OK!

I have GOT to get it together and organize a cadence for posts because it has been way too long since my last post. I have no excuses. I'm just lazy.

I recently completed 69 days of doing whole30 and I will be the first to admit that my recipes get quite boring while on the program.  Its all about convenience and that makes for a redundant couple of weeks. Chicken and broccoli for lunch, grilled turkey burger with homemade French fries for dinner over and over and over. BOR-ING.

Upon the completion of whole30 day 69 I have decided to live by the 85/15 rule. That means that I will comply with the whole30 program from Sunday to Friday and allow myself to eat WHATEVER I want on Saturday. WHATEVERRRRRRRRRRRRR I want. I tested this out this past weekend and I learned two things. 1. I don't like how I feel after I eat fast food & 2. I can not be trusted around Oreos.

Today is Monday (the worst), so I am back to eating whole30 compliant foods. I wanted to make something fun enough to do a blog post on so I searched my Pinterest board and found a yummy 'comfort' food. So here it is.

Coconut Crusted Chicken Tenders - sounds delicious right? That's what I thought too.

Ingredients:
1 boneless skinless chicken breast
1 egg
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup organic coconut flakes
1 tbsp. non dairy milk

SIMPLE. Just how I like a weeknight recipe. Its just 5 ingredients and takes 20 minutes from start to finish! What's not to love?

The first thing I did (after staging my ingredients for a class picture of course) was preheat my toaster oven.

Gangs all here!

Y'ALL. If you don't have a toaster oven. GET ONE RIGHT NOW. It is literally the best purchase I have ever made (next to the IP and wifi enabled crock pot). It heats up fast, cooks the food evenly, and doesn't heat up your whole house! Perfect for summer cooking. I have a middle of the road ($80) Hamilton Beach model and I would highly recommend. HIGHLY.

Whew. Are you still with me? Ok.

While my toaster oven was preheating, I prepared the chicken. First, it says to lightly tap the chicken breast with a rolling pin until it is all the same thickness. I didn't have the patience for this 'lightly tap' nonsense so I hit it with a hammer.

I next cut the chicken into even strips and began the dredging process. Dredging, what a strange word. I took each strip, soaked it in the egg/milk mixture, dropped it into the coconut flour and finished by rolling it in the flakes. So far so good!

Once my strips were ready, I popped them in the preheated toaster oven for 20 minutes, flipping them halfway through.

Buy me. Buy me. Buy me!!!

The chicken tenders smelled AMAZING! I love the smell of coconut and my mouth was watering. I was also getting hangry so I decided to have a snack while I waited for the timer to ding! My bestie and I went to the farmers market this weekend and I ended up getting fresh made salsa from the Mama Hoots both. Mama Hoots. There was probably 10 different booths selling homemade salsa but I had my heart set on Mama Hoots. I stopped at Fresh Thyme today specifically to pick up my Siete brand 'tortilla chips' so I didn't have to eat my salsa with a spoon. Siete makes these chips using all natural ingredients and cassava flour.

They are amazing. They are amazing. They are amazing.

DING. (Thank God! I almost ate the whole bag)

My tenders were done! The first thing I noticed about them was that they were pale AF. Like PALE. Like redhead in the sun pale. I thought to myself, hmm, coconut is white that's why they aren't golden brown but I bet they will be crispy. I put them on my plate and pulled out my Primal Kitchen BBQ Sauce (sugar free).

I was ready to stuff my face.

The first bite was bad.

The second bite was bad.

The third bite... BAD.

Let me get one thing straight. I am extremely disciplined. I will eat ANYTHING in order not to waste it. The way I see it, healthy food isn't always going to taste the best but I always remember why I eat the way I do. Food is meant to fuel your body and that's it. But these... THEY WERE BAD. The only way I can explain them is, cardboard rolled in notebook paper confetti. Literally. The chicken didn't even taste like chicken. I was basically dipping cardboard in sugar free BBQ sauce. I couldn't finish them.

BAD.

So I went back to my delicious chips and salsa.

Whoa. I don't want to end on a negative note. So please enjoy this picture of Boone stalking birds from his new favorite hangout spot (just close enough to the shower curtain that it touches him). We have a glass shower door and I had the bright idea to put a curtain up to hide it and its his absolute favorite go to spot. He's there right now as a matter of fact. What a weirdo.

Until next time.