One Hungry Runner: Homemade Chicken Salad and Strawberry Jam

Good Morning! So I have decided to become domestic the past couple of days and experiment in the kitchen :)

When we were in Edisto this weekend, an Arby's commercial kept coming on introducing their enticing chicken salad--I mean my mouth literally was watering! So on the way home, after a little convincing, Drew and I stopped at Costco to pick up a rotisserie chicken so I could make homemade chicken salad :) A small money saving tip: Costco always has rotisserie chickens for 4.99 and Harris Teeter has chickens on sale on Sundays for 4.99 (usually 7.99).

When we were at Costco--I just had to buy strawberries too! It was a steal at 5.99 for a huge thing of strawberries and I decided that while I was in the mood to cook/prepare food, I might as well attempt to make strawberry jam again (fingers crossed that it would work this time--last time a little too runny for my liking).

I made the chicken salad by pulling apart the chicken, then added a couple dollops of miracle whip (I know, I know-I'm more of a mayo gal too, but it was on sale), a hint of spicy mustard, sliced up 3 celery stalks, a bunch of grapes (halved), added some slivered almonds with salt and pepper :) It was delicious--one of the biggest reasons I like to cook/bake for myself is because I can make food how I want it to be and how I like it. I love chicken salad--but a lot of times there is too much mayo or they use dill (which I am not a fan of)--so it was the perfect recipe for me (I think others liked it too ;))!

Chicken Salad

After my last attempt at strawberry jam went a little south and a whole lot of runny, I decided to use a different recipe and try again. I used the whole thing of strawberries (came out to 5 cups after food processing), 6 cups of sugar (I used splenda--gotta love my artificial sugar), lemon juice (from half a lemon--if I had a whole lemon I would have used it all), and the remaining fruit pectin packet (I got sure-jel a couple weeks back when I made a strawberry pie and only used about a tablespoon of it so decided that it could be alright to just use the rest--if I had a whole pack I would have used that). I put the strawberries, lemon and pectin in a large pot, brought it to a boil, then added the sugar--stirring for 1.5 minutes while it is boiling, then took it off the heat and put the jam in prepared jars! Surprisingly, it worked this time--not too runny (think this recipe is a keeper)!!