Yesterday morning I took my German Shepard, Remington, on a 4 mile walk.  When I take him with me, I have a different route than I normally take.  I love spending the time with him on our walk, he’s such a good boy and it’s our special time together.  While we walk, I always take notice of the pretty flowers along the way.  Yesterday, I happened to walk past someone’s lavender in their front garden.  I absolutely love the scent of lavender.  I love the dried lavender in bunches, or the fresh lavender – I love it in soap, I love it in candles.  I just plain love it. It is such a calming scent to me. It may go back to a trip to the spa I took with my very dear friend, Ethel, years ago.  We each bought a lavender vanilla candle after our treatments and I remember that candle like it was yesterday.  Unfortunately, that spa is no longer around so I can’t repurchase that fabulous candle.

Seeing the lavender on my walk yesterday reminded me of a bag of culinary lavender I have in my spice cabinet and got me thinking about what I could make for dinner to include this wonderful herb.  I decided on grilled chicken sandwiches.  I mixed together kosher salt, dried basil and lavender.  Then, for my sauce for the sandwich, I mixed together light mayo, dijon mustard, honey and lavender.

I served my sandwich on a rustic bread (that I toasted) with thinly sliced red onion, lettuce and white (low fat) cheddar.

Ingredients

• 3 chicken breasts

• 6 slices rustic bread, toasted

• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1 teaspoon dried basil

• 1/2 teaspoon lavender (make sure you use culinary lavender)

• olive oil

• red onion, thinly sliced

• lettuce

• low fat white cheddar cheese

Directions

Pat dry your chicken breasts.  Mix together kosher salt, basil and lavender in a bowl. Sprinkle this mixture on both sides of your chicken.  Coat your grill pan (or outdoor grill) with a drizzle of olive oil.  Grill chicken until internal temperature reaches 165 degrees.

Ingredients for Sauce

• 1/4 cup light mayo

• 1/8 cup dijon mustard

• 1/8 cup honey

• 1/8 teaspoon lavender

Directions

Mix together and slather on both slices of your rustic bread.  Place chicken on bottom half, top with sliced red onion and lettuce.  Add cheese.  Enjoy!

Until next time, Kris