Meal Planning Monday 1/18-24 and Coconut Crusted Chicken

Warning - This week is pretty pitiful...

Breakfasts: 
Cereal, Yogurt, Oatmeal, Eggs

Lunches:  
Leftovers, sandwiches, frozen soup, instant meals

Dinners:

Monday - Mom & Dad's Easy Chili on Rice, Cinnamon Rolls (maybe I'll actually finally make them)

Tuesday - Pot Roast, Baked Potatoes, Green beans

Wednesday - dinner at our meeting in VA...visiting a small group I think.

Thursday - LO pot roast with rice and Dad's gravy

Friday, Saturday - In VA at my parent's house

Sunday - Chicken Cheesy Frozen Voila Meal...I know, I know not the healthiest choice, but I know I won't feel like cooking.

See what other meal planners are eating this week...

Last Week's Recipe Review:  Rachael Ray's Coconut Crusted Chicken

You can see the recipe here.
This was a last minute meal. I intended to make chicken broccoli stirfry, but just wasn't in the mood. I had seen this on The Rachael Ray Show that morning and it looked great. 
My thoughts:

This chicken was awesome. It made enough for us (2 adults, 1 great appetite toddler) to eat for dinner one night and for me and Ariel to eat for lunch (again enough for company). No taste complaints from any one - even my husband who doesn't like his dinner to be sweet or my baby who doesn't like pineapple. She wasn't a fan of this as leftovers though...oh well.

I did not follow the recipe exactly. I wanted to make it without going to the store. I made my own pineapple preserves - a can of crushed pineapple (retaining some of the juice), sugar (a little less than half the amount of pineapple), a splash of lemon juice. I combined these in a small skillet on the stove over medium low while I cooked the chicken. Let's see what other changes did I have to make... I just used regular breadcrumbs and I used sweetened coconut (cause that's what I had), no jalepeno, light soy sauce instead of tamari or vinegar (she suggested this on the show), I just realized I missed the chicken stock when I was making it...oops, and finally no scallions (she said they were optional on the show and I didn't have any).

I followed the recipe, but the chicken breading burnt real quickly. I think it might be that my stove runs a little hot...or that might be why unsweetened coconut is recommended. Anyhow, I took the chicken out of the skillet and put it in the oven. Since it didn't cook as long in the skillet, I was afraid there was a chance it didn't cook all the way through. My solution: turned the oven up to 300 degrees and left the chicken in there for about 30 minutes. That seemed to do the trick and did no harm to the chicken.

The taste was superb. As I said, everyone liked it..even a little "blackened". I probably won't make it very often though since the coconut isn't always in my house (plus I never have unsweetened).



What are you having this week?