Blazin' Buffalo Chicken or Vegetarian Salad

So - here we go with my menus/recipes/meals - its hard to explain our eating - we are COMBO eaters, we kind of eat raw, we are sort of vegetarians, sort of vegans, sometimes gluten free, mostly carb free - basically our grocery cart is full of produce. I make most of the other foods from produce and I do it at home - These are foods that you probably buy in boxes or cans. Remember - if it doesn't grow from the ground - you shouldn't eat it! I use this mantra a lot when I go to the grocery store! This is hard for my husband who LOVES oreos - if you know my husband, you know this love :) Unfortunately, I was the bearer of bad news and took the oreos away from him after he would eat an entire package in two nights, but its ok because I have found PLENTY of other, healthy, simple, yummy options.

We should start with how I plan - usually I make weekly Menu's that include breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. This gets very time consuming, but its fun and it makes grocery shopping much more organized. I don't like going to the grocery store w/out my list so its nice to do this before. I break it up a lot of different ways - usually by category, but I will share more planning strategies w/ you later! :)

 I normally do my grocery shopping once a week on the weekends, but recently I have been shopping twice a week. We were wasting so much food w/ once a week shopping b/c the produce would spoil before we could eat it all - which is really sad b/c I hate seeing produce go to waste. Shopping twice a week has solved that problem!!! We are also members of a CSA this year - I LOVE CSA's - Especially this one :) I will mention a lot of my motivation and reasoning throughout my blog posts, but one of the major influences on my healthy eating has the CSA that I am a member of. The family who owns the farm and runs the CSA is a family that I hold close to my corazon :) - I babysat for them for many years and still do. Jackie is so inspiring - she helped me get where I am w/ nutrition.

Anyway, enough of the stories :) I will tell you more and more about my road to nutrition later. Now its time for the fun - tonight, my brother and his girlfriend came over for dinner and we have a delicious healthy meal - Blazin' Buffalo Salads. Now you would think this wouldn't fill you up, but it does and its delicious.

The salad is simple, only uses a few ingredients, and not a lot of dishes :) We don't have a dishwasher at our house so simple dish meals are my husbands fav!!!

I will start w/ the ingredients .... The most important part about buying ingredients is NATURAL and LOCAL - In my opinion, Organic is second to Natural and Local - If you know where your food is coming from, its probably organic w/out the money sucking seal :)

Blazin' Buffalo Salad 


The ingredients are per person - except for the chicken, the chicken lbs. serve 4 :)


1-2 lbs of free range, no antibiotics, no hormones Chicken - It is VERY important that you are buying the organic free range REAL chicken - chicken that is not eating its own poop :) Chicken are what they eat just like we are so please don't buy grocery store chicken! If you can get it from a local farm - go for it!!! if not, I love Trader Joe's and of course Whole Foods. We are on a budget so Trader Joe's is a great option.

1-2 Cups of Greens - Any greens work here Spinach, Spring Mix, Arugula, Whatever your little heart desires

1 TBSP of my sunflower seed mixture (Raw sunflower seeds, dried cranberries (from the bulk food section of grocery stores), roasted corn (you can make this yourself or get it from the bulk food section at the grocer))

1 TBSP of feta cheese (you should buy the bulk feta (not the already crumbled) as the process to crumble is not good for the food - this is hard to get used to, but if you could do it - its REAL and healthy)

A handful of chopped red onion 


1-2 TBSP of italian dressing (you can buy salad dressing - Ken's is a great option, picture below) or you can make your own (juice of 1/2 lemon, 1/2 TSP of olive oil, salt, pepper, and a little garlic: minced or powder)

1/4 Cup of Hot Sauce/Wing Sauce - Again, you can make your own or buy it at the local grocer. For tonight, I bought the sauce b/c I have not ventured to make my own yet - it's on my list of things to do. A picture of what I used is listed below. Always be sure to check ingredients for NO High Fructose Corn Syrup and no added Sugar!

A few yellow peppers - I use the ones in the can from Wegmans (My go-to market), there is literally nothing in them but peppers and some vinegar !!

Here you can see the banana peppers, wing sauce, chicken (from GPF, CSA), and the Italian Dressing (good old Ken's)......

So now lets start putting it all together - When I cook dinner I am obsessed w/ cleaning up as I go so, I start w/ the chicken (eww to touching chicken)...

I take it out of the packaging in the sink, rinse it on both sides w/ cold water and place it on a paper towel

Next, I pat the chicken dry and fillet it - usually i cut all three in half to make the pieces a little thinner, then I place the sheets on the a plate. This is where I add the hot sauce - You probably don't need too much of it, but I guesstimate the amount needed, like so...

Then I use the nifty little brush to spread it around on both sides of the chicken..

Moving on, I now cut up the onion and set the table.. Once the table is set I place the sunflower mixture on each plate (1 TBSP per plate) and place the salad greens on the plate as well ( usually 1-2 cups, fill the plate - I usually don't measure.. shhh), add the feta and the onion as well.. so everything is on the plate and ready for the chicken.

Finally, I put the chicken on the grill. The grill is my favorite in the summer - its SO easy and it doesn't cause an issue w/ the hotness in the kitchen. The chicken is placed right on the grill plate and I cook it for 5 minutes on each side - it came out delicious.

Before adding the chicken to the plate I cut it into strips and add it to the salad.. next, the dressing and finally - DONEZO! :) and you have a blazon' buffalo chicken Salad :)

I serve the salad w/ Corn on the Cob (one of our favorites in the summer) and cantaloupe .. another favorite!!!

So - its ssoooo simple, and ssooo easy and ssooo good - even my husband and brother eat it :) Here is the final product.....

One more thing before I go, if you want to make this vegetarian (this is for you Er).. add chickpeas and black beans in place of chicken, still use the sauce and you can roast the two on a cookie sheet in the oven on 425 for about 20 minutes.. Enjoy!

Live well :)