Avocado Chicken Salad

We LOVE avocados.  Love them.  We eat them all week - they are chock full of over 20 essential nutrients, including fiber, potassium, Vitamin E, B-vitamins and folic acid.  They also act as a nutrient booster by enabling the body to absorb more nutrients.  They are fantastic for you on the inside, and their rich oils can have a wonderful effect on your outer body as well.  Your hair will shine and your skin will glow.  Avocados are a miracle food. They are also delicious, duh.

So, here is one of many avocado recipes we love.

Avocado Chicken Salad

Sides for the night were spaghetti squash (my favorite vegetable, actually) and roasted corn on the cob.

A cute little yellow and green meal.

Typically, they say the more naturally colorful your food is, the healthier it is.

Avocado Chicken Salad

This recipe serves 3-4 (but serves just us two because we end up eating a lot of it:)

1 Avocado per person (we use 2), sliced in half, pitted

3-4 organic chicken breasts, cooked and chopped into small squares (we use 3)

seasoning for chicken as it cooks (we use lots of Emeril's BAM original essence)

1/2 can of corn, drained

1/2 can of black beans, rinsed and drained

1/4 C fresh cilantro, finely chopped

1/4 C green onions, finely chopped

just under 2 Tbs white vinegar (like 1 1/2)

4 1/2 Tbs of mayonaise [be careful with mayo- it can be so fattening.  We get one enriched with olive oil- it has way less fat]

Pinch of salt, to taste

Added spice ( more Emeril's)

K. That is all you will need!

Grill up the chicken and season it well! Chop it up into small squares and put them in a large mixing bowl.

Add everything else as listed above, except the avocados.

Mix it all together, and put it in the fridge for 20.

Spoon the mixture onto a halved avocado, enjoy! 

For those who want the spaghetti squash and corn recipes, here they are:

Spaghetti Squash

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Have your husband or buff self cut the squash lengthwise.  Scoop out all the yucky pit stuff.

Get a 9x13 pan, and fill it with 1/2 inch of water.

Put the spaghetti squash halves in, flesh down (flat side down) and stick it in the oven for 1 hour. The spaghetti squash will have an ever so slight crisp texture. Soo good.

To serve, scoop out the squash and add a teensy bit of butter (if you are like me), and salt and pepper.

Easy [and the BEST] Oven Roasted Corn on the Cob

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Do nothing to the corn.  Leave the husk on.  Throw it on an oven rack for 30. You are done, and your husband will love you.

Any questions, ask! Let me know what other recipes you guys are looking for!

insta @beckkai

No Zupas in El Valle........

Being that there is no Zupas 

[an incredibly good soup, salad, and sandwich restaurant majorly in Utah, and mostly created for young moms ages 20-30 with 3+ kids who go there for lunch every day]

.... in El Valle, where I live - as well as not really anything but [really delish] authentic Mexican food, I have had to learn to improvise.

My favorite thing to get there, ever, is the MangoBerry Salad.

So. Freaking. Good.

Mitch will eat anything since his mission- literally, so it is easy for me to try new things.  It makes it fun.  And I actually scored big time on this one, because he said this was one of his favorite dinners ever.

I will admit that I eyeballed some of the ingredients, so here is a general breakdown of what I did:

Copycat Zupas MangoBerry Salad

This recipe serves two.

First, make the Mango Yogurt Dressing so that you can put it in the fridge to be cold.  I have found this to be identical to the Zupas version!

Put all of these directly into a blender:

1 mango- very ripe. Cut the skin off and cut the fruit into pieces. Obviously discard the pit

Vanilla Greek Yogurt- 2 + a little more tablespoons

Honey- 1 tablespoon

Apple Cider Vinegar- 2 tablespoons (less if your mango is small)

*note: do not use regular distilled vinegar. Only apple cider vinegar will work

teeny pinch of salt

couple grinds of pepper

You will need to stir it with a spoon intermittently because it will be pretty thick and you'll want to get all the chunkies. Blend it really well, if it is too thick add like a tablespoon of water. 

SALAD

Spring Mix Greens- I buy a big 16 oz container of organic greens that usually lasts us about a week.  I just took out however much I felt like we were hungry for that night.. I don't have an exact measurement of greens. Sorry! I would say 2 ish handfuls each.. haha. Maybe 6 cups total.

*note: before you add the fruit below, toss the greens with the dressing. A little goes a looong way.

Mango- I used one whole mango. Cut the skin off and then cut as big of chunks off the mango that you can. Cut those chunks into smaller pieces.  I have found it to taste better the smaller the pieces.

Strawberries - about 1/2 cup (green thing cut off and then strawberry sliced 3-4 times)

Blueberries- about 1/3 cup (or more if you really like blueberries)

Glazed walnuts- I just eyeballed it. I sprinkled them on at the end after adding the fruit.  But I like lots of these:)

Voila.  Again, improvise or change things if you need to!  We loved it.


insta @beckkai