Honey Lemon Chicken Salad

Hey guys! I moved in to my new apartment this week! I'm so happy!!!!! I love living by myself and having this amazing kitchen all to myself. Plus I feel like a real adult now. So since I've been here, I've been cooking a lot more, and tonight I made the most amazing salad. It has a lot of components, so it might look complicated, but all of them are super simple. I'll just get straight to the point and  just give you the recipe now. :)

Honey Lemon Chicken Salad
Greens, lettuce, and whatever else you like in your salad. Enough for 2 people
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup honey
juice of 1 lemon
2 cloves garlic, minced
1tsp chili powder
2 tsp olive oil
1 cup quinoa
1 cup each water and chicken or vegetable broth
1 cup frozen corn
1 small tomato, diced
1 avocado, cubed
1 orange, segmented
2 tbsp chopped cilantro
salt and pepper

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Rub 1tsp of oil on the chicken and place in a baking dish. Combine the soy sauce, 3 tbsp of the honey (I just eyeballed it and went with a very generous drizzle), the juice of half the lemon, the garlic and the chili powder. Pour over the chicken and bake for 20 minutes or until the chicken is cooked all the way through. When it's all done, let it cool a little bit and slice it. Meanwhile, combine the water, broth, and quinoa in a small pot and bring to a boil. Turn down to a simmer and cook for 10 more minutes, or until the liquid has been absorbed and the quinoa is fluffy. In another pan, heat the remaining 1 tsp of oil over medium heat. Toast the corn until it's a little bit charred. Put the greens in 2 big bowls, or on plates and top with the sliced chicken, quinoa, corn, orange, tomato and avocado. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and cilantro, then drizzle with the juice of the other half of the lemon and a little more honey.

I had some leftover salad from last night's dinner with mixed greens, carrots, celery and cucumber so I just used that. You can adjust the ingredients to whatever you like. If you want to swap the chicken for tofu, go for it. If you want to add black beans, I think that would be delicious. In fact, I wanted to add black beans, but I can't find my can opener and I don't have any that I cooked. If you want to leave out the orange because you think it's weird, be my guest. If you don't like cilantro (which is apparently a common thing that I just don't understand), leave it out. And maybe top it with some tortilla chips or toasted pumpkin seeds. This salad is your playground, my friends.

So freaking good. You can thank me later ;)