The Whiledorf salad

The other night I was staring at the chicken that we'd roasted at the weekend to provide quick and easy protein for our meals during the week, and I thought to myself, "I really don't want another chicken salad." 

So then I stared into the fridge for a few minutes. 

And I stared into the cupboard for a while too. 

Eventually, after several more rounds of staring, a meal started to form in my head. 

I remembered a while ago I used to make a really nice miso soup style thing with buckwheat noodles, chicken and lightly steamed broccoli, and I remembered I used to scatter a few blueberries on the top.

Which sounds disgusting but it was really nice.  The blueberries, apart from being insanely good for you (I watched a program once where people who ate blueberries as their afternoon snack increased their brain function or concentration or similar by about 1 gazillion percent for the rest of the day - caveat, I may not have got the statistics of that exactly right.), they're yummy and unlike lots of other fruit, not too sweet.  They have a great earthy taste and they add just the right element of zing to an otherwise quite flat dish.

So, there began my salad for that night.  

Instead of buckwheat noodles I started with a base of grains - one of my famous packets of 'gravel', perfect for such an occasion.  I think this one was just a mixture of red quinoa, buglar, freke.  Just enough to add a bit of bite.  

Then I added some broccoli I had blanched in boiling water for just a few minutes and then plunged straight into cold water afterwards.  This keeps it lovely and green and al dente...nobody likes slodgey fart flavoured broc in their salad.

Next came an apple (my favourite, pink lady) chopped into pieces and some celery before tearing up some roast chicken and adding that too.

Finally I crumbled a few walnuts over the top for our healthy fat stress busting component and a little earthy taste with a good old crunch.

I decided not to use any dressing or seasoning as I wanted it to stay really fresh and crisp and for all the individual vibrant flavours to stay in tact.

And all that staring into cupboards and fridges paid off as not only was it very tasty, it also felt super healthy and it was really satisfying because of all the different flavours and textures.

I used to absolutely HATE any type of fruit near any sort of savoury food (I'm thinking duck a l'orange, sultanas in coronation chicken..bleurgh), but done like this in a really simple, fresh and non sweet way, it really does chuck a different spin on the boring old chicken salad.

So,I'm calling this, my twist on another classic featuring apples and walnuts, the Whiledorf salad!

Chinese fake-away

Some nights are just chicken fried rice nights and there's no getting away from it. 

So whilst what I'm about to share may not be the 'best' nutrition wise, it is certainly a million times 'better' than the Noodle Nation equivalent I could have fallen victim to. 

And it was much quicker and cheaper. 

It helps to have a cupboard full of 2 minute microwave brown rice and a ready roasted chicken - 2 things always to be found in our house for such occasions. 

So, all I did was very quickly stir fry up some broc, kale and spring onion in coconut oil and cook the rice in aforementioned microwave. Chuck one into the other, sprinkle in some chilli flakes and a flash of garlic oil ( because I'm too lazy to chop up fresh garlic tonight and so hungry - the longer it takes for dinner to be ready the more I'll have nibbled on while I wait!), drizzle some low salt soy/tamari and some sesame oil, rip up some chicken and throw that in too. At this point I realise I have no eggs - mega fail. Normally these would get scrambled up and added at this point, as would some frozen peas. Couldn't be bothered with the peas in the aftermath of the egg revelation so hey presto, dinner was served. 

Yum, cheap, quick, healthier than the alternative but still satisfying that chicken fried rice itch.