I know what you're thinking, cucumber salad? Really, Kristen. But I swear, this salad is so darn good. My current obsession is anything tangy, sour, tart flavor. Hence, the apple cider vinegar love. Add it to veggies and we can call this obsession healthy.

The last few times I've made this, it's gone within two days. You may ask how do you serve this salad? For me, it's one of those eat right out of the container while standing in the fridge, salads. Or, stand at the sink with the container next to you, salad.



For Adam, it's a turkey burger side or chicken side, salad. The best part about this salad, it's so dang easy to make and everyone will love it. With spring approaching quickly, it's the perfect BBQ side. Make it once and I swear you'll be a sink side eater like I am.

Ps. talking about spring, tomorrow on the blog, I'm sharing all the spring clothes I am LOVING currently from Nords. There is so much good stuff, you don't want to miss it. Plus, the infamous denim popeye jacket and some new stuff from Target. It's finally spring and it's time to get in the mood!


Ingredients: 

• 6 cucumbers, sliced thin
• 2 green onions, sliced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 2 tablespoons fresh dill, chopped 
• 1/2 tablespoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper

How to Make: 

1. Slice the cucumber and green onion. 
2. In a large bowl, mix the cucumber and green onion together.
3. In a small bowl, mix vinegar, honey, garlic, dill, salt and pepper. 
4. Pour vinegar mixture over cucumbers, toss to coat. 
5. Taste and if needed, ad salt or more vinegar 

Happy Wednesday friends!

Ingredients
Thai "peanut" dressing (I doubled everything) 

• 1⁄4 cup sunflower seed butter
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 tablespoon coconut vinegar
• 1 tablespoon coconut aminos
• juice of 1⁄2 lime (about 1 tablespoon)
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
• 1⁄2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1⁄2 teaspoon red pepper flakes\

• 4 tablespoons ghee, divided
• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, pounded thin
• 1⁄4 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1⁄4 teaspoon garlic powder
• pinch of black pepper
• 1 small sweet potato or yam, shredded 
• 6 to 8 cups mixed greens
• 1 cucumber, diced
• handful of sliced carrots
• handful diced tomatoes 
• 1⁄4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• roughly chopped green onions, for garnish

Happy Friday eve Friends! Tomorrow I'm sharing the easiest (and delicious) recipe, plus my new favorite pans. See ya'll tomorrow! 

Thursday nights are the nights where I hate cooking. I've done by job Sunday through Wednesday, cooking great healthy meals. But, by Thursday, I want my glass of wine and an easy meal! Usually, Thursday nights result in take out something and a glass of wine on the couch. Tonight is the first Bronco's game of the season, so I have a feeling our night is going to center around football. It's back!

My tune drastically changes on Sundays. Sunday is my day to experiment. I love trying new recipes, especially the ones that are so messy I spend three times the time cleaning than we did eating. Sundays are for the meals you always remember and say, "man that was so good."

Luckily for you, I've got both of these recipes.

THE GO-TO RECIPE: I have two of these. Both salad options. When I asked Adam what his favorite easy recipe was that I make, his immediate response was the almond butter chicken salad. My immediate response was my new thai chicken salad. It's the battle of the salads people!

Thai chicken salad v. almond butter chicken salad. Both of these recipes make enough for Friday-lunch leftovers and both are incredible. Plus, I usually have all these ingredients in my fridge and pantry.

Paleo Chicken Salad


Ingredients:

• 4 cups shredded chicken (this is about two large breasts) 
• 6 tablespoons almond butter
• 4 tablespoons olive oil 
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 2 teaspoons dijon mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon salt 
• 2 cups celery, chopped
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds
• 1/2 cup onion, diced (use red if you can, but yellow is good too!) 
• Butter lettuce, bread or wraps to eat it with. Or a fork. Let's be real, it's that's good.

How to Make: 

1. Shred the dang chicken. Get this part out of the way. (To make shredded chicken, place chicken in a saute pan. Cover the chicken with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce and let simmer. Takes about 25 minutes. Flip the chicken half way through.)
2. Make the dressing. Mix the almond butter, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, mustard and salt. Taste it. Last night, ours tasted too much like almond butter, so I added a little more apple cider vinegar and a titch of salt. This is up to your taste buds! 
3. In a large bowl, mix the chicken, celery, cranberries, almonds and onion. Don't be afraid to add other things. I used some seeds last night. I even thought about adding red cabbage. 
4. Wait to toss the salad with the dressing until ready to eat. Toss, serve, enjoy! 

THE BEST RECIPE: Paleo ravioli. It was hands down the greatest cooking accomplishment of my thirtys. (I'm 45 days in!). It's one of those meals, where I envision my girl friends sitting at my counter with red wine while I prepare ravioli and then we sit around and tell each other stories and secrets. Dream life amiright?

Ingredients:
Sauce:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil 
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 4 cloves gargle, mined
• 1 can (24 ounces) diced tomatoes (drained)
• 2 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1 teaspoon oregano 
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 1 teaspoon truffle salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 bay leaf

Happy Thursday friends and Go Broncos! I hope I helped make meal planning a little easier! And remember, cooking is better with wine and friends.

We're almost to the weekend! Let's do it!

Happy Monday lovies! I hope you had the best weekend. I am still recovering from the high of my girls weekend. It was such a wonderful weekend exploring Denver. We went to some amazing places and I cannot wait to share my Denver tour guide this week! If you are following me on Snapchat (@kgrace01) you saw a little sneak peek of those places!

Sunday was a blur which required an easy meal. I needed something that was filling, healthy and didn't require a lot of prep. In my world, that is usually a salad, something Adam isn't super fond of. This means I have to get super creative with my salad creations. Enter this Chicken Thai Salad. I got the inspiration from this Buzzfeed. It was a bit bland for my liking so I spiced it up!

It turned out so delicious, a little spicy and Adam even went back for seconds!


Happy Monday everyone! Here's hoping its a great one!

Happy Monday lovies! I hope your weekend was wonderful and full of relaxation. Mine was great because we didn't do much. I did get to meet my girlfriends new baby! She's only 9 days old and so perfect. I saw Bridget Jones Baby, which, if you love the others, you will love this! I laughed and cried, it was so great! Now that I look back, there was a lot of baby stuff this weekend. Hm.

Great dinners followed by great cocktails made for a struggling Monday. But here we are. Only 5 days until the weekend AND it's finally fall this week. That just means I'm more than justified in putting up my fall decor all while sipping something pumpkin flavored.

This recipe is inspired by my love for making food I can eat for days after. Bringing left overs for lunch is so much more enjoyable than eating a larabar. I found the original recipe from Eating Bird Food. Brittany is AMAZING and blogs some incredible recipes. She doesn't cook exclusively paleo, but her recipes are always leaning towards the healthy side and DELICIOUS. Her recipe for the chicken salad is here.



Below you'll see I switched it up a little for our taste preferences and to follow paleo.

Before we start can we talk about shredding chicken. It's in this recipe (spoiler alert) and as much as I love eating it. I hate it. I hate it so much that when I make bets with Adam on sports and random crap, I tell him that if I win, he has to shred the chicken.

And, the thing that really bugs me, is in recipes it's hidden in the instructions. Do this that this that shred chicken. No-one accounts for the 25 minutes it takes to shred 3 chicken breasts with 2 forks. My hands cramp, I start to sweat and I lose all interest.

Rant over, I made Adam shred the chicken last night.

The best part about this recipe is there is NO mayo! Hallelujah! We don't really do mayo in our house unless I can hide it in something so Adam doesn't know it's there. I found this great paleo mayo at Target and its delish so if I have to, I use that. Just please don't tell Adam I sneak mayo in some things!

Let's get to the recipe!


Ingredients:

• 4 cups shredded chicken (this is about two large breasts) 
• 6 tablespoons almond butter
• 4 tablespoons olive oil 
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 2 teaspoons dijon mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon salt 
• 2 cups celery, chopped
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds
• 1/2 cup onion, diced (use red if you can, but yellow is good too!) 
• Butter lettuce, bread or wraps to eat it with. Or a fork. Let's be real, it's that's good.

How to Make: 

1. Shred the dang chicken. Get this part out of the way. (To make shredded chicken, place chicken in a saute pan. Cover the chicken with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce and let simmer. Takes about 25 minutes. Flip the chicken half way through.)
2. Make the dressing. Mix the almond butter, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, mustard and salt. Taste it. Last night, ours tasted too much like almond butter, so I added a little more apple cider vinegar and a titch of salt. This is up to your taste buds! 
3. In a large bowl, mix the chicken, celery, cranberries, almonds and onion. Don't be afraid to add other things. I used some seeds last night. I even thought about adding red cabbage. 
4. Wait to toss the salad with the dressing until ready to eat. Toss, serve, enjoy! 

I love salads. Every kind. Pre-made, homemade, restaurant ordered. I love them all. They're a perfect dish for those warm summer months. Another thing I love, making my own dressings. I've seen this one everywhere, but the thought of pureed avocado's kind of grossed me out. I finally gave it and made it and I am SO glad. It's delicious!

Ingredients: 

• 1 avocado
• 1/4 cup lime juice (i ended up adding more once I was done) 
• 1/4 cup hopped cilantro
• 1 jalapeno pepper
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 garlic clove
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• salt to taste 

It's 72 degrees, the sun is shining and I was craving a bomb salad. My favorite type of salad is one with 1000 veggies, a great dressing and some spicy chicken. This recipe is SO easy... so easy in fact that Adam and I have made it three times in the past week. Don't judge.

I hope you are all enjoying the spring weather, or I at least hope you're not still getting inches and inches of snow. Come on Mother Nature! It's time for summer salads, summer drinks and sunshine!

Ingredients:
Salad

• Lettuce
• Red onion
• Tomatos
• Green Bell Peppers
• Avocado
• Cucumber 
• Chicken, cut into pieces
• And literally any other veggie you can find

Dressing:

• 1/2 cup plain almond milk
• 4 teaspoons ground flaxseed
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• dab of honey
• 1 small garlic clove
• pinch of salt
• 2 teaspoons tomato paste
• 1/2 teaspoon chipotle chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

How to make: 

1. For the salad, clean and cut up all veggies. I love a chopped salad, so I chop everything including my lettuce. 
2. For the chicken, thaw, cut into chunks, sprinkle with salt, pepper and chili powder. Salute in a large pan for about 10-12 minutes, flipping occasionally. 
3. For the dressing, throw everything in a blender and blend until desired thickness. I added a titch more milk to thin it out. I let the dressing sit for about an hour in the fridge to let it all blend together. 

I don't know about you but I cannot wait for summer. Hot summer days, cold brews and delicious salads. Even though its currently 55 degrees and raining outside, I attempted to recreate summer inside with this cold broccoli salad. I've never really cooked with curry powder and now I can't stop. I paired this salad with my favorite Baked Mustard-Glazed Chicken. Let's just say it was a huge hit in our household! I found this recipe via My Sweet Savannah. Go check her out!


Ingredients:
Dressing: 

• 3/4 cup roasted, salted cashews
• 5 1/2 tablespoons water
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 4 teaspoons yellow curry powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons honey (she used light agave)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• pinch of pepper

Salad: 

• 4 cups broccoli, cut into pieces
• 1/2 cup red onion, diced
• 1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
• 2 pieces cooked bacon, chopped
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries, chopped
• 2 tablespoons sunflower seeds
• 2 tablespoons roasted cashews, chopped

How to Make: 

1. Place the cashews in a  medium bowl and cover with water. Refridgerate for 8 hours. (I just left them on my counter). 
2. Drain the cashews and place in a food processor
3. Add in the remaining dressing ingredients and blend until creamy. About 3 minutes. 
4. In a large bowl, combine the broccoli, red onion, cilantro, bacon and cranberries. Add in the dressing and combine. Refrigerate for an hour. 
5. Just before serving, mix in the sunflower seeds and cashews. 
6. Enjoy!

Pioneer Woman has been one of my favorite food blogs/tv shows for a while. She makes the best  food ever. Most of her recipes are pretty involved, hence why they're so delicious, so when I found this one, I knew I had to make it! The best part about it? It's paleo (with a few minor changes). Here's the original recipe via Pioneer Woman if you want to go check hers! Mine is as follows! I forgot to take pictures, don't hate me, but here's one from PW, but I promise it's good! Enjoy!! 

Ingredients

• 2 whole Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
•  Salt And Pepper
•  Olive Oil, For Grilling Or Sauteeing
• 2/3 cups Olive Oil
• 1/4 cup Low Sodium Soy Sauce
• 1/4 cup Rice Wine Vinegar (or White Vinegar)
• 2 cloves Garlic, Minced
• 2 Tablespoons Minced Fresh Ginger
• 1 teaspoon Toasted Sesame Oil
• 2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar (more To Taste)
•  Pinch Of Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
• 1 package (10 Ounces) Mixed Greens
• 1/2 whole Red Onion, Sliced Very Thin
• 1 cup Red Grape Tomatoes, Halved
• 1 can Mandarin Oranes, Drained
• 1 Tablespoon Sesame Seeds
• 1 Tablespoon Black Sesame Seeds

Instructions

When I was in Arizona, my mom and I made this salad and totally botched the dressing. After playing around with it and adding more stuff, it ended up being pretty good, but not what we hoped. I made it again last week and played around with our original recipe and I think I nailed it! If you like thai peanut sauce, then you will love this dressing.