Trader Joe's Pulled Chicken and Sweet Potato Tots

Since I had a pretty busy weekend and didn't get back into the city until 9:00 last night, I didn't have time to cook.  And, since my sister and I both had work today, we knew that neither of us would be able to make dinner today either.  Lucky for us, there was a package of Pulled Chicken Breast in our fridge that I bought at Trader Joe's a few weeks ago and a bag of Sweet Potato Tots in my freezer.  I had been waiting to try the Pulled Chicken ever since I tried the Pulled Pork a few weeks ago, and was hoping that it would be just as good.  

In the package, the Pulled Chicken is pretty much the same as the pork, since it is in the same sauce and takes the same amount of time to heat up.  But, since it is chicken breast instead of pork, the nutritional content is much more appealing.  Whereas the pork has about 20% DV of fat and 25% DV saturated fat, the chicken only has 1% and 0% respectively.  And, if you follow weight watchers like my sister and I do, one portion is only 3 points instead of the whopping 6 points for the pork.  

Since it was only 3 points and the buns that I use are 2, I decided to complete the meal with some of Trader Joe's Frozen Sweet Potato Tots.  I have had them before, and they are a delicious alternative to the usual frozen fries.  The tots take about 30 minutes in the oven and the chicken takes only 3 minutes to heat up, so it was a very easy dinner prep.  I completed the meal with some steamed broccoli, like I always do, and overall it was a very delicious and balanced meal!

The chicken was great and had a lot of sauce on it, which made it even more tasty.  It fits perfectly on the Martin's sliced potato rolls that I use, and it even falls off the edges because the portion is so big.  The sauce tasted exactly the same to me as the pulled pork, as it had a bit of a kick to it but it wasn't overwhelming.  And, the chicken actually tasted like real pulled chicken breast and not anything fake or processed, so I would definitely buy this product again.  The sweet potato tots are also delicious and are the perfect thing to have in the freezer when you are in need of a side dish.  They are sweet and get a nice crunch to them when you leave them in the oven for long enough.  Mine always tend to get burnt a bit, as you can see in the picture, but in order for them to get crisp enough the heat has to stay pretty high.  I like when things are well done though, so I don't mind.  

Overall, this was a solid dinner and if you have a Trader Joe's near you, I recommend you buy either the Pulled Chicken or the Pulled Pork to keep in your fridge and the tots to keep in the freezer for when you are in a bind like I was today.  Both the pulled chicken and pork stay good for about 2 months in the fridge, so you have plenty of time to eat it!

Bali BBQ Chicken with a Japanese Sweet Potato and Steamed Broccoli

Yesterday was a Whole Foods Day for me because my lunch and dinner both came from the prepared foods section at Whole Foods!  In addition to shopping for lunch options on my recent trip there, I was looking for some dinner items that I could eat on a day where I didn't feel like cooking or having a frozen meal.  So, when I saw their Bali BBQ Chicken, I thought that it was a perfect option.  It is really just a simple piece of grilled chicken with a light coating of some BBQ sauce, which I like since I usually eat pretty plain chicken.  On the side, I had some steamed broccoli and half of a baked japanese yam.  I like the japanese sweet potato better than the regular one because to me it has a sweeter taste.  When shopping for one, the skin has a more purplish color before it is cooked, so it is easier to tell it apart from the other sweet potato varieties.  The inside is also a yellow/whitish color instead of the usual bright orange color.

This was a perfect and easy balanced dinner for me.  It heated up in under a minute, and was so good and filling.  Next time I would probably just get some sauce on the side to dip the chicken in because it was a bit bland even for my taste, but it was still pretty good.  

This is why I love Whole Foods so much!  You can get some really great meal options that can be thrown together in under a minute, and they are all healthy and delicious.  It also makes it look like you spent hours cooking!

Baked Chicken Parmesan

Since I do not eat any seafood and rarely eat red meat, I usually end up eating some sort of chicken dish everyday.  While it is sometimes a struggle to keep things interesting, this Baked Chicken Parmesan is definitely one of my favorite chicken dishes to make.  It is very easy, super tasty, and you would never even know that it is actually healthy!

I never really ever ordered Chicken Parm in a restaurant partly because I knew how unhealthy it was (since it is usually fried) and partly because I have never been a huge fan of large amounts of cheese.  But, when I started cooking more often and found this recipe from skinnytaste.com (http://www.skinnytaste.com/2009/04/baked-chicken-parmesan.html) my opinion for the dish has totally changed.  {And just as a side note, skinnytaste.com is my absolute favorite source for healthy and delicious recipes.  She has such amazing recipes posted for every different food category and meal, and she even posts the nutritional info and the weight watchers points for each dish.  I have made probably at least 20 different things from her site, and everything that I have made so far has turned out great and they were so easy to follow.  Highly recommend this blog if you are looking for healthy, delicious, and easy recipes!}

Anyway, back to the chicken parmesan...this is my second time making this dish and it was just as good as I had remembered.  The cutlet is baked in the oven on very high heat which allows the outside to retain its crispiness without being fried, and each piece gets 1 tbsp of sauce and 1 tbsp of shredded mozzarella cheese which is more than enough.  It is the best to eat right when it comes out of the oven because that is when it is the crispiest and the cheese is the most melted.  But, since it makes 8 portions (I halved it to make 4 instead) the leftovers are still just as delicious.

I had mine with 1/2 cup of penne with1tbsp marinara sauce, and some steamed broccoli.  The overall meal is extremely filling, delicious, and healthy which makes it that much better!  I highly recommend trying the recipe (follow the link above), and checking out the recipes on skinnytaste.com.  Trust me, you will love them!