Easy Weeknight Meals: Featuring Janes Food

This post is sponsored by Janes Food but all opinions are my own.

I quickly realized that easy fast meals are a lifesaver now that we have three kids in our house. From the moment my kiddos started having solids we have always incorporated meals from both mine and my husband’s culture. Throw in some creative ideas using the Jane’s Pub Style chicken strips and popcorn and we came up with two yummy Vietnamese inspired recipes that my kiddos devoured.

The two Vietnamese inspired dishes can be easily tweaked even for the pickiest eaters. I created a Popcorn chicken banh mi sandwich and a delicious Pho noodle salad bowl. And the best part the Jane’s Pub style chicken line are made with white meat, with no preservatives, 0 trans fats, low in saturated fat and no artificial flavours or colours.

Both the dishes were super easy to create and using the Janes Pub style Chicken made the whole process so much faster. We baked the chicken and while the chicken cooked, we prepped all the other parts of the two dishes.

POPCORN CHICKEN BANH MI SANDWICH

INGREDIENTS

SANDWICH

2 Jane’s Pub style Chicken strips (Depending on how many banh mi sandwiches you want to make. I used one for each sandwich)

- 1 large French baguette

- 1 carrot (pickled)

- 1 cucumber (pickled)

- Vietnamese mayonnaise (or you can use the Kewpie mayonnaise.... it’s a mayo that is used in sushi and quite similar to the Vietnamese mayonnaise)

PICKLED VEGGIES

- 1 tbsp sugar

- ½ tbsp salt

- 1 cup of rice wine vinegar

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Bake in a preheated 425 F oven for 10minutes, flip and cook for 6 more minutes. Let stand 2 minutes before serving.

2. While chicken is cooking. Start cutting the carrots and cucumbers in matchstick size pieces. Place into a large mason jar. Add the salt, sugar and rice wine vinegar. The longer this mixture sits the better it tastes.

3. Toast Baguette on stove top

4. Assemble sandwich. Put some Vietnamese mayonnaise onto the baguette. Placed cooked chicken on top with the pickled veggie.

The kiddos devoured this sandwich in two seconds flat. And for some reason pickled veggies my kids will eat but if I give them just plain carrots and cucumbers no one will touch it.

This Pho noodle salad bowl is so easy to put together. We start off with some yummy Jane’s Pub style Popcorn chicken and everything comes together in minutes.

PHO NOODLE SALAD BOWL

INGREDIENTS

SALAD BOWL

- Depending on how much chicken you’d like in the salad bowl... I used about 1 and half cups for each bowl.

- 1 pack of pho noodles

- Half a carrot

- Half a cucumber

- Asian veggie mix (you can find this in the premade salad bar area)

- Asian dressing

PICKLED VEGGIES

- 1 tbsp sugar

- ½ tbsp salt

- 1 cup of rice wine vinegar

DRESSING

- 4 cloves garlic

- 2 tbsp rice vinegar

- 2 tbsp brown sugar

- 4 tbsp fish sauce

- 6 tbsp line juice

- 6 tbsp vegetable oil

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Conventional Oven: Heat from frozen. Bake in a preheated 425 F oven for 7 minutes, flip and cook for 5 more minutes. Let stand 2 minutes before serving.

2. Cook pho noodles according to package.

3. While chicken is cooking. Start cutting the carrots and cucumbers in matchstick size pieces. Place into a large mason jar. Add the salt, sugar and rice wine vinegar. The longer this mixture sits the better it tastes.

4. Start combining all ingredients for dressing in Mason jar and set aside.

5. Once noodles and chicken are cooled. Start assembling salad bowl. Place pho noodles in the bowl. Place pickled veggies on one side. Add Asian veggie mix and Jane’s Pub style popcorn chicken. When ready to eat pour the dressing on top.

Side note: the dressing can be stored up to a week in the fridge. Shake up when you’re ready to use. Also add the dressing on the salad only when you’re ready to eat or it’ll break down the pho noodles and make everything soggy.

The great thing about these two dishes you can add or omit anything you like. For my kiddos one only wanted the pickled carrots whereas my little guy wanted all the veggies. And the meals were made so quickly using the delicious chicken from the Jane’s Pub style line. What are your go to meals for busy weekdays???