Chicken Salad - two ways

On Saturday, Jonathan and I spent a couple of the morning hours sitting on the balcony - enjoying the sunshine, 80 degree weather and each other's company.  After going for a run, Jonathan decided that he wanted chicken salad and lemonade - neither of which I had the supplies on hand to make!  Even though the temperature dropped about 35 degrees from Saturday to Sunday and it hasn't yet stopped raining since Saturday evening, I did go to the grocery store yesterday morning, got out weekly groceries, and the ingredients to make the following as a late lunch:

Jon's is on the right, mine on the left.  Not exactly the summer day we were enjoying when this craving struck, but it was very yummy non-the-less, and I'll most definitely be using these recipes for Chicken Salad* and Lemonade** again in the near future!

*  I did alter this recipe slightly.  I didn't really measure what I was doing (I get that from my Grannie!) but:

1. I had about 3 cups of boiled chicken, shredded so I doubled the recipe.  I don't believe that much Mayo/Miracle Whip is needed and I will definitely add a smaller amount to begin with next time.
2. I had Sweet Pickle relish in my fridge which is basically the same as chopping pickles, but easier ;-)
3. I wasn't in the mood to get out an onion for 4 tsp. so I used Onion Powder (one of my favorite spices)
4. I also added some garlic powder (too hungry lazy to use a garlic clove), and around 1/4 tsp. of Chili Powder.  
5. If you can't tell from the picture, there's just a little bit of shredded Cheddar Cheese on both dishes as well.

Click here for a printable recipe.

**  Of course this one got altered too:

1. I didn't use any mint - sounds icky to me in lemonade
2. I only bought 8 lemons (why bother reading the recipe before going to the store?), I needed to keep one for something else, and 1T went into the chicken salad = I used about 7 1/2 lemons.
3. I did still use the full 2 cups of sugar to 1 cup of water simple syrup cause I like my lemonade sweet - just like my Sweet Tea :-)  Jonathan hates the taste of Spenda (I can't tell the difference) but I would prefer making with Splenda in the future if I was the only one drinking it - 2 cups of sugar is A LOT for an afternoon of yummy fluids!
4. My pitcher is only 2-quarts.  I added the lemon juice (sans seeds, but avec pulp), 1 cup of simple syrup and enough filtered water to fill my pitcher about 3/4 of the way.  I poured over full glasses of ice thinking the ice would melt and dilute things a bit.  I'd forgotten that it was only 45 degrees yesterday.  The ice took much longer to melt that it look us to drink the lemonade but it was strong, sweet and YUMMY just as it was.  
5. By the end of the night (around 9 when Game of Thrones got put on) I added about 1 1/2 shots of Firefly to 1/4 cup of lemonade (watered down by the afternoon's ice cubes) and 1/2 a can of Sprite and it was quite yummy.  Will try this again in the near future, but hopefully before the lemonade is completely watered down my ice.
6. Also, did not put the ice in the pitcher, I think it's better to keep your drink concentrated in the pitcher and just add ice to glasses as needed.

I found these pictures on my phone today from dinner one night last week that I never shared:

Inspiration was this RECIPE.  I made it with turkey bacon, no tomatoes and about 2 cups of sweet corn.  Very yummy.  The only downside I always find to meals like this is that the filling is so yummy that I always try to put too much in my BROWN RICE tortilla shell!

Yes, there was crafty shopping, crocheting and sewing during the weekend as well, I have some photos to share tomorrow, though picture quality is pretty terrible with this dreary rainy weather!