More Recipes...

(but don't worry a ToneItUp update soon to come...)

Today I was craving fast food like a mofo (yes this really is this best adjective that the deep recesses of my mind could come up with at 4:00 am) so what's a girl to do when she craves greasy, salty, million calorie fast food? you ask... Well first I had to cough up an hour from my super busy schedule and then create a delicious alternative to satisfy my artery clogging craving :)

Lately, I've been scheduled to work every other day and I don't know if any of you bloggies out there have ever worked NOC shifts before but switching from working all night to not having to work every other day is really difficult. I try to sleep normally on my nights off and I generally do but because I have to work the next night I spend a good deal of the next day sleeping. Apparently my day-sleeping is very distressing to my father because he seems to enjoy waking me up every morning (on the days that I work) to keep me from living an apathetic lifestyle, maybe I should start waking him up at 2:30 am each night in order to keep him from getting lazy... That being said once I was prematurely awake this morning and finished my errands and imaginary busy work that I create for myself I set to work making a late lunch for myself and my darling brothers. I settled on baked "chicken nuggets" (the word nuggets sounds so gross and unappetizing... eww) with "French fries."

Chicken Bites (that sounds slightly better than nuggets...)

• 16 oz. chicken breast
• salt
• pepper
• bread crumbs (whole wheat or regular)
• parmesan
• thyme
• oregano
• garlic
• olive oil

*Preheat oven to 450*

In case you haven't noticed cooking with thyme, oregano, and garlic seems to have become some what of a trend for me but you don't need to use these spices if your palette prefers a different medley of flavors, this recipe really lets you play around with flavors!

Take your chicken breast (you can use however much you want, 16 oz just looked good to me) and dice it into pieces - all of them about the same size. After you've cut your 'nuggets' salt and pepper them to your liking (try not to over salt them because you will be seasoning them once again) then place them into a bowl. In a glass mix together crushed garlic and olive oil. Pour the olive oil mixture over your chicken then mix the EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) and chicken really well so that every last little 'bite' looks like it's about to hit the beach (oiled up...).

In a separate bowl mix together 1 cup of bread crumbs (I used Trader Joe's Organic Bread Crumbs but you can really use whatever), 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, 1/2 tsp. oregano, 1/2 tsp. thyme (if you didn't use crushed garlic go ahead and add garlic powder as well) and more salt and pepper if you feel that its necessary.

Using a few bites of chicken at a time thoroughly coat them in the crumb mixture. Place your chicken on either a greased cookie sheet or take a wire cooling rack, place that on top of the cookie sheet and then put on chicken on top of it (this helps the chicken get extra crispy). Repeat this process until all of your chicken is ready for action!

Cook your chicken for 8 to 10 minutes then flip it over and cook for another 4 to 5 minutes or until brown and cooked all the way through. If you're having trouble getting your chicken to be crispy go ahead and warm a little teensy weensy bit of EVOO in a skillet and brown them that way - I know that this seemed to defeat the "baked" purpose of this recipe but a little EVOO never hurt anybody (just skimp on the cheese if it makes you feel better).

I didn't take any pictures but if you want to see what it's supposed to look like just check out Gina's Skinny Recipes (that where I adapted mine from) The next time I make these I think that I'm going to use Cajun spices so that they have a little more kick ;)

Next post to come... ToneItUp update and my no fail 'French fry' recipe

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