Noodle & Co The Med Salad Copy Cat - And it's spot on!

Have you ever been to Noodles and Company?

They're so delicious. But they are called NOODLES and Co which means they're filled with carbs. But they do have salads. I love their 'The Med' salad. It's only 350 calories without the chicken and about 500 with the chicken. Not bad! 

I crave it all the time but for 5-6 bucks a pop, it adds up. So, I make my own at home!

This salad is so good and so simple to make. I don't know why I didn't try it sooner!

And on top of that homemade this salad AND THE CHICKEN (not including olives) is total:

 209 calories, 18 grams of Carbs, 4 grams of Fat, 29 grams of Protein, and 3 grams of fiber.

Whereas, Noodle and Co's version (without chicken) is:

 330 calories, 44 grams of carbs, 13 grams of fat, 9 grams of protein, and 4 grams of fiber. 

The Parmesan crusted chicken is:

 200 calories, 8 grams of carbs, 10 grams of fat, 20 grams of protein, and <1 grams of fiber. 

tsk, tsk, tsk. 

What you need:

 1 cup cavatappi pasta (I used 1/4 cup (dry) Dreamfield's Penne since it's low carb)

Romaine lettuce 

1 cucumber 

1 tomato 

1 red onion 

A handful of black olives 

For the Dressing:

1-2 tsp. sriracha hot sauce 

1/4 cup olive oil 

1/4 cup greek yogurt 

2 tbsp. lemon juice 

1 tsp. lemon zest 

1 garlic clove, minced 

1 tbsp. feta cheese, crumbled 

Salt & Pepper to taste

What you need to do:

Boil pasta until al dente. 

Assemble salad.

Assemble dressing (I made mine REALLY garlic-y and had a ton left over)

I like to put my salads in a container and shake until its all mixed together then either eat it from the container or move to a plate. It's best to do something like this with this salad. 

If you want to add chicken:

I LOOOVE their Parmesan crusted chicken breast. So I made my own!

Fillet a chicken breast. Heat a greased pan to medium high. Sprinkle salt and pepper on each side of the chicken. (You can also use a meat tenderizer to flatten) Once covered, Sprinkle Parmesan on the chicken until well covered. Place in heated pan and turn the heat down to about a 4-5 (medium-low) and cover. 

Flip after about 3-5 minutes and cover. In about 3 minutes you are going to turn off the heat and just let the chicken sit there for about another 5 minutes. This lets the heat from the outside cook the inside and lock in moisture. This way you don't have under cooked chicken or dry chicken. I always cut one of them to see if there's no pink. 

Place on top of chicken and you are ready to enjoy this magnificent salad!