Summer Chicken Salad

I’ve done pretty well this past week in regards to my eats. I haven’t had any samples (or actual whole cookies) at the bakery, I’ve been limiting my carbs at night, and trying to focus on whole, healthy vegetables and fruits. I know it doesn’t seem like a big deal since it’s only been a few days, but I’m pretty happy with myself. I usually (majorly) lack self control when I’m surrounded by tempting foods, which I am everyday at work. So, I’m happy I’ve stayed strong!

Since it’s nasty hot outside, I’ve been craving cold, light foods. I found a great recipe in this month’s Oxygen magazine for a chicken and corn dish with flavors similar to a salsa.

Chicken and Corn Lettuce Wraps

• 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1/4 tsp cumin
• juice of 1 lemon
• juice of 2 limes
• about 1 cup of corn or 2 ears
• 1 sweet yellow onion
• 1 peach, diced
• 1 avocado, cubed
• 1/4 cup cilantro chopped
• sea salt and pepper to taste
• 1 head of bibb lettuce to use as lettuce cups- I couldn’t find bibb lettuce so I used regular which was…ok.
• 1 can of black beans (I added)
• 2 plum tomatoes- I didn’t include these, the hubs hates tomatoes.
• 1 jalapeno pepper- didn’t include this either because I don’t love spicy foods.

So, the original recipe actually has you grill most of the veggies and the chicken. But we don’t have a grill at the moment..any grill..not even a George Forman. So, I thought a raw salad would be just as good. Except for the onions, I’m not a huge fan of raw onions so I sauteed them first. The chicken was cooked too in case you were wondering. I’m not that much of a risk taker.

Since we are without grill, I poached the chicken. Poaching chicken is actually pretty easy and painless.

Next, I chopped up all the veggies and combined them.

I added a can of black beans to the mix too.

I mixed the chicken with a lime, a whole lemon, and cumin. Then I added the chicken to the corn mix and refrigerated it for about an hour.

That’s it! The hubs served his in lettuce leafs but I just had mine as a salad. The original recipe has you wrap them in bibb lettuce leafs which are great for wraps! Regular lettuce? Not so much.

But it turned out great! Very refreshing!

I loved it because it’s so light, healthy, and refreshing. Perfect for summer.

In other news…we picked up this beauty today:

A juicer! More on that later…

 

What’s your favorite summer salad?