Good Eats: Chicken and Avocado Salad with Lime and Cilantro

I think I was out to prove something this week.  I woke up on Tuesday morning and quickly made up my mind to take the twins on an excursion to Pick n' Save later that day.  It wouldn't be the first time that the babies had visited the grocery store, but it would mark the first time that I would journey to the grocery store with the babies on my own. 

I wanted to head to the grocery store to shop for the ingredients to a couple recipes that I had found during one of my early morning pumping and pinning sessions.  I was determined to begin cooking again.  As mentioned in a previous post, apart from a grilled cheese sandwich here or a reheated meal there, I really haven't spent much time in the kitchen since the babies were born.  I didn't think that I would, but I think that I missed it!  With that said, I knew I had to keep my expectations for my return to cooking realistic - I won't be whipping up beef bougninon anytime soon.  I decided to start small with a salad that made the perfect meal for a hot summer night - Chicken and Avocado Salad with Lime and Cilantro.

The trip to the grocery store proved highly uneventful and went off without a hitch...until I decided to push my luck and walk the babies over to the adjacent Target after I loaded the groceries into the car.  Will wasn't happy with the decision to prolong our trip out of the house, and made sure that all of Target's customers knew it.  Needless to say, I didn't stay long.  I should have quit while I was ahead, but, damn, Target/Starbucks (I did stop for an iced tea lemonade on my way out!) pulls you in! 

A couple nights later, we enjoyed the fruits of my labor when Jim and I sat down to eat - no, wolf down - our meal.  We didn't need to mow our food because we needed to tend to the babies; it was just that good that we shoveled it in!  We polished the entire salad off that night. 

Not only did I make my return to the kitchen this week, but I have also started reading (for fun) again!  In the babies' first weeks, I read a few pages of a novel here and there, but didn't really make much progress.  This week, I used one of my few breaks from feeding/changing/entertaining/pumping/bottle-washing/laundry each day to read!  I'm close to finishing the book that I had started two months ago, and am excited to start another soon!  I don't know that I'm quite ready to jump back into the two book clubs in which I was participating pre-twins, but I think that I've made good progress! 

I love our babies, but it feels good to be making a comeback! 

Recipe for:  Chicken and Avocado Salad with Lime and Cilantro
From:  http://www.kalynskitchen.com/2012/05/recipe-for-chicken-and-avocado-salad.html (via Pinterest)

Ingredients:
2 cups cooked chicken, shredded into large pieces
2 medium avocados, diced
1 T + 1 T fresh squeezed lime juice
Salt, to taste (I actually didn't use any salt...I didn't think that it needed it.)
1/4 cup thinly sliced green onion
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro (or chop it more coarsely if you prefer)
2 T mayo or light mayo

Directions:

1.  Shred the chicken apart until you have 2 cups of chicken shredded into fairly large chunks. Dice the avocados into medium-sized pieces, mix with 1 T of the lime juice, and season avocado with salt to taste. Thinly slice the green onion and finely chop the cilantro. Mix mayo and 1 T lime juice to make the dressing.

2.  Put the chicken into a bowl large enough to hold all the salad ingredients. Add the sliced green onions and dressing and toss until all the chicken is coated with dressing. Add the avocado and any lime juice in the bottom of the bowl and gently combine with the chicken. Then add the chopped cilantro and gently mix into the salad, just until it is barely combined.

3. Serve right away or chill for a while before serving. This could be served inside pita bread, sandwich bread, or lettuce cups, but we used tortillas.  It could also simply be eaten as a salad!