Grilled Chicken Panzanella Bread Salad

I love making salads, I have so many recipes of different salads that I make for my family. My kids love salad which makes it even more fun to create different salads  and they are always game to dig in! This one is really good beacuse it has, chicken, beans, bread and cheese all in one. So we fill our plates and eat up!

Ingredients:
4-6 cups Romaine Lettuce
1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
1 cucumber sliced
1/2 red onion sliced
1/2 multi-grain French Baguette
1 can Cannellini Beans (white kidney beans)
Fresh shaved Parmesan Cheese
1 lb chicken breast
1/3 cup Italian Dressing

I usually prep this dinner when my kids are school so all I have to do is pull out my marinated chicken and throw it on the grill/pan and it just makes it a more enjoyable evening when I am not in the kitchen for so long at dinner time.

For the salad:

Gather the cucumber, onion, lettuce and tomatoes.

Slice and dice and put the salad in your serving bowl and cover.

For the chicken you could use whatever chicken or marinade you like or not even marinate but this day I had time so I quickly whisked together, 1/4 cup of each red wine and white wine vinegar, 1 T olive oil, 2 T fresh parsley then I diced up a little extra red onion and a glove of garlic, Kosher salt, fresh cracked pepper, a few shakes of each Garlic Garlic and Onion Onion and I added a about 2T of water. I buy boneless skinless chicken breast but they are always so thick, so I take them and slice them in half to make 2 breasts out of each. Put the chicken in a food storage bag and pour the marinade over them and place in the fridge until we are ready to eat.

Then I make my croutons. Cube the baguette and put them evenly place them on a cookie sheet and in the oven at 300 degrees for about15 minutes then turn the oven off and let them sit for another 15 minutes to get crunchy.

When we ready to eat I pull out my chicken and either grill it or throw it in a skillet on my stove. Cook it 3-5 minutes per side until cooked through. At this point I finish assembling the salad by adding the Cannellini Beans once they have been drained and rinsed. I toss the croutons& beans into the salad and toss with dressing I only use about 1/3 cup of Italian dressing (my favorite go-to Italian dressing is Good Seasons, which I make with wither red or white wine vinegar, of course I lighten it up by adding more vinegar and water and less oil). I like for the croutons to get moist in the salad, it makes them extra yummy! Then slice the chicken and top with fresh parm and fresh cracked pepper.

Weight Watcher Friends: This can a bit tricky to calculate the points. Clearly the salad part has 0 so you will have to probably add the points according to your plate. I add 3 points for the chicken, 2 for the bread, 1 for the beans and 1 for the dressing, for a total of 7 points for a large salad. The amount this makes feeds my family of 4 plus I always have enough left over for lunch the next day.