Recipe Review: Sesame Brown Rice Salad with Chicken

It feels great to be blogging again! For those of you who aren't aware, I'm a CPA, so from January to mid-April I'm pretty busy with taxes and thus have little to no free time. This also means I rarely cook and I sure as hell don't have the energy or brain-power to write fun stuff.

But that is all past us now.

With the end of tax season also comes a renewal of effort to lose weight and get in shape. I usually pack on about 5 lb. each tax season from stress-eating, minimal exercise, and eating tons o' crap. This year was the first time in 5 years that I didn't gain any weight! Yay!

Anyway, so now that I have free time to cook and blog again hopefully you'll notice a healthier trend to my recipes and bentos.

So starting us back off on the path to good, healthy eats I decided to try out a recipe I swiped from the Weight Watchers message boards. This recipe was originally adapted from Cooking Light but I tweaked it even more for my tastes.

Sesame Brown Rice Salad with Chicken

2 cups cooked brown rice, cooled
2 cups shredded chicken breast
1 cup shredded carrots
1 cup broccoli slaw
3 stalks green onion, chopped
4 tsp. canola oil
2 tsp. sesame oil
2 tbsp. lime juice
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. sambal oelek (garlic chili paste)

Toss the rice, chicken, and veggies in a large bowl. In a small bowl, combine rest of ingredients and whisk thoroughly. Drizzle over rice salad and toss to mix. Makes 4 servings.

Note: I cooked the brown rice in chicken broth for flavor. I browned the chicken breasts in cooking spray, added salt, pepper, and Emeril's Asian Essence for flavor, and then poached the chicken in water.

Verdict: thumbs-up from the hubby and me. This will definitely go into recipe rotation.