Aaahhhh..... the lazy crazy days of summer! You know those days, the ones when you spend most of your waking hours outside enjoying the glorious weather. A little bit of gardining, playing in the sandbox with the kids, lounging with a book under a shady tree, sipping sangria on the patio with your girlfriends.... ahhh, heaven! Well, if you're anything like me, I dread coming in from the sunshine on a beautiful summer day to make lunch for everyone. Don't get me wrong, I love making a yummy lunch, but I hate fussing about the kitchen while I'm missing out on being outside.

So, I'm going to let you in on a little tip! While you're busy in the kitchen making your morning coffee and puttering around anyway, whip up
this chicken salad. It will save you tons of time later on! Any leftover chicken from last night's dinner is perfect for this chicken salad. Just chop, toss and stir - that's it!

The tomato and basil flavours in this chicken salad are a nod to summer. The radish and red onion give it a bit of crunch and a bit of flavour zing. It's loaded with veggies which are oh-so-good for you and we all know we need to get more servings of fresh veggies in our diet each day. Besides, these veggies are delicious anyway!

Okay, so back to the recipe... once it's ready cover it up and pop it in the fridge until you're ready for lunch. It hardly gets any easier than this! Just grab the bowl, a serving spoon, some lettuce and a bag of rustic whole grain buns and lunch is served! Letting the chicken salad sit in the fridge for a few hours helps let all of the flavours meld together.... kinda like that sangria I was talking about earlier! So really, it's like this lunch was just made for glorious summer days!

Update: I'm alaways excited when one of my recipe blogs is featured on the feedfeed's website!  This recipe was featured in their Sandwich love! feed - check it out! https://thefeedfeed.com/lovegoodfoodblog/rustic-chicken-salad-and-basil-sandwiches

INGREDIENTS

- 1 cup of shredded chicken
- 1/4 cup of mayonnaise
- 1/4 cup of sour cream
- cherry tomatoes, quartered
- 1 radish, chopped
- slice of red onion, diced
- basil leaves, chopped
- chives, chooped
- dash of kosher salt
- dash of black pepper
- sprinkle of sugar


DIRECTIONS

1. In a bowl combine mayonnaise, sour cream, pepper, salt and sugar and stir
2. Add shredded chicken, tomatoes, radish, onion, basil, and chives and stir until all mixed
3. Cover chicken salad and refrigerate
4. To prepare sandwiches I like to add a layer of lettuce on the bottom and load on the chicken salad

* I love using a rustic bun like these multigrain buns I found at the bakery in my local supermarket

​Alrighty, so what's the deal with avocados? Everyone seems to be talking about avocado toast. Well here's the low-down: avocados are nutrient rich, they are high in minerals, vitamins and good fats. But beware, they do contain a high amount of fat! If you look up the nutrition information for an avocado you might see one serving listed as 1/5 of an avocado. YES! You read that right, it's often considered that one avocado has 5 servings. So when you see only 4,5 or 5 grams of fat per serving you think "okay, great! I'll have an avocado!" But please know that a whole avocado is going to pack in about 22-25 grams of fat, and that's for a regular sized Haas avocado.

But like all good food it's about how you balance your food choices over the whole day. I will usually have half an avocado so we're talking about 14 grams of fat. Not bad, I'll just be aware of not consuming too many other high fat foods for the rest of the day. It's all about balance! We should all enjoy the foods we love, especially ones like avocados when they're SO good for you!

INGREDIENTS

- 2 slices of whole grain bread
- 1/2 avocado
- 1 small sliced tomato

DIRECTIONS

1. Toast the bread
2. While you bread is toasting rough chop your avocado and then put it in a bowl, use a fork to mash the avocado a little bit
3. Spread the avocado on your toast and place the tomato slices alongside

​Enjoy and Love Good Food! ❤️

Nutrition ratio: 39:48:13

​

A tuna sandwich doesn't have to be laden with gobs of mayonnaise to be delicious. A great way to reduce the fat in your tuna sandwich is to skip the classic tuna salad recipe and make a "deconstructed" tuna salad sandwich instead. This sandwich spreads the mayo and then puts the tuna on the mayonnaise. Top with tomato wedges and zingy banana pepper rings and you'll forget about the traditional tuna salad!

INGREDIENTS

- 1 can of light tuna fish in water, drained
- 4 slices rustic French bread
- 2 tbsp mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup pea shoots or other greens
- 2 small tomatoes cut into wedges
- banana pepper rings

DIRECTIONS

1. Open and drain canned tuna
2. Spread 1/2 tbsp of
mayonnaise on each slice of bread
3. Place some pea shoots on the bread
4. Place approximately 1/4 of the tuna on each slice of bread
5. Top sandwiches with tomato wedges and banana pepper rings and enjoy!

Serves 2

Have a great day and Love Good Food! ❤️

* calorie ratio 29:45:26