Disclosure: This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. All opinions are my own – here’s my full disclosure.
We had my dad and {step}mom over for dinner last night and recently my {step}mom was given a list of foods that she needs to stay away from. (Think wheat, sugar, etc).
Having been through numerous rounds on the restricted diet circuit I knew that dinner was going to need to be creative and I was excited to deliver just that.
On our menu we had:
# Sausage and quinoa stuffed squash
# Fruit salad
# Green salad with #GrilledEssential Lemon Pepper Chicken Breast from Hillshire Farm
# Garlic bread (for the wheat eaters)
# Cabbage
# Apple crisp for dessert
The green salad we had is one of our favorites with mandarin oranges and dried cherries but cooking chicken breasts usually means I won’t eat them. I’m weird like that, handling raw meat for consumption makes my stomach turn.
And I had heard about Hillshire Farm’s Grilled Essentials but couldn’t find them locally … until now. We went to Walmart to pick some up (near the lunch meat).
They have a variety of seasonings but I knew I wanted the Lemon Pepper package for my salad.
Quick jaunt to another aisle for oranges and then we were done! But my helper had other plans….
Tangent: They make BACON SPAM?
I’m officially disgusted.
After that we headed to the produce where my daughter decided we needed a few more things.
Like 3 pounds of kiwi, for example.
And my cart just kept growing …
Seeing the day-old bread carts in the bakery and all of a sudden I was part of the problem. It’s so cheap!! I can’t help myself.
We finally make it to the check out counter but not before I’m accosted with yet another SOMETHING I must try. Nutella to go?
And I always thought the checkout was a trap for my kids.
I finally made it out of the store with everything I needed and everything I had no idea I needed … went in for two items and came out with 31.
Surprisingly it still cost under $40 – and I left a happy girl.
You see those coconuts? Yeah, they had milk in them and I couldn’t wait to show my kids how to drink from them. It was delicious. And adorable. And so much fun.
When my dad and {step}mom arrived I asked my {step}mom to help with the salad – she’s Peruvian and an expert cook. I love her cooking and watching her in the kitchen – she tore the Romaine because cutting it browns it faster (TIP!) so in order to save leftovers, she tears for freshness. I love picking this stuff up from her.
Then we got out our #GrilledEssentials Hillshire Farm Lemon Pepper Chicken and sliced it up.
Added our mandarin oranges, dried fruit and put it on the table.
Along with our stuffed squash, fruit salad and everything else.
It was a great dinner.
I’ll definitely be adding the Grilled Essentials to my menu rotation. It’s so easy, I don’t have to mess with raw chicken, it tastes amazing and it’s fast. Considering I’d pay $8 for a salad at a restaurant I have no problem paying less than $4 for two pre-cooked and seasoned chicken breasts (which I’ll usually only use one at a time).
I could have used the chicken instead of sausage in our stuffed squash too – or made an easy grilled sandwich. I can dice it up in chunks for snack time or add it to my daughters school lunch with some dip … The ideas really are endless.