Curried Chicken Salad

I hope everyone is enjoying the weekend! I'm in the midst of my typical Sunday food prep for the week and popping in with a quick and easy recipe that we are loving right now. 

Chicken salad has been my go-to lunch lately. I buy a rotisserie chicken from my grocery store on Sunday and make a big batch of chicken salad to enjoy for lunches all week. I usually wrap mine in butter lettuce for a crunchy bite. I love adding whatever fresh vegetables and herbs I have on hand, as well as a little mayo and olive oil. Sometimes I skip the mayo all together and just do olive oil and a little vinegar. 

This curried chicken salad is my favorite. My mom has made a similar recipe for years and I always loved when she made it. It's even better leftover! This is the perfect chicken salad to munch on all week long. 

Curried Chicken Salad

1 Rotisserie chicken, shredded
handful of mini sweet peppers, diced (or one whole bell pepper)
1/4 yellow onion, finely chopped
3 scallions, thinly sliced
1 can water chestnuts, chopped
3 hearts of palm, sliced
1/3 cup mayonnaise (I use Hellman's made with olive oil)
1 Tbsp. Curry powder, or more if desired
salt and pepper, to taste

Start with the shredded chicken in a large bowl, and mix all other ingredients. Season with salt and pepper. Serve on top of a bed of mixed greens or in butter lettuce as wraps.

Fitness Friday: Smart Shopping, Meal Planning + Healthy Lunches

Happy Friday everyone! My friend Jen started a new Friday linkup and ever since we've all been kicking major butt in the LGN department, I thought it would be fun to join this week and  share some health and fitness fun. 

When it comes to staying healthy and taking care of your body, I firmly believe that this starts in the kitchen. Plenty of sleep and daily exercise are huge factors as well, but in order to make sure those things fall into place, you have to make sure you're fueling your body appropriately and with intention.  I could run and run and keep on running, but if I countered all of my hard work with donuts for breakfast every morning and a giant bowl of ice cream for dessert every night, all my hard work would go nowhere. I wish I could say that I workout so that I can eat whatever I want, but that is not the case. It's just not how my body works and I've come to accept it. It took me awhile to adopt this mentality but once I got into a solid routine and saw the positive effects that eating well had on my body as well as my workout performance and even sleeping, these healthy habits became second nature. Now, before I share some of my favorite lunches, I need to give you some background.

When I moved into my apartment my junior year in college, I was able to really take control of what I was eating because I was grocery shopping and cooking for myself. I was no longer confined to college campus food and I was excited to hone my cooking skills. This is when I discovered that if I planned my meals in advance, and made sure my refrigerator was stocked with good for me foods, I was less likely to head to the bar for beer and wings and more likely to stir fry up some chicken and vegetables at home. If I had a long day on campus ahead of me, I almost always packed a lunch to go. Knowing I had spent good money on groceries for the week was also a clear incentive to let nothing go to waste. 

Fast forward to my Charlotte apartment when I was working a corporate job, my roommate Ashley and I would sit down every Sunday, plan our dinners for the week and go to the market to pick up everything that we needed. I credit this wonderful living situation for really making me fall in love with meal planning. We actually enjoyed it and we always looked forward to our meals together. Ashley and I were both big on bringing our lunches to work. We stocked up on salad ingredients, hummus, veggies and yogurt. Some weeks, we would even buy a rotisserie chicken to shred up and use for the week. We also planned our meals accordingly so that we had yummy leftovers to use as lunch options as well. When you work in an office environment, it's especially hard to turn down lunches out and treats from the gift baskets that clients send in. I wish I would have added up all of the lunches out that I turned down in my my time there, I bet I saved a TON of money. Working in an office like mine was a HUGE test in self control and looking back, I am honestly proud of how well I did. 

Now that I work from home most days, I don't really operate any differently. When I do my grocery shopping for the week, I make sure to pick up things that will be good options for lunch, also knowing that I will have some leftovers from dinners throughout the week. I'm a big fan of re-purposing dinner leftovers for lunch. If we are grilling chicken for dinner, I try to plan that for the beginning of the week. We'll make four times what we need and that way we have chicken to throw on salads for lunch. I do the same thing with flank steak, pork tenderloin, shrimp and salmon. Leftover roasted veggies are also great the next day! I enjoy all of these cold straight from the fridge and on salads is the perfect way to eat the leftovers. 

Here are some of my favorite go-to lunches:

Big Salads

I'm a big salad eater. Trader Joe's is my favorite place to grab fresh arugula or mini lettuce mixes- I always have some on hand. Sometimes, I skip the lettuce all together and just go leafless. On my salads, I like some form of protein and just add in vegetables and sometimes fruits if I want something sweet. Avocado is one of my favorite salad toppings! Sometimes I'll add crumbled goat cheese and a handful of nuts. Walnuts are my favorite right now. I just top my salad with a small drizzle of good olive oil, some balsamic vinegar and season with salt and pepper. 

Mediterranean Tuna Salad on Cucumbers

This tuna is so yummy and quick to whip up. I take a can of tuna in water, throw in some chopped red onions, tomatoes and kalamata olives. I mix in some balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper and oregano, and eat it on top of cucumber slices. 

Turkey, Avocado + Tomato Lettuce Wraps

We love lettuce wraps around here. I almost always have a head of iceberg lettuce in my refrigerator solely for making lettuce wraps. I have my turkey cut fresh in the deli and just build a normal sandwich using lettuce instead of bread! I like to pile my lettuce wraps with turkey, tomato, avocado and dijon mustard.

All of these lunches are incredibly healthy and take less than 10 minutes to prepare. The extra time it takes to plan is worth the extra inches off of your waistline. 

Enjoy the weekend, everyone!!

Perfect Roast Chicken

Roasting a chicken used to intimidate me. Handling a whole bird and cleaning it properly royally freaked me out. It wasn't until recently that I put my big girl panties on and conquered this feat. Roasted chicken is now a staple on our dinner menu almost every week! It's easy, full of flavor and makes great leftovers for weekday lunches. I have even roasted a chicken on Sundays just for the purpose of eating lunches throughout the week. With a little help from Ina Garten and pulling out years of watching my mom in the kitchen from my elephantish memory, I have developed a great go-to method for roasting a fresh, young bird! The end result is juicy, tender chicken with the flavors of rosemary and lemon. (plus a week's worth of lunches!)

Perfect Roast Chicken

recipe adapted from Ina Garten

One 3-5 lb. roasting chicken

2 lemons, one cut in half, the other cut into wedges

1 clove garlic, cut crosswise

1 large bunch fresh rosemary

2 Tbsp. melted butter

Salt & pepper

Olive oil

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Remove chicken giblets and thoroughly rinse chicken inside and out. Pat dry. Salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Place chicken in a French Oven or roasting pan. Stuff the bird with half the bunch of rosemary, two lemon halves and the head of garlic. Stuff the remaining bunch of rosemary underneath the chicken skin. Brush the outside of the chicken with the melted butter and sprinkle with more salt and pepper. Place the onions and lemon wedges in the roasting pan and drizzle quickly with olive oil.

Roast for 1.5 hours, or until the juices run clear. Remove the chicken from the roasting pan and let sit for 15-20 minutes.

lunching with leftovers:

• Monday- Chicken Caesar Salad
• Tuesday- Emily's Thai Chicken Wraps
• Wednesday- Shredded chicken, tomato, avocado and red pepper pesto lettuce wraps
• Thursday- Chicken salad (Less mayonnaise, no mustard and add grapes! Fresh dill and tarrgon take this recipe over the top)
• Friday- Mexican Chopped Salad with chicken