If you guys know me, you know that I love Pinterest.
I eat, sleep, swim, bathe Pinterest.
Pinterest is my baby daddy.
We have a love and hate relationship with each other. Sometimes, I love Pinterest, and then it sends me into a deep dark abyss of healthy recipes, blogging tips, and monetization strategies.
Speaking of which, you should follow me Follow ME!.
One day I was in the mood for chicken salad. But I despise mayonnaise. I kept seeing suggestions for making chicken salad using greek yogurt and avocado. And at first, I was a tad hesitant….I mean greek yogurt is NOTHING like mayonnaise.
And avocado is bland and tasteless. Honestly don’t know how on earth Miley adores those things.

courtesy of Frazer Harrison/Getty and People.com
Anyways, here’s the beautiful picture of the Pinterest recipe!
But anywho, my family finally came around to purchasing the greek yogurt, the chicken, and the avocado (btw, it was the first time EVER my family had bought greek yogurt so I was enamored!)
I rushed home, opened up my laptop and found the recipe—this one by Organize Yourself Skinny to be exact!
Related: Pinterest Overwhelms Me….

courtesy of OrganizeYourselfSkinny.com
Doesn’t that look scrum, dilly-yumptious?! Doesn’t that LOOK like chicken salad? I HAD to make it.
Avocado Chicken Salad Recipe: Pinterest vs Reality
Alright, so here’s a little disclaimer: I’m Nigerian.
We overseason everything. EVERYTHING.
And you wanna know why? Cuz it’s FINGER LICKIN GOOD.
So normally when I’m recreating a Pinterest recipe, I disregard the amount of seasoning used. It’s not enough!
And before you say, “wellp you dug you own grave,” let me assure you that I actually have stuck to a Pinterest recipe down to the grain of salt. And it was disgusting.
So I just kinda did my own thang when it came to seasoning the food. I used pretty much the same type of ingredients (minus ½ teaspoon of onion powder); the only difference was the magnitude.
Besides the seasonings, the recipe called for the chicken, an onion, an avocado, and a lime–a few squeezes of it. I disregarded the lime and used lemon juice instead because I didn’t have a lime. I honestly doubt that the lime alone makes this salad scrum-dily-umptious. But let’s continue.
I stirred and tasted, and then I gagged. The taste of avocado overpowered EVERYTHING. It was creamy like the picture but it was gross nasty. So I added even more onions. And then more seasoning. And then I stirred. Tasted, gagged. And then added even more seasoning.
So then I stopped because, you know sodium.
I just stirred and stirred, praying that the taste of avocado would be exiled from my taste buds!
You know what, I thought to myself. Maybe this just needs to marinate!
Finally, I left it in my fridge and woke up the next day to see…
ew.
Okay okay okay, this picture is actually a week old, but subtract about TWO tints, and you’ll pretty much have it. It used to be green and after a day it was brown. I forgot avocadoes aged worse than milk.
But I thought the lemon juice/lime would have preserved it longer!!! I even doused a bit more of it before going to bed.
But you know what else I forgot?
I don’t really like avocadoes that much. I mean I like guacamole but who doesn’t?
I guess, I didn’t know what I was expecting from this recipe. I didn’t follow it ingredient by ingredient, but nor do I ever really follow recipes to the T.
I don’t know if Ms. Tammy and I have entirely different tastes in food or if she makes recipes that you have to follow EXACTLY or it’ll turn into poo (because LOOKit—it’s brown!)
This post was written to remind you all that sometimes in life and in learning new healthy recipe substitutes, you may cry.
You may want to say, man healthy living is a joke because this is disgusting.
And you may want to just grab REAL chicken salad filled with calories and fat and eat it.
Because that’s exactly what I wanted to do instead of force myself to eat this. For this reason, I will dispatch with a mantra you self-investors should hold dear to you on this journey:
EVERYTHING IN MODERATION.
Mmmm, except exercise. Definitely try and break a sweat 3x a week! Here’s how to get motivated to do it:
Shoutout to Tammy at Organizeyourselfskinny.com. I’m sure your recipe was beautiful and my Nigerian-substitution-self messed everything up.
Have you all ever gone through a Pinterest recipe to a T and it tasted like shi-? LEMME KNOW YOUR STRUGGLES!
Thank you so much for sharing this! I’m obsessed with Pinterest, too, and looking at my attempts often make me laugh. It’s so hard to make your food look like the pictures!
Yeah, I don’t know what type of voodoo they do to make their food look so good! You know, some cereal companies use mayonnaise or lotion as the milk in pictures because it makes the pic look more appetizing? Maybe a similar concept? Lol jk jk
Love the honesty, thanks for sharing!
Thanks for stopping by!
I never laughed so hard in my life. Maybe just maybe the over seasoning was what sent the recipe over the edge. That brown stuff is not appealing at all. Win some lose some. Back to pinterest.
Definitely. I think I’m gonna give Pinterest recipes a break though lol. Too much disappointment for one month 😛
OMG, I was cracking up. The first photo had me all excited about trying this recipe. Then I continued reading and saw your picture. That would be mine. LOL We like avocado though, so maybe, just maybe. lol Thanks for the laugh tonight.
Glad to help you burn a few calories 😉 Thanks for stopping by!
I LOVE THIS CONCEPT. Pinterest vs. Reality?! Yes 🙂 I thought this entire post was hilarious & I’m actually going to try this recipe out. Hopefully it works out for me, though I think my creation will look similar to yours haha <3 Love your blog girl ~
Thanks for stopping by, Sarina, and GOOD LUCK! I’m sure anyyything is better than my attempt lol.
Haha very funny – I’m not a big avocado fan either – but am trying! Don’t EVER mix them with eggs by the way – it’s just NASTY!
But that actually sounds good 🙁 Aww, well thanks for the headsup!
story of my life when I try to substitute the great stuff with healthy things. Luckily for me I have low standards, and will eat anything. funny post with a lot of relatable experiences.
Yeah healthy is not always tasty unfortunately. Glad you could relate, Vy 🙂
Whoops! I don’t use avocado very much, but the few times I have I do remember them browning really quickly! The original does look tasty tho!
Yeah avocadoes are really the enemy now lol. Thanks for stopping by Lauren!
Great and interesting read! x
Loved reading this! I’m a southern girl and love my mayo! I hate the way avocado’s turn brown.