Grilled Chicken Salad

This week I was craving salad, so on Monday I bought ingredients to make grilled chicken salad. Since there's only one of me and I'm cooking solo (insert sappy "sorry you're single" comment here). I've had grilled chicken salad 4 nights this week. Surprisingly, I'm not tired of it. I'm confident that everyone knows how to make a salad, but I've documented my salad making as if it were some piece of art, so humor me and just read on.

Elements of a good grilled chicken salad...

Lettuce. Not iceberg, since it has about as much nutritious value as a piece of cardboard. Choose greener blends. Here I've chosen a Romaine Blend and Arugula that just happened to be on Manager's Special at Kroger. I'm a cheapo, don't judge.



The good stuff. Chopped baby carrots, sliced mini cucumbers, chopped grape tomatoes, a boiled egg, a grilled chicken tenders.



The finished product minus dressing. I like to top it off with fat free cottage cheese instead of fatty shredded cheese.

Dad's Journey to Health

I'm MORE than ready to get out of Lexington and be with family this weekend. My dad is coming up to Cincinnati to visit both me and my brother and the rest of the family. I'm excited to get to workout with my dad, as this is something that I've waited all my life to do. He's on a new, long weight loss journey and I couldn't be happier about him starting to get healthy again. I've always nagged him about getting healthy and finally all my nagging has paid off. The last time he was up visiting, he woke me up at the crack of dawn to go to the gym. I was perfectly ok with his eagerness! Being able to see him walk a mile on the treadmill and be happy about it was totally worth it!

Since we share the same birthday (April 7) and he lives in Nashville, we haven't been able to celebrate yet so we'll be celebrating this weekend. To commemorate his visit, here's a pic of me, pops, and my niece.

Buffalo Chicken Salad

My name is Brooke and I'm a Laughing Cow cheese wedge addict. I've tried the Swiss and Blue Cheese. I plan on trying them all while they're on sale at the Krog!

This buffalo chicken salad can be put in a tortilla, but it was too delicious to ruin with a piece of flattened flour. I ate it straight from the bowl, every last bite, and I have no shame.

Buffalo Chicken Salad

Ingredients:

-1 1/2 cups shredded chicken breast (not from a can!)
-2 Blue Cheese Laughing Cow Cheese wedges
-2 tbsp buffalo sauce
-1/2 cup frozen spinach
-Chicken seasoning to taste

In a medium pan, spray cooking spray and coat chicken with chicken seasoning. Cook the chicken until no longer pink. Remove chicken from pan and let cool.

In the meantime, heat the cheese wedges in a microwaveable bowl until creamy (around 30 seconds). Mix buffalo sauce with cheese and stir until mixed well with no lumps.

Cook spinach and drain.

Shred the chicken with a fork. Add chicken and spinach to a bowl. Add sauce to chicken mixture and mix well. Serve in a tortilla, on bread, as a dip, or eat it plain!

Yes, I came up with this on my own, but I got the idea from here.

2 Days till Half-Marathon #2

Resting is hard for me. Really, I have a problem with not doing physical activity. For one, I love to eat and when I don't exercise I feel like I can't eat. Needless to say, these last 2 days before the marathon where I'm supposed to be "resting" aren't going to be fun. I usually spend an hour doing cardio and then weights if it's a weights day. Perhaps I should just go for a walk or hop on the elliptical? I have a completely sedentary job, so I feel like a little physical activity wouldn't hurt these next two days.

Kentucky plays in the Final Four at 8:49 pm on Saturday night. I run the half-marathon at 8 am Sunday morning. Does this seem like a problem? It's a no brainer. I'll be out celebrating in my blue on Saturday night. We will be going back to the same pub, so it's necessary (and superstitious) that we eat the same gross pub food.UK basketball in Final Four > Half-Marathon finish time.