Day 320: 6.5 miles + Greek Chicken Salad Recipe + New Tunes

Today was a pretty blah day! I got up chipper, wore my new outfit (middle dress!), and headed out. I had a productive work day, walked 6.5 miles, enjoyed the new playlist Austin put on my iPod (the usual suspects: Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, Keri Hilson, Black Eyed Peas, Flo rida, Pink, Veronica, Katy Perry, Pitbull, Akon, etc.) and read some of my book! My TOM was still craving crap and even though I brought my good food (breakfast burrito + yogurt for breakfast; Greek feta chicken for lunch + grapes) and my own “bad snacks” (reduced fat cheez its; no pudge brownie)… I still gave in ALL DAY LONG having a mini snickers… a mini reese’s cup… 4 starburst… and a publix sugarcookie. I know this may seem insane, but believe it or not I passed on TONS of food including barbeque, pizza, cupcakes, brownies and cookies. It was like crap food heaven in the break room. All. Day. Long. Sigh.

I left the gym feeling better post candy eating and ready to make a new recipe from Cooking Light.com: Herbed Greek Chicken Salad. As per usual, here’s my version for 2 peeps modified a bit:

First Step (pre yogurt mix)


With yogurt mix... nom nom nom



Mixed in with a side 'o pita

½ tsp dried oregano

¼ tsp garlic powder

½ tsp black pepper, divided

¼ tsp salt, divided

Cooking spray

8 oz. skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into 1-inch cubes

2.5 tsp fresh lemon juice, divided

½ cup plain fat-free yogurt (Fage 0%)

1 tsp tahini

½ tsp minced garlic

6 cups chopped romaine lettuce

8 grape tomatoes, halved

44 grams fat-free feta cheese

Combine oregano, garlic powder, ¼ tsp pepper and 1/8 tsp salt in a bowl. Heat a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add chicken and spice mixture; sauté until chicken is done. Drizzle with 1.5 tsp lemon juice; stir. Remove from pan. Combine remaining tsp of lemon juice, remaining 1/8 teaspoon salt, remaining 1/4 teaspoon pepper, yogurt, tahini and garlic in a small bowl; stir well. Combine lettuce and tomatoes. Place mixture on each of 2 plates. Top each serving with chicken mixture and cheese. Drizzle each serving with 3 tablespoons yogurt mixture.

Optional: Serve with toasted pita wedges (like I did above; 1/2 6-inch pita) OR chop down salad with knives, toast 6-inch pita, cut pita in half, and stuff each half with salad making a Greek Chicken Salad Wrap. The salad is super “sticky” if you will (see 3rd picture!), making it easy to stuff in a pita!

Nutritional Information (without pita): 251 calories, 13 carbohydrates, 3 fat grams, 41 protein grams. Nutritional Information (with pita): 371 calories, 37 carbs, 3 fat grams and 44 protein grams.

You guys – it was SUPER good. I ended up eating half the salad with ½ a pita (2 small triangles), then stuffing the other half of the salad in another ½ of pita. YUM. It was so creamy and thick and fabulous – DEFINITELY making again. This would be a good one to bring to work too, could just pack it up and bring a pita, toast the pita in the toaster in the break room and stuff it up! Easy peasy!

After dinner Austin left for poker and I watched more of Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix. How I love this series. Then it was time to make lunch for tomorrow (Yellow Curry Chicken with Cilantro) and get snacks together. Then it was time to shower, pay bills, get ready for tomorrow BLAH - the evening flies by! I settled in to the awesomely bad Secret Life of the American Teenager. hehe I ended up at 1,834 calories (not bad), 277 carbs (eek!), 32 fat grams (not bad) and 107 protein grams (good!). So again - carb monster attacked! Here's what I ate! Factoring in the 6.5 miles, def not bad. Oh HRM update - it's FINALLY going to be here Thursday. Never do Amazon ship-to-store - geez!