Friday, December 13, 2013

December 13, 2013

Yahoo!  My semester is complete!  Had my last classes this week and all my projects and papers are turned in; what a great feeling!  The kids just have school through next week and then we are all on break.  We are all looking forward to the time off, and I am hoping our kitchen will be messy during the vacation as we try out lots of new recipes.

This week, we only tried 2 new recipes, and one was enthusiastically voted a keeper!  The one that didn't earn keeper status but was good.  It was chicken noodle soup and very tasty but not vastly different from any other version I've made in the past.  One trick that I did learn from the recipe and I will incorporate into my chicken noodle soup was to add 1 tablespoon of tomato paste to the soup (either with the veggies if sauteing them separately before adding them to the soup, or directly to the soup).  The tomato paste added a layer of richness to the soup that was great.

As for the recipe that is a keeper, it was one of those recipes that came together with pantry ingredients at 5:10 one evening.  I had chicken in the fridge, cereal and panko, and seasonings.  When it came out of the oven and everyone tried it, we couldn't believe how tasty it was!  Some of the most delicious dinners are the easiest ones that come together without too much fuss.  We had the chicken with vegetable rice medley (we had everything on hand except the red pepper)  and carrots.  Quick, easy and delicious dinner.  Awesome!  Unfortunately I don't have a photo - but it is worth trying even without a picture!

Hopefully the coming week will have some keeper recipes for me share.  I have a cookie exchange to go to, so fingers crossed that I'll have a new cookie recipe for you!

Happy Cooking!

New Recipe
Crispix Chicken


Crispix Chicken

Ingredients
* 1 1/3 cups cereal (we used Crispix)
* 1 1/3 cups panko
* 2 tsp kosher salt
* 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
* 1 tsp paprika
* 1/2 tsp black pepper
* 1/2 cup mayonnaise
* 1 tsp Dijon mustard
* 1 to 1 1/2 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into strips or

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400 F.  Set a rack on a baking sheet and prepare with cooking spray.
2. In a food processor, process the cereal, panko, salt, cayenne pepper, paprika and black pepper.  Transfer the crumbs to a shallow bowl.
3. Mix the mustard and mayonnaise in a second shallow bowl.
4. Dip the chicken in the mayo/mustard mixture, and then dredge into the crumbs.  Place the chicken on the rack and cook until cooked through, approximately 20-22 minutes.  Serve!

Notes
My family loved this!  Super moist and very flavorful!  I served it with our vegetable rice medley and some carrots.  This was ridiculously easy and will definitely become a regular on our meal plan because everyone thought it was fabulous.  Easy and delicious - the perfect pairing.  We had Crispix on hand, but this would probably work with cornflakes, special K, or whatever cereal you have on hand.  Maybe with a "flakier" cereal you might add only 2/3 cup of it for the recipe. Try it this week!