recipe // blood orange & jalapeño roast chicken salad

i am starting to get back in my cooking groove and i must say, it feels so good.  i had a dry cooking spell that lasted about three months where we relied on lots of take out and freezer meals.  thank goodness that is over!  although once and awhile it is completely necessary and delicious to go that route, i much prefer cooking for my family so we can fill our bodies with healthy foods.

this past week i had one of those days where i was in and out of the car pretty much all afternoon and evening.  we had many errands to run, a playdate, and lots of little stops in between.  before i knew it the sun was down and i had nothing prepared for supper.  it was looking as though chips and salsa would be our only option.  so on the way home i popped into our neighborhood market to get a rotisserie chicken.  wouldn't you know it, we headed home and were so exhausted from running all over town that day we barely ate any food!  the next day i realized we had quite a bit of chicken leftover so i whipped up chicken salad for lunch.  i used some blood oranges that are currently in season and it made all the difference.  in fact, it was so tasty that we ate it again for supper spread on top of toasted farm bread!  here's the recipe.

*when preparing salads i do not measure, so if you need to adjust any of the measurements to your liking, go for it.

ingredients:

1/2 rotisserie chicken meat shredded or chopped the way you prefer, no skin
3/4 cup of mini heirloom tomatoes cut into fourths (any variety will do.  you could also sub grapes)
1 handful of chopped parsley
1 big tablespoon of whole grain mustard
1 teaspoon of red wine vinegar
1 pinch of cumin
3/4 cup of mayonnaise
the juice of 2 blood oranges
1/2 to 1 jalapeño pepper seeded and chopped very fine, depending on how spicy you like your food
salt and pepper to taste

to prepare, mix all of the above ingredients together in a big bowl.  allow the favors to get to know one another by covering your salad and letting it sit in the fridge.  or, if you are super hungry, just dig in with crackers or a spoon.  that's what i did.  :)