Awesome Chicken Salad

Awesome Chicken Salad

Modified from this recipe

2 chicken breasts

1 Tbls. olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

1/4 to 1/2 C. chicken broth

1/2 C. mayonnaise

1/2 tsp. paprika

3/4 C. dried cranberries

2 green onions, chopped

1/4 C. minced green bell pepper

1/4 C. salted pistachios, chopped

1/2 tsp. seasoning salt

1. In a large 12-inch nonstick skillet with lid, heat the olive oil over medium heat until hot and rippling.  Pat the chicken dry and season with salt and pepper on both sides.  Place the chicken top-side down in the hot skillet and let the chicken cook for 5 minutes until golden brown on top.  Flip the chicken over, add the chicken broth, cover the skillet and let the chicken simmer gently over medium heat for 7-10 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.  Remove the chicken from the skillet, let it cool, then shred.

2. In a medium bowl, mix together all ingredients.  Chill for 1 hour before serving.

Comments:

What can I say other than we love it...well, I can say that it makes a great open face sandwich on toasted ciabatta bread.

Roasted Squash and Pine Nut Quinoa

Roasted Squash and Pine Nut Quinoa

Recipe found here

1 Butternut Squash

1 C. of quinoa

1/3 C. pine nuts

12 cherry tomatoes

3 C. broccoli (cut bite size)

2 limes

1 bunch cilantro

Olive Oil

Oregano

Thyme

Rosemary

Paprika

salt

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Peel the skin off of the squash and chop into little cubes.  Put the cubes on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle on dried herbs, paprika and salt.  Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.  Stir the squash and bake for another 10-15 minutes until soft, but slightly firm.

2. While the squash cooks, make the quinoa according to package directions, but adding the juice of one lime, dried herbs and salt to taste.  Let it cook for 10-15 minutes.  Chop the broccoli and cilantro.  Add them to the quinoa with 5 minutes left of cooking time.

3.  Toast the pine nuts in a frying pan on medium heat.  This should only take 3-4 minutes, so be careful not to burn them.

4. Cut the cherry tomatoes into quarters. 

5. One the quinoa and the squash are cooked, stir them together with the pine nuts and the more lime juice and the cherry tomatoes--do not cook the tomatoes!

Comments:

I absolutely love this recipe.  It has some of my favorite flavors and it is extremely healthy.  You can also add the avocado cream from the original recipe, but my avocado's weren't ripe yet, so we had it without, and I don't think that it needs it.  This recipe is a gluten free vegan dish (I can't believe I'm even trying to feed it to my family) and it give me hope that you can eat deliciously without added sugar or dairy.  No worries, I'm not going on some extreme diet or anything, I just say this blog and it looked delicious...I will definitely be trying more recipes from Ella!