goop's chicken salad

i cannot grill chicken. seriously, i suck at it. i'm probably using all the wrong pans or oils or something, but i seriously can't get it right. i've used a cuisinart griddler a few times, did alright, but i have no room for that in my apt. i've poached it but only when shredding it to add to chicken casserole b/c the look of it disturbs me. a few people suggested i cook it in the oven instead and for this culinary attempt, i did just that.

ready for the oven

this is 2 fairly large chicken breast and one tiny random piece that ended up getting too cooked to use. i didn't use any foil to line the dish, next time i will so clean up is easier. i poured a little olive oil over the pieces, sprinkled some lemon pepper, pepper and sea salt, popped those birds in the oven on 350 for about 45 min (the length of one episode of castle with the commercials fast forwarded). i didn't take an after picture, i was too excited that it had actually worked! the chicken wasn't too dry or all curled up and rubbery, perfection!

goop chicken salad

2 1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken

1 large stalk celery, cut into 1/4" dice

1/2 green apple, peeled and cut into 1/4" dice

1/3 cup toasted walnuts, roughly chopped

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

2 scallions, thinly sliced

2 handfull arugula, roughly chopped

1/2 cup veganaise

2 teaspoons fresh lime juice

coarse salt to taste (about 1/2 teaspoon)

freshly ground black pepper to taste (about 1/2 teaspoon)

the best thing about this recipe is that once the chicken is prepared, it's dump and mix.

before the mayo

i diverted a bit from the recipe. i used baby spinach instead of arugula b/c that's what i always have on hand. i had a little more than called for in the chicken so i used nearly the whole apple and a tad more mayo (i don't do vegan). i prob put about 3/4 a cup of mayo, could have stood to be just a little bit less, but def more than 1/2 cup. for the lime i used winged it, cut 1 lime in half and squeezed til i thought i'd used enough and put the rest in my water glass. i left out the parsley and scallions b/c i'm not a fan of either one.

new superhero shirt

dumper & mixed

a little bit is very filling

i had a little bit for dinner, the rest should last me for 2 lunches this week at least. it's pretty tasty. i didn't add any of the salt or pepper until after i tasted the finished salad, since i'd already seasoned the chicken before cooking. ended up sprinkling a little pepper on top for eating.

this morning i made a little change up to my breakfast smoothie by subbing in blackberries for the kiwi, so yummy.


nerd alert - i've had a small bit of briliance with a few apps since my jump into grocery shopping/cooking. i'm totally a mac: at home, at work and in my purse, i'm all apple. one thing i love is an app with a cloud to sync everything too. enter dropbox and evernote. i use evernote to "clip" recipes i want to try (that are not currently saved on my pinterest) and dropbox to manage my shopping list/price compare/food calendar. rather than had writing a list, i just open the dropbox file at work, update it and save before leaving at night. when i get to the store, presto, there it is on my iphone. if i've forgotten anything, just open evernote and check out the "clipping." you can even create multiple "notebooks" to organize your clippings: food. seriously, it's awesome.

excel via dropbox

evernote app food notebook