What's Cooking? Coconut Chicken Fingers!

I've been feeling under the weather lately, so our dinners have not been super exciting. I did make a casserole the other night, but that's not super exciting. Today after our day date in San Francisco, I decided to make Coconut Chicken Fingers with sweet potato fries. I had originally planned this for last night's dinner, but we ended up going out to sushi. On our way home from San Francisco, I decided I wanted to also make some kind of salad with pineapple in it - and with a quick google search in the car (don't worry, Joe was driving) we stopped at Trader Joe's to pick up a couple of last minute items.

My friend Jen over at Overeducated & Underemployed, had given a recipe for Coconut Chicken Fingers in the sweet cookbook she and her husband made as wedding favors in May. I didn't have any Panko bread crumbs, so I used a recipe I found over at Kraft Recipes thanks to google. I got the recipe for Pineapple & Cucumber Salad from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food. (I cheated and got frozen sweet potato fries from Target.)

~Ingredients for chicken fingers and pineapple-cucumber salad~

~My assembly line: chicken, egg, coconut mixture~

 ~Going for a swim in the coconut bath~

~Ready for the Oven~

Recipe: Coconut Chicken Fingers (adapted from Kraftrecipes.com)

What You Need:

1 cup sweetened coconut flakes

1/2 cup flour (I used whole-wheat)

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

1/4 tsp. cayenne powder (I added this)

1 lb. boneless skinless chicken strips

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/3 cup melted butter

What To Do:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

2. Mix coconut, flour, salt, pepper, garlic powder and cayenne pepper in a medium bowl.

3. Dip chicken strips in egg, then coat with coconut mixture.

4. Place in a baking pan then drizzle with butter.

5. Bake for 25 minutes or until chicken is browned and cooked through. Turn after 15 minutes.

~Pineapple Cucumber Salad, yum!~

Recipe: Pineapple-Cucumber Salad (recipe adapted from marthastewart.com)

What You Need:

1/2 pineapple chopped (I used precut pineapple spears and chopped from there.)

1 English cucumber, cut into 1/4 inch slices.

1 or 2 limes for juicing

cilantro leaves to taste

What You Do:

1. Combine lime juice, pineapple, cucumber, and cilantro. Leave to set until dinner is out of the oven.

~One yummy meal~

Long story short, Joe and I both enjoyed this meal, and it is definitely easy enough and yummy enough to make again!