Berry & Kiwi Salad with Sweet Balsamic Dressing

This week's recipe swap theme was "Too Hot to Cook," with the weather we've been having, this was a totally appropriate theme!  I was assigned this recipe from Sweet Beginnings and it's originally from Pampered Chef.

I very much appreciated the idea of this recipe, fruit and a delicious dressing sweeten up what would be a pretty boring meal (while many of us eat salad, it's not usually super tasty *salads made by my mom aside!* or exciting), but felt it was missing something.  I really missed the heft of some protein, and wished I had prepared some grilled chicken to serve on top of the salad.  I'm glad I served this for lunch rather than as a main course dinner salad since it left me wanting more in the hunger department.

I did not have white balsamic dressing so went ahead and used regular; my son wondered why his strawberry was black but ate said strawberry without complaint.  My boys LOVED the fruit and the dressing and I WAS able to convince them to try the salad greens (ahem, by telling them that was the only way to get more fruit).

In the future, I think I would change the spring mix to baby spinach.  I found the spring mix (which is my preferred salad choice) was only good if it had fruit AND dressing, but on the bitter side on its own or with just dressing.

So, my assessment of this one is that it's a great recipe that I'd like to try again with some modifications.

Thank you to Sarah for hosting yet another fun swap, and to Jaida for a great no cook lunch!

Berry & Kiwi Salad with Sweet Balsamic Dressing Source:  Pampered Chef, via Sweet Beginnings

Ingredients

• 2 cups Spring salad mix
• 1 cup strawberries, hulled and halved
• 1 cup blackberries
• 2 kiwi, peeled and cut into wedges
• 1/2 cup white balsamic vinegar
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1/4 cup half and half

Preparation

1. Prepare dressing  by whisking together the vinegar and sugar in a small saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil and reduce the heat to medium. Cook for 6-8 minutes, until mixture is reduced by half.
2. Slowly whisk in cream. Cook without  stirring for 2 minutes. Removed from the heat and cool. Cover, and refrigerate until ready to serve.
3. Assemble the salad by place spring mix in bowls, topped with strawberries, blackberries, and kiwi. Drizzle with dressing and serve.