A Recipe for Spring

I made this last night, it is one of my favorite spring/summer dinners (and one of the only times I can get the hubs to eat a salad for dinner). I designed it after the BBQ Chicken Salad at California Pizza Kitchen.

It's fun to make because a lot of it is not measured but added by taste or by eyeballing it (I have never really liked that phrase).

BBQ Chicken Salad
Serves 4

Ingredients:
8 cups romaine lettuce - chopped
4 chicken breast halves
1 can black beans - drained and rinsed
1 can sweet corn - drained and rinsed
1 diced avocado
chopped cilantro
1 lime - quartered
4 corn tortillas
Olive Oil
1 cup BBQ Sauce
1 Tbsp Brown Sugar
Ranch dressing

Preheat oven to 350, mix bbq sauce and brown sugar. Place the 4 chicken breast halves in a 9x13 dish and pour bbq sauce mixture over them. Bake for 30 minutes, turn chicken and baste, bake 15-20 minutes longer. Do not overcook, chicken should be moist. Dice when done.

As a side note: This right here makes some pretty good chicken. Sometimes I just make this and have it with garlic mashed potatoes and veggies.

Put romaine in a large bowl, add corn, black beans, avocado, cilantro, and the juice of 2 quarters of the lime.

Toss salad with dressing
Dressing:
Mix ranch, bbq sauce, and juice from 1-2 quarters of the lime to taste. It should be a pinkish brown color.

Using a pizza slicer, cut the 4 tortillas into strips. Fry in olive oil until crispy.

Add tortilla strips and chicken to salad - you can leave it on top for a prettier look or toss it in with the rest of the salad.

Enjoy!

Sweet Spring

I heard a thousand blended notes,
While in a grove I sate reclined,
In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts
Bring sad thoughts to the mind.

To her fair works did Nature link
The human soul that through me ran;
And much it grieved my heart to think
What man has made of man.

Through primrose tufts, in that green bower,
The periwinkle trailed its wreaths;
And 'tis my faith that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes.

The birds around me hopped and played,
Their thoughts I cannot measure:--
But the least motion which they made
It seemed a thrill of pleasure.

The budding twigs spread out their fan,
To catch the breezy air;
And I must think, do all I can,
That there was pleasure there.

If this belief from heaven be sent,
If such be Nature's holy plan,
Have I not reason to lament
What man has made of man?

-William Wordsworth

Happy Spring Everyone!

Gattiland!

A little while ago, my friend Lauren had a birthday. I asked her what she wanted to do for her birthday and she said, with a childlike face, "I want to go to Gattiland."

What is Gattiland? Gattiland is a wonderful magical place. It is a pizza buffet with all the pizza, salad, and desserts you could ever want. But wait, there's more...it is also a game center with all the old arcade games you enjoyed as a kid, air hockey, skee ball, basketball, and much more.

Before we headed out for Gattiland, we had to say goodbye to Julie's son Jaxon. But he was much too busy caluclating the profit margins from this years earnings thus far...

He took a break for a second to greet us with a smiling face

And then, I think he got a little slap happy (he must have been working too many late hours lately).

Anyway, we headed out and had a great night. We ate way too much pizza and played games like we were 8 years old.