Chicken, Rice & Black Bean Salad

This is not technically 100% "heart healthy", but Scot said since there's not a whole lot of chicken in it we can use it as one of our "heart healthy meals" from now on. Whew! It was fairly easy and tasty. I did a lot of tweaking from the original recipe as far as the spices go because for this entire thing, they only wanted me to add a little cumin. Psh. I don't think so. Not in my house. I may be doing this diet that limits me on what foods I use, but my taste buds are still going to have fun! It ended up having a slight eastern taste to it. It's was great! It was even better the next day!

Chicken, Rice & Black Bean "Salad"
Feeds 6-8 main servings

• 1 cup rice - uncooked. I used brown rice, and will do that or quinoa in the future
• 4 c shredded chicken (I used 2 boiled chicken breasts)
• 1 can black beans, rinse and drain
• 4 scallions - thinly sliced
• 6 plump tomatoes. Halved, deseeded and cut into strips
• 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
• 3 T EVOO
• 1/2 t cumin
• 1/2 t turmeric
• 1/2 t cinnamon
• 1 t mixed herbs (I used herbs de provence, but Italian would be just fine, too)
• s&p to taste

--Cook rice and then lay on a plate or cookie sheet and place in the fridge to cool.
--Meanwhile, shred chicken and chop and slice veggies.
--Place everything in a bowl and toss to combine.

A couple notes: I put the leftovers in a whole wheat tortilla today for lunch and it was fabulous! You could use pitas, too! Also, Scot and I were both curious what a can of corn would do to this dish, so next time I'm going to try it.

Another note: You can add a can or 2 of rinsed/drained garbanzo beans instead of the chicken to make this heart healthy!