Asian Grilled Chicken Salad {in less than 30 minutes}

This salad seriously takes less than 30 minutes. Well, I did start marinating the chicken earlier, but You can make do with a quick marinade if need be! 

The weather is now perfect for grilling and so this morning I started marinating a big batch of chicken using my favorite teriyaki marinade. 

You need:

1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup soy sauce
2 Tbsp brown sugar
3 mashed cloves garlic ( I used 2 Tbsp minced garlic)
1 Tbsp grated fresh ginger (I use 1 Tbsp ground if I don't have fresh)
2 Tbsp mirin

Combine ingredients and mix well. I doubled it and we grilled about 6 chicken breasts... We will use it for a couple different meals this week!

Then this evening, Will started the grilling while I made a salad.
I mixed together some arugula, spinach, and romaine with some veggies. But I felt like it needed a little more...
so I crushed up a bag of ramen, and browned it with about a tablespoon of butter. Stir it up until the ramen is browned.
But I was missing the good asian dressing. I love my creamy sesame, but was not wanting a creamy base with the teriyaki chicken. So I browsed on pinterest and found this sesame dressing which I mixed up in no time. (I didn't have fresh ginger on hand so used the powdered stuff. I am sure fresh would be much more amazing, but it worked. It tastes like the delicious ginger dressing they put on salads in all the japanese restaurants you go to here. I would probably use a little less onions than the recipe called for... but other than that, it was perfect.
We have lots of chicken and dressing left over for more salads this week! The ramen should stay crunchy for another day or two stored in an air tight container.

The chicken was perfect and juicy and we didn't need much dressing, just enough to add some extra flavor!

Will and I decided to let the boys eat while watching a show so we could enjoy a little peace and quiet while eating tonight! ;) Everyone was happy! 

A pretty good day.

It started with a text saying that there was Moe's after church for the children's ministry leadership team.
Not having to figure out what to make for lunch when we got home.
Wonderful.

Then, when we got home, Liam went right to sleep and Will and Alex enjoyed some low key Wii U fun, while I cut out the super hero puppets and put them on sticks.

Lots of puppet fighting followed.
Unfortunately Cat Woman was the only "bad guy" we could find. Its a little hard to really get a puppet show going with just one bad guy!

Trip to Aldi with Alex. I love grocery shopping with him. He wanted to make sure we got pineapple and that I added it to my list. (I spelled it for him of course)

So when we got to Aldi, he wrote it in my notebook.
We discovered some kids games we didn't have. And I got all the ingredients I need to make pizza that reminds me of Italy.

We got home and started playing Disney Jr. Guess Who? about 5 million times. While eating a whole bunch of grapes.

I was putting away some of the boys clothes and we discovered a pair of squeaky shoes for Liam. His giggles were priceless.

Then Will informed me that he has a free rental on google play. Cue Big Hero 6. Unavailable at every RedBox in the area. Plus it was free. Dinner was popcorn, some fruit strips, and chips.

The boys were okay with that. And Big Hero 6 was a success. Liam has pulled up the trailer on my phone multiple times and so was pretty thrilled with it at first. And then he completely lost interest. So goes the life of a 20 month old. (is he really almost 2?!)

Of course bedtime was the snag as usual. Alex's ear hurt.  But he did make some notes about playing connect four today. And I got him to write 'Alex Games'. 

He wants to put notes up all over his room. I just think it is super cute that he is writing things other than his name.
Watching him develop as a writer and reader is precious.

Sometimes it is just all the wonderful little things that are wrapped up into one day that make it so beautiful. The reminders that we don't need much to be happy.

Note to self. Complete lesson plans and all school related items before weekend starts. It makes Sunday more wonderful.
Happy March.