School Lunches

Hey, everybody! School has started up again, and us kids can face two lunchtime dilemmas. I go to a private school. We get hot lunch once a week delivered from the deli at Matthew's Thriftway, and the rest of the time we have to pack our own lunch to bring to school. Other people actually have a cafeteria, and most of the time, those cafeterias serve unhealthy, disgusting, vegetable-less food. For kids like me, we have to figure out how to bring easy school lunches without getting bored of pasta in a Thermos and plain ol' PBJs. For kids with a cafeteria, they have to figure out a way to eat a healthy lunch without taking up too much time on the weekend to prepare it. Whether you have a cafeteria or not, you will love this recipe for Guacamole Chicken Salad. You can prepare it on Sunday afternoon between lunch and dinner and leave it in the fridge until school the next morning, or you can make it at around 9pm on Sunday and still go to bed at a decent hour.

Guacamole Chicken Salad
Serves 6
Everybody loves traditional chicken salad, but when you try this recipe, you probably won't want the traditional kind very much anymore. Traditional chicken salad is made with mayonnaise, and mayonnaise contains a lot of fat (plus, some brands of mayo are made with GMOs). My chicken salad is made with mashed avocado. Avocado contains all the good fats like omega-3s. Plus, my salad tastes much brighter than any other you've tasted before. With these fresh ingredients, you can eat a delicious Mexican fiesta for lunch.

Ingredients
4 split (2 whole) boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Olive oil
2 avocados
1/2 of a large red onion, finely chopped
2 tomatoes, diced
1 orange bell pepper, diced
The juice of 1½ limes
1 very small bunch of cilantro, finely chopped
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp or more hot sauce
3 cups mixed greens (red leaf lettuce, arugula, spinach, etc.)

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Coat all of the chicken with as much olive oil as you need and season with salt and pepper. Place the chicken on a broiler pan and bake in the oven for 21 minutes, until the chicken has reached an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove chicken from oven and let cool. 

2. Cut the cooled chicken into 3/4-inch dice. Place in a large bowl.

3. Mash the avocado and mix it into the chicken. Combine with red onion, tomato, red pepper, lime juice, cilantro, cumin, hot sauce, salt and pepper. Mix well and adjust seasoning if needed. Serve on a bed of greens.

This salad should last about 3 or 4 days (make it on Sunday, and you can still eat it on Wednesday), but I'm not sure it'll still be there by Wednesday because everyone will want to eat it. Your parents can take this to work for lunch too, and so can your siblings. I really encourage you to give this a try! It also has about 1.5, maybe 2 servings of vegetables in it (counting the greens). If you make this recipe and like it, email me at tweenchef123@gmail.com with your comments.

Also, it's my birthday in 10 days! I'm going to be 13... which means that my usernames and email address will no longer speak the truth. I'm not going to change them though; that will just be confusing, and then I'll have to transfer my older YouTube videos to a new account and all that stuff. 

Thanks so much for supporting me!