No Thanks to Cake

One of my favorite salads I had at Montelucia this time around was their Centro Chicken Cobb.

I think I ordered it three times during this trip. The beautiful combination of chicken, tomatoes, bacon, and avocados, I couldn’t get enough of it! I think the best surprise was the honey mustard dressing they tossed the salad in. Usually, when I’ve had cobbs, they’re coated in creamy dressing, so this was a nice surprise!

As soon as I got home, I totally wanted to try to recreate it. I came pretty darn close with the “recipe” I’m about to share with you. I call it a “recipe” because it’s more a preparation than anything…

For those busy nights when you don’t really have time to cook, this is your salad. Easy Peezy!

Chicken Cobb Salad

INGREDIENTS

butter lettuce

1/3 cup grilled or roasted chicken (from the deli section)

1 cup grape tomatoes, halved

1/2 English cucumber, quartered and cubed

red onion, thinly sliced

1/2 avocado, cubed

2 slices bacon

2 Tbsp. light honey mustard dressing (I used Ken’s)

sea salt grinder

pepper grinder

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Find a big bowl for this salad. You’re going to want to load it up with veggies

2. Add your butter lettuce to a separate large bowl. Add enough to create a nice bed for your toppings.

3. Add 2 Tbsp. of your light honey mustard dressing and a few twists of the fresh salt and pepper. Mix until all the greens are coated, and move to the serving bowl. Note: This is an important step. Tossing your greens in dressing makes sure every bite has a little zing of honey mustard.

4. Begin to add your toppings, adding each in rows. Slice your tomatoes in half and quarter your cucumbers. Slice your red onion super thin, and cube your avocado.

5. Cut the pre-prepared (or freshly grilled) chicken into small bite-sized pieces. Cook your bacon and cut it into small pieces. Add these protein toppings to the bowl. Note: I used Tyson chicken and Hormel pre-cooked bacon. Seriously…

6. Stir up your salad and enjoy!

No, it’s not the most creative recipe I’ve ever made, but I’ve eaten it several times since I’ve been home. Super tasty, and definitely worth a try!

Per entire recipe serving:

CAL 287; CARB 15g; FAT 16g; PROT 21g; FIB 4g; WW Points Plus: 7

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Lazy Local Weekend

I tend to be a planner. I book my weekends up to maximize the time I have free… which sort of takes away from the idea of “free” time, if I think about it.

Just the same, I walked into this weekend with only a tiny bit of plans… and I didn’t even leave the city limits after I got home on Friday. Unheard of!

Friday night after work, I went to my very first Tutu Making Party. Yep, you heard me right… we were TUTU MAKING! We’re just a few weeks away from Jodi’s Race for Awareness, and my team “Team Bev” has opted to wear fabulous teal tutus this year.

We did what any awesome team does… we found a Youtube video, ordered some tulle, and met up to get our tutu on! I have never spent so much time with tulle in my life!

Not everyone could make the event, so we made as many as we could for those who weren’t there. I took home one to finish, but definitely had the technique down by the time I left. SO EASY!

After getting home kind of late, I woke up the next morning to realize I was exhausted. My 11 days away and hectic work week had caught up with me. So, instead of being productive… I laid in my bed reading a book for a long time, getting up only to head to get a manicure and pedicure. Seriously lazy… but at least the book was good!

(Source)

After my mani-pedi, I was hungry for lunch so I headed into Old Town to try a new taco place that a co-worker had been raving about! They told me that it was better than Cafe Rio… which to me seemed impossible.

I ordered the small Chicken Fajita salad, sans cheese with avocado ranch dressing on the side. It was really good, and I’ll definitely be back. I’m not prepared to say I like it better than Cafe Rio though…

Right next door to Fuzzy’s is a little Olive Oil shop I’ve been meaning to stop into forever. After spending 5 minutes in the store, I couldn’t believe that I’d never been to Kristo’s before! I spent close to 30 minutes in the store tasting and getting to know all of their olive oils and vinegars. I never knew there were so many!!

They had little slices of bread and little tiny cups you could use to sample the offerings. There were so many that were my “favorites” that I really had to be conservative when it was time to check out. Here’s what I ended up with though…. all very delicious!

I chose the Sicilian Lemon White Balsamic Vinegar, Black Mountain Fig Balsamic Vinegar, Cranberry Pear White Balsamic Vinegar, and a Cilantro Onion Infused Olive Oil. The citrusy vinegars were SO delicious and will be making their way to a salad in the near future. As for the other two more savory blends, I can’t wait to come up with something to make with them. The folks at Kristo’s also shared that they offer cooking classes… stay tuned for my review of those! I’m going to have to try one of those soon!

I spent the rest of my weekend running local errands, finishing up tutus, and a craft project I’ve been working on for some time. Add in a little treadmill time and some yoga… and that’s all she wrote.

How was your weekend?

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