Wine Country Chicken Salad

I think I wrote about starting the journey to healthy eating in my New Year's post. Well, I'm happy to report that 4 months into the new year, we are still sticking to our plan. In fact, for Lent my fiancé and I decided to give up red meat, white rice, and soda. So far so good thanks to my good friend Trader Joe's. Lest you think I've been living under a rock, I've shopped at Trader Joe's before. But back then I was not committed to ridding my diet of synthetic hormones, food dyes, and other additives. Now, I'm on a mission and this store offers a wealth of treasures to ease the transition from a diet of heavily processed foods to organic nutrition....enter Wine Country Chicken Salad.

My fiancé and I were shopping at TJ's two weeks ago and they were giving out samples of their chicken salad. It was so delicious, I wasn't even ashamed to grab a second sample! In the store, my fiancé was underwhelmed, but once we got home and he put it on TJ's Multigrain Oat bread, he was hooked! The tiny container lasted about 2 days. Since I didn't want to become dependent on the store brand, I decided to try to make some from scratch. Using the ingredients listed on the package and a ton of various chicken salad recipes I found online, here's what I came up with:

1 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup organic mayo
1/2 cup organic plain yogurt
1 cup pecan, cranberry, and rosemary mixture**
4 cups cooked organic skinless chicken chopped into bite-size pieces
4 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp organic honey

Grab two bowls. In the first, mix together the chicken, pecans, cranberries, and rosemary mixture, and celery and set aside. In the second bowl, mix together the mayo, yogurt, sugar, and honey.
*you can also add salt and pepper to taste. I chose to lightly salt and pepper the chicken when I cooked it. Next, pour the mayo mixture over the chicken mixture and mix well. Chill for 2-3 hours before serving.

This was a HIT in our house and the first batch barely lasted 1 day! I will say that I need to tweak the mayo/yogurt mixture as the consistency was slightly runny. Other than that it was super yummy and a great healthy snack or light lunch option to have on hand. This will definitely become one of my regular recipes!

**Instead of buying separate containers of pecans and cranberries, I used a package of Trader Joe's Nuts Rosemary Pecans & Cranberries mixture. A little sign next to the display said it was 'like Thanksgiving in a bag." And, indeed it was!! You can use this in many recipes or even sprinkle some on top of a salad. This will be a regular item on my weekly grocery list!