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Easy Chinese Dinner Menu

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Easy Meal Orange chicken, brown rice and zuchini

This is an amazing meal that comes together FAST when you come home tired and don’t feel like cooking at all. In fact, we suggest keeping a bag of this chicken in the freezer for just such an emergency or “just in case” meal when you have had a super busy day.

Menu: Orange Chicken, brown rice & veggies

Tonight we used these three products from Trader Joe’s:

  • Mandarin Orange Chicken
  • Brown Basmati Rice
  • Zucchini squash

Here are the steps we used (to feed 2 people):

1. Pre-heat: Get  the oven warmed up, to heat up the chicken.

2. Start the rice: We used 1./2 cup of the rice and 1 cup of water. Brought this to a boil in a pan with a lid, and the turned it down to a low-medium heat to cook for 30 minutes. Then we checked and added a bit more water (2 spoonfuls) and stuck the lit back on, and let the rice continue to cook, until it was finished cooking. Total time 40 minutes.

Since we chose fresh veggies this time, we cut up 3 zucchini squash into half-moons and started to steam them on the stove.

4. Start the Chicken: As there were only two of us eating tonight, we only heated up half the bag of chicken on a cookie sheet in the oven, following the package directions. We also stuck some hot water in a coffee cup and dropped in the frozen sauce packet to warm up. The rest of the package went back into the freezer for another night.

WARNING: the chicken  is so GOOD, you might want to heat up the whole package!

5. Eat: Now in the 20 or so minutes that it takes the chicken to warm up in the oven, the rice and the zucchini will finish cooking.

Ta-da–  Everything ready to eat at once!

orange chicken, brown rice, vegies

Have you tried the Mandarin Orange Chicken? What do you think? Drop us a line when you get a chance and let us know.

Today’s Sample: Mango Chicken Sausages

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chicken sausages from Trader Joe's Package of 5

Trader Joe's Mango Chicken Sausages

Yes, the samples got us again….

You could smell the food cooking as soon as you walked into the store. We tried to act as if we did not care and gathered up our bananas, apples, cheese  and bread–all the while our mouths are watering as we work our way back to the sample area.

The sample today was scrambled eggs with these Mango Chicken Sausages  and sprinkled with cheese. This was served with a slice of sourdough toast. A delicious way to keep up our strength while shopping on an otherwise cold  day. Of course we usually eat the samples to be polite…. but WOW was it good today. I grabbed one of the package from the display to take them home even before I finished eating.

The sausages came 5 in a package the perfect amount to have a couple of meals and then to have one sausage left over to make our own scrambled eggs and cheese, just like the sample today.

Interesting, while we were trying to balance our sample plates, forks and sample coffee on a nearby display, we observed other customers taking there first bites. It seemed that everyone agreed that these sausages were just fabulous!

One of these customers walked over to where we were watching and told us that she has purchased these sausages before. She liked to serve them sliced up with pasta, diced tomatoes and artichoke hearts.  She said the sweetness in the artichoke hearts matched up with the sweetness in the mangoes.  (I just love that about shopping at Trader Joes! The fact that folks are excited about products and will just start to tell you how they are cooking them up)

When we tried them for the first time, we just browned them up in a pan for a few minutes (they are fully cooked). We served them with mustard, a nice salad, and some crusty bread. When you cut up the sausages, you can see LARGE chunks of mango inside. These chunks also give each bite a different degree of sweetness.

So check out this product the next time you are shopping at your local Trader Joe’s. Let us know what you think and how you are using it.

Another great product discovered at the sample station!

Trader Joe’s stuffs chicken in box?

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package of chicken broth liquid concentrate

Well, not quite, but we discovered on a recent trip to Trader Joe’s a new product– chicken broth in a box. Well, actually it comes in little packets in a box and the packets sorta resemble sugar packets.

Official Name: Trader Joe’s Savory Broth Chicken Flavor. (Also comes in a vegetable flavor too).

WHAT- Purchase chicken broth?

Now don’t get me wrong, we love to make our own chicken broth. Browning up the chicken pieces, adding in carrot, celery and onions Then making a little cheesecloth bag of herbs and a garlic clove or two. Finally letting it simmer on the stove for a few hours… Yum!

Confession: we have the time for making homemade broth about once a year.

But we love to cook with chicken broth. What we usually do is buy those quart containers- you know, “Stock in a box” as Rachel Ray says. We use the broth to cook rice or add it to a pasta dish to add liquid and flavor.  Broth is a great way to moisten up stuffing- there are a zillion uses for chicken broth.

Unfortunately, what also happens is we always have some part of the box left over. We always have plans and good intentions to use this leftover broth  up in another meal…. yeah, right. Frequently, this open box is discovered at the back of the fridge weeks later…. Ugh!

So we are always searching for other ways to have broth in the house when we need it. This Trader Joe’s stock is a liquid concentrate that comes in 12 little packets so you can easily choose how much to make. We used it last night when we made brown rice. It added a nice subtle flavor to the rice. Next time we might add two packets when we make rice for a more “chicken soup” strength flavor.

Additional bonus: This liquid concentrate is LOW SODIUM. 1 cup =360 mg Sodium. The “other” brand of dry chicken stock we were using has 870mg Sodium in 1 cup. Eeks!
Also: No MSG in the Trader Joe’s Savory Broth. Yeah!

So check out this product the next time you are shopping at your local Trader Joe’s. Let us know what you think and how you are using it.