Chicken Nuggets

Preface
I'm really getting tired of not being able to use our camera.  The downstairs computer isn't able to handle the photo software without shutting down, so until we are able to replace our good computer, I stuck without pics.  That's a bummer because this would be the optimal post for pictures!

I like the idea of chicken nuggets.  They're quick to fix, portable, great in a lunchbox and all that fun stuff.  The downside is that they are usually full of preservatives and many times milk.  Since we're trying to be as dairy free as possible, eating chicken nuggets in front of Baby Girl isn't very nice.  Usually I cut chicken breasts into chunks, dip them in egg, then flour and fry them up.  Many times they end up very dry. Today, I tried my hand at making a more commercial type version of them.

I purchased boneless, skinless chicken thighs (on sale).  I broke out the food processor and essentially pulverized the meat into goo.  Then I added salt, pepper and a handful of coursely ground oats (had no bread crumbs and thought flour would be too fine).  I pulsed it again to mix the seasonings up. 

Using a small scoop (about 1 tablespoon), I scooped out a glob of the mixture and dropped it in a bowl of more ground oats.  Once it was coated front and back, and smooshed a little into a chicken nugget shape, I placed it on a baking sheet sprayed with olive oil spray.

When the tray was full, I sprayed the tops with the olive oil and slid it into the oven to bake for 20 minutes at 375 degrees.  Once finished, I flipped them over and baked another 5 minutes.

This is a work in progress.  The meat flavor and texture was spot-on!  The breading could use a little work.  I'm planning on using bread crumbs the next time and will consider pan frying the nuggets.  The question on that is whether or not I can fry them long enough that they are cooked through without burning the coating.  Only experimentation will tell!

Hopefully by the time I get around to making them again, I'll be able to take pictures. :)

Oh, and we were able to retrieve everything on our hard drive, so YAY on that one!  Now, we just have to fund a used laptop.

Menu Plan Monday for week of July 25-31

Here it is!  Another week, another menu.  Dairy free eating is sort of getting me down.  I'm finding that I spend a larger portion of my budget on a few dairy free items, leaving me less for other things that I use for snacks.  This is frustrating my family because there isn't extra food lying around to be consumed when you just ate 2 hours ago.  Plus, since we've been eating all the leftovers up quickly, I'm really scraping by to come up with meals on the weekends.  Let's just say that we've had some interesting combinations.

Here's this week's menu.

Monday
Breakfast:  Oatmeal Muffins (made out of yesterday's leftover oatmeal), Grapes
Lunch:  Turkey, Mashed Potatoes with Gravy, Corn, Carrot Muffin
Snack:  Peanut Butter Crackers
Dinner:  Turkey Salad Sandwiches, Tomatoes

Tuesday
Breakfast:  Banana Bread/Peanut Butter Bread (leftovers from freezer), Blueberries
Lunch:  Scrambled Eggs with Sausage, Apples, Banana, Biscuit w/ Jelly
Snack:  Pudding (made with vanilla ricemilk)
Dinner:  Chili Dogs

Wednesday
Breakfast:  Pancakes, Watermelon
Lunch:  Pork Steaks, Carrots, Pineapple, Bread and Butter
Snack:  Chocolate Chip Cookies
Dinner:  Leftover pork steaks, Green Beans, Salad

Thursday
Breakfast:  Waffles, Watermelon (left from Wed.)
Lunch:  Chicken Nuggets (trying a new concoction from my head that I'll share if it's good), Chicken Rice, Green Beans, Orange Halves
Snack:  Apple Muffins
Dinner:  French Toast, Bacon, Potatoes

Friday
Breakfast:  Granola Bar, Juice
Lunch:  Tuna Casserole (still working on a dairy free version of this), Peas, Broccoli, Smoothie
Snack:  Popcorn
Dinner:  Pizza for Hubby and I (kids will be at Grandparents' house)

Saturday
Breakfast:  Scrounge around for whatever (Garage Sale day)
Lunch:  Leftovers (Pizza I hope)
Dinner:  Pasta Salad with nf salami and misc. veggies from the fridge

Sunday
Breakfast:  Freezer Stash (Will this thing ever be down to a manageable level?)
Lunch:  Pasta Salad, Ham sandwiches
Dinner:  Maybe eat out to celebrate a successful garage sale!  If not, bean dip and chips

Week 29: Peanut Butter

For many people who are making healthy changes in their diets, one of the first changes to be made is peanut butter.  One reason is because it is a relatively cheap change and two, some people eat a lot of peanut butter so it makes sense to upgrade this item.  For my family however, it didn't even make the first half of the year.  Why you ask?  Well, in December last year, a local store had Skippy Peanut Butter on sale for something like $.78 a jar.  Of course I couldn't pass that up, so I bought 12 jars.  That is a decent quantity of peanut butter, especially since Little Boy is the only one of us that like peanut butter.  I do serve it to the daycare kids, but dipping your carrots in it doesn't exactly use it up quickly.  Anyway, I just ran out last week, so I decided to buy an "all natural" brand. 

When I got to the store, I headed to the health food aisle and was a little unnerved by the prices.  Many jars were upwards of $5 and some were smaller in size than what I had been purchasing.  Due to some unforeseen expenses, my grocery budget was smaller this week so $5 peanut butter wasn't happening.  I made it over to the peanut butter and jelly section and found some Smuckers All Natural Peanut Butter.  The ingredients were peanuts and salt.  That seemed reasonable.  I haven't seen where peanuts are genetically modified on a commercial level, so I thought I was ok. 

I opened the jar this afternoon and even after stirring a really long time, the peanut butter was still pretty soupy, so I'm not sure that I'll stick with this brand.  I may just buy raw peanuts, roast them myself and grind them into peanut butter.  Since we don't use a ton, this probably wouldn't be hard to do.  I am, however, open to other recommendations.

So, what brand of peanut butter do you use?

Menu Plan Monday (or Wednesday in my case) July 18-24

Yeah, it appears I'm a little behind! :)  I actually did have my menu done, but I've been doing so many other things during naptime, that I haven't had a chance to get my menu typed up, but here it is.

Monday
Breakfast:  Mini Sausage Quiches, Strawberries
Lunch:  Bacon, Waffles, Watermelon, Oranges
Snack:  Homemade Chocolate Cake (the oldest daughter got a baking bug on Sunday!)
Dinner:  Sloppy Joe Hot Pockets, Marinated Cucumbers, Salad, Cherries

Tuesday
Breakfast:  Pina Colada Muffins, Pineapple
Lunch:  Chicken and Gravy, Mashed Potatoes, Corn, Roll
Snack:  Peanut Butter and Carrots
Dinner:  Chicken Nachos/Taco Salad (DF-no cheese and df sour cream on nachos)

Wednesday
Breakfast:  Carrot Muffins, Grapes
Lunch:  Spaghetti, French Bread, Green Beans, Banana
Snack:  Chewy Oatmeal Apple Cookies
Dinner:  BBQ Pork Sandwiches, Tomato Wedges, Leftover Fruit (grapes, bananas, apples)

Thursday
Breakfast:  Breakfast Cookies, Blueberries
Lunch:  Tuna Salad Sandwich, Kettle Chips, Apples, Carrot Sticks
Snack:  Zucchini Bread
Dinner:  Meatloaf, Salad, Peas

Friday
Breakfast:  Scrambled Eggs, Toast, Applesauce
Lunch: Cheeseburgers (DF-hamburger), Roasted Potatoes, Peas, Peaches
Snack:  Chips & Salsa
Dinner:  Turkey, Dressing, Broccoli

Saturday
Breakfast:  Freezer Stash
Lunch:  Leftovers
Dinner:  Leftovers

Sunday
Breakfast:  Freezer Stash
Lunch:  Sandwiches, Chips, Carrot Sticks, Apples (picnic lunch at a waterpark)
Dinner:  Out (eat on the way home)

Dairy free is going better this week.  This is good news after an especially traumatic week last week (she believes that we are all out to get her).  This week nearly all of our meals are dairy free to begin with, some just skip the cheese.  Others just call for switching out butter in place of another oil.  This is leading me to a quandry.  There are items in my house that I swore I wouldn't purchase, but have anyway due to making this diet a little more appealing to my daughter.  I bought white bread flour (hang head in shame).  We are trying to go less processed and preservative free.  Yes, I know that white flour is processed.  LOL  My problem is that for things like flour tortillas and pie crust, I haven't been able to make an acceptable from scratch whole wheat alternative.  Purchasing these things from the store, you inevitably get a load of ingredients that you can't pronounce.  Hence, the quandry.  Is it better to use ingredients that I contol along with processed flour or buy whole grain items off the shelf with loads of fillers, dough conditioners, and who knows what else? 

I have the same issue with shortening.  Hubby bought a can for the oldest daughter when she made her cake on Sunday.  I could've pointed out other healthier alternatives, but I wasn't around, so shortening was purchased.  I have to say that when I went to make pie crust for my mini quiches on Monday morning and couldn't use butter, that shortening came in handy.  Is it healthy?  No.  Is it an easy dairy free alternative?  Yes.

I'm sure as time goes on, I'll get better at planning and finding substitutes.  Although right now, if non-organic soy sour cream with partially hydrogenated everything keeps the peace in my house, I'll buy it and use it-sparingly.  Then I'll say a prayer that eventually my girl can have cultured dairy without a problem!

This menu is linked up at Finding Joy in my Kitchen for Menu Plan Monday.

Week 28: Potatoes

Potatoes were a staple when I was growing up.  Every night for supper, we would have meat, mashed potatoes and gravy, some sort of other veggie and fruit (both canned).  Potatoes were cheap and filling, both important qualities for my parents who were/are farmers struggling to make ends meet.

Naturally, when I started preparing my own food as a young adult, I structured my meals in much the same way.  After getting married, I incorporated Hubby's upbringing into our meals and we started having much more variety.  Through it all, potatoes maintained their position of importance in our diet.

As I started to scrutinize all of our food for health and safety, I found that potatoes always make an appearance on EWG's Dirty Dozen list.  EWG (Environmental Working Group) is an organization that tests the most frequently purchased produce for levels of dangerous toxins (pesticides, herbicides, etc.).  The Dirty Dozen are the worst foods to purchase conventionally grown-organic should be purchased if at all possible.  There is also a Clean 15 List of produce that usually has very low levels of toxins and would be fine to purchase those that are conventionally grown.

After closer examination, I found this article highlighting why even potato farmers won't eat conventionally grown potatoes (among other things).  Great!  Add potatoes to my "to do" list!  For the past several months, I've been looking at the organic potatoes and unless I find a sale (unusual), they are just out of my price range.  I'm not able to afford $6-$8 for 5 pounds of potatoes.  So we've just seriously cut our potato consumption.  A year ago we probably had potatoes 2-3 times a week and over the past couple of months, I've dropped that to once every other week or so.  That had been the case until 2 weeks ago.  A local grocery store, Gerbes-part of Kroger, has 3 pounds of organic potatoes for $2.49, and it seems to be the regular price, not a sale.  So, while we will be eating potatoes a little more frequently now (maybe once a week), I can feel better about getting the organic version and not breaking the bank.  Keep in mind, the price is still more than conventionally grown, so I probably won't ever be eating potatoes for every meal again (not that that was a great idea to begin with), but they are a great treat here and there.

One more thing... While I love my well buttered mashed potatoes, the new dairy free version of our family can't eat them, so I've been cooking the potatoes in homemade chicken broth and then draining the broth off, reserving it.  I mash them and add the broth as needed to thin the potatoes out.  They aren't quite the same, but are wonderful with chicken gravy!

Menu for week of July 11th - July 17th

It's that time again!  I really enjoy the variety I get with doing weekly menus over monthly, but it seems like when I do weekly, I'm menu planning ALL THE TIME!  This week's menu is a little more challenging because I'm trying to eliminate dairy from Baby Girl's diet.  Since I seem to have trouble making separate meals (and it makes her feel bad), I decided to make as many dairy-free meals as possible, or easy/similar alternatives.

I think the most challenging aspect of going dairy free will be other "well meaning" people offering her food that she knows she's not supposed to have.  Last night, Hubby brought home a "treat" for the kids-Nutty Bars.  While I appreciate the sentiment, the fact that he brings home junk drives me nuts.  Plus, Baby Girl obviously couldn't have it.  I'm not sure what the thought process was there, but luckily I had already purchased some coconut "ice cream," so she had that instead of the Nutty Bar.  Crisis averted, but it won't always be that easy.  I'll have to have several back-up plans for when school starts because it will be much harder to make sure she has dairy-free choices.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand...

Monday
Breakfast:  Banana Muffins, Strawberries
Lunch:  Chicken Quesadillas (DF-chicken mixed with df cream cheese and salsa), Green Beans, Cantaloupe, Pretzels
Snack:  Apple Slices
Dinner:  Brats/nf Hot Dogs, Ranch Pasta Salad, Peaches

Tuesday
Breakfast:  Zucchini Bread, Bananas
Lunch:  Pancakes (made with rice milk), Sausage, Roasted Potatoes, Grapes
Snack:  PB & J Sandwich
Dinner:  Enchiladas (without cheese), Spanish Rice, Corn, Tomatoes

Wednesday
Breakfast:  French Toast, Pineapple
Lunch:  Chicken Nuggets, Salad, Apple Slices, Chicken Rice-A-Roni
Snack:  Pizza Pockets (sauce, hamburger, nf salami/pepperoni sub.)
Dinner:  Chicken Fettucine Alfredo (DF-small portion of sauce made with df cream cheese and no parmesan), Green Beans, Salad

Thursday
Breakfast:  Granola Bar, Blueberries
Lunch:  Hamburger Helper, Peas, Oranges
Snack:  Ice Cream
Dinner:  Smoked Turkey, leftover Chicken Rice, Broccoli

Friday
Breakfast:  Omelets, Toast, Juice
Lunch:  NF Hot Dog on a Bun, Carrot Sticks, Craisins, Yogurt (DF-Coconut Yogurt)
Snack:  Cinnamon Bites
Dinner:  Individual Pizza/Pizza Pockets, Salad

Saturday
Breakfast:  Leftovers
Lunch:  Leftover Pizza
Dinner:  Pork Sirloin, Baked Potatoes, Cucumbers & Onions

Sunday
Breakfast:  Leftovers
Lunch:  Egg Salad Sandwiches, Carrots, Tomatoes
Dinner:  ?

Check out hundreds of different menu plans at orgjunkie.com

Week 27: No more American cheese!

I told myself the last time I bought the big 5 pound brick of American slices at Sam's that it would be my last.  Well, this morning Hubby took the last slice in his lunch, so now it's gone!  What's worse is that he doesn't even know yet.  I'm not a very good wife, because I wasn't aware of how much was in the box, so I didn't even get a replacement (sliced provolone or cheddar).  Oops!

My love of American cheese dates way back to my childhood.  My Mom only bought Kraft singles and I vividly remember grilled cheese sandwiches or broccoli smothered in 2 or 3 slices (to make the broccoli palatable).  Now, as a label reader, I know how many preservatives and artifical colors/flavors there are in it, I can't in good conscious keep eating it or giving it to my family.  But, man it made some good macaroni and cheese!

Although, Hubby will be upset at the loss of his quick snack, this couldn't really come at a better time.  Child #2, "Baby Girl" has eczema and I've found that removing most dairy from her diet has improved her condition.  We haven't completely cleared it yet, but I've/we've not been the most diligent at making sure she doesn't have any dairy.  Last week I know she has had ice cream and pizza.  So, I'm hoping that this is just one more step in making it easier to remove dairy for her (she loves ham and cheese sandwiches).

Eventually, I would like to get away from all pastuerized dairy, and limit raw milk to cooking, homemade yogurt and ice cream, maybe even some homemade cheese occasionally.  I don't think we're quite ready for that yet, but we're making small steps, and I feel like if this diet for Baby Girl works, then I'm one step closer to making my case for leaving most dairy behind us.

So, what's on tap for this week:  dairy free meals (or ones with easy alternatives), volleyball and school supply shopping for the oldest. She's my "baby girl" too, but don't tell her!