Chicken Bacon Apple Salad (gluten-free, dairy-free, Whole30)

This has become an insanely YUMMY staple food in our house! It’s everything you want-healthy, fresh, grain free, dairy free, sugar free… but tastes delish! I make it with homemade mayo (recipe coming soon) if we are being strict, or off the shelf mayo in a pinch (or whole30 compliant mayo in a REAL pinch, because it’s like $10 for a tiny jar lol).

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded (saves so much time cooking in the Instant Pot if you have one!)

2 apples, chopped

1 cup sliced almonds

2 cups grapes, halved

1.5-2 cups mayo, preferably homemade

approx. 10 slices cooked bacon, crumbled

pinch salt (optional)

Directions:

For starters, if you didn’t know, you can totally throw whole cooked chicken breasts in your stand mixer, put on the lowest setting, and have perfectly shredded chicken in less than 2 minutes. You’re welcome. 😉

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Toast your almonds-I used to do this in the oven, but who has the time, and also…it heats up the entire house in the summer! Throw those puppies in a skillet on medium and stir until they look and smell like heaven:

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Combine everything in a big bowl (this makes a pretty big batch), and stir well:

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Serve in lettuce wraps…yum! Super refreshing, yet filling, and also helps satisfy my sweet tooth without caving and eating a candy bar or something lol!

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Enjoy!

Homemade ranch! (gluten free, dairy free, sugar free…but not taste free!)

This is the same recipe as the avocado ranch recipe found here, except sans avocado! This is our favorite, and we make it in our blender now for a nice thick almost whipped-type consistency.

Ingredients:

2 eggs

2 cups extra light olive oil (it’s important to get the extra light stuff-the regular and extra virgin leave a horrible taste lol)

2 Tbsp lemon juice

2 tsp salt

2 tsp pepper

2 tsp onion powder

2 tsp garlic powder

1 can coconut milk

1 Tbsp dried cilantro

1 Tbsp dried dill

Directions:

1.  Dump all ingredients ceremoniously into the blender ;P

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2. Pulse, or I put mine on smoothie because it’s about 30 seconds, and I’m too lazy to hold the button down for that long, lol.

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3. Pour into jars…I have some cute ones, and some are in the sink dirty, so again, too lazy to wash them, I grabbed this empty salsa jar (amazing salsa btw! Can be found at the Gilbert Farmer’s Market for you Arizonans!) and used it lol.

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Side note: did you  know that it’s super easy to clean out your blender after using it by putting some water in and pulsing? =D

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Anyway, serve with my favorite chicken tenders (recipe here)!

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Enjoy! If you try this, please let me know what you think!