Crispy Chicken Fingers

We were invited to join a couple other families on an outing today. At 8:40 am the one who organized the day called me to say everyone was running late and it came up that I was supposed to make chicken :-) She had sent an email at 6 something this morning but I had just turned my computer on when she called. Unfortunately, I had no chicken in the house. Fortunately Troy had just left the house and I called him to run to the store for chicken and cereal. Unfortunately he forgot the cereal. Fortunately I needed to let the chicken soak in the buttermilk for 15 minutes. Anyway, my fortunately and unfortunately could go on and on but I will get to the point. I got the call at 8:40 am with no chicken in the house and out the door at 10 am with these chicken fingers cooked and ready for our yummy lunch. It is a fast, easy, semi-healthy (compared to McD or W*ndys) recipe. We had the leftovers tonight for dinner and they were still yummy :-)

1 1/4 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, cut across into 1/2 inch-thick slices
1/2 cup lowfat buttermilk
Cooking spray
4 cups whole grain cereal such as Corn Chex or corn flakes
1/4 teaspoon salt
Pinch of freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Combine the chicken and buttermilk in a shallow dish, turning the chicken to coat it with buttermilk. Cover and chill for 15 minutes.
Coat two baking sheets with cooking spray.
Put the cereal in a sealable plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin. Transfer the crumbs to a shallow dish and season them with salt and pepper. Dip each piece of chicken in the cereal to fully coat and arrange on the prepared baking sheets. Bake until cooked through, about 8 minutes. Leave the chicken on the baking sheet to cool slightly. It will become crispier.
Serve with honey mustard sauce or other sauce if desired.

Ok - now for my notes :-) First I did a lot more chicken than this recipe called for. I did about 3 or 4 pounds and since I was making it for several 3 year olds and younger I cut it up into chunks rather than strips. I used the Corn Chex and ended up using the whole box.
I baked mine for double the time it says here as well. After 8 minutes they were still pretty pink in the middle - 16 minutes was good and they were still very moist. I did not have time to let them cool on the baking sheets as I was short on time so they were not as crispy as they could have been. I reheated the leftovers in the oven for dinner and they were nice and crispy. Everyone who tried them today thought they were great.

Energy Bars

I know it has been forever since I have posted to this blog so not sure anyone will check but I am going to post some new recipes anyway :-) I finally figured out how to link this blog to my Doubly Blessed blog so now they are on the same dashboard maybe I will remember to post here more often.

I have been looking for some healthy snacks that I can make for our family. I really am trying to change the way I cook and the way we eat. Overall we do eat quite healthy but there is certainly room for improvement and both Troy and I need to loose weight. We both have a history of diabetes in our families so we need to really start doing things differently. My sister who blogs at Comfort Cooking is making some huge changes and has blogged some about it. Right now she is my inspiration but I am having a hard time changing some things. My hubby says I need to concentrate in one area and not try and change everything at once and I know this is true - so where do I start?

My kids don't eat sweets for the most part. I do very little cookie baking and they have a piece of candy on special occasions, maybe! They snack on raisins, bananas, peanut butter pretzels, goldfish crackers, yogurt and other semi-healthier things. I know some of these things leave some to be desired as well. My image of being a mother was always baking things for the kids and having the cookie jar filled etc even though I was not raised this way. I am having to change my thinking and realize I am not a bad mother because I do not feed them cookies and candy or let them drink juice. My kids drink water all day long and don't know the difference. Sometimes when we go out if a drink comes with their meal they get a special treat of apple juice.

Anyway, this post was supposed to be a recipe for energy bars. I found this in a cookbook my sister gave me "The Food You Crave" by Ellie Krieger. I made a few adjustments to the recipe but they turned out pretty good.

Here is the recipe at it is written and then I will tell you about the changes I made.

1 cup quick cooking oats
1/2 cup shelled unsalted raw sunflower seeds
1/2 cup toasted wheat germ
1/4 cup whole grain pastry flour or whole wheat flour
1/2 cup dried apricots
1/2 cup raw almonds
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup pitted dried dates
1/2 cup nonfat dry milk
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat 9x13 pan with cooking spray.
Place all ingredients, except the maple syrup and eggs, in a food processor and pulse until everything is finely chopped. Add the syrup and eggs and pulse until the mixture is well combined. It will resemble a coarse paste.
Transfer to the baking pan and spread evenly to cover the bottom. Bake until lightly browned, about 20 minutes. Allow to cool for 15 minutes, then cut into 24 bars. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for about 3 days or wrap individually and freeze up to 3 months.

Ok - so my changes. I left out the sunflower seeds because hubby is alergic. The other thing I changed was the maple syrup. It was not in my budget this week and as I was looking at it in the store I saw beside it some Agave nectar. I remembered that I had some at home and so decided to try and substitute it. It seemed to work just fine. If you have not used Agave nectar before you can read about it at this link. I think it tastes like honey but a little thinner. It has a lower glycemic index that regular sugar and it does not cause the sugar spike that regular sugar does. You can use it in baking but use a little less than is called for because it is sweeter.