a perfect dinner

It doesn’t happen often (sadly), but very occasionally I manage to cook a dinner that satisfies all of us completely. Those days I do a happy dance! Not only did everyone clean their plate, but Abby and Geoff actually thanked me for cooking a good dinner, and asked if we could have it again. That’s pretty amazing. Everyone even ate some fruit and vegetables! The best part was that it was a very inexpensive meal (made even more inexpensive because I found some chicken strips on sale for $2, and grapes were on sale for $1.99/pound) so it will be easy to frequently repeat in our dinner rotation. Yum!

Baked Chicken Nuggets
Skinny Taste

16 oz (2 large) skinless boneless chicken breasts, cut into even bite sized pieces
salt and pepper to taste
2 tsp olive oil
6 tbsp whole wheat Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
2 tbsp panko
2 tbsp grated parmesan cheese
olive oil spray

Preheat oven to 425°. Spray a baking sheet with olive oil spray. Put the olive oil in one bowl and the breadcrumbs, panko and parmesan cheese in another. Season chicken with salt and pepper, then put in the bowl with the olive oil and mix well so the olive oil evenly coats all of the chicken. Put a few chunks of chicken at a time into the breadcrumb mixture to coat, then on the baking sheet. Lightly spray the top with olive oil spray then bake 8 – 10 minutes. Turn over then cook another 4 – 5 minutes or until cooked through.

Zucchini Tots
Skinny Taste

1 cup zucchini, grated
1 large egg
1/4 medium onion, diced
1/4 cup reduced fat sharp cheddar cheese, grated
1/4 cup seasoned breadcrumbs
salt and pepper to taste
cooking spray

Preheat oven to 400°. Spray a mini muffin tin with cooking spray. Grate the zucchini into a clean dish towel. Wring all of the excess water out of the zucchini. In a medium bowl, combine all of the ingredients and season with salt and pepper to taste. Fill each muffin section to the top, pushing down on the filling with your spoon so it’s nice and compacted so they don’t fall apart when you take them out of the tin. Bake for 16-18 minutes, or until the tops are golden. Use a plastic knife or rubber spatula around the edges of each tot to remove them from the muffin tin. Enjoy!!