Category: Lunch

Spicy Ranch Chicken Salad

It’s hot outside! Originally, I was scheduled to post a slow cooker soup recipe this week and then a major heat wave swept over the East Coast. I could not even fathom consuming a bowl of hot soup this week, so instead I opted for something chilled.

Recently, I asked y’all what kind of recipes you wanted to see on the blog and I received a request for easy lunch prep recipes. You ask, and you shall receive! So here it is, Spicy Ranch Chicken Salad.

I discovered this amazing homemade ranch dressing recipe a couple years ago in “The Pioneer Woman Cooks: A Year of Holidays” cook book, which is authored by Ree Drummond. She is seriously one of my food blogger idols and if any of you are familiar with her Food Network show, you know that she has several variations of ranch dressing. This version is my favorite and I’ve tweaked it a bit by increasing the amount of cayenne pepper in my dressing, so that it’s even spicier. I appreciate spicy foods, but if you don’t you can certainly decrease the amount of cayenne pepper.

My brilliant idea? Use this insanely creamy ranch dressing as the base for chicken salad. The spicy ranch combined with chopped green onions and tender chicken makes for a chicken salad that is loaded with flavor. Disclaimer, I like to load this chicken salad up with ranch so that it is more of a creamy texture opposed to chunky. If you prefer a chunky chicken salad, simply decrease the amount of dressing. However, you might want to taste the ranch first before making that call because its seriously life changing. My favorite thing about this chicken salad is you have so many options as to how to serve it. You can serve it in a wrap, on crackers or over a bed of crisp greens. My favorite way to enjoy this chicken salad is over a bed of crunchy romaine with fresh veggies and some extra ranch dressing. This chicken salad is perfect to meal prep on the weekend and eat throughout the week.

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 Spicy Ranch Chicken Salad
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Instructions
  1. Add approximately ¼ cup of water to the bottom of a slow cooker. Place the boneless chicken breasts in the slow cooker, cover with the lid and set the slow cooker to “low” for 8 hours.
  2. After cooking for 8 hours, remove the chicken breasts from the slow cooker, shred the chicken and set aside to cool.
  3. Rinse and chop your green onions. Set aside.
  4. Press and mince 2 cloves of garlic.
  5. In a large mixing bowl, combine 2 cups of mayo, 1 cup of sour cream, 1 cup of buttermilk, 1 tsp of salt, 1 tsp of black pepper, 1 tsp white vinegar, 1 tsp of Worcestershire sauce, ½ tsp of cayenne pepper, and the minced garlic. Whisk together until completely combined. I like to reserve half of the dressing, so I have a little extra to drizzle over greens. Pour approximately half of the mixture into an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 7 days.
  6. Once the shredded chicken has cooled, add it into the large mixing bowl with the remaining dressing and stir to combine. This will make an extremely creamy chicken salad, almost like a spread. If you prefer a chunkier chicken salad, just simply mix in less dressing. Mix in chopped green onions to taste and spoon into an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 4 days.

Grilled Veggie Quinoa Bowls

This summer is flying by! It’s been an awesome, but a super busy summer! I thought that after I got through the wedding and grad school things would slow down. Honestly, I feel like things have been just as busy, if not busier. Work has been steady, and I’ve also been attending some trainings and working on some professional development opportunities this summer. Derek got a new job, so he is busy preparing to start his new role next week. On top of that he is also renovating one of our bathrooms. And by renovating, I don’t just mean throwing on a fresh coat of paint and installing a fancy new toilet paper holder. I mean he literally gutted it and is starting from scratch. It’s rather impressive the things he can do on his own and it also makes for a rather chaotic home environment.

When things get crazy I like to meal prep as much as possible, so I don’t have to stress over what I should pack for lunch or cook for dinner. I’ve been meal prepping a lot and it’s been helpful. Summer is also the perfect time for grilled food, which is always a treat. I love grilling for variety of reasons. One, grilled food always tastes better. Two, grilled food involves less dishes, which helps cut back on time spent in the kitchen. Washing less dishes is always a plus!

Most people associate grilling with meat and although I do love myself a grilled steak, sometimes I just want something light and fresh. Recently, I’ve been grilling veggies more often, which make for a perfect side dish or even the main dish. Like in these Grilled Veggie Quinoa Bowls I dreamed up. Brightly colored grilled bell peppers, zucchini and red onion, spooned over a fluffy bed of white quinoa, tossed in lemon juice and butter, and sprinkled with a light dusting of feta cheese. Grilled veggies just scream summer time and I’m going to savor my grilled food and hold onto this summer for as long as I can. These bowls are a perfect meal prep recipe, which can be eaten cold or warm. I love packing these bowls for lunch. They make for a quick, healthy and filling weekday lunch.

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 Grilled Veggie Quinoa Bowls
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Cuisine American
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
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servings
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Cuisine American
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Servings
servings
Ingredients
Votes: 0
Rating: 0
You:
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
  1. Cook the quinoa according to directions on the packaging or use a rice cooker. I cook my quinoa in a rice cooker by simply adding the 1 cup of quinoa, 2 cups of water and 1 tsp of olive oil into the rice cooker. Once all the ingredients have been added to the rice cooker, stir the quinoa and water, so that the quinoa is totally coated and lock the lid. I cook my quinoa on the brown rice setting and it comes out perfectly every time!
  2. Rinse your kabob skewers with water and set aside.
  3. While your quinoa is cooking, prep your veggies. Cut the onion into chunks and slide the chunks of onion onto the kabob skewers. The onions will grill faster than the rest of the veggies, so it’s better to grill them in large chunks, rather than individual petals. Wash and cut your veggies into large bite size pieces and skewer the veggies on the kabob skewers. This is the most time-consuming part, but trust me the end result is worth it.
  4. Drizzle the veggie kabobs with a little bit of olive oil, so they don’t stick to the grill.
  5. Now it’s time to fire up the grill! If you are using a gas grill, set your grill to low heat. If you are using charcoal, you are going to want to make sure you let the coals cool off an adequate amount of time before placing your kabobs on the grill. Place the veggie kabobs on the grill on low heat and grill for 7 minutes on one side, flip the kabobs and then grill for 7 minutes on the other side. Keep an eye on the grill and make sure your veggies don’t get over cooked. Grills vary in temperature. I had to pull my onions off first because they cooked faster than the rest of my veggies. Once the veggies are cooked to your liking, remove them from the grill. The veggies should have a light char. Set the veggies aside to cool.
  6. While your veggies cool, melt 4 tbsp of butter in a microwave safe bowl. Add 1 tbsp of lemon juice to the butter and mix together. At this point, your quinoa should be cooked. Drizzle the butter and lemon mixture over your cooked quinoa, fluffing your quinoa with a fork. Lastly, mix 1 tsp of pepper and ½ tsp of salt into the quinoa. Feel free to add more salt to taste. I ended up adding a couple extra dashes.
  7. Divvy your quinoa into four food storage containers. Disassemble your veggie kabobs and spread the veggies equally amongst your four bowls of quinoa, placing the veggies over top of the quinoa.
  8. Finally, sprinkle the grilled veggie quinoa bowls with some crumbled feta cheese. Store in the refrigerator for up to a week. Bowls can be eaten cold or reheated in the microwave if you prefer them warm.