quick and easy lunch

This time of the year, it is so easy to fall back on fast food for convenience. We've all been there: out running errands, standing in lines much longer than we anticipated, traffic worse than we imagined, and all of the sudden a little voice peeps from the backseat. "Hungry. Eat lunch!" Is it lunchtime already? Holy moly, it's twenty minutes past lunch! Frantically, we look around and find relief. Golden arches are just a traffic light away. And the kids cheer for their chicken nugget kids meal as we drive away from the carry out window.

I've lived this scenario both as the child and as the mother, repeatedly. Although we don't eat fast food terribly often, Daryl and I have decided to cut out as much fast food as we can from our family's diet. So what can we do to replace Jonah's beloved "Chickie nuggies" as well as keep convenience and timeliness in the picture?

Golden Nugget Chickie Nuggies:
boneless skinless chicken breast
Cheese Nips
bowl of warm water

Fill a gallon zip top bag about half full of the cheese crackers. Don't close the top of the bag or it will break. Use a rolling pin to smash the crackers into fine crumbs (I suppose you could use a food processor as well, but it's more fun to smash stuff, in my opinion!) Cut the chicken into nugget sized pieces. I usually make mine 1 1/2 inch by 1 1/2 inch, approximately. Dip each piece of chicken into the water to moisten it, and place them in the bag of cracker crumbs. Don't over crowd the bag, you can do it in batches if you have a lot of chicken. Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes at 350 F.

One of the chemicals we are trying to avoid by cutting out fast food, tbhq, is found in most cheese crackers but not cheese nips which is why I list the brand name. I've been making these in large batches and freezing them, so we have frozen nuggets that can simply be heated up at lunch time. I buy the chicken when it is on sale and stock up on nuggets that way! They are so much tastier than any commercially frozen or fast food nugget, and they pass the picky toddler test!