Sun. Jan 6th

Homemade Baked Chicken Nuggets for Dinner!

Daily Tidbit:  Today's experiment:  making Homemade Baked Chicken Nuggets for Dinner!  I have had Buttermilk just waiting patiently in the fridge for this recipe.  Verdict: Delicious, everyone loved them, they flew off the plate!

It is only recently that I learned that Low Fat Buttermilk is a healthy substitute for Cream, Sour Cream or Milk.  It has the creaminess with much less fat and still packs a lot of Protein, Calcium and Potassium, and also happens to be a natural remedy for Heart Burn!  Check it out:

http://www.wholeliving.com/133924/healthy-buttermilk-menu

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Plain Oatmeal with Cinnamon & Walnuts & OJ

Breakfast:  Oatmeal with Cinnamon & Walnuts
1/2 cup plain Oatmeal (uncooked),  microwaved with 1 cup Fat Free Milk
2 tbsp chopped Plain Walnuts &
2-3 shakes of Plain Cinnamon on top
5 oz Orange Juice
Regular Coffee, sprinkle Pure Ground Cinnamon, splash Fat Free Milk


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Taco Salad

Taco Salad (side view)

Lunch:  Taco Salad
1/2 Zucchini, diced
1/2 cup Black Beans
1/2 cup Homemade Salsa (recipe below)
1/2 Avocado, diced
1 tbsp Shredded Cheddar Cheese
1 small handful of broken Corn Tortilla "Chips"
Water
   

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Snack:  20 Plain Unsalted Almonds, Fat Free Milk

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Homemade Baked Chicken Nuggets

Dinner: Homemade Baked Chicken Nuggets

4 small Homemade Baked Chicken Nuggets, the 3 pictured, plus 1 more (recipe below)
Dijon Mustard & Ketchup

Water





I realize how small this dinner looks and was, but I was really not hungry.  Maybe it was the Almonds I ate for snack earlier or the overload of food I ate last night.  In any case it is a very rare occurrence when this amount of food would be enough for me!
 

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Fuji Apple

Dessert:   1 Local Fuji Apple, Water

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RECIPES:


Homemade Salsa Recipe:

Into Food Processor put:

1 Jalapeno (seeds and all if you want the heat!)
1 clove Garlic

Process above two items and then add:
  
1 pint Cherry Tomatoes
1 large handful Cilantro
Juice from 1/2 Lime
1/4 large White Onion
1/4 large Red Onion
Salt, to taste

Process and stream 1 -2 tbsp EVOO in while processing.  Serve!   

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Homemade Baked Chicken Nuggets Recipe:

So I combined two recipes to make these tonight, one from Food Network and one Martha Stewart Recipe, here they are:

http://www.marthastewart.com/897986/baked-chicken-nuggets 

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/panko-chicken-nuggets-recipe/index.html 




So, this is what I did:

I preheated the oven to 450 degrees.  I took a few breasts of Chicken, put them in the middle of a folded piece of Wax Paper and pounded them flat.  Then I cut them into Chicken Nugget bite sized pieces and soaked them in a mixture of 1/3 cup Buttermilk & 1 Egg in a bowl.  Meanwhile I mixed 1 cup Panko Crumbs with 1/3 cup Parmesan Cheese, with a dash of Paprika & Salt.  Once the oven was heated I took each piece of Chicken out of the Buttermilk mixture, let the excess liquid drip off then dredged them in the Panko mixture and placed them on a Cookie Sheet covered in a Silpat non stick sheet.  Once they were all done, I sprayed them with Canola Oil and put into the oven for 8 minutes, turned and did another 8 minutes.  I ate mine with Dijon mustard and Ketchup, but Ranch, Hot Sauce, BBQ sauce would all work and they are pretty good on their own as well.

Everyone loved these - not just my kids, but me and the husband loved them too.  I'm not a big fan of handling raw Chicken, but it was all worth it watching them gobble them all up until they were all gone!

 

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