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 ;)

Tis the Season... To Eat!

Depending on where you are in the country, you may be experiencing some wacky weather. What's even wackier is that there isn't much of a difference in what you find in the produce section of the grocery store. Pretty much any time of the year, you can find the same foods, even though they are not grown year round.

The way that happens is food is grown around the world, maybe tens of thousands of miles away. It gets picked when it's not quite ripe, then sprayed down with preservatives.Then it gets shipped to your grocery store. You may notice the food tastes a little off, the tomatoes aren't quite red. The berries are shriveled and a little lightly colored. That's because if the food is picked when it's ripe, it would go bad by the time it makes its way to grocery store shelves.

One way to ensure you are getting the freshest and best tasting food is to eat what is in season. Eating what is grown seasonally keeps your grocery costs down as well as reducing the carbon footprint it takes to get your food to your plate.  Plus the food tastes way better! A great way to see what's in season near you is to check out the farmer's market and see what they have. (For all my fellow Las Vegans, there's one at the Whole Foods on Las Vegas Blvd every Friday from 3-7.)

If you can't make it to a farmer's market, you can check out this list I compiled. The list obviously varies by region, but I think it's pretty general for the U.S. at least. So here is a list of the foods that are in season each month:

January:
Apples, citrus (especially tangerines, blood oranges, clementines, grapefruit), pomegranates, pears, beets, brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, kale, leeks, potatoes, rhubarb, winter squashes (acorn, butternut)

February:
Bananas, citrus (blood oranges, lemons), pears, pineapple, pomegranate, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, chard, artichoke, parsnips, potatoes, spinach, turnips

March:
Bananas, blood oranges, lemons, kiwi, pomegranate, mangoes, rhubarb, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, leeks, green onions

April:
Asparagus, broccoli, kale, lettuce, radishes, rosemary, spinach, green onions, garlic

May:
Apricots, cherries, artichokes, asparagus, broccoli, carrots, new potatoes, radishes, spinach, watercress

June:
Apricots, cherries, melon, strawberries, asparagus, broccoli, carrots, fennel, lettuce, peas, watercress, zucchini

July:
Apricots, blackberries, blueberries, melons, nectarines, peaches, raspberries, strawberries, tomatoes, cucumber, fennel, green beans, lettuce, onions, peas, sage

August:
Apricots, blackberries, blueberries, melons, peaches, raspberries, tomatoes, basil, cucumber, green beans, kohlrabi, onions, peas, zucchini, eggplant

September:
Apples, blackberries, figs, grapes, melons, nectarines, peaches, pears, plums, tomatoes, beets, butternut squash, carrots, celery, cucumber, kale, leeks, peppers, radishes, corn, wild mushrooms

October:
Apples, figs, grapes, pears, tomatoes, butternut squash, celery, mushrooms, onions, potatoes, pumpkin, turnips, sweet potatoes

November:
Apples, cranberries, passionfruit, pears, artichoke, parsnips, potatoes, pumpkin, turnips, wild mushrooms, sweet potatoes

December:
Apples, clementines, cranberries, passionfruit, pears, pineapple, pomegranate, tangerines, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, celery, chicory, kale, leeks, parsnips, red cabbage, turnips

For a great seasonal salad, check out my previous post "Smart Swaps" from May 2012. It's a warm kale salad with all kinds of winter seasonal ingredients. (It's delicious any time of year, which is why I was making it in May.) Fruit salad with apples and citrus with some fresh mint chopped in is also yummy.

Let me know if you have any other seasonal recipes!

Happy New Year!

Hey guess who's back!?

...

Me :)

It's a new year which means review last year and figure out how this year is going to be better. Let me just say, 2013 was filled with some highs and some lows. I have mixed feelings about this year, especially today because it is exactly six months since we lost such a sweet kid and part of our family. But I am thankful to have had him in my life and to celebrate his. <3

A new year is always filled with resolutions and people wanting to get healthier. And I am no different. However, my resolution is not just for myself, but for you too! I have many resolutions, but the one I know I can and will stick to is to not let this blog disappear for months again. I promise to update at least once a week from now on.

I definitely fell off the healthy wagon this year. Uh, by the way, I'm not a vegetarian anymore. Oops. Also, I haven't really been cooking very much. I got a little part time job or something like that, so I have been really busy. Not that that's an excuse. And by the time I get home from working all day, I'm so tired that I haven't been working out either. So basically my healthy life is nonexistent. I think everyone gets off track every once in awhile, but this is OUT OF CONTROL.

Anyway, I have a plan to make sure that 2014 is healthier and happier than 2013. Here are my resolutions and how I plan on keeping them.

1. Keep up with my blog. I'll be accomplishing this by setting aside Saturday afternoons to write a post. I don't usually tutor on Saturdays so I should have extra time to get this done. I also have a little list in my phone of ideas to write about whenever inspiration strikes me.

2. Make sure I eat healthy meals. The hardest part of this is not being prepared when I'm running around all day and I'm not home for 15 hours at a time. So I need to work on having something with me all the time, so I don't have to stop and buy something crappy. I do have stuff that I make in bulk and freeze, but I am not so good at bringing it with me. I just need to work on getting it ready the night before and always having something healthy. Plus I got the most amazing kitchen gadgets to motivate me to make healthy stuff.

3. Get some kind of exercise 5 times a week. This goes back to being prepared. Making sure I have my gym bag with me everyday will make me more likely to hit the gym or yoga on my way home. Even if I don't make it to the gym, just going for a run, or doing a simple workout at home would suffice. And now that it's warming up a little, I might be a little more willing to go for a jog.

4. Create a budget and actually stick to it. I don't just need to get my body healthy, but my bank account to. It's been sick for awhile now. Now that I'm writing these out, I'm sensing a trend. I need to work on preparedness. Stopping every day to buy food is not doing good things for my wallet. I've written out a budget and I need to make sure I pay my bills right when I get paid and make saving another mandatory bill.

5. Be more positive. I find myself being a whiny, complainy bitch sometimes, and that just needs to stop. Looking at the glass half full will make me and the people around me much happier. So this year, I'm going to make a conscious decision of the words that I choose and try to see the good things more clearly.

I think five is plenty of resolutions to have and hopefully it will help other parts of my life to fall together as well. What are your resolutions? What do you want to do this year? Let me know and also if you have anything you'd like me to write about!