Chicken Salad with Carrots and Raisins

Well, I'm trying out ANOTHER new dietary restriction...dairy. Why, oh why, do I torture myself? I may never know. At any rate, here I go. We'll see if this lasts long. Truly though, I have pretty severe allergies, especially this time of year and have read that dairy can affect allergies greatly. I have also read that all people are allergic to dairy, some just don't show signs. I'm not sure about all that, but I am curious to see how much relief I get from taking myself off for a while at least. The goal is to get all the dairy out of my system, which should take about a month, although I may see some results before then. After that I may be able to go dairy light, which would be great since most of my indulgences include things like whipped cream and milk chocolate. That would be best case scenario. Worst would be if I find no change at all, then I'm back to square 1.

What does this have to do with chicken salad? Just that it's a delicious, dairy free, gluten free lunch or dinner that everyone will enjoy. It's a take on the old school yummy carrot salad that gramma would make with sunday dinner, mmm.

In a small dish toss a chopped apple with lime juice, set aside. You won't taste the lime in the finished dish and it will keep the apple from turning brown.

In a medium bowl place pre-cooked chopped or shredded chicken...

to the chicken add shredded carrot, raisins, apples, pecans, salt and pepper.

In a small bowl whisk mayo, sugar and vinegar till the sugar is fully dissolved...

pour the dressing over the salad and mix well. You probably won't need to add all the dressing, I start with some and then add more as I mix. There you have it, full of flavor, this chicken salad hits all the craving notes- sweet, tangy, creamy, yummy:)

Chicken Salad with Carrots and Raisins

1 apple, chopped

1 lime, juiced

2 c cooked chicken, chopped

1 c shredded carrots

1/2 c raisins

1/3 c pecans or walnuts

Dressing:

1 c mayo

3 T sugar

3 T cider vinegar

Place chopped apple in a small bowl and toss with lime juice, set aside while prepping the other ingredients. In a medium bowl add chicken, carrots, raisins, nuts, salt and pepper, set aside. For the dressing combine mayo, sugar and vinegar and whisk till sugar is fully dissolved. Add apple to the salad. Then pour about 1/2 of the dressing into the salad and mix. Add more dressing as needed, mix well and enjoy!