What’s in a chicken nugget? I don’t even want to look at the ingredients of processed nuggets to see if there is anything that I can pronounce but I doubt there are many natural ingredients listed. In an effort to find a healthier alternative I found Weelicious Lunches.
Easy, healthy, and fun lunch ideas for every age! Once kids walk out the door for school, all bets are off. Will your son toss the nutritious food you’ve included and jump right to the treats? Will your daughter trade her sandwich for her best friend’s prepackaged meal? Determined to improve what kids eat both at school and on the go, weelicious.com founder Catherine McCord offers innovative solutions for quick, delicious, easy-to-make, kid-friendly lunch box meals that little ones and their older siblings won’t be tempted to swap. Filled with lots of great menu planning ideas; tips, tricks, and reusable product suggestions to make lunch fun; inspiring color photographs, advice on dealing with food allergies and so-called picky eaters; and more than 160 tried and true recipes, Weelicious Lunches takes, lunchtime planning from hassle to joy!
We usually bake a whole chicken a few times a month and never end up eating the entire thing. Instead of leaving the leftovers in the fridge to spoil (yep, leftovers don’t get eaten much here), I decided to try duplicating Catherine’s recipe for Easy Chicken Nuggets. It only took me about 30 minutes from start to finish…and that included the time that I fought with our Magic Bullet, blender and mixer trying to find the right “food processor” substitute. If you don’t have a food processor I would stick with the mixer, it was super easy!
Ingredients: 1 lb boneless/skinless chicken, 1/2 cup mashed potatoes, seasoning of choice (garlic and pepper is all I used), 3/4 cup panko bread crumbs, 1 tbs Parmesan cheese, cooking spray.
Recipe (copied with permission from Weelicious Lunches):
- Preheat the over to 375F.
- Place the chicken, mashed potatoes, and seasoning in a food processor and pulse until smooth and combined.
- In a shallow bowl or plate, combine the bread crumbs and Parmesan.
- With moistened hands, roll 1 tbs of chicken mixture between your palms and flatten into a “nugget” shape.
- Gently press the nugget into the bread crumb mixture to coat.
- Transfer to a lightly sprayed or greased cooling rack on a baking sheet lined with foil.
- Lightly spray nuggets with cooking spray.
- Bake for 20 minutes, or until crispy outside and cooked throughout.
- Serve hot with honey mustard, ketchup, or Veg-Wee Dip (using Stonyfield Greek Yogurt).
Note: If you want the nuggets to be golden brown, place them under the broiler for an additional 2 minutes after cooking.
To freeze: After step 5, place the chicken nuggets on a sheet tray and freeze for 30 minutes. Transfer to a storage container and freeze for up to 4 months. To bake, do not defrost; just add 3-5 minutes to the baking time.
I sent them with Lil’ B to school the next day for lunch and she ate every single bite!! I even nibbled on a few myself at lunchtime. We have about 30 nuggets in the freezer ready to go! I didn’t measure out the chicken – just took the leftovers and added one potato (mashed) with some milk and butter.
Weelicious Lunches is packed with over 300 pages of easy to make, fun, creative, and healthy lunch ideas for kids (and adults). It is a perfect book for my bento addiction and I can’t wait to make a few more recipes! You can find the book on Amazon (affiliate link) here: Weelicious Lunches (Enhanced Edition): Think Outside the Lunch Box with More Than 160 Happier Meals. It’s currently available for pre-order with a release date of Oct. 22nd.
You can enter to win a copy compliments of Weelicious and Stonyfield by completing the Rafflecopter steps below! Giveaway ends on Oct. 21st. Good luck!
Disclosure: Stonyfield and Weelicious provided me a copy of Weelicious Lunches and some coupons for the purpose of this review. Recipe printed with permission.
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