Mango Bleu Chicken Salad

We've definitely been taking advantage of this Spring weather by grilling! On Sunday we grilled burgers (I visited the farm where I used to work in college and got some of their home-grown beef) and fennel, and then last night we grilled chicken and asparagus for a delicious light dinner.


For the salad:

-Boneless, skinless chicken breasts with olive oil and some Montreal Chicken seasoning (or salt and pepper)

-Baby spinach

-1 Mango

-1/4 Red onion

- 2 Tblp. crumbled bleu cheese (we used a gorgonzola)


For the dressing:

-3 tblsp. Olive oil

- 1 tsp. Grey poupon (or some spicy mustard)

- 1 tsp. vinegar (white wine, rice, balsalmic, take your pick)

- 1 tsp. minced garlic

- 1tsp. lemon juice

- salt

-pepper


On the grilled asparagus we put olive oil, salt, pepper, and minced garlic

Procedure:
Mix diced mango with the bleu cheese and onion. Whisk all ingredients for the dressing. Grill your chicken and asparagus (we use the touch method to see if the bounciness is gone to check the chicken). Top the lettuce with chicken, then the mango mixture, and dressing. We also added some chives to the top, but it's not necessary. Devour.

Such a good combination of sweet and salty and bleu-cheesiness. We also had a Sam Smith's Organic Chocolate Stout to go with this meal. I'm not sure it was the best pair, but it was delicious! There was something undefinable about the flavor of this beer. I called it a "smell taste" and Tom said it could have to do with the well water-- it adds such an element of flavor to beer and makes it specific to the brewing area.

picture taken from realfood.co.uk

I should have taken a gazillion pictures, it was so pretty! Alas I was very hungry.

Outside Workout

It looks so beautiful outside from my desk! It's just a trick, however, since my computer screen reads a chilly 32 degrees F. Lies. Anyways I thought it would be nice to post a little guide for an outside workout. Have you ever tried a segmented mile? It's a lot harder then it looks on paper. Give it a try, use a track if you don't have a watch with mileage capabilities.

The picture in the background is right outside of Sugarloaf Mountain, MD. A few friends, Sadie, and I went hiking there last summer with a backpack full of beer. It's actually a really hard trail, and we ended up hiking for about 4 hours, so the beer wasn't as fun as we thought it would be... It did get easier, however, as the beers were finished, since we didn't have extra weight on our backs! 

There's also a great winery, Sugarloaf Mountain Vineyard, right next to the trails, which of course we couldn't pass up after we were done our sweat session!

This is from the peak of the mountain: