I’m happy to announce my youngest niece, Emily Christine, blessed this world with her presence today. She was born at 3:46pm weighing 6lb13oz. She’s the third (and last) of three girls and I spent all morning pacing & tapping my foot anxiously awaiting her arrival from afar. Last time I was in the delivery room and trust me, it’s a lot more stressful having to wait for a phone call. Thankfully, it happened quickly and everything went well. I quickly booked a ticket to Florida, so I’ll meet her on Friday. I’m counting down the hours til I get to see her; in the meantime, I need to arrange my workout schedule to accommodate.
With all the excitement today and needing to get things done before I leave, I needed a quick dinner. I also didn’t want to pick up groceries before leaving town, so this was one of those toss together meals I made without much a plan… pretty much winging it as I went along. It turned out surprisingly well and considering I eat salads every single day (for lunch), that’s saying a lot.
“Everything but the Kitchen Sink” Salad with Grilled Pesto Chicken
I’m not going to bother with a recipe, since really all it is is a hodgepodge of ingredients I had on hand. I used an assortment of veggies and fruits, and of course, meat. I don’t eat any meals (even snacks) 
without some form of protein. While for me, it’s usually chicken or egg whites, I like to have red meat once or twice a week and I eat a lot of fish as well.
For this specific salad, I used a grill pan and grilled one chicken breast, half of a yellow pepper, and half a red onion. While that was going, I put together big mixture of spinach and spring mix, added some steamed broccoli, cherry tomatoes, diced pear, sliced strawberries, and a few sun-dried tomatoes. I love adding color to salads, they end up so pretty! I arranged the grilled veggies and chicken on top and drizzled with homemade pesto (see below) and sprinkled with slivered almonds. I rarely eat salads as the main entree for dinner (b/c that’s my typical lunch and who wants to be boring?), but adding some different ingredients and changing the preparation made it like a whole new meal. (And, not gonna lie, I definitely ate this out of a mixing bowl. it was huge.)
Healthy Pesto
Ingredients
• Handful Fresh Basil Leaves
• 1 c Spinach Leaves
• 1 Large Garlic Clove
• 2 tsp Oil (I happened to have Basil oil on hand, but EVOO works fine, too)
• Small handful of Sundried Tomatoes (not in oil), optional
• 1 Tbs Low Sodium Chicken Broth (plus more, if neeeded)
Instructions
Add all ingredients to food processor, magic bullet, or blender. Add chicken broth until it reaches desired consistency.
Lemony-Mint Peas
This side is super simple and pretty yummy. I always stick to the same veggies and last time I was at the grocery store I decided to pick up some peas and change it up a bit. I just put enough low sodium chicken broth to cover the bottom of a small sauce pan on medium heat, added the peas and stirred until heated though and broth evaporated. I chopped some mint and grated a little bit of lemon rind and tossed it in. Flavors complimented each other very nicely and was a good addition to the salad.
“Easy Pea-sy”.
