Blackened Chicken, San Fran Quinoa Salad

Meal 80 - September 28th - Blackened Chicken, San Fran Quinoa Salad

In a moment of potentially disastrous judgement, several months ago Lolz and I signed up to the Ealing Half Marathon, either forgetting or ignoring the fact that it would be happening just days after my sister's wedding. In a typical week prior to a half marathon, I would ensure I was well hydrated by drinking lots of water, I'd ease off the alcohol, go for a couple of short, easy runs, and do a bit of carb loading in the few days prior to the race. Unfortunately this tried an tested regime was abandoned in favour of lots of meat, booze, dancing and general unhealthiness. Lolz had conveniently sustained an injury forcing her to pull out of the race by this point but, I, being much more hard core, would be seeing it through. After getting home from the pub on Saturday afternoon, I decided it was time for a healthy pre-race meal. I opted for this salad, full of quinoa, spinach, lean chicken and other energy-boosting goodness.

It was a very straightforward meal to put together, although I did make a couple of important discoveries. First, I successfully hedgehogged the mango (not a euphemism) for the first time (previous trials and tribulations over this process were documented here). It's actually surprisingly easy. Secondly, like many 15 minute meals, this one calls for you to rub some spices into the raw chicken before bashing it with a rolling pin. It's not exactly revolutionary but I learned it's easier to rub the chicken into the spices rather than vice versa (i.e. sprinking the spices onto the greaseproof paper and then rolling the chicken in it) and it creates a nicer, more even crust. There was a slight problem in that the chicken was ready way before the quinoa, and so I had no option but to take it out and let it get cold (a mistake that Lolz would later mark me down on...) and I'm still finding it hard to find perfectly ripe avocados, but overall this was a success.

The quinoa, mixed with the blitzed spinach was really clever and a nice way to jazz up something that can otherwise be fairly boring. The mango and feta also go really well together with their contrasting saltiness and sweetness. These chicken salads are really proving to be some of the best meals in the. Lolz gave this one 9/10 (would apparently have been a 10 if the chicken was hotter). Difficulty rating 2/10.