Summer chicken taco salad

I often miss my crock pot over the summer since I don’t tend to use it as much as the other seasons. However, I had one of those “Oh crap! I forgot that I took that out to defrost” moments as I was trying to make breakfast and get to work on time. I hadn’t the time to decide exactly what I wanted to do with the must-cook-today-or-they’ll-go-bad chicken thighs, so I decided to throw them in my trusty crock-pot and hope to be inspired with a recipe sometime before dinner.

And that is how this chicken taco salad came to be. Very quick and easy, it has a great balance of protein, fat and complex carbohydrate… and is delicious!

Step 1: Put 4 chicken thighs (for 3 people) in a crock-pot with 2 inches of water and turn on low heat.

Step 2: Let them cook while you are at work and when you get home, they’ll be falling off the bone and easy to shred over salad.

Step 3: Put your favorite leafy greens on a plate (romaine, butter lettuce, or spinach). Add the shredded chicken.

Step 4: Spice it up however you like (spicy: cayenne pepper or chili powder, herbed: Italian seasoning, mild: salt and pepper). Adding the herbs and spices after cooking allows for each family member to customize it just how they like it.

Step 5: Add the extras! Avocado, sliced black olives, shredded cheese, and sour cream transform this into a taco salad.

Buy quality, organic ingredients at your local health food store. This is especially important if you eat dairy since toxins accumulate in fat. Fat is vitally important to hormone development and strong, healthy cells, so rather than going non-fat, choose full-fat and organic.