Tag Archives: trader joe’s

Baked Coconut Chicken Strips

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Hey Guys, being back at work is brutal. I figured a tasty, yet quick post manic Monday dinner would be a clutch move. This is ready in under 30 minutes and will help our guilt of eating like shit over the holidays. A lean protein like chicken is the best way to attempt starting our new years resolutions of eating better or at least detoxing the bad eating & drinking we ended 2015 with. Also, this is baked so its much less fat than frying chicken tenders and still has a boat load of flavor from the coconut. Now that I have convinced you to make this for dinner, get cracking in the kitchen!

  • 1.5-2 lbs. of chicken tenderloins
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 2 eggs
  • salt & pepper to taste (I sprinkled a little garlic powder as well)
  • 1 tablespoon milk
  • 1 cup panko breadcrumbs
  • 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut

Start by preheating the oven to 350 degrees, then make sure your baking sheet is greased with a tablespoon of olive oil or I use Trader Joe’s coconut oil cooking spray. Then to create your dredging stations do one bowl with the flour and seasonings, the second bowl with the beaten eggs & milk, and last bowl with the panko and coconut. Dip chicken into flour, shake off excess then dip into egg wash, and lastly into coating mixture. Repeat for all pieces and line on baking sheet. You are baking the strips for about 15-18 minutes, if you think your coating is getting too dark while baking, cover with some foil so that the chicken is cooked through but the coconut isn’t charring. You can serve with jarred thai sweet chili chutney, salsa, or even make your own honey & sriracha sauce.

Happy Eating, XO.

 

Classic Banana Bread

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Sometimes you have to go back to the classics, and that’s just what this banana bread does. Say you bought some bananas for $.19 at Trader Joe’s last weekend and didn’t have a chance to eat them, but don’t want to waste them, (ahem, yes, I’m speaking from experience) then this is perfect recipe to use them up.

  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 1/5 cups of flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • Dash of salt
  • 3 bananas, mashed
  • 1/3 cup butter, softened
  • 1 medium egg
  • 1/2 cup roughly chopped walnuts

Preheat your oven to 350 and grease a bread pan. In a mixer, whisk together the sugar, flour, baking soda and salt. Add in the bananas, butter, and egg. Continue to whisk until fully combined into a batter. Fold in the walnuts, and pour in to the bread pan.

Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes. A toothpick should come out clean when inserted in the middle. Let cool for a couple of minutes before digging in.

Banana Bread

Happy Eating, XO.

Pseudo Salad

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Can I just tell you, I freaking LOVE LOVE LOVE the Morrocan chicken salad at CPK (You know California Pizza Kitchen, yes food blog people DO go to chains) Anyway, I am obsessed with it, BUT its SOOO expensive! Literally, I spend $16-$18 on the salad (the range is because the tax/tip usually makes it $17) which is totally cray to spend on a salad and yet I do. A) because of the convenience of grabbing it after work en route to my night MBA class B) because it is beyond delish! It has all the taste bud pleasing elements you can think of: sweet, savory, crunchy, creamy, etc! Anyway work was slow this week and I have an online class this semester so I am not running around as much and I figured its time to replicate this salad. Especially because I need to save my money for pedicures. Oyi my feet are looking rough! woof! Ok back to the tasty salad prep. As always this is going to reuse ingredients from other recipes. At CPK they use a champagne vinaigrette, so I grabbed a bottle of the Trader Joe’s pear champagne vinaigrette used in one of our salad recipes and a chicken dish to toss my greens with. Then the beets were in the last salad recipe as well-ha can you tell I really like them?! Might be the new truffle, lol just kidding that would never happen.

  • 1/3 cup Dates (Sliced in halves or quarters depending on how big yours are, I did mejdool dates)
  • 1/3-1/2 cup Toasted almonds (I tossed them in a pan to toast when I was boiling the eggs)
  • 6 oz. Beets (Drain all the water if using the canned stuff and chop vs. slice)
  • 10 oz. Roasted butternut squash (I just did it with salt, pepper, and paprika)
  • 1/2 cup Cranberries (I bought dried packaged ones from the store)
  • 3 Grilled chicken breasts (I just did it with cayenne pepper, salt, black pepper, garlic powder, cumin, & paprika)
  • 1 Avocado (dice into cubes)
  • 1 medium Red bell pepper (try for the same sizes as the beets and avocado).
  • 1 package or 8-10 oz. Mixed greens (tossed w 1/3 cup of the bottled dressing)
  • Chopped up boiled eggs (I did 2, but 3 without the yellow of the 3rd would be good too)

Heat up a nonstick pan (I used my grill pan since it was washed & ready from the last time I made burgers) with some olive oil and sear the chicken breasts (I had them coated & rubbed in with the spices on both sides of the breasts) until cooked through about 5-7 minutes on each side. Let the meat rest before slicing and adding to salad. While you are cooking the chicken you can toss the squash with some oil & spices as well and roast in the oven at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. While the chicken and squash cools, chop the other veggies and eggs and mix well. This is how pretty the colors look:

I called this recipe the pseudo salad because its a knock off of the one from the restaurant and its much more filling than a regular old salad. This is meant to be an entrée and that’s why there is a bit more cooking involved than most salad recipes. Anyway its yummy, don’t worry about what the title means, just devour.

image

Happy Eating, XO.