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!

Health Starts Here

Hey, everybody! I'm so sorry that I haven't posted in awhile. School started back up again so I've been very busy. I'm doing a lot of experiments with my recipes right now, and unfortunately all of my new ones still haven't been perfected yet so I can't post them. However, I do want to promote a new program at Whole Foods. It's called "Health Starts Here." This program is all about helping people mantain a healthy lifestyle by giving them the information they need to start eating the most nutrient dense foods out there, without eating much refined oils. Some nutrient dense foods include arugula, spinach, kale, collard greens, and lettuce; one of which you can throw into almost any dish. "Health Starts Here" wants you to eat plant-centered foods too. Now that doesn't mean you have to be a vegetarian. It just means that when you eat meat, make sure it plays a supporting role in the meal you're consuming. You can get enough protein in the day by eating things like yogurt, nuts, beans, and cheese. "Health Starts Here" also recommends that you try to refrain from using refined oils in your food. For teens, this shouldn't be as much of a concern as it is for an adult; instead, try to scale back a bit on refined oils for the next few years. Pick the better oils like olive oil instead of using peanut or vegetable oil. If you're used to eating a diet low in refined fats as a teen, then as an adult you can really scale back and be your healthiest. Of course, this program doesn't omit fat completely. It highly recommends that you consume the good fats from avocado, nuts, yogurt and things like that.

If you go to your local Whole Foods, you can pick up a "Health Starts Here" brochure and take a look! If you don't live near a Whole Foods, then you can always read about it on their website: http://wholefoodsmarket.com/.

A new video is coming soon! I'm having some technical difficulties with a sound file, and hopefully I'll have worked out the kinks by this weekend. Get ready to learn how to make Mac n' Cheese... PLUS see a surprise parody at the end! Thank you all so much for supporting my cause! Please follow this blog, subscribe to my YouTube channel, watch my videos, share my posts, and start making a change in how you eat!