Day 16: Training Myself to Like Healthy Food Again

Jillian Michael's Southwest Chicken Salad

I have to admit that so far on this journey  I have avoided using the term "Clean Eating" mainly because in my mind I have equated clean eating with boring bland food.
Which seems silly because my whole strategy is getting healthy by avoiding eating processed food.


So, I've come to the realization that if I want to be successful in getting healthy that I need to embrace this thing they call Clean Eating.
I can actually feel my taste buds changing already.  I am finding it easier to resist fast food and the processed snack foods that seem to find me just when I get hungry.  
Don't get me wrong, it is still a daily struggle but I am focusing on my successes to keep my motivation to build healthy habits.
Today's Successes were 
1) Taking my breakfast of an apple and a protein drink into work at church this morning instead of buying a fast food breakfast.
2) On the was home from church I stopped at Circle K for a Coke Zero and was able to resist the immediate urge to buy a Slim Jim or Breakfast Sausage they had on that mesmerizing junk food rolling cooker.

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So to celebrate my successes I decided to make some clean food that I could eat during the week.  I decided on this long time favorite that I haven't made in a few years.  It's a recipe from Jillian Michael's Master Your Metabolism Cookbook  from 2010. 
I can't find my copy and I can't remember any of the other recipes in the book but this one for her Southwest Chicken Salad I absolutely love.  It's a wonderfully simple recipe packed with flavor and ton of protein ... 64 grams per serving !!

I've come to think of this as a hidden treasure because as amazing of a dish as this is I would think it would be posted everywhere. But I have to hunt to find it on the internet and there isn't even a picture of it so I took my own.
Finding time to make this was a struggle because our Sundays are packed with activities and by the end of the day I am exhausted and lately sore from the daily exercising.  So it makes it all the more delicious eating this with the knowledge that I persevered through complete exhaustion to make this healthy meal!

Recipe Tips:

* Dicing up the chicken instead of slicing makes it easier to eat on the go.
* Pounding the chicken breasts flat between 2 sheets of wax paper will make grilling faster.  If you don't have a mallet the back side of a ladle will work.  Start in the middle of the chicken breast and work your way out to the sides.
* Double the Cilantro and put half in a blender with the salad dressing and the other half chopped into the chicken.
* Blending the salad dressing instead of shaking it will emulsify it and meld the ingredients.