recipes 113 and 114: healthy chicken salads

Hello and Happy 2013! So, have I mentioned that my blog post that includes a Venn diagram (http://cookingmywaytothe365.blogspot.com/2012/07/recipes-55-56-and-57-beans-meet-caprese.html) has gotten exactly 8.16 times as many views as the second most viewed post (http://cookingmywaytothe365.blogspot.com/2012/04/recipes-23-and-24-chunkey-monkey.html)? And that this has led me to believe that if I wrote a blog about Venn diagrams, it would be more popular than a blog about cooking (among a sea of cooking blogs)? So suffice it to say that I am now informally changing the name of my blog to "Venning my way to the 3-6-5" or maybe "Venn-cooking my way to the 3-6-5" or maybe just "Vooking my way to the 3-6-5." If my readers want more Venn diagrams, then I will deliver and I will turn as many things into Venn diagrams as I possibly can!

So, like the rest of the world, I am trying to be healthier in 2013. Like the rest of the world, my body is sore from a too-strenous-for-me hot yoga class from yesterday morning. Like the rest of the world, I have vowed to drink only cans of Diet Coke instead of the bottle of Diet Coke that contains 2.5 servings. And like the rest of the people out there who blog about food, my first post of 2013 will be about healthy recipes. But, unlike the rest of the world, the post will include a Venn diagram:

Here it is again! That thing that my readers like to keep looking at!

In the middle of the Venn, you will soon see, is "chicken" and "salad." To the left we have certain add-ins and to the right we have different add-ins. I'm already such a good Vooker! The first recipe comes from that girl from high school whose food blog no longer exists (I really got my money's worth out of that blog before she took it down, huh?) and the second recipe is inspired by something I had in a cafeteria in sunny Los Angeles and then attempted to recreate with my own ideas! Both healthy. Both yummy. Both can be placed in wraps for lunch. Both can also be placed into a Venn diagram!

PEANUTTY CHICKEN SALAD
Ingredients:
-1 lb chicken cutlets cut into bite-sized pieces or strips
-dry spice rub
-1 container of mixed baby greens
-1 sliced cucumber
-1 sliced carrot
-3 clementines, peeled and sectioned
-halved grape tomatoes
-sliced red and yellow bell peppers
-roasted peanuts
-sesame seeds
Dressing
-1 T soy sauce
-3 T peanut butter
-juice from 1 lime
-1 1/2 T sugar
-1 1/2 T peanut oil

Instructions:
1) rub the chicken with the dry rub and grill in a grill pan until cooked, remove from pan and let cool
2) mix all other salad ingredients
3) whisk together the dressing ingredients
4) mix together the salad and dressing, top with the chicken, peanuts, and sesame seeds

CHICKEN-BROWN RICE-GOAT CHEESE-CRAISIN SALAD
Ingredients:
-1 lb chicken cutlets cut into bite-sized pieces or strips
-dry spice rub
-1 container of mixed baby greens
-a cup or so of brown rice
-crasins to taste
-sunflower seeds to taste
-crumbled goat cheese to taste
-good balsamic vinaigrette

Instructions:
1) rub the chicken with the dry rub and grill in a grill pan until cooked, remove from pan and let cool
2) mix all other salad ingredients
3) mix together the salad and dressing, top with the chicken

4) mix it all together

Doesn't my fingernail look all New-Year's-Festive? It was!