Coconut Chicken and Thai Rice

On Monday, I made a deeeeeeelish dinner - Coconut chicken and Thai rice with zuccini. The coconut chicken is courtesy of this recipe:

Skinny Coconut Chicken

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 30 minutes

Yield: 3 servings

Serving Size: 2 chicken tenders

Ingredients

• 6 (about 12 oz) chicken tenderloins
• 7 tbsp shredded coconut - Used a lot more than this because I wanted to really taste the coconut
• 1/4 cup panko crumbs
• 1/4 cup Fiber One cereal - DID NOT USE
• 1/3 cup egg substitute or 3 egg whites
• dash salt
• dash pepper
• dash garlic powder - DID NOT USE
• Non-stick cooking spray

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a food processor, crush Fiber One cereal to a bread crumb consistency. - DID NOT DO
3. Combine coconut flakes, panko, Fiber Once bread crumbs, and salt in a bowl.
4. Put egg whites or egg beaters in a separate small bowl.
5. Next, dip chicken into the egg and then into the coconut mixture.
6. Place chicken strips evenly on a cookie sheet sprayed with non-stick cooking spray or lined with parchment paper.
7. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and coconut is golden brown, turn chicken once half way through cooking time.
8. Serve with your favorite side dish and enjoy!

The rice was made with a Thai flavored broth -

I made brown rice on the stove replacing water with this broth. It came out SO good. I cannot wait to try the other flavors that Swanson has out - a hot and sour and a Mexican tortilla. This seems healthier than buying flavored rices (albeit these have a lot of sodium). 

I made double so we had this for lunch the next day. So good!! My take on cooking is really to find a recipe that looks good and then edit due to what you have on hand or what you do/don't like. Removing the cereal from the recipe didn't really do much. It would've made it crunchier but I'm not going to buy a box of Fiber One for $5 just to make this. So, meal planning and cooking is actually fun right now because aren't stressing over having the perfect spice for every dish, it's fun to try new recipes, and it's nice having lunch the next day!