Kookie Kellie: Chipotle Mango BBQ Salad

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. I've been busy freaking out because I only have one more mother's day out day this week, a baby to get ready for, and I have recently realized that Emilie is getting big. I'll get to that in a minute.

I went to my good ol' pal Pinterest again to help plan for this week's meals. I've got other meals that we've tried to post on here, but I haven't gotten around to it. But I'll share tonight's dinner and hopefully get around to the others. For those of you who do Pinterest, you've seen the bananas with chocolate chips and marshmallows in them that were then wrapped in foil and put on the grill. Well, we decided to go bananas and give it a try. Here's my advice. Don't. It was even too gross for Adam to eat. I didn't try it because I'm not really a banana person.

But on a good note, our main dish was fantastic. The recipe looks long, but it really isn't that bad. Once you make the BBQ sauce, the rest is pretty easy. I made some potato pancakes to go on the side. I didn't think the girls would like it (the sauce is a little spicy) so they had hotdogs.

Chipotle Mango BBQ Salad

from iowagirleats.com

For the Chipotle-Mango BBQ Sauce (makes 2 1/4 cups):
1 mango, chopped
1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, plus 2 teaspoons adobo sauce
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup apple juice
1/4 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
Juice from 1/2 lemon
2 Tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 Tablespoon canola oil
2 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
For the dressing:
2 Tablespoons prepared Chipotle-Mango BBQ Sauce
2 Tablespoons plain Greek yogurt
1-2 teaspoons lime juice (maybe more, maybe less)
salt & pepper
For the salad:
2 chicken breasts
2 ears sweet corn, shucked
1 vine-ripened tomato, cut into wedges
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 bag Dole Romaine Salad mix
Directions:
1. For the Chipotle-Mango BBQ Sauce: Combine all ingredients for Chipotle-Mango BBQ Sauce into a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes, stirring often. Let cool then transfer to a food processor or blender, and process until smooth.
2. For the dressing: Whisk together all ingredients in a small bowl. Taste, then add more lime juice, salt and/or pepper if necessary.
3. For the salad: Marinate chicken breasts in some of the prepared Chipotle-Mango BBQ Sauce for at least 15 minutes, or up to 3 hours. Grill over medium-high heat for 5-6 minutes per side until no longer pink in the middle. Allow to rest for 5 minutes off the grill before slicing. Grill corn alongside the chicken, rotating every few minutes until charred on all sides. Let cool for a few minutes, then cut kernels off the cob.
4. Divide lettuce between two plates, then top with grilled corn, tomatoes, cilantro, and grilled chicken. Drizzle with prepared dressing.

After dinner, the girls got bowls of yogurt with blueberries and then we gave them the bananas. They enjoyed licking the chocolate out. Emilie thought it would be funny to use her bowl as a hat.

She pretty much got a bath in the kitchen sink.

Silly girls.

So as most of you know, we are expecting child number three. Apparantly some people don't. As a matter of fact, today at church, someone said to me, "Oh, it looks like you're expecting another one!!" I mean, this is someone I saw a couple of weeks ago and said hello to. So does that mean all this time he thought I was just putting on a little extra weight?! (sigh)

I also made the mistake of going to Lowes twice last week. One man walked past me and said, "You're due anytime! Good luck!" I didn't acknowledge him. Then I walked past another man and he asked, "Wow. You're due in a couple weeks, right?"

"No, not until August." I replied.

"Wow!" he said.

I just walked away. Only three more months, only three more months...

Well, as I mentioned above. Emilie is getting bigger and I'm not handling it well. She's 19 months next week. That means that she moves into the bigger kid room at the Y. It also means big girl teeth are coming in and she's a fire breathing dragon. And finally, it means it is time to move her to a big girl bed. We moved Aubrie at 18 months to prepare for Emilie's arrival. And now it's time for Emilie to move on to her big girl room so we can prepare the nursery for the baby.

I have to give huge props to Katie who told me about the store, Modern Nash. They have an Ikea showroom and you can go there to order things from Ikea and you save on shipping. They then go to the Atlanta Ikea store every week to pick up a truck load of merchandise. We saved BIG TIME using them instead of ordering through Ikea. We went in on Saturday to order Emilie's big girl bed and dresser and it turns out they had her bed in stock, so we were able to take it home on Saturday and didn't have to pay for shipping! WEEEE!! Thanks Katie!

So last night we put together her bed and moved a couple of things around and it was ready for business. It all happened so fast. After bath, book, and prayers, we just took her in there and laid her down, tucked her in, and she just went right to sleep. Big girl bed? No problem guys! I couldn't believe it. I didn't think she was ready. Fine. It went smooth but let's see how nap time goes. But she proves to us again that she is ready for a big girl bed and took a 3 hour nap. Let's just say I have cried a lot over it. My mood has been sour. I can't believe my days of holding her in the rocking chair and then laying her down in a crib are over. I don't like it one bit! Good thing we are having one more. Brace yourselves when Baby 3 grows out of the crib. It will be ugly.