Healthy do it yourself chicken fingers (though technically they're chicken breast strips not really fingers, but you know what I mean)

I don't know about you, but I sometimes get into a cooking rut. 

I work all day, come home, and run kids to practices (you can cue the violins now and get out the cheese to go along with my whine)...who has time to cook?  It's so easy to fall into the trap of pulling out a bag of some sort of "meat" product from the freezer and popping it into the oven.  But is this healthy?  Um, hardly!  Read the ingredients and nutritional info on the bag...pretty nasty!  So, I've been really trying to avoid pre-packaged "convenience" foods, preparing most of my meals from scratch.  Not only is this healthier, it's cheaper (notice the tie-in to my last entry?  I'm still all about cheap!).  AND it really doesn't take a whole lot more time...maybe 10 or 15 minutes more, sometimes not even that (c'mon, I wanna see hands, how many of you today wasted 10 to 15 minutes reading your facebook???  Huh???  You could've been using that time to make a healthy, nutritious, from scratch meal!)

So here's what I did tonight.  I took chicken out to thaw...no, wait, gotta give props to my husband...HE took chicken out to thaw this morning (I'm always forgetting to do this crucial step; good thing he has my back).  Not that I had a clue what I was going to do with it.  So tonight I asked the kids what they wanted me to make tonight with chicken.  "Can we have chicken nuggets" they both yelled in unison (in one of the rare moments they could actually agree on something).  Well, since I don't buy that crap in the first place, I'm sure they thought the answer would be a robust "NO".  My boy child added "please don't make some sort of weird thing with coconut milk and fish sauce".  He knows me so well.  Guess I have been into the Thai thing a little too much lately. My bad.  So, I told them, OK, no weird ethnic things tonight, we're having chicken nuggets.  (now you can cue the Party Rock music).  Good old American chicken nuggets.  With a twist (I always add a twist!).

So I started with 6 boneless skinless chicken breasts and cut them into strips (though it would be much easier to just use chicken breasts already sliced into "fingers" at the grocery store...too bad chickens just don't have fingers).  Mix equal parts peanut butter and honey (this is the  twist), and add a few spoonfuls of mayo (I use the olive oil type--don't feel quite as guilty with this stuff).  I know that sounds weird but trust me, it gives it a little bit of tangy-ness.  I don't measure so just eyeball it--there should be enough to coat all the chicken and have some left over for dipping if you wish.  Separate out enough to coat the chicken and put the remainder for dipping in the fridge.  Place the chicken in a ziplock bag along with some of the coating and squish and squeeze until all the chicken is covered (this is good to do if you're angry--just squeeze the you know what out of it--it can take it!).  Take another ziplock bag and pour in the crunchy coating of your choice--you can use plain bread crumbs, crushed ritz crackers, crushed flake cereal, panko, oreo cookies (no, NO, that's only what my kids wanted me to use...but no, don't keep that crap in the house either and they know it!).  Put peanut butter mix coated chicken in the crumbs and shake/mix until all coated.  If it seems too sticky, just add more crumbs.  Spread in a single layer on a baking tray sprayed with olive oil cooking spray.  bake at 400 F for about 20 min (flip halfway through for better results).  Serve with reserved dip.  So much better than frozen chicken (if that really is what's in them) nuggets. 

No more cooking ruts, no more frozen convenience foods...just healthy from scratch meals, knowing exactly what the ingredients are...even if occasionally some coconut milk and fish sauce sneaks in...shhhhhhh...