No-mayo Chicken Salad + Kendall Jackson Avant

There’s something about a delicious, healthy life and the enjoyment of a corresponding wine that just makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. Cooking a delicious, healthy meal, pairing the perfect wine, and mixing good company might be one of my most favorite things in the whole world. I’m pretty sure I could talk about good food and good wine for days AND I absolutely love when people share healthy recipes and wine recommendations with me. So, I’ve decided to make weekly foodie posts with new, healthy recipes I’m trying and fabulous wines I’m diggin’. Sounds like a win, right? I thought so too.

So, here’s our first ever of many “What I’m Loving” foodie posts. I imagine a crowd roar in my head here…

First of all, let me start out by saying that Preston and I have adopted a new way of eating that we’ve come to absolutely love. I talked about some of those changes a little in this post. With that, we’ve given up (for the most part) wheat, red meat, and several other things that we realized might be bringing down our energy levels and contributing to other problems. I’ll talk more about this in a future post. Among that, we’ve eaten much more fish, the occasional chicken (hormone-free when possible), fresh fruits, veggies, and grains. This week we were both a little fished-out, so I decided to try my hand at a healthy, no-mayo chicken salad to eat on some lettuce wraps. OH MOMMA, let me tell you, this chicken salad did not disappoint!

Here’s what I used:

2 Large Chicken Breasts

1 1/2 Avacados

2 Boiled Eggs

1/2 Cup Fresh Basil (remove stems)

1/4 Cup Dried, Unsweetened Cranberries

4-5 Tablespoons Olive Oil

Seasonings: Sea Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Cayenne

Wraps: Romaine Lettuce

Add desired amount of chicken salad, roll and eat. Voila. (: I’m honestly terrible with measuring out my seasonings, so I’ll try to be better with that. Be sparing with the sea salt, but the rest you can pretty much season to your preference. Remember, put less and you can always taste test and add more.

And because the aura of a delicious dinner is best paired with a little vino, this is one of my favorite Chardonnays I recommend to pair with such a light meal. I’m mostly a red wine girl, but hot summer days sometimes make a cool, crisp white a great change of pace. For those of you who may not be akin to Chardonnay, I still highly recommend you try this one from Kendall Jackson.

Although it’s a Chardonnay, it’s made in a way that brings together two separate blends, allowing you to taste more of the fruit-forward notes you would find generally in a Pinot Grigio or Sauvignon Blanc, yet combined perfectly to still taste the slight oak notes that bring in the warm vanilla and spice you often get from a Chardonnay. This little mix of flavors is why it’s one of my favorite whites! Some of my near and dear friends like to giggle at me for this, but I like to think that my favorite Chardonnays have a nice, slight buttery taste. Make fun of me if you will, I’ll keep appreciating my hints of butter. (;

So, if you’re feeling the urge for trying something new, light, and delightfully refreshing, these are definitely my two top recommendations for this warm summer week! Happy Wednesday, my friends.