BBQ Chicken Salad + Weekend Recap

Ahhh the longest week in the history of the work world, at least in DC. Anyone else feel that way? Like most of the city is on vacation so no one is doing work but I am saving my vacation days for other things, and every tourist in America is in DC for the week so my commute is longer (STAND TO THE RIGHT ON THE METRO ESCALATORS, WALK ON THE LEFT- people breaking this rule literally add 10 minutes to my morning commute! Wait I think tomorrow's post will be about how to be a good tourist in DC), the highs this week are close to 100 so we are slowly melting to death and I can't think about anything except how excited I am for my favorite holiday: the fourth of freaking JULY! AMERICA! COOKOUTS! ALL THE THINGS!

Ok anyway onto the recipe, this is super easy and a great refreshing summer salad. The chicken and avocado add lots of protein and other stuff to keep you full so it's niiice.

Servings: 2
Prep Time: 5 mins
Cook Time: 15 mins

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken breasts, thawed and sliced into strips ($5.00)
• 3 tomatoes, diced ($2.00)
• 1/2 red onion, diced ($.50)
• 1 cucumber, diced ($.80)
• 1 avocado, diced ($1.00)
• Optional: 4 slices of bacon, chopped up (we use turkey bacon)
• 2 tablespoons barbecue sauce of choice (I always use Sweet Baby Ray's, duh)
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• Any other seasonings you normally add to barbecue chicken (we have a grilled chicken rub that I looove and I usually add some cayenne pepper too)

Cook the bacon in a large frying pan. Season this chicken with the garlic power, onion powder, and seasonings of your choice. Once the bacon is done cooking, remove from the frying pan and allow to cool for a few minutes. In the same pan, cook the chicken strips for 15-20 minutes flipping occasionally, until they are cooked all the way through and there is no pink left.

Chop up the bacon and chicken strips, combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and toss. Enjoy! I took mine to lunch the next day, Harrison ate all of his at one time as an after dinner "snack". Typical.

So this weekend one of my high school friends got married in Lancaster, PA. This was my first time in that area and it was definitely interesting, and of course it was a blast to reunite with my best friends from high school. Here's a little recap of the interestingness of Amish Country:

Saturday morning before we left I received a 911 text from a friend who got there the night before that it was impossible to buy booze in the county the hotel was in so I packed a suitcase of the essentials:

The reception was held at a nice country club, this is our attempt at a reunion picture but we're missing tons of people because it is impossible to get everyone in a group picture, even though Katy Kodak over here gets pushy and bossy to try to get one every time:

Took some nice pix on the golf course and I wore my first Rent the Runway dress and loved it (Sachin + Babi):

Bride and groom had their first dance:

After partied at the hotel bar until 3 am (I am getting too old for this)

Stopped at this barn-looking place for some Amish lunch:

With this guy in the front:

Sampled everything from the "Lancaster Favorites" section of the buffet- sidenote: I thought Amish food would be pretty clean, like from the ground and meat and stuff but no. Amish food = heavy cream, butter, milk everything. I tried everything since we were on vacay and I paid for it later.

Tried a slice of Shoofly Pie:

Sat in some traffic...

Most of the town looked like this:

Stopped in to some Amish markets and found some interesting items such as this Poo-Pourri which you spray in the toilet before you doo doo and it supposedly masks any odors...

So no one warned me that there would be OUTLETS AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE in Lancaster! LIKE WHAT? This is me in front of the Loft Outlet feeling slightly excited but slightly terrified for what was about to happen to my bank account:

I booked a dog sitter through a site called Rover.com which was recommended by a friend. You type in your zip code and search sitters by people who are willing to come to your house or let your dog stay at their house. We had an awesome sitter named Dana H who sent picture updates all weekend like this one:

We will DEF be using Rover again- it was so easy and inexpensive, and I loved that Andi could stay home. The sitters have background checks and recommendations, and this service is available anywhere. AND if you use my unique link you get $20 off your first booking! Click here to receive $20 off and definitely let me know if you have questions because as a crazy dog lady who feels bad taking advantage of her friends 5 weekends in a row, this is the best possible service.

Linking up today with Biana, Kimberlee, Leeann, Delicious Dish Tuesday, Tuesday Recipe Swap- come play!