The concept of packing my lunch for school or work is one I stress about. I never know what to make. A lot of people pack leftovers, which would be easy, but I'm not a good left-over eater. Plus, I HATE the idea of bringing containers home to wash - I want to be able to throw everything away when I'm done. I'm also bad about making my lunch ahead of time, so I run out of time in the morning to make anything worth eating. Microwaveable lean cuisines are easy, but I can't handle more than 1-2 days of those wonderful, filling meals. Plus, I completely lose my appetite while using the student lounge microwaves at school. gag.
I think Ryan and I have finally come up with a good lunch solution. I make a big batch of chicken salad for lunch at the beginning of the week, and it lasts several days, and is soo yummy and easy.
Here's the recipe if yall want to try it out. I double it and it lasts the whole week. Plus when you buy a a lot of the ingredients like celery, grapes, and apples, doubling will use up all that produce.
Lemony Chicken and Red Grape Salad
Ingredients
Chicken:
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts (preferably organic)
Juice and zest from 1 lemon
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme (optional)
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
Yogurt Dressing:
3/4 cup plain yogurt
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
¼ cup finely diced celery
¼ cup finely diced green apple
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 tablespoon chopped basil
½ cup seedless red grapes, halved
Instructions
1. In a medium bowl, combine chicken, lemon juice and zest and juice, thyme and garlic and let sit in the refrigerator 30 minutes. Remove chicken from bowl and season with pepper and salt. Using an outdoor grill or stove-top grill pan, cook over medium heat 5 to 8 minutes on each side or until cooked through. Cool and cut into ½-inch cubes.
2. To make the dressing, combine yogurt, mayonnaise, celery, apples, vinegar, parsley, basil and grapes; mix well. Add cooked chicken and let sit in the refrigerator 10 minutes.
Serves 6.
Note: I've actually never done the marinated chicken part. I buy a pre-roasted chicken from the grcoery store and use that, which save a TON of time. The rest is just chopping and mixing!
Chicken salad on wheat bread + BBQ baked lays + Dr. Pepper = heaven
5 comments:
This sounds so yummy but sandwiches for lunch completely gag me out. I wonder if I could just eat it with crackers instead. That sounds delish.
I usually eat frozen meals, which is gross but it's convenient so far. Ugh, lunches stress me out!
Man, you are a committed blogger, posting at 6am before class. Thanks for the recipe! See you in 20 minutes!
Chicken salad is my favorite on-the-go lunch, too. There are so many yummy variations (my fav is one with dried cranberries and green onion) and a million times more appetizing than eating Lean Cuisine sesame chicken for the millionth time!
Going to try this! :)
Thanks for posting this!! Coming up with creative ideas for lunch is something I worry about too. I'll have to try this out soon!
Post a Comment