Fruit in normal salads?

i usually enjoy salad with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, apple chunks, grapes, mandarin oranges, croutons, bacon bits with a lite ranch dressing. i love this with garlic toast. other option also is lettuce, tomato, cucumber, bell pepper, baked chicken chunks, pineapple, raisins, white onion rings, olives and toss with your choice of vinegrette then with dash parmesan cheese before serving. great with saltine!

I like mandarin orangesd with spinach also, but I would skip the raspberry vinagrette at that point. I made a really tasty spinach salad last week with eggs, dried cranberries, walnuts (but none for you), spinach, grape tomatoes and raspberry vinagrette and a little bit of cheddar cheese. It was tasty.

I love salads that include mandarin orange segments or strawberries (spinach and strawberry salad is fabulous). I was looking at the ingredients you listed and didn't think anything *too* acidic would work well with your tomato and vinaigrette -- but it reminded me of a cooking show I watched last week where the subject was melons. The chef used both cantaloupe and honeydew melon in salads and I was thinking either of those (or any other type of melon, for that matter) might be interesting for you :)

APPLE PASTA SALAD Ingredients: 1 container (8 oz.) plain nonfat yogurt 1 can (8 oz.) unsweetened crushed pineapple, undrained 1/2 tsp salt, optional 1/4 tsp garlic powder 1/4 tsp dry mustard 1 tsp finely chopped crystallized ginger 1 Tbsp honey 2 cups uncooked rotini pasta 1/2 cup shedded carrot 1 cup sliced celery 1/4 cup sliced green onions 1/4 cup raisins 3 cups diced, unpeeled apples (suggested: Empire, Gala, Ida Red, Jonagold, Jonathan, McIntosh, Red Delicious, or Rome) Instructions: Thoroughly combine yogurt, pineapple, salt, spices, ginger, and honey; refrigerate. Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt. Rinse with cold water and drain thoroughly. Cool completely. In large bowl, combine all ingredients including yogurt dressing. Chill thoroughly before serving. Makes 8 (1 cup) servings.

I like mandarin oranges over baby spinach with pecan halves and a light blue cheese vinagrette that's made by Marie's (this brand is sweeter than most so it goes better with that type of salad. Apple slices actually go well in salads as does regular oranges and pineapples. Enjoy!

i usually use fruits that are in can like fruit cocktails lol

I don't think there's such thing as a "normal" salad. I think all salads are normal in their own way. I will say that I prefer a vegetable salad over a fruit one, but if you are talking about a mandarin chicken salad, I don't mind fruit and vegetables combined.