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!

Sweet Potato & Quinoa Cake with a Summer Kale Salad

Lunches for me have always been a pretty boring meal, because I usually just end up eating a turkey sandwich.  While I do love turkey sandwiches, I was at a point where I needed to spice things up.  So, last weekend when my sister and I ran in Central Park and decided to stop at Whole Foods on the way back, I was immediately drawn to their prepared food counter.

The Whole Foods in Columbus Circle is, in my opinion, the best one in the city and has a really great selection of prepared foods.  They have a big sushi counter, pizza, hot food bar, prepared food bar, deli counter, sandwich counter, and a great bakery counter.  After looking in all of the the display cases for a while, I decided on a few small things.   Among them was a Sweet Potato Quinoa Cake with Dried Cranberries and a Summer Kale Salad which had some apples, almonds, and a light coating of a sweet dressing.

Today, I finally got around to trying both of them.  I brought it with me to work and it was the perfect lunch.  The quinoa cake is really delicious and filling.  It is basically quinoa, some wild rice, dried cranberries, and sweet potato to bind all the ingredients together in the shape of a patty.  The sweet potato taste really comes through, and it is even better when heated up.  The kale salad was also really delicious and felt very light and springy.  The kale was lightly coated in a sweet dressing, which created a perfect balance.  The apples in the salad also gave it great flavor.  Together, these two dishes were a great combination and were super filling.  After eating it, I felt like I had a really healthy and balanced meal that also tasted delicious, which was a nice change from my usual turkey sandwich!  I will definitely be purchasing both of these dishes again on my next trip to whole foods if they have them!