Epic Fail

So...I created a food blog so I could share recipes, tips and hopefully find other food blogs where I could do the same.  By putting myself out there, I'm making it seem like I actually know something about cooking, which for the most part, usually I do.  Tonight was an exception.

I'm really wierd about re-heating grilled chicken; for the most part, leftovers are a mainstay in our household, but I like to try to repurpose meats into other things.  So I'll start this out by what I did turn our leftover grilled chicken into - tomorrow's lunch a lightened version of chicken salad.  I started by cubing the grilled chicken in a large bowl.

Then I added in some chopped celery, onions, tomatoes, avocado and the little bit of mango I had left.  Oh - and I had a tiny bit of the mango goat cheese that I stuffed the figs with so added that in as well; what the hell, right?

Then comes my secret ingredient...to keep it lower in fat, I used dijonnaise instead of mayonnaise.  Gives it the creaminess it needs but with less calories.

Last ingredient - a sprinkling of slivered almonds...gives it that crunch and texture that makes it extra delish.

Final product; a tasty chicken salad that will be lunch tomorrow.

So...on to dinner.  I had purchased some "bone in" chicken breasts b/c sometimes I like the extra flavor that you get with those.  I did a rub with garlic, pepper, onion, bell peppers, celery and parsley; sounds delish so far, right?  Here is the "pre-grill" pic.  Enjoy it while it still looks good.

From there, I did what I always do.  I pre-heated the grill to a medium temperature and used my grilling cooking spray.  Then it was time to put the chicken on, aiming to cook it 6-8 minutes per side, probably more towards 8 b/c they were big.  At the 5 minute mark, I saw some smoke coming out of the grill, but didn't think much of it.  But when my timer went off, I grabbed the camera ready to flip them and take a pic, but in the cracks of the grill, I saw flames and basically went into panic mode.  Immediately I turned off the gas but still saw flames.  I started to have awful thoughts of the gas exploding and ruining our new deck (and me!!)  So I went inside and got a container of water which I proceeded to douse the grill with.  When I finally felt safe opening the grill, I took the chicken off and here is the sad picture that I am a bit embarrassed to post, but hey - things happen, right?

Let's just say that we made the most of it.  I continued to cook the chicken in the oven so that we would not be eating raw poultry, and when there was no pink, we basically trimmed off the burnt pieces and ate around it.   You know your husband loves you when they still enjoy a completely charred meal.  We paired it with the leftover quinoa, salad and grilled peaches and thankfully, the flavors were still tasty.

So I guess you are stuck with me - good times and bad - and always making the most of things.  Looking forward to tomorrow's lunch and until then...

Mari