Barbecue Chicken Salad with Poppy-seed Dressing and my "hangry" moment

 If you've been around the blog you will notice I don't blog a lot of salads. Though I eat do a lot of greens. In fact I probably have one salad as a main meal or as a side daily. I just don't post salad recipes because it is so "diet-like." This is not a diet blog. No sir. It is a healthy eating and living blog. It took me a LONG time to come up with my blog name and even longer to start writing. At first it was simply The Lean Gourmet. I wasn't referring to myself as " the lean gourmet," but rather the recipes. However, that's how it came across so the blog became The Lean Gourmet Kitchen.  I am posting this recipe because it is SO SO SO good. Just look at that picture. I know you want to pick up the fork and dig in don't you? Just look at the juicy tomato, the yummy BBQ chicken, and oh look at those pears with grill lines and all! Ok enough of my shananigans and onto the recipe.

Barbecue Chicken Salad with Poppy-Seed Dressing

4 cooked and cubed chicken breasts

1 cup of Mango Barbecue sauce 

2 pears peeled and thinly sliced

2 tsp of sunflower oil

1 chopped tomato

1/3 cup of raisins

1 bag of  fresh spinach

Cheese for garnish ( we used Gorgonzola)

*Gluten free croutons ( I made mine from this multi-grain bread recipe)

Divide spinach up onto 4 plates. In a mixing bowl combine barbecue sauce and chicken. Mix until combined then divide chicken up onto each plate of spinach. Heat oil in pan and add pears.I cooked my pears in my cast iron grill pan to give the pears the sear lines. Saute until soft then place pears onto a paper towel lined plate and cool before adding to salad. Once pears are slightly cooled add to salad along with tomato, raisins, cheese and croutons if desired. Top with dressing. 

Serves 4.

*To make your own gluten free croutons. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Slice your favorite gluten free bread into cubes and bake until dry and golden 5-10 minutes.

Poppy-Seed Dressing (from the Joy of Cooking)

1/4 cup of honey

3 TBS of apple cider vinegar

2 tsp of Dijon mustard

1 TBS of minced shallot of onion

1 tsp of poppy seeds

salt and pepper to taste

Place honey and vinegar in mixing bowl. Whisk until hone is dissolved then whisk in mustard. Once combined stir in poppy seeds, shallot, salt, and pepper.

My Hangry Moment and New Adjustable Weights

                             

When we were first married my husband would remind me to pack snacks when we would go do errands. I have always had this tendency for "hangry" moments. I will get hungry then get moody a bit unpleasant. Well I had a hangry moment yesterday. Here is my little YouTube explaining it.

This is the workout I did designed by my virtual trainer, Kyra, of The Get In Shape Girl.

warm up/ stretch
circuit 1 - three times:

Jump Rope x 50 revolutions

Plank x 30 seconds

Mountain climbers x 20 each leg

Crab taps x 10 each side

circuit 2 - three times:
Lateral bear crawls x 10 paces each way

Tricep dips x 15

Hammer curls x 10 each arm

Lateral raises x 10

Front raises x 10

Rear delt flyes on SB x 10, hold last one 10 seconds

circuit 3 - three times
Dropsets - Overhead Tricep Extension & Alternating Bicep Curls

Pick one heavy weight for the overhead tricep extension and perform until failure.  This weight should be heavy enough that you can only do about 4 or 5 reps.  Then use a lower weight (app. 20% less) and perform until failure.  Continue using less weight until you cannot do anymore reps, or you run out of weight.

Do the same thing for the alternating bicep curls.

Rest 1 - 3 minutes and repeat for 3 rounds.

stretch