Salads – Page 2

It’s AvocaDO, Not AvocaDON’T! Today’s posts are all about protein (and, as always, tastiness!). Everyone keeps hearing about how important protein is when it comes to building lean muscle and staying healthy so our timing is perfect, in our minds. We all know what’s coming Thursday (Thanksgiving), so in anticipation of all those carbs, here are two recipes that include no guilt and give up nothing when it comes to flavor and satisfaction!

The first is our Avocado, Bacon, Egg & Cheese Breakfast and the second is our Chicken Avocado Salad. The Stuffed Breakfast Avocado should be served right out of the oven, while the Chicken Avocado Salad can be made ahead of time and served as a side dish or entrée. Both are best when using firm avocados. Enjoy!

Avocado Chicken Salad

Avocado Chicken Salad

This Avocado dish is really easy to prepare and assemble and offers a refreshing take on chicken salad.

Ingredients:

2 Large chicken breasts; shredded or chopped
- We use the grocery store/Costco rotisserie chicken, makes for quick prep.
3 Medium avocados; cubed.
1 Cup roasted corn
5 Strips of cooked bacon; chopped
1/4 Cup green onions; chopped
2 Tbsp. dill
2 Hardboiled eggs; quartered or sliced
3Tbsp. lemon juice
3 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp. sea salt
1/8 tsp. black pepper

Preparation & Assembly:

Salad –
- Dice or shred the 2 large chicken breasts into bite sized pieces and put into large mixing bowl.
- Halve the avocados and remove the pits. I like to slice/cube them in the half shells and scoop them out with a serving spoon – Less mess and the avocados start to break down and get mussy. Scoop them out of the shells, gently separate the pieces for consistent distribution.
- Add 1 cup of roasted corn, 1/4 cup of green onions and chopped bacon, and 2 Tbsp. of dill.
Dressing –
- Add all dressing ingredients (lemon juice, olive oil, salt & pepper) in a small bowl or measuring cup and whisk to combine.
Mix It Up – Drizzle dressing over the salad and gently toss to combine, making sure all ingredients are thoroughly covered.
- Top with the sliced hard boiled eggs and serve. You thought we forgot the eggs, save them until last as they tend to break down a little if mixed in with others ingredients.

Avocado, Bacon, Egg & Cheese Breakfast

This breakfast dish is tasty and even easier to make with only 4 ingredients – So few that the picture is a little boring!

Ingredients:

Avocado
2 Eggs
1 Strip of cooked bacon; chopped or crumbled
1 Tbsp. Parmigiano Reggiano cheese or other low fat cheese.

Preparation:

Cut the avocado in half and remove the pit.
Scoop out some of the avocado with a spoon so that the cavity is bigger than the egg and yolk.
- Place the avocado halves in a muffin pan, it keeps them from tipping while filling and cooking.
Crack the eggs into the avocado halves,, sprinkle with cheese and top with the bacon.
Bake for 12-14 minutes. Serve them immediately.

Go try these dishes, they are both relatively easy, you can AvocaDO It!

This Mediterranean Chickpea Salad is so fresh and flavorful, you’ll definitely go back for a second helping. This salad goes well with the Mediterranean Lamb Kofta’s from my previous post. Let’s get chopping… and I mean it.

Ingredients:

Salad
- 1 Green bell pepper, chopped
- 1 Red bell pepper, chopped
- 1 Yellow or orange bell pepper, chopped
- 1/2 English cucumber (seedless), chopped (2 cups)
- 1/2 Cup red onion, finely diced
- 2 Cans (15.5oz) chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 1/2 Cup feta, crumbled
Dressing
- 3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
- 3 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
- 2 Cloves garlic, minced
- 1-1/2 tsp. dried oregano
- 1 tsp. kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp. fresh ground black pepper.

Fresh Bell Peppers, Onions, Parsley, Cucumber and Garlic

Preparations and Mixing:

Salad
- Chop and/or dice the fresh peppers, onions, parsley, cucumber and garlic. (I hinted there’s a bit of knife work going on with this recipe.)
- Place the diced red onion in cold water and let it soak while you’re busy with all the other chopping and mixing.
- Place the chickpeas, bell peppers, cucumber and feta cheese in a large mixing bowl. I use one of those large “That’s a Bowls” or else I’ll have a huge mess on the counter to clean up. I hate clean up.
- Drain the red onion and add to the mixing bowl.
- Mix all the these ingredients together. I sort of use a folding action so that you don’t over work the feta. If that happens the salad can get a bit mulchy.

Dressing
- In a small mixing bowl or a 2 cup measuring cup, whisk together the extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, oregano, salt and pepper.
- Pour the dressing over the top of the salad. I usually divide it in half and mix it and the add the second half and mix it again. I find that picking the bowl up and tossing it without a spoon helps keep the salad looking crisp and fresh.
- Transfer the finished salad to a serving dish, or not.
- Let the dish marinate for 30-45 minutes in the refrigerator before serving.

That’s it, pretty simple minus a bit of chopping and dicing. At this point you probably deserve a glass of wine while cleaning up.