So, this week we are going to attempt to begin potty training (send all the toddler good vibes my way, please!) so our meal plan is survival mode. Everything on the docket this week can be made in 10 minutes.

When I am meal planning for a crazy week, my mind always goes to rotisserie chicken. So I am going to share some of our favorite easy rotisserie chicken meals! It must have been a busy mom who came up with the idea to have fresh made rotisserie chicken available at the grocery store. And god bless her for it! A premade delicious chicken plus you can get an organic + no hormone version at Whole Foods?! What more could I need. When we know we have a busy week, rotisserie chickens are my lifeline. So here are 5 of my all time favorite EASY rotisserie chicken meals.

CHICKEN SALAD

I love a good chicken salad. Even better, when you can make it from home and it isn’t loaded with so much mayo, sour cream and all kinds of other bad stuff. I love to eat mine over a bed of lettuce, on an open faced whole wheat slice of bread or with gg crackers. Here is my favorite healthy chicken salad recipe:

INGREDIENTS

1 rotisserie chicken

1 avocado

1/4 cup sliced scallions

1/4 cup chopped celery

1/4 cup choppped red onion

1 cup diced grapes

1 tbsp mayo (I have tried to make this with absolutely no mayo, and it just doesn’t get the right creamy chicken salad consistency…but only 1 tbsp of organic mayo for a large batch of chicken salad isn’t too bad!)

s+p

INSTRUCTIONS

(1) Remove all the breast meat from the rotisserie chicken and shred (I only use the white meat, but you can add the dark meat too if you like that! I usually give the dark meat to bb, so she can get those extra good fats)

(2) Mash the entire avocado and combine with mayo then season with salt and pepper to taste (I like a LOT of salt and pepper in my chicken salad)

(3) Stir chicken into avocado mash until combined evenly then add remaining ingredients and stir. Voila, chicken salad is served!

CHINESE CHICKEN SALAD

I usually have to have some sort of asian flavoring at some point throughout the week. Whether it’s ordering out sushi or making sometime at home, I start to crave those asian flavors as the week goes on! One of my favorite healthy and easy asian meals is a chinese chicken salad.

INGREDIENTS

1 rotisserie chicken

1 bunch napa cabbage, chopped and washed

1 bunch scallions, sliced thin

1/4 cup sliced almonds

cucumbers julienned (as much as you want, I like a lot for crunch)

carrots julienned (same goes for the carrots)

salad dressing: I am going to approximate the measurements because I usually just do it by taste – 2 tbsp sesame oil, 4 tbsp olive oil, 2 tbsp soy sauce (I use the aminos alternative), 1 tsp honey or sugar, 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes, 1/2 tsp fresh ginger, 1 tsp fresh garlic, + a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds

INSTRUCTIONS

(1) Make dressing and set aside in fridge so it can chill and marinate

(2) Shred rotisserie chicken breasts

(3) Combine all ingredients and add salad dressing

CHOPPED CHICKEN SALAD

If you have read some of our other meal plans, you know we are big salad eaters. I could eat salads all week long, but switch things up for Blake and bb. Rotisserie chicken salads are endless, but I think a big chopped salad is one of my favorites! Growing up, my family always ordered in the massive Maggiano’s chopped salad for parties, and I am still obsessed with the dressing. I have gotten pretty close to a copycat recipe at home!

INGREDIENTS

1 rotisserie chicken

escarole chopped, washed and dried (NOTHING worse than wet lettuce)

3 hard boiled eggs

1 bunch scallions, sliced thin

1 package pre chopped red cabbage

bacon (optional, sometimes I like to add a little no nitrate bacon from Whole Foods!)

cherry tomatoes, cut in half

dressing: 1 cup olive oil, 1/3 cup red wine vinegar, 1 tsp sugar or honey, 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes, 1/4 tsp oregano, s+p, combine all ingredients and emulsify in a blender.

INSTRUCTIONS

(1) Combine all ingredients and add salad dressing! Voila, super easy.

CHICKEN QUESADILLAS

Quesadillas are on constant rotation at our house. Sounds like a cheat meal or a blast from your childhood, but they can actually be fairly healthy! Until bb, we didn’t make quesadillas much, but she LOVES them and I find it the perfect way to squeeze in all the nutrients she needs in a day. This is also probably the easiest/quickest recipe on the list! Here is our easy + healthy dilla recipe:

INGREDIENTS

1 rotisserie chicken

whole wheat wraps (we buy the THESE Angelic wraps from Whole Foods)

cheese of choice (we either do colby jack or mozzarella)

1 avocado

chopped sweet onion

chopped spinach

chopped tomato

s+p

garlic powder

olive oil

INSTRUCTIONS

(1) heat skillet to medium heat

(2) mash avocado and season with s+p

(3) brush one side of a wrap with olive oil (the secret to crispy and restaurant quality quesadillas!) and place in skillet. Spread avocado mash onto wrap. Layer with chicken, tomato, onion, spinach and then sprinkle with cheese. Top with another wrap and them brush top of wrap with olive oil. Press down top with a spatula as cheese begins to melt. Cook for 2-3 minutes or until wrap is desired crispiness.

(4) flip quesadilla and cook for another 2 minutes.

(5) remove from heat and cut into pizza slices with a pizza cutter, knife or scissors. I like to serve it with hot sauce and guac!

SPICY CHICKEN PIZZA

Ok, this one isn’t very healthy, but some weeks, I just need pizza in some form and I would rather have a healthier homemade version than get it out! We love the premade dough from Marianos, so that is usually what we use. And we also love to grill our pizza. Before I met Blake, I had never had chicken on a pizza and it honestly sounded pretty gross to me. But it is Blake’s favorite type of pizza. So when we make it at home that’s usually what we do!

INGREDIENTS

1 rotisserie chicken

1 premade dough from Marianos or your dough of choice

1 sweet onion

shredded mozzarella cheese

arugula

1 bunch garlic

giardinera

olive oil

s+p

INSTRUCTIONS

(1) Slice top off of garlic so most of the garlic cloves are slightly exposed. Place in ramekin or tin foil and drizzle generously with olive oil. Bake at 350 for about an hour. When garlic is cooked, remove clove from olive oil but retain the olive oil in ramekin or pour into a bowl if you used tin foil. Squeeze out all garlic cloves and mash into the olive oil. Season with s+p. This will be the sauce for the pizza.

(2) Thinly slice onions. Pour about 1 tbsp olive oil into skillet and slowly caramelize onions. Stirring occasionally on medium low heat for about 30 minutes. You do not have to be in the kitchen this entire time, they will caramelize on their own as long as your heat is not too high.

(3) Meanwhile, shred chicken and prepare all other ingredients. I like to have them ready to go on a tray so I can easily bring them all to the grill.

(4) When garlic and onions are done, heat grill to medium or about 350 degrees. Stretch out dough to desired thickness and place on grill for 2 minutes or until it begins to bubble and bottom looks a little crispy. Flip dough and apply the garlic + olive oil then top with all ingredients but arugula. Blake does not like his spicy so I only put giardinera on half, but you can modify as needed. Sometimes if we are feeling really fancy we will add prosciutto or salami and pineapple! But get creative and use whatever sounds best to you! Reduce heat to low and close the top so the cheese can melt. Cook until cheese is melted and tough is nice and crispy! Remove from heat and add arugula.

MEAL PLAN

Eat what you can, when you can mama. JK, kind of. My plan this week is to get a bunch of ingredients I know I can use for super easy meals and go from there! Meals like:

BREAKFAST

avocado toast + eggs

oatmeal

LUNCH

rotisserie chicken salad

chopped salad (I plan to pre slice and dice and hard boil eggs so the ingredients are ready to go in the fridge all week! Dressing will be premade too)

tomato, avocado + mozzarella – my go to easy lunch

DINNER

quesadillas + guac

grilled pizza on friday! after a week of potty training, we will be rewarding ourselves with some hard earned pizza

chinese chicken salad

GROCERY LIST

napa cabbage

3 bunches scallions

escarole

avocados

cucumber

tomatoes

2 bunches garlic

2 sweet onions

red onion

celery

grapes

spinach

arugula

red cabbage

ginger root

bacon

shredded cheese

eggs

whole wheat wraps

2 rotisserie chicken

(will get the pizza dough later in the week at Marianos)

ALREADY HAVE

olive oil

red wine vinegar

honey

limes

carrots

giardinera

aminos (soy sauce)

sesame seeds

sliced almonds

sesame oil

red pepper flakes

oregano

s+p