Orange Chicken Spinach Salad

March. The month James and I planned to start trying for a baby. We have not started. We have not talked about it since the diagnosis. The unspoken understanding is: not this month. Maybe next month. Maybe the month after. The timeline we had built so carefully — the Whistler trip, the ovulation tracking, the prenatal vitamins already in the medicine cabinet — has been set aside, not abandoned but paused, the way you pause a song when the phone rings with news you didn't want to hear.

James brought it up gently on Sunday. He said, "I know this isn't the right moment. I just want you to know that I'm still here for it. Whenever you're ready." I said, "I know. I'm not ready yet. I need Karen to be stable first." He said, "Karen can be stable and you can also be pregnant. These things can coexist." I said, "I know." I said, "Can we talk about it next month?" He said, "We can talk about it whenever you want." He made me tea. We watched a nature documentary. The narration was about seahorses. The male seahorse carries the babies. I thought about this for too long.

Banchan Labs: Box Three preparations are underway. The theme is "Spring Greens" — a lighter, brighter collection. I am developing three new recipe cards: kong-namul muchim (seasoned soybean sprouts), sigeumchi-namul (seasoned spinach), and a spring bibimbap with all of the namul toppings. Grace has been testing the namul recipes in the SoDo kitchen and reporting back with corrections. She told me my spinach was "too wet" and demonstrated proper squeezing technique. I squeezed the spinach harder. It was better. Grace approved.

Karen and I went to her physical therapy appointment together on Thursday. The PT — a young woman named Amanda — worked with Karen on balance exercises and hand-strengthening. Karen was focused, competitive, determined to outperform the exercises. She said, "I used to run a household with two children and a golden retriever. I can do a tandem walk." She did the tandem walk. She wobbled once. She did not fall. Amanda said, "Very good." Karen said, "I know."

I drove Karen home after. She was quiet in the car. Then she said, "Stephanie. I need to tell you something." My heart stopped. She said, "I want you to know that I have made my peace with this. I am not going to be the person who fights the diagnosis. I am going to be the person who lives with it. I lived with not being able to have children. I lived with adopting two children from another country and raising them in a world that wasn't always kind. I can live with this." She looked out the window. She said, "I have practice at living with things." I could not speak for three blocks. Then I said, "I love you, Mom." She said, "I know, sweetheart. I know."

Dr. Yoon this week: I told her about the baby conversation with James. She said, "What are you afraid of?" I said, "That I will be pregnant and Karen will get worse and I will have to choose between grieving and growing." She said, "You will not have to choose. You will do both. You have always done both." She is right. The whole arc of my life has been doing two contradictory things at once — being Korean and American, being grateful and angry, being found and lost. Adding grieving and growing is just more of the same. I am practiced at holding contradictions. Maybe that is the only skill I really have.

The recipe this week is sigeumchi-namul — seasoned spinach, one of the simplest Korean side dishes and one of the most essential. Blanch a full bunch of spinach for 30 seconds. Ice bath immediately. Squeeze — really squeeze, Grace-style, until no water remains. Chop roughly. Toss with 1 teaspoon soy sauce, 1 teaspoon sesame oil, 1 clove minced garlic, a pinch of salt, a sprinkle of sesame seeds. That is all. The whole dish takes seven minutes. The taste is clean, nutty, green, alive. It is the kind of food you eat when you need to feel grounded. I have needed to feel grounded all month.

Spinach has been on my mind all month — the way Grace taught me to squeeze it dry, the way a handful of dark leaves can become something clean and alive in under ten minutes. After the week I spent in PT waiting rooms and quiet car rides and conversations that cost everything to finish, I needed to keep leaning into green. This Orange Chicken Spinach Salad felt like the natural extension of that impulse: the same grounding spinach base, brightened into something a little more celebratory, a little more like spring saying you made it through. It is the kind of meal you make when you are not quite ready to celebrate but you are ready to nourish yourself anyway.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 15 min | Total Time: 30 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts
6 cups fresh baby spinach, washed and dried
2 navel oranges, peeled and segmented
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
1/3 cup sliced almonds, toasted
1/4 cup dried cranberries
2 tablespoons olive oil (for cooking chicken)
Salt and black pepper, to taste
For the dressing:
3 tablespoons fresh orange juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon honey
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

Cook the chicken. Season chicken breasts on both sides with salt and pepper. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Cook chicken 6–7 minutes per side until golden and cooked through (internal temperature 165°F). Remove from heat and let rest 5 minutes, then slice or chop into bite-sized pieces.
Make the dressing. Whisk together orange juice, olive oil, white wine vinegar, honey, and Dijon mustard in a small bowl until emulsified. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Toast the almonds. In a dry skillet over medium heat, toast sliced almonds 2–3 minutes, stirring frequently, until lightly golden and fragrant. Remove from heat immediately.
Assemble the salad. Place spinach in a large salad bowl. Top with orange segments, red onion, dried cranberries, and sliced chicken.
Dress and finish. Drizzle dressing over the salad and toss gently to coat. Scatter toasted almonds over the top and serve immediately.

Nutrition (per serving)

Orange Chicken Spinach Salad — The Green That Holds You Together