Healthy Chicken Nuggets

For dinner tonight I knew we were having chicken (we had just bought a GIANT bag of frozen chicken breasts from Costco), but I was bored of my usual chicken recipes (grilled chicken, crockpot chicken, BBQ chicken), so I had the idea to make some chicken nuggets, yum! Most kids (and many adults) LOVE chicken nuggets. Usually these nuggets are fried in oil giving them their tasty flavor while providing a cartload of calories. So I decided I was going to come up with a way to bake them in the oven without sacrificing flavor. That's when I realized that we were out of a necessary ingredient for the breading process, eggs. We also didn't have any of the ingredients I've used as substitutes in the past (yes you can bread chicken with yogurt or applesauce!). So my solution was to create buttermilk. Did you know you can do that? All I did was add a few teaspoons of lemon juice to about a half a cup of 2% milk. I let that stew for a couple minutes, gave it a sitr, and Voila! buttermilk! Success!


Oven Baked Chicken Nuggets
-Chicken breasts, fresh or thawed, cut into bite sized pieces (I used 4 smaller ones and we had plenty 
  enough for me, Matt and Peyton.)
-Panko Bread Crumbs (these can be found in the ethnic food aisle of the grocery store. I prefer these 
  Japanese bread crumbs over regular ones because they are airy and crunchier!)
-Seasoning to flavor the bread crumbs (You can use a couple teaspoons of Italian Seasoning, or just   
  combine a few things; I used salt, paprika, garlic powder and pepper)
-Buttermilk (or milk with a couple teaspoons of lemon juice mixed in)
-Olive oil

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Combine your bread crumbs and seasoning in one bowl and put the buttermilk in the other bowl. Spray a 9x13 inch glass baking dish with cooking spray. For each piece of chicken, first drench it in the buttermilk and then in the Panko crumb mixture, then place it in the baking dish. It's okay if the nuggets are touching in the dish, just make sure they are all one layer. Sprinkle your nuggets with a small amount of olive oil. Bake at 425 degrees for 25 mins. Then put the nuggets under the broiler on low for about 5 mins, or until they're nice and brown and crunchy. Let them rest for a few mins. before serving so they won't all fall apart. Then drench in ketchup or barbecue sauce to your heart's content!

These are your ingredients.

Coat each piece of chicken in buttermilk, then the crumb mixture. Drizzle with olive oil and place in a glass baking dish.

Bake until they are nice and toasty!

Enjoy with the dipping sauce of your choice! :)

My Giant Children

Well Henry had his one month pediatrician visit today and apparently my offspring just so happen to be of the giant variety!! That's right, Henry is one chunky baby! Our ped. said that he looks really healthy and he only had to get one shot today! Peyton was very mad at the nurse when she made "his baby" cry, he gave her a dirty look and said "No!No! Baby cry!" after she finished with the shot :)

Here are Monster Henry's one month stats:
Height: 23 inches (95th percentile)
Weight: 12 lbs 15 oz. (over 100th percentile)
Head Circumference: 15.4 inches (95th percentile)
So since his birth he's gained a whopping 4 pounds 13 ounces, grown three whole inches and his noggin has increased in size by 2 inches! Holy Moly is right!

But I just love every bit of his rolly polly body...I think babies are so much cuter when they're chunky!

Don't you just love how babies sleep? Their legs splayed out and arms in goalpost position! And look at the rolls on his legs....love :)

And here's Peyton today with some glasses frames on, looking all Clark Kent for us...

  

The BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies....EVER!!

Ok, I know the title of this post has a lot to live up to, but really, after making these cookies you'll never ever use another recipe for chocolate chip cookies again. They're THAT good! And not only do they taste amazing, they look so perfect and scrumptious......

 I was searching online for the perfect recipe because Matt said he wanted me to bake him some chocolate chip cookies. I had a few recipes in my cookbooks that I always use, but I was in the mood for something different. I ended up finding this awesome recipe here and I only changed a couple things to make it exactly how I wanted it. Here's my adapted recipe-

The BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever

1 cup butter (2 Sticks)
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
2 cups ground oatmeal
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips ( I used the Ghirardelli chips)
1 cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts)

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. In a food processor first grind your oatmeal until it's a mealy texture. Set that aside and then put about a quarter of your bag of chocolate chips in the food processor. Pulse these a few times and then set aside. In a separate bowl cream together the butter and white and brown sugars. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until combined. In another bowl combine the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Then add the ground oatmeal. Combine your wet and dry ingredients until mixed and then add  the ground up chocolate chips, the rest of the bag of whole chocolate chips and the chopped nuts. Mix everything together. Then get heaping teaspoonfuls of the dough and form into balls. Place onto greased cookie sheets (or a Pampered Chef stone *that's what I used*), and bake for 9-12 mins or until the cookies get slightly brown on top. Immediately transfer the cookies to a wire rack or parchment paper to cool. Then enjoy your perfect cookies!

Here are your ingredients!

Grind up your oatmeal and some of the chips. I also put my walnuts in the food processor just so that I wouldn't have to chop them by hand.

Cream together the sugars and butter, then add the vanilla and eggs.

In a separate bowl, mix up your dry ingredients.

Combine the wet and dry ingredients and then add all the goodies (chocolate and nuts!).

Bake and consume! Yum-o!

Peyton thought they were pretty delicious too :)

 

Butterscotch Smoothie Muffins

This recipe started out as an experiment. I’ve been trying to sneak fruits and vegetables into my picky boys diets (yes my husband is included!). These two won’t eat a single vegetable and Peyton won’t touch fruits, unless they’re dried. Weird huh? So my mission has become to try and hide these nutritious foods into the food that they already love. Muffins are a big favorite around here. Depending on how they’re made, they can be breakfast, snack or dessert! So I made up a recipe, mostly for Peyton, that would include lots of healthy fruits in it without him even knowing! The verdict: they were a hit! The whole batch of mini-muffins were gone by the next day, yay!

Butterscotch Smoothie Muffins

2 cups flour
¾ cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 egg
1/3 cup vegetable oil
½ cup milk
3.5 oz yogurt (any flavor, I used two 1.75 oz. cups of the Danonino strawberry for all of the extra vitamins and nutrients it has!)
¼ cup applesauce
½ cup thawed or fresh blueberries, pureed
½ cup of butterscotch chips

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl mix together the egg, oil, milk, yogurt, applesauce and pureed blueberries. Combine the wet and dry ingredient. Line a mini muffin tin with mini liners and fill each cup about 2/3 of the way full. Bake at 400 degrees for about 12-15 minutes. Immediately remove the muffins to a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Put the muffins all together so that they are in a big bunch (not on top of each other, just touching!). Melt your butterscotch chips in the microwave and using a butter knife drizzle all of the muffins generously. Put the whole sheet in the fridge for a couple minutes so that they butterscotch hardens slightly. And then enjoy your healthy muffin treat! :)

These are your ingredients, minus the butterscotch chips...I forgot to add those!

Puree the blueberries.

I then mixed all of the wet ingredients in the food processor with the blueberries but you can mix it by hand too, I was just saving dirty dishes!

Combine your dry ingredients.

Mix the wet and dry ingredients together.

Line your mini muffin pan. Make sure that if you have any empty ones you fill these with water before you bake. This helps distribute the heat and make it so that your muffins cook evenly!

Ready to go in the oven! I experimented by putting a few chips on top of some of the muffins before they went in the oven, but I think I preferred them without in the end.

Muffins! Before the drizzled butterscotch. if you wanted to forgo the butterscotch you could, the muffins just won't be as sweet.

Yum...ready to devour!! Enjoy!

One Month Old!

Henry is 1 month old today! 

I really can't believe how fast the time has gone! 

Milestones: 

Lots of smiling!

He is still nursing wonderfully.

He loves his pacifier.

He takes one bottle of pumped milk every evening, like a champ!

He can sleep through anything!

He sleeps half his night in the crib, the other half in bed with us.

He only wakes up 2-3 times a night, and it's just to nurse really quickly!

He has laughed a couple of times, and it's always been because he's laughing at Peyton :)

He has been getting a little fussy in the evenings but we realized it's because he is a gas machine! A few drops of Simethicone and he's tootin' up a storm, but then he's not fussy anymore! yay!

Happy One Month Birthday Little Man!

New Pictures!

First off, a little birthday shout out....Happy Birthday Dad!!!! 30 looks good on you!!! :) :)

I wanted to add a few pictures from the last couple of days that have just been sitting on my camera.....

Peyton had a blast on the playground when his Nino came to town and took him to the park!

This is a couple of days ago...Peyton has figured out that he can open the pantry and serve himself his cereal with out even having to ask Mama! lol

I love this next picture....The two boys taking a nap together!

This morning...Peyton watching his Cars movie (new favorite movie!) and sitting in his red Cars chair!!!

and here's my chunky baby!! He's going bald, his hairline is slowly receding! lol

In other news.....I found an awesome looking used double jogging stroller on Craigslist today for cheap! I'm going to go look at it this afternoon....hopefully I can get a good deal on it so we can all start going for some morning walks! 

First Post!

I'm so excited to have finally created a blog! I've been following many other blogs for awhile and recently thought "Hey, I could do that!" I'm always trying new recipes, crafting, or sewing. So what better way to showcase it all than through a blog? This way, everyone will have access to the recipe for the cookies I brought to the barbeque or the bread recipe I raved about on Facebook, and my family and friends that don't live close by get to see pictures of the kiddos on a daily basis! So tomorrow I'm going to start documenting the life of a stay at home mom and post plenty of pics for everyone to enjoy! But for now I'll just leave you with a super cute picture of Peyton that we took right before he was getting ready to go to the pool with his dada :)