Want an unusual, tasty fruit salad? This Glorified Fruit Salad could be the answer.

Back in the 1960′s, my mom used to make a very calorie-intense salad with rice, canned fruit and Cool Whip. Sounds horrible to me today, but I still remember it’s creamy, fruity taste. There had to be a way to make a much more nutritious version to accompany tonight’s grilled salmon and vegetables. This salad is a huge success with my husband even asking for seconds. Hope you’ll try it.

Glorified Fruit Salad

Ingredients

2-3 cups cooked quinoa or brown rice (we used quinoa for the extra protein)

4-6 cups fresh fruit (we used 2 cups chopped pineapple, 1 pint strawberries (cut in half), 1 cup blueberries and 2 fresh Mandarin oranges  (peeled and cut into sections).

1-1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt, nonfat

1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

In a large salad bowl, combine quinoa and fruit. Stir in yogurt and vanilla. Chill thoroughly.

Serving size = 1 cup

This salad has only about 2 grams of fat per serving, 34 grams carbohydrate, 5 grams protein and almost 4 grams fiber per serving. It’s also a very good source of potassium, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, vitamin C, vitamin A and folate. This salad has approximately 15 grams of sugars, natural sugars mainly from the fruit.