Grilled Chicken and Avocado Salad - www.honeyandbirch.com

Today's Food Friday feature is Grilled Chicken and Avocado Salad by Jenny of Honey and Birch. Chicken breast has been a staple in our household ever since I came to Dubai. Avocados are also my favorite! I usually combine these two together with cucumber, carrots, and lettuce for a yummy salad. I do away with the dressing, but sometimes I also add balsamic vinaigrette.

Ranch Chicken Cobb Salad - thekittchen.com

Today's Food Friday feature is Ranch Chicken Cobb Salad by Kit of The Kittchen. Yes, she's on a roll! Remember the Pesto Pizza Pull-apart Bread from our previous Food Friday feature? Yup, it's also from Kit. :D

A bed of greens is topped with fresh tomatoes, sliced avocados, crispy bacon, corn, cheddar cheese, and ranch flavored chicken breast, then it is drizzled with an easy homemade avocado ranch dressing. This is a salad that makes eating your vegetables fun!

If you are following me on Instagram (Wait, what? You're still not? It's not yet to late, click HERE! Haha!), you've most probably seen #KriskasMealPreps. And I'm sure you've noticed how in most of my meal preps, grilled chicken breast is present. Yup, you bet! Chicken breasts never run out from our fridge. It's what Mark's muscles are made of. Haha!

Chicken breasts are mostly what Mark's diet consists of. Whenever he's at the military camp, he usually eats boiled (or sometimes steamed) chicken breasts without even a pinch of salt or pepper. I can just imagine how sad his meal times are. So whenever he comes home on weekends, I make sure that he gets to enjoy what he eats without having to compromise his healthy growing body. :p

I've cooked grilled chicken for him several times already and I prepared Chicken Broccoli for him just recently, so those were definitely out of my list. I remember him requesting me to cook something with tomatoes and  so Chicken Cacciatore was what topped my head.

Cacciatore means "hunter" in Italian. In cuisine, it refers to a meal prepared "hunter-style" with tomatoes, onions, and herbs, and is popularly made with braised chicken. Chicken Cacciatore is a dish in itself, but it may also be paired with pasta or even with rice. Fancy and complicated as it may seem, Chicken Cacciatore is very easy to make. Let me share with you guys my version. :)

Chicken Cacciatore over Whole Wheat Fusilli

Ingredients:

2 450g-packs boneless skinless chicken breast halves

8 pcs medium-sized ripe tomatoes, cut into cubes

2 tbsp ground black pepper (for sauce) and another 1 tsp (for chicken) 1 tbsp olive oil for frying

2 tbsp fresh parsley, finely-chopped 1 250g-can whole button mushrooms, thinly-sliced 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 medium-sized onion, chopped 2 tbsp dried oregano 2 tbsp honey whole wheat fusilli or brown rice

I've been living away from home for almost a month now.  It's actually my first time in 28 years to be away from my family. And because of that, I have no choice but to do everything, house chores specifically, all on my own. If there's one chore that I love doing the most, it's definitely cooking! And even though I'm not accustomed to being alone and doing everything by myself, I still find joy in it because I get to cook every single day, especially on weekends when I get to cook for Mark. :D

While cooking is really a no-brainer task for me, cooking for a bodybuilder is another thing. I always have to improvise and know healthier alternatives to usual ingredients that 'normal' people eat. :p Here's one of the 'healthy' dishes that I've cooked for Mark. :p

Chicken Broccoli

Printable Recipe: Chicken Broccoli

Ingredients:

450g chicken breast fillet, cut into strips

2 cloves garlice, minced 1 medium-sized white onion, cubed (red onion may also be used) 1 can button mushrooms, drained and sliced 1 medium-sized broccoli, cut into florets

2 tbsp honey 3 tbsp oyster sauce 1 tsp soy sauce 1 tbsp olive oil 1 tbsp ground black pepper