Listen, you HAVE to understand: they are picky. And not just, "I don't want that" picky, I mean reincarnationfromwhenIwasyoung picky. It's a nightmare. I have LITERALLY called up my parents to tell them, "I am SO sorry I was a picky eater!" When you have children, you learn REAL quick they are the grandparents' revenge. How I WISH I had eaten my vegetables as a kid.
[And they are SNEAKY! Oh how they are sneaky!]
Tonight's supper consisted of "chicken fingers and french fries". Now, my eldest (okay, she's FIVE) use to ONLY want to eat chicken nuggets. Even at our unhealthiest point in life, we did NOT frequent the fast food joints. However, when we DID eat out, she ONLY EVER WANTED CHICKEN STRIPS. (Or fingers. Or nuggets. Whatever restaurants called them, THAT was what she wanted.)
Every. Single. Time.
I've made "Real Food" chicken fingers, I've made pan fried chicken, etc. And every time it was pretty much a miss. TONIGHT, however, was COMPLETE VICTORY!
"You can make this again, Mom. Maybe tomorrow. Or the next day. Or the day after the next day. Or on a Sunday. Or a Wednesday."
Tears, people. Tears. I could have bawled my eyes out I was so happy.
EASY Chicken Bites and "French Fries"
(first made 16 Feb 13)
What you need:
1 large chicken breast per two people (half a breast is MORE than enough for one person)
1 sweet potato per two people (I used one LARGE potato for five of us)
Olive oil (or take your pick)
Salt
Pepper
Garlic (I used powdered)
Parsley
Paprika
Salad (I used lettuce, spinach, and green onion)
Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.
Then work on your sweet potato(s):
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| Peel them. (I don't have an actual peeler, so I just use a really sharp knife.) |
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| Slice it up. Try and make uniform sized fries. |
Put your fries into a bowl and mix them around with some olive oil. You could season your "french fries" here, but I wait until they're on the pan (which is also coated with some oil).
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| Space out the fries so they aren't touching each other. |
Bake the sweet potato(s) for 15 minutes. During this 15 minutes you can get your chicken all set up.
Slice up your chicken breast(s) to the size that will work best in your skillet/pan. I butterflied my chicken breast so that the pieces would cook evenly. I wasn't concerned about what the pieces looked like because I knew I'd be slicing them up for the kidlets when supper was ready.
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| One chicken breast, sliced and seasoned. |
If this bit didn't take you a full 15 minutes, go ahead and add some oil and butter (equal amounts) to your skillet. Then set the table (or if you prepare plates in the kitchen, set the plates out). Wash some lettuce and spinach, cut up some green onion (mine literally sits in the refrigerator in a cup with water, so I just take some scissors and cut up my green onion right onto my salad) and set up your salads. The kidlets, also, each had a bit of lettuce (and the middle one even ended up asking for more; the only one who did NOT get any was the fifteen month old) on their plates (no spinach this time and no green onion; although they usually end up with a bit of spinach as well).
When the timer goes off, pull out your sweet potato(s) and flip them; again, making sure when they are flipped that they are not touching each other, but all separate from one another. At this point, I turn the oven down and flip my pan around. I've made these "french fries" a couple times and they always end up too crispy for the kids and one side ends up moreso than the other. I turn the temperature down to between 400 and 425 and set the timer for 10 minutes.
While the sweet potato(s) are finishing, heat up your skillet of oil and butter (again even amounts). When the pan is hot, place your chicken breast in and cook for 2-3 minutes until golden. Flip the pieces over and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes. I am personally NEUROTIC about cooked chicken. Because I sliced my pieces so thin, 6 minutes total was plenty of time for my chicken to cook through. PLEASE make sure you cook your chicken sufficiently. No one wants to get sick.
Especially on such a yummy meal! :)
Because I have little ones, as SOON as the sweet potato fries are done, I start setting plates with them to give enough time for them to cool, so no one burns their mouth. Cut up (or scissor up) chicken bits for the kids and watch them chow down!
Because the chicken turned out SO BEAUTIFULLY this evening, I decided to go for a "pretty" picture and not cut up the chicken for my salad. Then I decorated the plate with my "french fries". And for the final touch, I scooped out some of the yumminess at the bottom of my chicken pan as "salad dressing". There are NOT a lot of salad dressings I enjoy; I prefer meat juice, olive oil, butter (but heck, butter makes EVERYTHING better, right?), and seasoning to any salad dressing, any day.
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| See? Pretty! And SO delicious! |
Despite having to use the "big" plates tonight, I wanted to show you that I really wasn't eating THAT much food. Mostly I ate vegetables tonight with "some" chicken. I sliced the chicken breast relatively thin to help in the cooking, but to limit just how much we were all eating too!
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| See how THIN the chicken pieces are? So mostly vegetables and "some" chicken. |
And you know what? EVERYONE (and I mean EVERYONE) ate up like there was NO tomorrow! I hadn't won the kids over with sweet potato fries until TONIGHT. And chicken, unbreaded, out of a skillet/pan, FORGET ABOUT IT. Tonight equaled TOTAL victory!
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| Mommy's Plate. |
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| Four kidlet plates. CLEAN. |
And of course, because I want to keep this all as real as I can:
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| Dishes. |
But DON'T worry; it is NOT as bad as it looks. Figure the sinks themselves are COMPLETELY empty. The two cutting boards (because we keep our meat separate from our fruits and vegetables) and the large sheet/pan for the fries are blocking any access for the other dishes to actually SIT in the sink. The ONLY dish missing from this picture would be the fifteen month old's cup.
Now.. who wants to do those "easy" dishes for me?
Anyone?
Hello?
Drat.
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