It seems I draft most of my post ideas while standing over the kitchen stove. Ideas come to me while I’m mixing up this or measuring out that.
Tonight we had chicken nuggets. Again.
My husband lovingly teases me about my obsession with making things that I KNOW Eliana will eat. Yes, I have been known to give her almond butter and jelly sandwiches for two meals in one day. Chemo really messed her appetite up. And, although she hasn’t had any new chemo administered in months, she is still a picky eater and often will outright refuse meals more than once in a day.You wouldn’t know this by the weight she’s put on and the strength she’s gained. Thank you, full-fat raw milk.
Eliana will eat chicken nuggets. Now, this is a real problem food for several reasons. Those several reasons our found in the ingredient list. I don’t really want ANY of my children eating chicken “nuggets”. We have been eating rather healthy, but when errands are being run and time is tight, we have occasionally been hitting fast food joints and I know Eliana will readily consume those little golden junk nuggets.
Tonight we had chicken nuggets. Again.
My husband lovingly teases me about my obsession with making things that I KNOW Eliana will eat. Yes, I have been known to give her almond butter and jelly sandwiches for two meals in one day. Chemo really messed her appetite up. And, although she hasn’t had any new chemo administered in months, she is still a picky eater and often will outright refuse meals more than once in a day.You wouldn’t know this by the weight she’s put on and the strength she’s gained. Thank you, full-fat raw milk.
Eliana will eat chicken nuggets. Now, this is a real problem food for several reasons. Those several reasons our found in the ingredient list. I don’t really want ANY of my children eating chicken “nuggets”. We have been eating rather healthy, but when errands are being run and time is tight, we have occasionally been hitting fast food joints and I know Eliana will readily consume those little golden junk nuggets.
But, now we have discovered yummy alternatives. We have played around with a few recipes here and there. But, tonight, we found a successful for one for Eliana.
Here are some that we have used:
(For that second recipe, we alter things a bit. The recipe calls for powdered sugar and we use homemade powdered sugar. We take organic sugar and run it through the blender a bit. We also do NOT recommend using 1 Tablespoon of salt. It was way too much.)
Those recipes were good, but I wanted to keep playing around a bit, mainly because they weren't capturing Eliana's interest. I checked out my trusty Betty Crocker Cookbook and found a recipe for Oven Fried Chicken and, thinking about the recipes I linked above, I got to playing around a bit. I used a bit from each recipe. . .and, we had success! Everyone loved them and Eliana kept asking for more.
Oven Fried Chicken Nuggets
1 1/2 cups of flour (We use King Arthur's Whole Wheat White and are currently looking for an organic alternative)
1 lb of cage-free organic chicken thighs, chopped into nugget size pieces or strips
1 lb of cage-free organic chicken thighs, chopped into nugget size pieces or strips
1/2 teaspoon organic paprika
1/2 teaspoon organic seasoned salt
1/2 teaspoon organic black pepper
1/2 teaspoon organic garlic powder
2 1/2 tablespoons organic powdered sugar
coconut oil
1 egg
1 cup of milk
2 Tb melted butter
1. Preheat oven to 375 and lightly coat a baking dish with coconut oil. (I used my Pampered Chef medium bar pan.)
2. Whisk milk and egg together. Place chicken in a shallow dish with this mixture.
3. Mix flour, sugar and seasonings together in a separate dish.
4. Coat pieces of chicken with the flour mixture and place on the baking dish.
5. Drizzle chicken with the melted butter and place in the oven. Cook for about 30 minutes.
Eliana ate and ate and ate. It was wonderful.
