Cilantro Chicken Salads

Good evening! I’m happy to report that I went running this morning before work, and I actually really loved it today! (Now that it’s above freezing in the AMs here in FL again!). I really felt that I was much more alert and energy was definitely flowing as I was driving in to work (I’m already a morning person though – if you’re not a morning person, try this, you may be surprised!)

However – is there anyone else out there who has transitioned between running/ working out at night and in the AM? Or vice versa? As I was driving home I was experiencing all these thoughts of “ahh I need to go for a run when I get home, I gotta get it in,” etc., but then was like “doh! LC honey, you already ran yourself in circles this morning!!” Plus, I had an awful, awfullll headache when I got home (so afraid it was going to turn into a migraine because it kept getting worse and worse and advil didn’t help). If I hadn’t run this morning I definitely would not have done anything today!

Moving on to the food, I know, it’s why y’all are here. Tonight I made a Cilantro Chicken Salad. (I’m going to kind of divide the ingredients and instructions/ pictures in steps).

Combine the following ingredients into a seasoning paste:

Approx. 1 (loose) cup cilantro leaves (after measuring, finely chop them)
2-3 large garlic cloves, finely chopped (or 5 or 6 dinky ones like I had)
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
Approx. 1/2 tsp. lemon juice

Butterfly 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts. If you’re nervous about butterflying the chicken, just take it slow and always just be aware of where your fingers are and where your knife is. Also – try not to “saw” at the chicken with a knife, but make long, smooth cuts.

Divide the cilantro so there’s some on both sides of the chicken breast and inside the pocket.

I cooked the chicken in a stainless steel pan over medium-low heat, with about 1/2 a Tablespoon of evoo until the inner temp reached 165 degrees Fahrenheit.

Here’s a super-close shot of the cilantro inside the chicken after it was done and sliced on my salad.

For the actual salad, I just made a small bed of romaine, a small scoop of Spanish rice, raw red, orange, green, and yellow peppers, a few slices of chicken (1 breast between the two of us, the other is for lunches), a spoonful of Newman’s mango salsa, a sprinkle of Mexican cheese, and some cilantro leaves on top. Yum!!

hehe, like my background? I saw the newspaper on the table from when I did my coupon-cutting last night and decided to utilize the comics – reminds me of how my dad used to wrap birthday presents. (sidenote: for all you Sabra hummus lovers out there, there was a $1.50 coupon off of one container in yesterday’s paper! Plus SO much more!).

Oh, and I of course have to share that we’ve been married exactly 6 months today. I’m not gonna lie, we’ve gone through a lot more in the first 6 months of marriage than we thought we would (myself being unemployed nearly all of the first 6 months, a couple deaths on Ross’ side, moving to a new town, feeling like many old friends are slowly becoming lost friends and thus not having a big community around us) but this is all making us so much stronger. I definitely knew that even though I was making the easiest decision of my life, that didn’t mean our life together would be easy. But don’t worry, there have been plenty of wonderful, good, and fun times in there too!! The whole holiday season, just to name one series of good memories off the top of my head! And there is SO much more good to come!!