YOUR FRIENDS' ACTIVITY

    Shine Supper Club - Lightened-up Summer Chicken Salad

    By | Shine Food – Fri, Jun 8, 2012 10:32 AM EDT

    Lightened-up summer chicken saladSummer is here, which means cranking up the grill, enjoying frozen treats, the smell of fresh-cut green grass, and tossing together cool salads. It also means the potential of wearing a swimsuit. Sure, I'd love to comfortably strut my stuff in a two piece. But, yeah. No. I've been working on walking instead of driving to places closer than a mile from the house, cutting back on sweet treats, and lightening-up our favorite dishes. One of my go-to regulars for lunch is chicken salad. There's nothing like that creamy, comforting bite of rich chicken salad sandwich full of garlic, tangy mustard, and wonderful mayo. But, OH, the calories! 1 tablespoon of regular mayonnaise has around 60 of them!

    Not so nice and light.

    So, for summer, and the hopes of dropping a few jiggly pounds, I decided to lighten-up my tasty go-to chicken salad recipe. I swapped that high-calorie mayo for plain, tangy, light yogurt. Not only was I in love, my toddler couldn't get enough of the lightened-up summer chicken salad either.

    Ingredients

    2 cups cubed cooked chicken

    1/4 teaspoon minced garlic

    1 scallion, chopped

    1/3 cup plain light yogurt

    1/2 teaspoon grainy-style mustard

    1/4 teaspoon salt

    Squeeze of lemon

    1/4 cup chopped cucumber

    1/4 cup quartered cherry tomatoes

    Dash pepper

    Directions

    Cube your chicken and add to a medium mixing bowl. I've been roasting whole chickens once a week for dinner and then using the leftovers later in the week. If you don't have any home-roasted chicken hanging out in your fridge, you can poach a nice-sized chicken breast to use for making this lightened-up chicken salad.

    Add the garlic, mustard, salt, and big dash of pepper to the chicken. Go ahead and chop your scallion and add along with the plain yogurt. Give things a gentile stir until all the chicken is coated.

    Chop and add the cucumber and cherry tomatoes along with the nice squeeze of fresh lemon. Stir again, give a taste test, and season to your liking before serving.

    Now, you can go ahead and slather that lightened-up summer chicken salad on a few slices of whole wheat bread, but I love topping a few hearty crackers with spinach leaves and then a big scoop of the fresh salad.

    Yum.

    Happy summer!

    sarahlipoff.com

    SUPPER CLUB PICK

    • Childhood Favorites from the Shine Supper Club
      View Photos
      Childhood Favorites from the Shine Supper Club
      Childhood Favorites from the Shine Supper Club

      My after-school snack was a sacred ritual. I sat on the carpet in my parents' bedroom at a low table, the television turned to "I Dream of Jeannie," and ate a peanut butter and honey sandwich cut into neat squares. I wasn't fussy about crusts. I just loved the sticky pairing of creamy peanut butter with syrupy golden sweetness drizzled from a honey bear in diagonals across the soft white bread. Nothing else--save for maybe apples and peanut butter in a pinch--could have made for as sweet an