Chicken Avocado Salad

Do you have certain household tasks that you just simply despise? Please tell me I'm not nuts. For me, it's unloading the dishwasher and packing lunches. Now neither of these are really that bad. I grumble about cleaning the bathroom, but it's a necessary evil and doesn't bother me too much.
But for whatever irrational reason, I will come up with excuse after excuse to avoid the clean dishwasher and packing a lunch. For years it was my own lunch I was packing and that was bad enough-now we have 2 school lunches to pack for children who have decided to only be picky about food AT school. They'll eat anything at home but they're school lunches are routinely rejected. Ah, the whims of the Pre-K set.
Lucky for me, my darling husband has gotten used to my whims and has taken on my two despised tasks, so the only lunch I have to worry about is my own. When I worked, I didn't always have access to a refrigerator so lunches looked pretty basic- sandwich, veggies, and crackers of some sort. Now that I'm at home during the day I can do whatever I want for lunch, but somehow I fall into the same rut of sandwich after sandwich.
In my ongoing effort to take better care of myself (and, ahem, fit back into my favorite jeans before it actually gets cold here) I decided that I should meal plan lunches like I meal plan our dinners. Then I wouldn't resort to eating whatever random, carb-loaded stuff I could find in the kitchen when I was already starving.
I started with this Chicken Avocado Salad. I messed around with it a little to be more in line with what we usually have in our pantry. Thus green onions were out, and garlic was in. I don't really care for mayo so I switched it for greek yogurt and then added a bed of spinach to serve and eat. The flavors are light and fresh. It's more filling than it looks, and would travel well so it's a good pack-for-work-type lunch. The result was good enough for me to almost enjoy making lunch.

Caveat: There is a ton of cilantro in this, so all you cilantro haters (you know who you are) will probably want to swap it out for parsley.



Chicken Avocado Salad
adapted from Kalyn's Kitchen
Serves 2

Ingredients:
2 cups chicken breast, grilled or baked
2 avocados
1/2 cup cilantro, finely chopped
2 Tbsp lime juice, divided
1 Tbsp plain greek yogurt
1 clove garlic, minced
salt to taste
1-2 cups of spinach to serve

Roughly dice the chicken breast and set aside. Chop the avocado into similarly sized pieces and place in a mixing bowl. Mix with 1 tablespoon of lime juice.
In a small bowl, whisk together the other tablespoon of lime juice, greek yogurt, and garlic to make the dressing. Gently fold the chopped chicken, avocado, cilantro and dressing together. Add salt to taste.
Serve on a bed of spinach, with a sprinkle of cilantro as garnish.

Gazpacho

This week we have had a blissful interlude of 70-80 degree weather. It RAINED people! Rain! We have been under water restrictions since April...so this week has been downright amazing. The plants (and weeds) in my garden are growing and flowering! I spotted two bell peppers and 3 okra out there this afternoon.

Last week it was over 100 and next week it will be again, but right now Oklahoma is glorious.

In the midst of that 100+ weather last week I made a batch of gazpacho to keep for lunches. I was apprehensive the first time I made this a few years ago because cold soup just sounds a little weird until you try it. Once I finally tried it I was hooked and now every summer I make it anytime the temperatures soar. There really is nothing more refreshing than finally getting a chance to sit down on a hot day and eating something so fresh and flavorful. This is full of summer vegetables at their finest and  it doesn't need many other ingredients to enhance them. It tastes even better as it sits in the fridge over a few days and the flavors mature.

What's your go-to meal during the dog days of summer?


Gazpacho
adapted from The Barefoot Contessa and The Naptime Chef Cookbook

Ingredients:
4 tomatoes
1 cucumber, peeled
2-3 bell peppers
1/2 red onion
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
23 oz tomato juice
salt and pepper to taste (about 1 tsp each)
splash of lime juice

Put tomatoes, peppers, onion and cucumber into food processor one type at a time and finely chop. Combine them all in a large bowl and add garlic, olive oil, vinegar and tomato juice and stir together. Add salt and pepper to taste (I like about 1 teaspoon of each). Refrigerate until cold. Before serving, add a splash of lime juice. Stores in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days.