Looks like chicken salad, smells like chicken salad...so, I guess

So I recently totaled the amount of money I've spend the past month eating out. I quickly realized that it was time to go to the grocery store. I began by dreaming up all the dishes that sounded yummy. On Thursday, it was quesadillas. After a trip to the grocery store, I made quesadillas for the very first time. They were absolutely delicious. I made 3 variations on the quesadilla just to mix things up a bit. They were: 1) spinach, mushroom, avocado, black bean, mozzarella, swiss, chicken; 2) grilled tomatoes, mozzarella, garlic, Ragu, chicken; 3) Stubs BBQ sauce, chicken, cheddar cheese; They were all very yummy. Plus, I have tons of left overs. I wasn't too nervous about making the quesadillas because, first I'm from Texas (this explains a lot) AND it seems very straight forward. 'Put it all between a tortilla and heat it up!' However, today my task was a bit more ... unfamiliar: chicken salad.

I began by dreaming up foods that sound yummy and look pretty together: celery, cucumber, red bell pepper, onion, and purple grapes. Then, I chopped everything up and put it in a bowl. Hmm, now that I have a bunch of pretty chopped items and chicken in a bowl, how do I make it salad? I HAVE NO IDEA. Well, I really don't like mayo, so I tried mixing a small portion of Dijon mustard. I tasted it. ***YAO!!!!*** Boy was it spicy. Okay, throwing that batch away. Hmmm, what about Mayo? No...nope. I refused to make my chicken salad a sad version of tuna salad. I was determined to mix together a tasty blend of... something. Then, it hit me! I remembered my grandma mentioning that she makes a crab dip with cream cheese and sour cream. Those both sound tasty so let's try that.

In a small bowl I combined a spoonful of sour cream and a healthy portion of cream cheese. I mixed it together and tasted it. Ewww too sour. So, I added the entire container of cream cheese. Tasted again. Uh, reminds me of a bagel. Added a touch more of sour cream, some garlic power, salt and pepper. NOWWW it was 'muy bueno!' I mixed it all together and VIOLA! My first homemade...from scratch...no recipe...just good instincts CHICKEN SALAD. : )

Next time, some dill pickle and avocado!