Buffalo Chicken Salad Lettuce Wraps

For everyone who reads this blog and doesn't know me personally (all 2 of you most likely), I love to cook! I'm a far cry from Giada but I love experimenting with different recipes and trying out new ingredients based on wherever we're living. Being that obnoxious Instagrammer who constantly posts pictures of food, my friends often ask me for recipes and I usually shutter at the thought of it. I'm absolutely awful at measuring (the reason I can't bake) and always give directions in terms of "a little of this" or a "bunch of that". 

Regardless, I'm going to attempt to try and start sharing some of my favorite recipes. Everything I make is usually low-carb/low-sugar but I'll also post some of my favorite cheat meals as well. I think cooking should be easy and if I can help one or two people cook who don't think they can, I'll consider this a success!

Alas, here is a quick & easy chicken salad recipe that I love making for lunch. If you're used to following professional food bloggers, I hope you forgive my sad attempt at food photography & the fact that I live in someone else's home in a foreign country and have to use their plates & cookware that I wouldn't necessarily choose myself :)

Buffalo Chicken Salad Lettuce Wraps
Ingredients:

 Chicken Salad:

• 5 Chicken Cutlets (usually about 2 per person)
• Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder & Paprika for seasoning
• Greek Yogurt 
• 1/2 Red Onion: Diced
• Shredded Carrots
• Romaine Lettuce Leafs (2 per person)
• Frank's Hot Sauce (or the buffalo sauce of your choice, but in my opinion it should be Franks :)
• Green Onions, Chopped for garnish.

Greek Yogurt Blue Cheese Dressing:

• 1/2 Cup Greek Yogurt (I like Fage 0%)
• 1/4 Cup Blue or Gorgonzola Cheese
• Juice of 1/2 Lemon
• 1 tbsp Vinegar
• Dash of: garlic powder, onion powder, salt & pepper

To make the Greek Yogurt Blue Cheese Dressing:

This is such a healthier alternative to store bought blue cheese. You save big time on calories when using greek yogurt as your base. I make a greek yogurt ranch as well that I'll share later on. 

1. Crumble the blue cheese into a bowl, sprinkle with salt and mash well with a fork.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients, mix well & store in fridge
   

To make the Chicken Salad:

1. Season your chicken breasts with salt, pepper, garlic powder and paprika (or if you're in a hurry, use a store bought rotisserie chicken and skip to step 5!)
2. Heat up your grill pan & spray with cooking spray or a dash of olive oil so the chicken won't stick
3. Grill your chicken breast on each side until cooked thoroughly
   
4. Let your chicken cool & shred with your hands into a large bowl
   
5. Add diced red onion, shredded carrots, 2 tablespoons plain greek yogurt & 2 tablespoons of Greek Yogurt Blue Cheese Dressing to chicken and mix well (if you used more chicken or like a creamier mix, obviously add more of the yogurt/dressing mix)
6. Add Franks hot sauce to the chicken mixture, I usually do about 2 tbsp, but it depends on how spicy you like it.
   
7. Season with salt & pepper and let cool in the fridge for 20 minutes or so before serving
   
8. Serve inside romaine lettuce leaves & garnish with chopped green onions, a few blue cheese crumbles+ additional greek yogurt blue cheese & frank's hot sauce if you wish!
   

London and a Couple Trips to Rome: Summing up January

After a month and a half without a post, you are all probably wondering if I'm still alive, or if I've eaten myself into a carbohydrate-induced coma over here. Fear not, I live on and I'm back to tell you what I've been up to this past month or so. Really, I'd love to have some dramatic story about what's been keeping me away from writing but in reality, I've just been super busy traveling a lot while simultaneously managing my store.

In Mid-January D got a miraculous 3 days off and told me I could pick anywhere for us to vacation to. I studied abroad in London with 6 of my best friends in college and it has since then been my favorite city on Earth. D hadn't been so it felt like an obvious choice. I always worry when I go back to a city that I love because my feelings towards places I've traveled to have changed so drastically over the years. After living in/traveling to so many different countries, I notice how much my priorities and personal preferences have changed, so I was just praying London would still live up to the hype that I'd created. Luckily, it did that and more and we had the most amazing 48 hours in my favorite city on earth.

High Tea at the Conrad St. James London

I just love this place.

We visited all the tourist sites, ate at some amazing restaurants and drank some of the coolest cocktails I've ever seen. Overall, it was a huge win in the books and a month later, I find myself missing London already.

On January 26th I celebrated my 26th Birthday in a pretty fabulous way. My brothers bought me a half-day cooking lesson with a chef outside of Venice so D and I spent five hours at her home learning how to make homemade ravioli, risotto with radicchio and the best tiramisu on the face of the planet. Aside from being too full to attend my own birthday dinner five hours later, it was an awesome experience.

Still highly offended she said D's pasta looked better than mine. 

Life. Changing.

With our teacher and her sous 

Absolutely incredible.

Yum.

On my birthday weekend, I took the train to Rome to watch one of D's games. He had the following day off so we planned on staying the night there and making a mini vacation out of it. While on the train, I took my seat across from a large, tattooed man and fell asleep, Tucker in lap, shortly after. I awoke to my shoulder being body slammed to my chair by the train attendant trying to get by me and when I opened my eyes, there were tons of people lined up to take pictures with the tattooed man in front of me. Obviously too embarrassed to ask him who he was, I snapped an incognito photo and sent it to my Italian friend who told me he was a famous ex-rugby player turned TV Chef/Personality. I laughed to myself thinking about being in the US and having some celebrity watch me sleep for several hours  (100% chance my mouth was wide open and 75% chance there was drool present). That's the hilarious thing about living somewhere you don't know the language. You have absolutely no clue who you're sitting next to, or what people are discussing amongst themselves. Luckily, I have quite the imagination and it's often fun for me to use facial expressions and mannerisms to come to my own determinations on the situations around me (although I'm sure my imagination is a bit more creative than reality).

Rome was fabulous and the rich culture and history of that city never ceases to stop amazing me. We only had a day to explore, but it was so worth it and I'm really grateful to live just a train ride away.

Being good Catholics in the Vatican

An incredible site

Last week, D's parents came and visited us for 4 days. It was the beginning of Carnivale in Venice, a huge festival where everyone dresses absolutely ridiculously while frolicking around the city to attend different events. It's essentially the Italian Halloween and it was a blast people watching all the nut jobs and their insane costumes. 

Is this as hilarious as I thought it was?

Venice Carnivale

D had a home game against Armani Jeans Milano so D's parents got to see him play on our home court. If you're LOLing about a team being named after Armani Jeans, fear not, you are not alone. It's common for teams in Europe to be named after their main sponsors and fortunately, this creates some pretty epic team names. Armani, owned by Giorgio himself, is my personal favorite but you have  several other teams named after banks, restaurants, newspapers, etc. Our team is named after the staffing company owned by our Team President and although "Umana Reyer Venezia" doesn't quite roll off the tongue, it makes for a hell of an advertisement. My friend was even on a team called "Pizza Hut" which I couldn't get enough of making up cheers for. Because the sponsorship changes so much from season to season, you also have the daunting task of keeping up with the ever-evolving team names and it creates quite a bit of confusion.

Reyer Venezia Vs. Armani Milano

My in-laws had never been to Rome, and since D usually gets the day after gameday off, we decided to make a quick trip out of it. We caught an early train from Venice to Rome on Monday morning and fit in as much site-seeing as we could for the day. It was great to get to show them this city, one that they'd always dreamed of going to.

Exploring Roma! 

Will I ever be able to eat Pizza in the states again? No, I'm afraid not.

A great trip!

We had an amazing time with our visitors and I love that D's family is just a quick flight away. I only wish my mom & brothers were that close that they could hop on a plane for a weekend visit. 

I'm feeling so much gratitude lately for a number of reasons. As hard as it can get being away from family, friends, and having to run a business from the other side of the world, I constantly have to remind myself how fortunate I am to have this experience and to not take it for granted. On Wednesday, my mom and Aunt helped me throw together a photo shoot for my Saule Boutique Spring Collection and I can't express how grateful I am that they both selflessly help me run my business, in spite of their own ridiculously crazy work schedules. Quick shoutout to the best Mom (+ Future Stepdad) and Aunt around! I love you both <3

Hoping everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day. I'm missing those that I love a little extra on this day. Here's to hoping warmer weather is on it's way. I can't wait for my first Italian Spring <3

XOXO