Leavin' On A Jet Plane & Happy Birthday

Happy, happy birthday to my sweet momma! Today is her birthday! She is not only the very best mom in the world, but she is an awesome Grammy to my two sweet boys (and my soon to be niece)!!

If you follow me on twitter, then you know that my mom isn't here for her birthday because she is in Cleveland at the Cleveland Clinic. She is going to be having open heart surgery to remove a large aneurysm from her aorta as well as having a valve replacement on Monday.

I'm leaving on Sunday to go be with her and my dad for her surgery. Please keep my mom in your prayers!

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Day 5! Last day of the Commenting Challenge!

Welcome to day 5 of the 3rd Annual Blog Commenting Challenge!

If this is your first time here and you're trying to figure out what the challenge is, or if you need to link your blog to the challenge click here. Also, click that link if you are looking for the list of blogs to comment on!

I want to thank everyone who has participated in the challenge! I know I haven't made it to all of your blogs, but I am so excited that you decided to participate this year! I hope to see you back here next summer for the 4th Annual Blog Commenting Challenge!

Today's Topic:

Tell us about your dream vacation!

Where would you go? Have you been there before? Who would go with you? What about it draws you in?

OK. This is actually a hard one for me. If you asked me where my favorite place is, I'd say Lake Tahoe. I've been going there since I was a kid. If you use my google search bar on my left hand toolbar, and search Lake Tahoe, you'll find several posts on it. I love it - I feel at home there. My family has been going there since I was little and we usually go at least once a year. We haven't been back since I had Brody, but we're planning on going this summer.

BUT - if I could pick ANYWHERE to go, that's another story. Personally, I think I'd like to visit

London. I'm really fascinated by the history of it, and I'd really enjoy seeing the London Eye, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square and of course, Buckingham Palace.

If Chris were to pick, he would say Bora Bora! Have you seen Couples Retreat or watched Real Housewives of the OC? Yep, that's where he wants to go. Confession: I don't like the ocean. Seriously. I am a mountain lover. Give me bad weather, no sun, rain, mountains, moss...I love all that. Hot, sunny, beachy vacations are just not my thing. But even I have to admit that Bora Bora sounds like a really cool place and these over the water villas look awesome!

So, where would you go??

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Day 4 of the Commenting Challenge!

Welcome to day 4 of the 3rd Annual Blog Commenting Challenge!

If this is your first time here and you're trying to figure out what the challenge is, or if you need to link your blog to the challenge click here. Also click that link if you are looking for the list of blogs to comment on!

Today's Topic:

Tell us about your hobbies! What do you do in your free time? What are your favorite books, movies, music etc?

I.Love.To.Read.

Seriously. I read almost every single day. My kids take 1 nap a day at the same time for about 3 hours, give or take. I usually spend some of that time reading. I'll wake up early to read or, more likely, stay up waaaay too late. If I find a book I love, I've been known to read until 4am then get up at 7am.

I have always been that way. When I was a kid my parents never had to worry about me misbehaving or any of that, because I was always in the corner with my nose in a book. Little known fact about me: In 4th grade I was put in the "gifted and talented literacy program" because I tested at a junior in college level for reading comprehension. Haha!

I also really love music. I have super eclectic taste. Or as Chris calls it, weird taste. Ha! My current playlist (it changes constantly) has the following on it:

Poison & Wine - The Civil Wars

Feels So Close - Calvin Harris

Marry The Night - Lady Gaga

Run - Snow Patrol

Breathe Me - Sia

Lonely Boy - The Black Keys

Good Feeling - Flo Rida

Wonderwall - Oasis

All I Wanted - Paramore

The Funeral - Band of Horses

Into The Night - Santana

I Was Broken - Marcus Foster

Too Close - Alex Clare

Somebody That I Used To Know - Gotye

She's Long Gone - The Black Keys

I listen to everything - classical, Christian, pop, rock, you name it. Country is probably my least favorite, but I do listen to some of it (like Taylor Swift type stuff). Right now, I'd say my favorite band is The Black Keys. I've actually liked them for a couple of years now. I've never been to a concert (unless you count The Gaither Vocal Band, and I don't) but if I could pick one to go to, it'd be theirs.

Movies...well, I'm not a huge movie buff but I do like to watch movies. I wasn't able to go see The Hunger Games in the theatre, unfortunately, but I will watch it as soon as it comes out. I really wanted to see Snow White & The Huntsman - maybe for my birthday! As far as favorite movies go, I love Sweet Home Alabama, Christmas Vacation, Pride & Prejudice (the one with Kiera Knightly) and Serendipity.

Lastly, I really enjoy baking. I like to cook as well, but baking is my favorite thing to do. I love creating new recipes, and I really love sharing my creations with my friends and family. I post a lot of what I make in my recipes section. Christmas is my favorite time to bake - I probably make at least 10 or 15 types of goodies every Christmas!

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Day 3 of the Commenting Challenge - Come Join the Fun!

Welcome to day 3 of the 3rd Annual Blog Commenting Challenge!

If this is your first time here and you're trying to figure out what the challenge is, or if you need to link your blog to the challenge click here.

Welcome to Day 3! Our topic today is two-fold:

Tell us about your social media! Where can we find you? Link to your twitter, pinterest, Facebook, instagram, or google +. If you don't use those sites, then tell us why not!

Also, what are your favorite websites? Are there any that you check daily? What do you like about them?

While I don't use instagram, google + or Facebook for my blog, I do use them for personal accounts. I find Facebook to be a good way to keep up with all of my family in California. I do use Twitter and Pinterest though. You can send me a follow request on Twitter by clicking here. If you'd like to follow my Pinterest, you can find it here.

I have several favorite websites. I probably shouldn't admit it but I check in with People.com, Us Magazine.com, Pop Sugar and Gossip Cop daily. It's my guilty pleasure. I usually visit Pinterest every day as well.

I also like to check the daily deals on Zulily each morning. If you don't have a Zulily account, it's a free and easy thing. They post daily deals from all sorts of brands (good brands that you've actually heard of and purchased before like Lima Bean Kids, Down East Basics, Cuisinart, New Balance etc) and everything is 50-70% off. I've bought all sorts of things on there, from shower gifts to shirts for myself, and even some baking supplies. If you'd like to set up an account just click here.

I usually check in with Swagbucks everyday to. I did a post on how to use Swagbucks here. Basically it's a search engine that you earn points on and you can redeem those points for gift cards or other things. I cash mine in for Amazon gift cards and use those to buy books for my Kindle app. =)

Speaking of Amazon, that's a site that I check in with every few weeks. I love to read and am always looking for new books. Something I discovered fairly recently was that they have TONS of free book downloads. They have all my favorite classics for free (Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Little Women) and recently they had some great books by Francis Chan for free too (Crazy Love, Forgotten God, Erasing Hell). I don't know how often they add new books, it might be daily, but I try to check in every week or two. They do have a Top 100 Free list and you can search Free Kindle e-books to see all of the freebies.

So what about you? What are your daily internet reads? I hope everyone is enjoying the challenge!

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Commenting Challenge: DAY 2!

Welcome to day 2 of the 3rd Annual Blog Commenting Challenge!

If this is your first time here and you're trying to figure out what the challenge is, or if you need to link your blog to the challenge click here!

I promised you all that I'd give you a topic to blog about for each day of this challenge! So here is todays topic:

Tell us about your blog. What do you blog about? Why do you blog? How did you start blogging? What kinds of things do you/are you willing to share with the world? Where do you find your topic inspiration? (Hint: Don't share about your social media just yet!)

I started blogging a little over 4 years ago. Originally, I was going to blog about infertility - at that point we had been TTC for over 2 years. As I mentioned yesterday, all that changed.

Now, I like to blog about my family but I've really branched into sharing my recipes. I have a large recipe section on the blog and I usually add new recipes weekly. I get so much joy when people write to me to tell me they've tried my food and that they family loved it or their picky eater cleaned their plate.

Here are some of my most popular recipes:

Chicken Roll Ups

Orange Chocolate Chunk Cake

Crockpot Flank Steak with Homemade Tortillas

Parmesan Chicken Salad

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake

The Best Roast & Carrots Ever

Mexican Chicken Ring

Nutella Cupcakes with Nutella Buttercream

As for inspiration, I tend to find it in odd places. I used to blog about our day-to-day life but over the years I've changed that up a little. Sometimes there are things I'd just rather not share publicly; not that they are bad in the least, just that I like to keep my life semi-private. I'm a huge fan of sharing things that I learn.

I remember when I started blogging and I knew nothing about editing pictures, making collages, joining Pinterest...all that stuff. And sometimes it seems like if you aren't part of some sort of "in crowd" then people aren't going to share what they know with you. I am the complete opposite of that. I love to share anything that I think will help people out, and I often write "How To" tutorials here.

Here are a few:

How to host a freezer meal exchange

How to use Swagbucks

Baking 101

How to make private albums in Google+

How to use Pinterest

Sometimes I'll get inspired from an email someone sends me asking how I did this or that, or what I think about some kitchen gadget. I figure if one person is asking then I bet others have had the same question!

If you are looking for some blogging inspiration, I wrote a post with blog prompts here. I hope everyone is enjoying the challenge and making new friends!

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The 3rd Annual Commenting Challenge Begins NOW!

Welcome to Day 1 of the 3rd Annual Blog Commenting Challenge!

If you're new this year, a big welcome to you! If you've participated in the last two challenges, welcome back!

This year, I'm doing things just a little differently. The challenge will only last for 5 days instead of 7. In the past, I've asked that you pick 10 blogs to comment on each day...and I got a ton of mixed feedback. Some people wanted to do more, and some had trouble commenting on 10 per day.

This year, I'm still setting the goal at 10 per day, BUT if you can do more then please do! If you can't do 10, just do however many you can manage. This is meant to be a fun, getting to know you type experience.

One more change for this year. I've had a lot of people email me over the last two years asking if I could provide topics for each day because they were having trouble coming up with something to blog about for each day of the challenge. This year I will provide a topic for each day. Just check in with me at 8am central time each day to view the topic. Then, if you'd like, you can blog on that topic. This is not required - it's just to help anyone who is having trouble coming up with something to say.

So, let's get this challenge started!

To participate:

~ Link your blog's main page on the linky.

~ Link back to this blog post.

~ Write a blogpost for each day of the challenge. Remember, I'll be providing a topic each day, so if you don't have something already written, just use my prompt. It will be posted at 8am each morning, so visit me here and then write your post!

~ Comment on 10 blogs (more or less is fine to) per day.

~ If you find a blogger you love, add them to your blogroll!

Todays Topic:

Tell us about YOU! What's your name? Where do you live? Who lives with you? Do you work outside the home? Have kids? Pets? (Psst! Don't spill the beans about your blog or hobbies quite yet!).

If you haven't visited my blog before, then hi! I'm Jenna! I live with my husband Chris and two boys, Brayden & Brody in Arkansas. I'm a Southern transplant from California. We have two golden retrievers named Mossy and Buster.

I haven't worked outside of the home in many years, but before I quit working to stay at home with my kids, I was a clothing designer for Wal-Mart. I designed newborn - big girl/boy clothes for one of our in-house brands.

My husband and I got married in October of 2005, and after several years of infertility and a miscarriage we had our oldest, Brayden. He was very, very ill when he was born. He was full-term and we didn't expect there to be any problems, but his pulse oxygen level was down into the 40's at one point. He ended up spending 5 weeks at Arkansas Children's Hospital. If you want, you can click here to see his old hospital posts. I like to look back sometimes and see just how far we've come!

Brody was born 22 months later. I love having our boys close in age - they are the best of friends. It is such a joy to watch them play and interact with one another. They are both happy, healthy, wonderful kids! I love being a stay at home mom and taking care of my kids everyday!

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Too Many Passwords, Not Enough Memory

Have you ever tried to log in to you blog account only to realize you have forgotten your password? What about your email account? Pinterest? Twitter? An online community group? Me too. In fact, this is about a once a week occurrence for me!

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As more and more online accounts are requiring more difficult passwords (I had one the other day that required a capital letter, lower case letter, number and symbol and had to be 10 characters long) in an effort to protect your identity, it's becoming increasingly more difficult to for me to remember the passwords to all of my accounts. Gone are the days when you had one password for everything! Well, maybe those days never should have really existed, but that's a whole other topic.

Enter Norton Identity Safe, an online program with some seriously awesome features. Like what, you ask? Have you ever had to go through the tedious process of resetting your username or password because you just can't seem to remember it? Sometimes you have to wait hours for the password to be reset and emailed to you. Norton Identity Safe will safely and securely store all of your usernames and passwords for you. Just download Identity Safe then visit the site (like Twitter, Pinterest, your banking account etc) and enter your login information. After that, it will be stored in Identity Safe.

Something else that I really dread doing is filling in the same information over and over again. Let's say I'm sending a gift to someone, or ordering something for myself. Each time, I have to enter my address, credit card etc. Storing all of this information and auto-filling it into the web forms is another great feature of Identity Safe.

Sometimes, I have difficulty coming up with a password, especially for certain accounts that I really want to be sure are protected. Now I can just use the Identity Safe Password Generator to come up with a safe and secure password that is extremely hard to crack.

Want to know something awesome? If you download Norton Identity Safe by October 1, 2012, you can enjoy it FREE of charge forever, no strings attached!

Head over to the Norton Identity Safe website and download the product for FREE. And visit BlogHer.com to find other bloggers' reviews of Norton Identity Safe.

Share a story below about a time you forgot or lost your password for a chance to win one of five Android Tablets (Samsung Galaxy Tab 2- 10.1-Inch, Wi-Fi) with Norton Mobile Security and Identity Safe installed! Just leave your story in a comment below and you'll be entered in the sweepstakes.

You must include your e-mail address in your comment, otherwise I have no way to contact you if you win.

Sweepstakes Rules:

No duplicate comments.

You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

a) Leave a comment below as stated above.

b) Tweet about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post.

c) Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post.

d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw from all participating blogs, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected. The Official Rules are available here. This sweepstakes runs from 6/12 - 7/31.

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The 3rd Annual Commenting Challenge is Coming!!!

I am so excited to announce that the 3rd Annual Commenting Challenge will begin next week!

I've decided to do things a little bit differently than I did the past 2 years. First, the challenge will last for 5 days (Monday-Friday). Also, I'll post a question on my blog for each day of the challenge. I had a lot of people tell me last year that they didn't know what to blog about, so this will give you a topic for each day. If you already have posts scheduled or things you wanted to write about, that's fine to.

The linky and Monday's post topic will go live on Monday morning, at 8am central time. The goal of the challenge is to meet new bloggers and to find new blogs to keep up with for your blogroll. In the past, the challenge has been to comment on 10 blogs per day, but just do as many as you can. Here is a link to last years, if you wanted to look over it!

If you have any questions, just leave me a comment here! I hope you'll all participate!

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When you give a boy an ice cream sandwich...

Brody has discovered the ice cream sandwich...

He's developing a tolerance for lactose in moderation...
And he's loving every second of it.
Or bite of it, I should say.

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Father's Day 2012

Yesterday was Father's Day! We had a great day celebrating Chris and my Dad.

Chris requested belgium waffles for his Father's Day breakfast. I got to use my new waffle maker that I got for mother's day - I love that thing. It is one of my favorite kitchen gadgets! I usually use a mix (gasp!) from Williams-Sonoma, but I was out so I made them from scratch.

After breakfast, Chris opened his gifts. He got a canopy shade thing to go over his grill outside, a keychain that is stamped "i love dad," a Duck Commander DVD and a Phil For President shirt (Phil is the founder of Duck Commander...we love the Duck Dynasty tv show)!

Brody had no idea what was going on, but he loved how excited Daddy was!

Later that afternoon we went to my parents house, and spent the rest of the day playing there and celebrating with my dad. It was such a fun day! I am so blessed to have a wonderful father of my own and that my husband is such a great dad to our kids! They have two awesome examples in their lives!

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Best of the Best - Dream Home Pins; Kitchen Edition

Oh how I love Pinterest!

Since we are building our new home, I have really been utilizing my Dream Home board. I've even sent some of the pictures to our builder. It's such a fun place for me to keep all of these cool ideas organized!

So for todays post, I thought I'd share some of my very favorite kitchen pins!

Don't you love this center island? It's massive!

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This was a cool pin I saw for keeping your root vegetables nice and fresh: a vented drawer!

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I love the ceiling in this one:

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A blue island?! How fun is that?!

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I love the light colors:

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Another pretty, white kitchen!

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What's your favorite kitchen look?

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Chicken Parmesan

This is a staple in our house...I make it a little different than most. I use three chicken breasts which is enough for all of us.

Edited on July 9: I had a few people ask what makes mine different - it's that I use Monterey Jack cheese and NOT parmesan or mozzarella! I love the punch of flavor from the MJ! =)

3 chicken breasts, sliced lengthwise into 2-3 pieces and pounded thin

2 large eggs

3-4 tablespoons water

1 cup Italian breadcrumbs

1 jar marinara sauce

Sliced montery jack cheese

EVOO

Pre-heat oven to 350.

Slice chicken and pound thin. In a pie dish, whisk eggs and water together. In another dish, pour breadcrumbs.

Dredge chicken in eggs, then breadcrumbs. Heat oil in a pan over medium-medium high heat. Cook chicken until golden brown on both sides, about 5 minutes.

Remove to a baking sheet lined in foil. Top with about 2 tablespoons marinara and then sliced cheese. Bake in oven until chicken in fully cooked and cheese melted, about 5-10 minutes.

Serve the rest of the marinara over pasta.

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Workouts I Recommend

When it comes to losing weight and inches, diet isn't the only thing that is important. The workout aspect is really important as well.

(In case you missed it, I posted my weight loss update with some great healthy recipes here.)

I mentioned to a few people in the comments section that I like to pin my favorite workouts. You can find my full collection of workout pins on my Get Fit board. Why do I pin them? When I decide that I'm going to workout, I want to get it over with as quickly as possible (ha!). By keeping everything in one place, it just makes my life easier. When I do workouts like the ones below, that are pinned, all I have to do it look at one page to see many different things that I can do. I HATE repetition - I want to do all sorts of things, not just the same old boring planks or whatever over and over.

Here are a few of my favorite workout pins:

Pop Pilates

This one targets your abs:

Ab Workouts

Another favorite is a video I pinned called Six Weeks To Sleeveless. It's a great arm workout. The instructor is a little hard to listen to but if you can get past that, it's a intense arm workout!

Also, I promised to answer the question of "what workout equipment do you use?" I have a recumbent bike and two sets of hand weights (3lb and 5lb). I used to have a treadmill, home gym and elliptical but we got rid of all of that, since I rarely used it.

As far as videos, I have used Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred off and on for the last year. My issue with videos is the repetition. I get bored so easily!

My next challenge is the 300 Ab Workout (it's pinned). I've seen some people post great results!

A couple of people wanted to know what I did to get started. I'd say that depends on your level of fitness. I was pretty unfit, after 2 c-sections, 2 consecutive pregnancies and years of infertility treatments where I wasn't allowed to do anything strenuous. I started by walking my neighborhood and pushing the stroller. Then I incorporated the recumbent bike - I love it because I can read on my iPad or watch tv while doing it. Pretty soon, you've biked 5 miles and didn't even notice it. After I got good at that, I incorporated arm exercises while I was on the bike, using my hand weights. I'll throw in Pinterest workouts and workout DVD's here and there just to spice things up.

Also, I only allow myself one glass of sweet tea a day, and I start my day out with lemon water. Lemons are supposed to speed up the metabolism. I usually end up drinking iced lemon water all day - it burns more calories to drink cold beverages because your body has to bring them up to your temperature. Or at least that's what Pinterest said. ;-)

I hope this answers all of the workout related questions that were asked. If I missed something, let me know!

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Vanilla Bean Sugar Cookie Bars

I was sick all weekend (yay, not!) and thought my boys deserved a special treat for taking such good care of me. So, Sunday night I whipped up a batch of my Vanilla Bean Sugar Cookie Bars. I let Brayden pick the icing color and he choose blue with clear sprinkles on top!

This is a fast and easy dessert - and so, so tasty!

Vanilla Bean Sugar Cookie Bars

Jenna’s Journey Recipes

For the Bars:

5 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

2 sticks softened, unsalted butter

2 cups white sugar

4 large eggs, room temperature

3 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

½ vanilla bean, split and seeded

For the Frosting:

3 cups powdered sugar

2 sticks softened, unsalted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 tablespoons milk (more if needed)

Preheat oven to 375.

Using a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar. Add vanilla and vanilla bean (cut one bean in half. Saving one half, split the half you are using in half again length wise. Use the back of a paring knife to scrape the seeds out). Mix well, making sure vanilla seeds are dispersed throughout the batter. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well in between.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, salt and soda. Mix well using a whisk, then add in three increments into the wet batter.

Press batter into a tin foil lined 9*13 that has been sprayed with a non-stick spray. Bake about 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

For the Frosting:

Once cake is almost cooled, fit your stand mixer with a whisk attachment. Beat powdered sugar and butter together. Add vanilla. Add milk. Adjust milk and powdered sugar measurements as needed to achieve your desired frosting texture.

Spread frosting on cooled bars. Add sprinkles, if desired. Cut into bars.

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My Weight Loss Update

Last year I posted here about the beginning of my weight loss journey. After 2 years of infertility treatments, and 2 babies in 2 years (and 2 c-sections) I had gone from trim and healthy to, well, not so trim and healthy.

On the post that I mentioned, I talked about seeing a picture of myself, though I didn't put it up. That picture was what lit a fire under me to get myself in gear. It hasn't quite been a year yet, but I thought it was time for an update.

Before (July, 2011) and After (May 10, 2012):

So far, I've lost 20 inches from my hips, waist, ribcage and arms. I didn't think to measure my legs, but I wish I would have! I've also lost over 20 pounds, though the number really doesn't matter to me.

I see such a huge difference in the way I look but more importantly, in how I feel! I'm not done yet, but I felt like 20" lost was really something to celebrate, and wanted to post this for myself as encouragement to keep going.

Over the last few months, I've had several requests for healthy dinner options. Here are a few that I like to make:

Santa Fe Grilled Chicken Salad

Light(er) Cajun Chicken Pasta

Bruschetta Chicken

Healthy Lasagna Soup

Chicken & Vegetable Pasta

Chicken Cordon Bleu

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10 Free Fonts You Need

I've been collecting fonts like mad recently. I'm learning how to use Photoshop and my very favorite thing to do is download new fonts - I seriously love it! Here is a collection of 10 awesome and totally free fonts that you can download. Links below.

Clipper Script / Sketch Block / Freehand 591 / Traveling Typewriter/ The Only Exception / Pottery Barn / Petunia Bounce / ROD / Champagne & Limousines / Lemon Chicken

PS - I picked one of these because I like the song lyrics. Any guesses? ;-)

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How Brody May Have Landed Us On The Food Network...aka The Great American Food Truck Race

Last week we heard that The Great American Food Truck Race was coming to town! Chris and I love this show on Food Network. The food always looks so cool and tasty! So when I found out they were actually coming here of all places, we had to go!

The lines for the food trucks were really long, so we jumped into the shortest line we saw. It was for Momma's Grizzly Grub, a truck from California. Right up my alley!

We went up and ordered and then had to stand in line for our food. Brody was hamming it up for the cameramen, so they came over and asked if they could film us. We all had to sign release forms - so you might see us on the Food Network! Keep your eyes peeled! (The new season premiers August 19!).

The inside of Momma's food truck:

Our grub - buffalo chicken tacos with coleslaw. I don't like coleslaw but this was actually really good. I noticed they used rotisserie chickens from Sam's Club!

Another food truck with the film crew:

A firetruck came down to the square to lift one of the cameramen up for an aerial view!

It was so much fun, and I'm so glad we were able to go! It's not everyday (at least when you live kind of in the middle of nowhere) that the Food Network comes to town!

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Sante Fe Grilled Chicken Salad

I was online looking at Pinterest (surprise, surprise) when I stumbled upon a salad recipe from Weight Watchers. I'm not usually one to even look at salad recipes, because who really needs a recipe for that, right? Wrong. This one inspired me to take it up a level and make it into an awesome dinner entree that is both hearty and healthy. Here's my version of their (meatless) salad.

Sante Fe Grilled Chicken Salad

Source: Jenna's Journey Recipes

Adapted from Weight Watchers

Ingredients:

6 cups of mixed baby greens

1 15oz can of of corn kernels, rinsed well

1 15 oz can of black beans, rinsed well

1/4 cup freshly grated montery jack cheese

1/4 freshly grated sharp cheddar cheese

1/4 cup spiced tortilla strip salad toppers

4 thin chicken cutlets (not the full chicken breasts)

1 cup garlic herb marinade (KC Masterpiece)

For the Dressing:

1/2 cup light mayo

1 teaspoon chili powder

1/4 cup freshly chopped cilantro

3-4 tablespoons freshly chopped chives or green onions

1 tablespoon lime juice (I used bottled)

2 teaspoons white sugar

Directions:

Marinade your chicken in garlic herb marinade for at least 3 hours. These are the thinly sliced chicken cutlets you can buy prepackaged. If your store doesn't' have them, slice your chicken breast in half lengthwise to create 2 thin chicken breast pieces.

Meanwhile, make the dressing. Mix all ingredients together well and refrigerate.

Grill chicken until done. Rinse corn and beans. Pile your lettuce, and top with corn, beans, cheese and tortilla strips. Place chicken on top. Top with dressing.

Enjoy!

Serving size: 2 pieces of chicken and 3 cups of salad per person.

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