Chicken Salad

Hello friends. Clearly I haven't forgotten that this blog exists. I just had not been cooking much on my own for a while. In fact, that whole healthy living thing just kinda evaded me for a while and I put on a few pounds as proof.

The one actual lifestyle change that worked for me was trying the ketogenic lifestyle. I will not gush about it as many people do. It worked very well for me when I stuck to it. I only stopped sticking to it during my wedding planning process as I was still new at that lifestyle and it takes a bit of work at the beginning to learn and plan your foods. There's a lot more cooking at home that happens for sure, which is great all around. Until you run out of time because wedding planning.

Anyway, I hope to get back to it but at the moment I'm just trying to eat healthy where I can and practice portion control (which is huge for me since I scarf things like no other).

So, on to the chicken salad. Sadly, I have no pictures. I was a bum and didn't take any while preparing this dish. I hope you understand.

I roasted a chicken in my oven a while back. When it was done, my fiance and I looked at each other and realized that we weren't hungry. So we stuck it in the fridge. A week went by... finally I decided it was time to eat that thing, so I put it in my crock pot with some filtered water and a few spices and boiled it until I had chicken broth. Then we tried to eat it.

It was very clearly old chicken. You could taste the "aged" flavor. We managed to eat a few bites, and then filled up on the rice I had made with the broth.

Figuring this was a total loss I put all my eggs in one basket: chicken salad. There was a lot of meat on that bird that I did not want to waste. I grew up very poor, so, unless there was mold on it, it was valid leftovers (I am not that bad anymore, but this chicken was definitely something that everybody else I know would have just thrown out by this point. In fact, they probably would have thrown it out before even bothering to make broth) and had to be eaten. Besides how I was raised, there's also the wedding budget to consider. We are putting more into this wedding than I expected, but at the end of the day, it will be really nice and it will be worth it. But it means we have to tighten our belts. And wasting a whole chicken just really isn't an option.

So, the first thing I did was scour the internet for some recipes and I found a few that I wanted to massage into a coherent recipe for myself. I love the website Use Real Butter and her Chicken Salad Recipe was a great starting base for mine. Then, after a long day at work yesterday, I went to the store and bought my supplementary ingredients: mayo, green onions, grapes, celery, and parsley.

Here's the deal. I hate nuts in my food. Absolutely and completely hate nuts in my food. I love them on their own, but not in my food. Their texture is all wrong. ALL WRONG. The same goes for apples in chicken salad. Just no. I never realized how picky I was about food texture until I hit a few foods that were so discordant in their texture that it was physically jarring.

To me, chicken salad should have the consistency of tuna salad, with a hint of crunch but without needing a lot of chewing. Also, celery has a tendency to be over powering, so no huge chunks.

How to accomplish this? Simple, take your celery, slice it lengthwise and then slice it into little chunks from there. You know how if you just slice celery it makes these little curved smiles? Cut those in half and you have the right sized chunks. These little chunks provide a little crunch and burst of celery flavor, but they're so small they don't overpower everything else AND they don't take much time to chew.

Along with slicing the green onions and the grapes and chopping some fresh parsley, the rest of the recipe is mixing. Speaking of mixing, you will notice there are no cranberries or raisins. I love cranberries and they're okay in my chicken salads but my fiance hates them with a passion (more for me). Deciding that I could do without a chewy texture in my chicken salad I opted for the slight sweetness of grapes.

How did my recipe fare? Did the fiance like it?

Oh boy did he ever! He asked for seconds! Which is saying something considering he took two bites of the plain chicken the night before and then politely declined eating any more of it.

Without further ado the chicken salad recipe.

Ingredients:
2 cups cooked chicken, diced
1 cup grapes, sliced 1/4" thick
1/4 cup celery, finely diced
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1/8 cup fresh parsley, minced
3/4 cup mayonnaise (more or less as needed)
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp salt (more or less as needed)

Instructions:
Combine the all the ingredients in a mixing bowl. Season with additional salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy in sandwiches, on saltine crackers, or straight from the bowl.

Serves: About 3

Day 10 Total: 1315 Calories

Late submission. Don't worry, I'm keeping track of my food intake. I'll try to be more faithful with staying up to date.

Breakfast:
1 Snickers Ice Cream Snack Bar
1/2 Sara Lee Cinnamon Raisin Bagel
2 Tbsp Kraft Philadelphia Cream Cheese

315 Calories

Lunch:
2/3 Cup Knudsen Cottage Cheese
1/4 Cup Dole Crushed Pineapple (in heavy syrup)
2 cans Pepsi Throwback

Take 1/4 cup of the crushed pineapple and mix it in with 1/2 cup cottage cheese (I did 2/3 cottage cheese this time, but it was a bit much)

515 Calories

Dinner:
1 & 1/2 Chicken Breast
1 cup Salad
2 tbsp Balsamic Vinaigrette
14 oz Squirt

485 Calories

Day 9 Total: 1615 Calories

Late submission. Don't worry, I'm keeping track of my food intake.

Breakfast:
2 cups Sprite
2 cups Coffee
1/4 cup Whole Milk
2 heaping tsp Sugar
1 Sara Lee Plain Bagel
4 tbsp Philidelphia Cream Cheese
2 oz Nova Smoked Salmon

838 Calories

Lunch:
1 Papaya Spear
1 Snickers Ice Cream Snack Bar
1/2 cup Raspberry Sorbet
1/4 Banana
2/3 Vanilla Ice Cream

447 Calories

Dinner:
1 Cup Ginger Ale
1 Chicken Breast
1 cup Salad
3 tbsp Raspberry Hazelnut Dressing

330 Calories

Day 6 Total: 2427 Calories

Oh man. That total is disheartening. I went from too little to too much. But, my blood pressure went down from 140/100 to 127/72. Most everything was healthy today except the soda (which I shouldn't have had because today is not Saturday) and the coffee (which I also shouldn't have had because today is not Sunday).

Breakfast:

12 oz 2% Milk
1 cup Coffee
4 packets Sugar
4 tbsp Half & Half

Again I should have had something more for breakfast.

331 Calories

Lunch:

2 slices Sourdough Bread
1/4 cup Spinach
1 tsp Red Onion
1 tsp Black Olives
2 slices Salami
5 slices Pepperoni
4 slices Black Forest Ham
1/4 Avocado
2 slices Provolone Cheese

This all adds together to make a wonderful panini. Instead of eating all of this sandwich, I should have had half and saved the other half for later.

910 Calories.

Afternoon Snack:

1/2 Sara Lee Plain Bagel
3 Tbsp Kraft Philadelphia Cream Cheese
2 oz Smoked Salmon

375 Calories

Dinner:

1 Foster Farms Chicken Breast
2 cups Salad
3 tbsp Italian Dressing
2 cups Sprite
1/4 Tsp Orange Blossom Honey
1/6 Banana
1/6 Peach
1/8 Pink Lady Apple
1 Tbsp Vanilla Lowfat Yogurt
1/2 Tsp Golden Raisins
16 oz 2% Milk

I should have halved this too. So marinate the chicken in the Italian dressing overnight. Then grill or broil it. Cut it up and serve it on your salad with a little more dressing to top it.

811 Calories

Water Intake:

1 cup Tap Water

Day 2 Total: 1796 Calories (Uh-Oh)

Well, I wasn't home today, so I had the disadvantage of eating whatever was available. That can be killer to a calorie count as it certainly was today. Also, I seriously need to cut out the soda. Seriously. Starting Sunday let's see if I can pull off a soda free month (with the exception of one cup/can of soda on Saturdays).

Breakfast:
Well I started off good. I wasn't even hungry this morning, but I did eat breakfast like a good girl. And then the soda bug bit me. Please don't blame me. My car has no air. I wanted something cool to drink

1/4 Sara Lee Plain Bagel

1 tbsp Kraft Philadelphia Cream Cheese
1 oz Smoked Salmon

2 cups Sprite

Cut your bagel, top with cream cheese, and then top with a slice of Nova Smoked Salmon (a.k.a. Lox).

365 Calories

Lunch:
Lunch wasn't all that bad... until we get to the chocolate malted milk

2 Slices Oroweat Whole Wheat Bread

6 Thin Slices Chicken

2 Thin Slices Turkey

1 Leaf Romaine Lettuce

1 tbsp Best Foods Mayonnaise

1 tsp Mustard

1/8 Gala Apple

1/3 Banana

1/8 Peach

1 cup Fat Free Milk

3 tbsp Carnation Chocolate Malt

Put your meat and mayo and lettuce and mustard in between your two pieces of bread and nom. Cut up the apple, peach, and banana into small chunks and mix together in a bowl. If you must splurge on the malted milk, put less malt in. It's too sweet otherwise.

693 Calories (ouch >-<, my hips are going to feel this one)

Afternoon Splurge:
Yeah, I've been six months without boba. I should've picked a different day (and skipped the soda).

1 Large Green Tea Milk Tea with Boba

318 Calories

Dinner:
Again it's really the soda that kills me here.
 

2 Wheat Thins Hint of Salt

1 Slice Port Wine Cheese Ball

1 tsp Rondele Garlic and Herb Cheese

2 Small Lemon Sandwich Cookies

1/2 Slice Milton Whole Grain Bread

1 Thin Slices Turkey

1 & 1/2 cups Schweppes Ginger Ale

  Put the cheese on the Wheat Thins. Put the turkey in the bread. Eat up.