Everything but the Kitchen Sink Chicken Salad

Hey guys!

I just realized I haven't posted anything in almost a week which I have no idea how time got away from me that badly! I had a mini stay-cation from Thursday to Sunday so I was pretty much off the grid just relaxing. I was thinking it was only Thursday or Friday since I last posted but I was clearly wrong! I have a ton of posts to catch up on so I'll be getting those up as quickly as possible.

The first thing I want to share with you is an amazing salad that I made on Friday for dinner because it was seriously one of the best salads I've made in awhile, maybe ever. It was random assortment of whatever I could find in my house and it all worked together deliciously!

This salad had:
3 oz chicken
3-4 cups organic mixed greens
3 strawberries, halved
Couple of red grapes, halved
Handful of mini heirloom tomatoes, halved
Brussel sprouts (sauteed)
Onion (sauteed)
Slivered Almonds
Feta cheese
1/2 yellow bell pepper
1/4 cup sugar snap peas
1 quinoa tortilla chip, crumbled
1 dried apricot, diced
2 tbsp raspberry vinaigrette

I ended up with a lot more components than I originally planned because I just kept perusing my kitchen and finding more things I wanted to add to the salad. I absolutely love adding warm components to a cold salad which is why I decided to saute the brussel sprouts and onions plus it adds great flavor! So while I was cooking the chicken I cooked the veggies, too.

Also this turned out to be one of the best batches of chicken in a long time-- it was so juicy and flavorful! I cook my chicken in a different way than everyone always says. You're supposed to sear it first to get color and then cook it through but I do the exact opposite. I allow the chicken to cook more than halfway through and then crank up the heat to sear the outside to get some color. I find that when I do it the other way the chicken always dries out much quicker. This goes against what most people will say but to each his own, though, and I find I have more success cooking the chicken this way!

I know you can't see everything since it's just a giant pile of random but I promise it's all in there!

My taste buds were in heaven. Then, as if dinner wasn't enough, it was also "Treat Yoself Friday" as I have begun to call it. Any Parks and Rec fans? Well if you are then you know what I'm talking about with "treat yoself". 

We decided to go to Glen's which is a small ice cream stand nearby us. It's all homemade, low prices, and the flavors never disappoint! It's really a hidden gem and by the grace of God they had a new flavor-- cake batter. I mean homemade cake batter flavored custard? This is the working of a divine mastermind. So since I hit my macros perfectly all week and my trainer readily supports a treat meal, I savored this cake batter hot fudge sundae without zero guilt. Didn't trigger a binge or anxiety or fear of foods or anything! I have never had more balance in my life with my relationship with food than in the past couple months. It's amazing and I promise that post is coming soon, too! 

Someone else came along for the ride! She gets so excited to come with us in the car and was even more excited when she got her own little kiddie scoop of ice cream. I mean after all who said she can't participate in Treat Yoself Friday?!

Once we got home I crashed on the couch in a full-on food coma and we had a cozy night in watching cheesy ABC Family movies on Netflix. Our new streaming device came for our TV so we wasted no time in setting it up to get our chick-flick fix! And of course, I had some company.