Sunday Best

This day has been amazing. My family found a church home in Huntsville!

We got up to get ready for services this morning on about four hours of sleep after having a family birthday celebration last into the wee-hours of the morning and an hour and a half drive after it was all over, but we both woke up ready to come join the Huntsville FUMC family.

If you're not a contemporary protestant worship service attender, let me fill ya in: When you join or transfer your membership, the congregation greets you and rejoices! It's a glorious thing to witness... but a little intimidating to experience if you've not seen it before, like my husband.

The service was great, even though I have to admit I kind of tricked David into complying with the "new member festivities." He's a very introverted personality, and while standing in front of a group of people with the spot light on may be right up my ally, he's not so much of a fan. So, I just decided to leave the part about standing in the front of the church with a zillion eyes on you out of the story. :] We talked about it on our short drive home though, and he's quite satisfied that things happened the way they did. Hooray!

I feel very blessed already to know the members of the congregation that I know and I'm really excited to get to know more people as time progresses.

Since I'm so happy and so excited today, I knew EXACTLY what I wanted for lunch... my Sunday Summer Favorite... AKA... Sunday Cranberry Chicken Salad!

This meal just makes me happy. It's cold but rich, satisfying and fresh, and I'm going to let myself continue to believe that it's healthy. Dangit. It's healthy.

Sunday Cranberry Chicken Salad

Here's what I use:

2 1/2 cups rotisserie chicken, removed from the bones, skin removed and finely chopped/shredded
1/2 cup fat free vanilla yogurt
4 - 5 Tbsp. olive oil mayonnaise (more if you like your chicken salad wet, less if you like it on the dry side)
1/8 tsp. yellow whole grain mustard
salt and pepper to taste (I use about 1/4 Tbsp. of each)
1 1/2 cups dried cranberries

Here's how I do it:

Combine ALL ingredients into a medium sized mixing bowl. Stir until well blended. Refrigerate for 30 - 45 minutes and serve.

I usually serve this lovely little salad open-face sandwich style using toasted honey wheat bread and fresh baby spinach... but I've also been known to eat the salad right out of the mixing bowl. How you serve it is completely up to you!

Cheers!