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!

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!