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.

BBQ Chicken Stuffed Potato and Laughing Cow Spinach

I've had a lone potato sitting in my fruit/veggie basket just waiting to be baked, fried, or scalloped. I chose to bake it and stuff it! I needed some greens to go with those carbs, so I added some creamed spinach made with Laughing Cow.



BBQ Chicken Stuffed Baked Potato

Ingredients: (1 serving)
1 med-large potato
3-4 oz boneless, skinless chicken, shredded
2-4 tbsp honey bbq sauce
Chicken Seasoning
Sea Salt

You can chose to microwave or bake the potato. I'm more of a convenience girl, so I chose to microwave my potato for 4.5 minutes.

Spray chicken with cooking spray and coat generously with chicken seasoning. On medium heat, cook chicken until no longer pink. Use a fork to shred the chicken.


This stuff is key!!

In a bowl, mix chicken and bbq sauce. Feel free to add more chicken seasoning.

Split potato and stuff with chicken mixture. Add sea salt to taste.

Creamed Spinach

Ingredients: (1 serving)
1 cup frozen chopped spinach
1 wedge Laughing Cow light swiss
1 tsp fat free sour cream

Cook spinach in a small saucepan. I just add it to the saucepan in it's hard, frozen state and spray it down with cooking spray so it doesn't burn. Cook until not frozen, duh. Add cheese and sour cream and stir until cheese is melted. Salt and pepper to taste.

Kentucky Advances to Final Four!

My weekend can be described in the title of this post. I've never regretted going to the University of Kentucky and this weekend proved to me that I made the best decision. I love the passion and dedication of the whole town to this one team. Despite the doubts from everyone, some of our own fans, we've advanced to the Final Four. There was screaming, shouting, tears of joy, road blocks, and couches burning in the streets. It was a day to be celebrated.

This is after we won and had jumped all in that booth.






I. LOVE. THIS. TOWN!! And those boys in blue!!!

Mmmm, the Yummiest!!

Hamburger Helper. Nothing about it is really helping anything, except your taste buds. Here's a recipe that is close to the real thing...okay, maybe even better...with ingredients that didn't come straight from a box.

Turkey Taco Helper

Ingredients:
1 lb lean ground turkey
1 1/2 cup (dry) whole wheat rotini pasta
1/2 onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 can diced tomatoes
3 oz reduced fat cream cheese
1/4 cup fat free sour cream
4 tbsp taco seasoning
1/2 tsp red pepper
salt & pepper to taste

Cook pasta as directed. Drain and save 1/4 cup pasta water. Set aside.



In the meantime, cook ground turkey, onions, carrots, and garlic until turkey is no longer pink.



Add diced tomatoes, taco seasoning, cream cheese, and sour cream. Add pasta and pasta water. Stir until cream cheese is melted.



DIG IN!