Mango Avocado Salad with Coconut Curry Chicken

Last night’s dinner was a delightful hit; I think Bade said “this is SO good” over 5 times during dinner. We had coconut curry chicken on top of a mango avocado salad with a honey citrus vinaigrette.

Ingredients for Chicken
1 cup sweetened coconut flakes (chopped/minced smaller)
1 cup panko breadcrumbs
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
3/4 tsp curry powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (optional, but it doesn’t add much kick)
1/2 cup flour
2 eggs
12 chicken tenders (I used 2.5 chicken breasts cut in slices, and that easily served 5 adults)

Ingredients for Salad
romaine lettuce (I used a spring mix)
2 avocados
2 mangoes
1/2 red onion

Ingredients for Vinaigrette
1 clove garlic
1 1/2 tsp grated onion
1/3 cup fresh orange juice
3 Tbsp fresh lime juice
2 Tbsp honey
3/4 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 cup vegetable oil

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with tin foil and spray with cooking spray.
2. In a shallow bowl combine coconut, breadcrumbs and all the spices.
3. Place your flour in another shallow bowl, and your eggs (whisked) in another shallow bowl.
4. Dip each chicken strip first into the flour, then into the egg mixture, then into your spice mixture, and place on your baking sheet.
5. Cook in the oven for 15-25 minutes depending on how thick your chicken strips are. The coconut will look a little burned on the edges, and the breadcrumbs should be golden brown.
6. Add all the ingredients for the vinaigrette into a bottle, and shake the bottle to mix. Then place in the fridge.
7. Slice your mangoes and avocados into little chunks, and chop the onion (I didn’t chop it too finely).
8. Add the lettuce or spring mix to each plate, and top with whatever amounts of the onion, mango and avocado that each person wants, then put your cooked chicken and top, and drizzle the vinaigrette on top of everything.

Other serving suggestions would be to have the chicken on top of rice with a mango dressing or mango salsa. Or serve the chicken with steak fries with a mustard-apricot-pineapple dipping sauce (1 cup apricot-pineapple preserves, 2tsp soy sauce, ½ tsp Dijon mustard and 1/8 tsp curry).

Creamy Baked Chicken Taquitos

Last night I made taquitos for Bade and I. My mother makes these taquitos, so I already know that we like them, but it was my first time making them.   My mother likes to make a large batch of these because they freeze well. You can put them in the freezer on a cookie sheet (so they freeze in the shape you want) uncooked for 2 hours, and then you can move them to a Ziploc bag. When you are ready to eat them, cook at 425 degrees (from frozen) for 25-30 minutes. They will last in your freezer up to 3 months. The recipe below serves 6-8ish people. The original recipe is from “Our Best BItes” and can be viewed at: http://www.ourbestbites.com/2014/07/baked-creamy-chicken-taquitos/.

Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos

1/3 cup (3 ounces) cream cheese
¼ cup green salsa
1 Tbsp fresh lime juice
½ tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
½ tsp onion powder
¼ tsp granulated garlic
3 Tbsp chopped cilantro
2 Tbsp chopped green onions
2 cups cooked, shredded chicken
1 cup shredded pepper jack cheese

10-16 6-inch corn or flour tortillas (as fresh as possible so that they don’t crack)
2 Tbsp olive oil
Kosher salt

1. Heat oven to 425 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with tin foil and spray it lightly with cooking spray.
2. Mix everything listed above the tortillas in a bowl. Note: it is best to melt the cream cheese for 20-30 seconds in the microwave so that it mixes better.
3. Wrap your tortillas in damp paper towels (3-4 tortillas at a time) and heat in the microwave for 30 seconds.
4. Place 2-3 Tbsp of your chicken mixture on each tortilla, then wrap and place on your cookie sheet with the seam-side down.
5. Lightly spray your rolled up tortillas on your cookie sheet with cooking spray and/or spread some olive oil on top of them, and sprinkle with Kosher salt. Cook for 15-20 minutes until edges are golden brown.
6. Let these cool for 5 minutes before eating them (they are hot!) and serve with salsa, sour cream and guacamole.

Long Lost Days Of Summer

This last weekend Bade and I went to a family reunion for his mom’s side of the family. While there, Bade, one of his brothers, and myself were able to slip away and head to a skate park where Bade and his brother hopped on their skateboards for the first time in (Bade’s estimate) 7 years. They were pretty good regardless of the fact that they are both in their 30’s and haven’t ‘surfed the bowl’ in years :).

Big Boring Bugs

The previous tenants of our house had a nice way of dealing with dead trees.  They would cut the trees down and leave a 4-foot stump, then put a birdhouse on top of the stump.  I’m sure that the trees didn’t go to waste, and were used in the wood burning fireplace to heat the home, but now our yard has a small handful of stumps with birdhouses on them.  Today is the day that we remove some of those 4-foot stumps, and their birdhouses, from our yard.

The first stump was incredibly easy to knock over, but we got a big ‘ol surprise once it was on its side that is best shown in the video below.

The stump was so easy to remove because this killer grub had bored the whole thing nearly hollow.

Saints To Sinners Bike Relay

This last weekend myself and 9 of my teammates, #213 “Last Ones Chosen,” rode our bikes from Salt Lake City, UT (Bluffdale area) down to Las Vegas, NV (Lake Mead area), 516 miles in 30 hours.  We started Friday morning with clear skies and hot temperatures.  By Friday evening we had lightning and thunderstorms which caused flash flooding on the roads and new obstacles and worries for the riders like tree branches floating in foot deep rivers across the road, slick rain covered streets, and nearby lightning strikes.

The race goes through the night, so you need to get sleep when you can.

In the morning the weather was better than we could have asked for with temperatures only getting up to around 87-89 degrees and overcast skies.

The scenery was GORGEOUS!