9-19-11 Dinner Blog

I have high hopes for tonight.  First, I feel prepared because I did a lot of pre-prep on Sunday night.  The chicken is washed, cut and ready to use. The beets are also cooked, which means I just need to warm them up, make a side salad, and prepare some fruit.  Second, I think that the family is going to really enjoy this chicken. I haven’t made it in a while, so it will probably seem new to them. Third, a close family friend is coming over which will make dinner even more fun than usual – and will keep me honest in my assessment of tonight’s dinner!

The Sunday night pre-prep…

Monday’s Dinner Prep

Dinner prep began at 5:45 when I preheated the oven to 350 and created an assembly line of the chicken, small dish of water, breading mixture, and a lightly sprayed roasting pan.

Baked, not fried, this chicken is tasty!

Piece by piece, I wet the mixture in water, dredged it in the breading and put it on the roasting pan.  This took about 20 minutes, but I knew the prep was also for Thursday night – so in reality I was getting ahead of  myself…

I ended up needing 2 roasting pans and once they were all breaded, I put them in the oven and set the timer for 20 minutes.  Then I took 3 beets from the refrigerator, peeled the skin off, sliced them and cooked them in the microwave for 1 minute.  Check to see if they are warm.  If not, put them in for another 45 seconds and check again.  I also made a small side salad with strawberries, blueberries, and tomatoes and had a few green beans from last week that I divided across the plates.

Once the chicken was finished (it took 10 extra minutes), I portioned the chicken and served.  The partially empty plate is my husband’s who was late coming home but wanted to be sure we saved him some dinner… 

The Verdict

9, 9.5, 9.5 and 7.  Aside from my daughter, everyone loved the chicken.  Our friend, who joined us for dinner said those were the best chicken nuggets she had ever had.  My son agreed.  Moist and tasty!  My daughter liked them but was not overwhelmed.  “It just isn’t as good as your tortilla soup, mom,”  she said.  What a tough critic!

The beets were a hit and the salad was easy to eat with the delicious berries on top.

Unlike my daughter, I thought the dinner was very tasty.  I think I will lightly sprinkle some extra chili powder on top when I warm the chicken for Wednesday and see if that adds more flavor and brings up my daughter’s rating.  Despite the harsh rating, this dinner was a hit with everyone else.  I would definitely make this recipe again.  7 or no 7!