really don’t have to add anything to this complete
meal.

Check out Saving Dinner and see why I love it so much!

Tell me… What would be your favorite Saving Dinner feature?
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