Tasty Tuesday-My Chicken Salad Recipe

I am committed to living a healthy lifestyle.  Living a healthy lifestyle is all about choices.  Choosing good today will help you live a healthier tomorrow . 

I will be sharing with you things that are helping me continue to live a healthy lifestyle.  One thing I have shared with you previously is that I use several apps, if you missed it, click here to read.  MyFitnessPal is helping me continue to keep track of my food.  I will be the first to admit I hate counting calories.  Since I am starting over this year, I going back to the basics. 

Counting calories can only work if you record everything you eat.  Good or bad.  It keeps you conscious of how many calories are in food.  You can set a daily calorie intake goal for yourself.  It makes you think twice about what you put in your mouth.

Did you know a little itty bitty Hershey's kiss is 22 calories?

My daily calorie goal is 1200 calories.  I am back to eating 5 to 6 meals a day.  Remember smaller meals to keep your body fueled.  I am also tracking my water intake.  We have decided less eating out and more cooking at home.  Today I am sharing my chicken salad recipe.  I have made chicken salad before but never have I counted the actual calories as I am adding ingredients.

 Independentmami's Chicken Salad-297 calories

-1 tbsp. mustard
-1 tbsp. mayo with olive oil
-4 baby dills
-6 oz grilled chicken
-4 egg whites

These are normally the ingredients I use with some tweeks.  I used the mayo with olive oil because it is less calories. 

regular mayo = 90 calories
mayo w/olive oil = 35 calories

I normally use the entire egg when I am making chicken salad for the entire family but when I make it for me, I only use the egg whites.

med egg = 70
med egg whites only = 14

I never weigh my chicken only when I meal prep.  I weighed out 3 oz of chicken and it looked like a little bit of food and since I still had calories available, I went with 6 oz of chicken.  I also want to be full and not want to sneak to the kitchen and do some midnight snacking.

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The chicken I had previously made for another dish and had left over.  So I just placed it in a plastic container to use for other meals.  I seasoned it with season all and grilled it on the griddle.  I like to buy the family pack of chicken breast.  Cook it and cut it up to use for several meals. 

Back to the chicken salad.  Boil the eggs.  Take out the yolk, yellow stuff.  Chop the egg whites into small pieces.  Cube the chicken.  Get your pickles and dice them.  You will need a measuring spoon for the mayo and mustard.  Add all ingredients in a bowl or dish to mix together.

This is a personal serving for myself.  I knew how many calories I could eat for dinner and I wanted to stay on track.  You can prepare this for lunch and pack it with you in a plastic container.  I did not think that far in advance this week.  I did not meal prep any meals either.  Dinner decisions can be the hardest.  When you are hungry, everything looks good.  I told my husband that this is why people choose to get fast food.  It took me at least 20 mins to prepare this and remember, my chicken was already cooked and ready to go.  So I recommend you prepare this before you get hungry and not when you are starving, like I was.

Dinner is served.

Do you have a recipe you can share?  Under 400 calories?  Have you ever tried to calorie count?