BBQ Chicken Salad - Yum!

Time for another recipe!

This is one of our favorite meals.

I used to get the BBQ Ranch Chicken Salad at Cheesecake Factory every time I went.  So yummy!  I decided to make my own version at home: 

This really is an easy and delicious meal!

The amount of the ingredients depend on how many people you are preparing it for.  This recipe will be for a serving of four.

BBQ Chicken Salad

4 Chicken breasts, grilled and diced

Iceberg lettuce - 1 head, chopped

Red leaf lettuce - 1 head, chopped

2 tomatoes, diced

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 package frozen corn (you could use canned corn instead)

1/2 yellow or purple onion (whatever you have on hand), diced

1 cup chopped cilantro

1-2 avocados, diced

1 cucumber, chopped

BBQ sauce (your favorite kind)

Ranch dressing

Start with the chicken.  I grill mine.  Make sure to season it nicely with garlic salt and pepper and any seasoning you like!  While the chicken is grilling, chop your lettuce.  I chop mine into bite-sized pieces, then wash it in the colander.

While the lettuce is drying, prepare your toppings.  Chop the cilantro, dice the tomato, onion, avocado and cucumber.  Cook/warm the corn and drain/rinse the beans.

When the chicken is done, dice it up into bite-sized pieces.  Add some BBQ sauce, maybe about 1/3 cup, to the chicken and stir to coat it.  If you want a little more, by all means, add a little more!

You are ready to assemble your salad!

Start with your lettuce and then add any toppings you want:

Add your chicken last.
For the dressing, I drizzle a little bit of ranch, maybe a tablespoon or two.  Then, I drizzle more BBQ sauce, a good couple tablespoons.  That's what makes the salad, in my opinion!  That and the cilantro - don't forget the cilantro.

Voila!  

You have a super tasty and healthy salad!

You could even throw on some green or red peppers.  

Mmmm, that would be good!

Try it out, you won't be disappointed!


Where I link up:

Linky Party Button Clean-Up

Have you ever seen this at the bottom of someone's blog post:

showing all the parties they are linking up to, all tidy, nice and neat?

Well, as you can see, I finally figured out how to do it!

A lot of the linky party hosts want you to link directly to them in the post you are linking up.  If you add all the buttons to your post, you are covering all your bases.  You're showing people where they can link up their projects, too, while giving the person hosting the linky some credit and directing traffic to their blog.  It makes everyone happy, all around.  And that's what we want - one big, happy bloggy family!  Am I right, or am I right?

What, you want to know how to do it, too?

Then head on over to Jen @ Life, Crafts and Whatever.  She'll show you how to do it!

Thrift store finds

I got some great things at the thrift store this past week!

I love finding little treasures at the thrift store.

Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Here are the goods:

Want to know how much I spent?  

A whopping $3.00!

I found the milk glass urn and have big plans for it for my spring decorating that include the styrofoam ball.

The mirror is awesome!

I will be spray painting it a fun color.  Don't know what color yet, but I know it will be super cute when I'm done.

And I bought a book because I NEED to do a project with book pages.

Don't know what project yet, but I know it will be wonderful!

I feel fulfilled.

Remember how I talked about that warm and fuzzy feeling?

Yep, still here.

There's just a sense of accomplishment in finding great things and only spending $3.00! Haha!

PS - there is an awesome giveaway over at Florabella.  Go check it out!

Easter/Spring Wreath

I'm SO excited to share this wreath with you!!!

I had my Valentine's wreath up until last week - sad, I know.  I just hadn't had the time to sit down and make another wreath until this past weekend.

And I LOVE how my wreath turned out!

At first, I was going to do a vine wreath with lots of flowers.  It would have been really pretty, I think.  But it was getting too expensive with all the flowers I wanted to get the look I was going for.  So while I was at the craft store I decided to change directions.  I had another wreath envisioned with tulle so I decided to go for it!

All of the Easter stuff at JoAnne's was 40% off.  Yay!  So I got a pretty bunch of wild flowers, some decorative eggs and a super cute vintage Easter sign.  I could have totally made the sign myself, but it was so cheap that it was worth it just to buy it and save me the time :)  Plus I had a 40 % off coupon for my most expensive item.  Aw yeah!  I used it on my sparkly tulle.  Yeah, I got sparkly tulle and LOVE IT!  It was a little pricey, even with the coupon (at least pricey for me, but I'm kind of cheap - ha ha!), but so worth it. 

On with the tutorial!

I started with a foam wreath.  I didn't want to see the white through the tulle so I wrapped ribbon around the whole thing

I picked a pink 2" ribbon that I already had (I love the ribbon from Tai Pan - super cheap and good quality) so that it would cover it fast.  I'm still worn out from wrapping all the yarn on my Valentine's wreath :)

Then I cut my tulle into strips.  I did 4" for the width and just cut the length in half.  PS - my mom got me a rotary cutter and mat for my birthday {I turn the big 3-0 in a couple of weeks - aaaaah!!!}.  It was SO easy cutting my tulle with the rotary cutter!  I love it!

After the strips were cut, I started tying them onto the wreath.  I did it just like you would tie the tulle onto a tutu.  But, I decided to do this like a "Tutu for Dummies" just in case there is someone out there who doesn't know how to do it.  Cuz I'm super nice and cool like that.

Soooooooo, you take your strip of tulle, fold it in half and put in under the wreath.  The looped end should be on the inside, like so:

Then pull the loose ends through the loop:

Next, pull up and tighten the strip of tulle:

When you are done tying, you will have this wonderful wreath that looks like a fun little tutu when you are done:

I alternated between the regular tulle and the sparkly tulle.  Since I got less of the sparkly tulle (cuz it was more expensive), I did one strip of sparkly tulle to every two strips of regular tulle.  Got it?  Good.

You'll want to trim the tulle at this point to the length you want it.

After I trimmed mine, I added a little ric-rac to give it some more oomph, color and interest:

Now it's time to embellish!  My favorite part.  Mwahahaha!

I started with my little bunch of wild flowers:

So fun and colorful!

Then I whipped out my speckled eggs (by the way, have you seen this tutorial to make your own?  Love it!  But I'm too lazy to do it, plus the ones I got were on sale . . . )

I arranged the flowers, eggs and vintage Easter sign (pictured below) onto the side of my wreath and attached them with floral wire.  

I wanted to attach the Easter sign with a little bling, so I hot-glued a pin to a clear rhinestone:

And here is my little cluster of fun:

And a close-up of my blinged out pin and Easter sign:

I love, love, love my Easter wreath!  It turned out better than I imagined.  Love it when that happens :)

The total cost was right around $20, which is a little more than I usually spend on a wreath, especially one that I'm making myself, but it was worth it.  I love coming home to something pretty on my door . . .

Especially when I know I made it and it's unique and one-of-a-kind!

PS - If I've inspired you and you decide to make a wreath like mine, I'd love to see how yours turns out!  Email me at LovingEverySecondBlog@gmail.com.

Here's where I link up: