Recipe: Avocado Chicken Salad

Sunday night for dinner, my husband bbq'd a delicious beer can chicken. It was one of the best chickens that he has ever cooked - very moist and flavorful. It was the first time he tried preparing chicken that way and it is definitely something we will have again! Since we are only a family of four with two littles 4 and 2 (who are VERY picky eaters!) we had a good amount of leftovers. Usually when we roast a chicken, I use the leftover chicken to make a pot pie. Since it is way too hot for using the oven, I needed another way to use the chicken and wanted something different. To Pinterest I went and found a delish recipe for BBQ Chicken and Avocado Quesadillas. Since we did not use bbq sauce when we first made the chicken, I simply shredded some chicken and mixed it up with our favorite bbq sauce and then assembled everything. These quesadillas were delicious and a great way to use the leftover chicken but...I still had more chicken left over! Not a lot but enough to use for another small meal for sure.
So this afternoon when I was trying to decide what to have for lunch, I thought of the chicken and the extra avocado that I had and again went to Pinterest - ha! I found a few tasty looking recipes but I did not want to leave the house to go buy any extra ingredients. I just wanted to use what I had on hand. This is the recipe that inspired my avocado chicken salad. I thought I would share how I made mine but of course you could always search Pinterest just as I did for other yummy ideas :)

Avocado Chicken Salad

(Adapted from a recipe found at Becoming Betty)

1 cup of shredded chicken

1 avocado diced

Juice from 1/2 a lemon (lime would be really good too)

1 small Roma tomato diced

1-2 tablespoons of mayonnaise

salt and pepper to taste



Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Serve in a wrap with lettuce and enjoy!



I used only about half of the chicken salad in my wrap for lunch today so I guess it serves two. I am looking forward to having the rest tomorrow. I think I might try it on some whole wheat toast :)



Thanks for stopping by!

Meghan

Erin's Graduation Dress - A Cottage Mama pattern

My little lady graduated from pre-school at the end of June. The school she attended held an adorable ceremony for the children. The theme was "Spirit of Americana". The children practiced for weeks all the patriotic songs they would sing and the lines that they had to say. Erin was part of a group that talked about George Washington. Her line was, "George Washington's face appears on the one dollar bill". She said it perfectly and without any help from her teacher! It was such a great little ceremony and the kids definitely had fun and did a wonderful job of entertaining the parents!
Erin requested a pretty dress to wear for her special day and I was happy to oblige! (She really didn't have to ask...I had been hoarding some Sandi Henderson Meadow Sweet fabric since the beginning of the school year for a dress for her graduation!)
Erin did pick out the pattern for the dress. I was going to use The Janey Jumper pattern from The Cottage Mama but when Lindsay's new patterns came out, Erin happened to be looking at them with me and she asked if I could please get her the Ruby Ruffle Dress pattern instead. She loved that the dress had ruffles on it! Since I have an obsession  a love for the Cottage Mama patterns, I placed the order right away. I have both the Janey Jumper pattern and the Shortcake Reversible Romper and dress pattern. These patterns are very easy to follow and the finished garment is adorable and has a professional look.
The Ruby Ruffle dress pattern is no exception. I love how the dress turned out and so did Erin! Again, the instructions were very easy to follow. I love that there are actual photos along the way of each step. Much easier to see what you need to do than looking at an illustration.



Ruby Ruffle Dress size 4 in Sandi Henderson Meadow sweet



Top of dress details - I used fabric covered buttons

Ruffle detail

Side view

Back view - love these beautiful flowers

Having fun dancing in her new dress!

I just love how this dress came out and so did Erin! She is requesting another Ruby Ruffle dress and I am looking forward to making more and trying out the different views that the pattern suggests. :)

Thanks for stopping by!
Meghan

Strawberry picking fun

A couple of weeks ago, my friend and I packed up our kids and some snacks and headed about an hour north of where we live to go strawberry picking. My friend knew of this great organic farm in Ancram, New York called Thompson-Finch Farm. "Thompson-Finch Farm is a family-run fruit farm that specializes in growing certified organic strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and apples. The farm is known region wide for high quality fruit and our season long "Pick-Your-Own" operation."
The drive up was beautiful, lots of farms and old houses to look at on the way. When we got there, we checked in at the fruit stand, had our baskets weighed and one of the workers let us know where in the patch we were allowed to pick. I brought along my own baskets but they do provide boxes if you don't have your own.
The kids had so much fun picking strawberries! They were up and down all the rows carefully selecting the best berries for picking. It was so cute!

yummy berries!

Jack really had the most fun eating all the berries he found!

Delicious!

Erin took her job very seriously!

She did a great job finding berries!

Strawberry picking fun!

We had a great time at the strawberry patch and came home with a lot of strawberries! I took about a pound of the berries and divided them up into bags and froze them for later use. With the rest, I made delicious Strawberry Cinnamon Muffins. I found the recipe on The Cottage Home blog awhile ago and have been wanting to try it ever since. Our abundance of berries finally gave me that opportunity :) The muffins were delish! And we had such a great time at the farm!