Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Chicken Nuggets and Broccoli with a Low Fat (but not so clean) Creamy Cheese Sauce

Once again, PLEASE excuse my terrible pictures! I really need to work on using my camera instead of my cell phone, which is so much handier!

This meal was SO YUMMY! I can't wait to eat my leftovers for lunch! The chicken nuggets were very healthy and clean and had only 3 grams of carbs! The broccoli was very healthy too. The one thing that that wasn't clean, but it was low fat (though we really want to make it as clean as possible next time! We just were in a pinch for something to go with the broccoli!) was the Creamy Cheese Sauce from our Low Fat Vegetarian Cookbook (Thanks Steph!).

The chicken nuggets were super easy to make and took 30 minutes total (including cooking time) to make. I think that kids will LOVE it (especially with clean, homemade ketchup... which we didn't have so we used a tad bit of regular ketchup). I love to dip my chicken in honey and I think that next time I am going to try to dip it in Agave Nectar.

Ok, ok... enough talk. Here is the chicken recipe! See below for the review and recipe for the Creamy Cheese Sauce!

Crispy Chicken Nuggets (3g)

Ingredients

• 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts weighing about 6 oz / 170 g each
• 1/4 cup / 60 ml oat bran
• 1/4 cup / 60 ml wheat germ
• 1 Tbsp / 15 ml coarsely ground flaxseed (I used my Pampered Chef slap chopper and chopped them... it worked OK, but took a while)
• 1/4 cup / 60 ml coarsely ground almonds (I used my Pampered Chef slap chopper and it worked great on these!)
• 1/2 tsp / 2 1/2 ml sea salt
• 1/2 tsp / 2 1/2 ml white pepper (I didn't have white so I used black)
• Pinch garlic powder
• 1/2 cup / 120 ml water or low-sodium chicken broth (we used low sodium, all natural chicken stock... but water would have been fine and I will use that next time instead of spending the extra money!)
• 1 large egg white, lightly beaten

Preparation

  1. Preheat oven to 400°F / 232°C. Prepare baking sheet by lining with parchment paper or coating lightly with best-quality olive oil.
  2. Cut chicken breasts into nugget-sized pieces, about 1.5 inches square. Set aside.
  3. Next, combine all dry ingredients in a large container with a tightly fitting lid. Shake well. This is your coating mixture.
  4. Combine water and egg in a medium bowl. Dip each piece in the water/egg-white mixture. Then dip each piece in the coating mixture. Make sure each piece is well coated.
  5. Place on the baking sheet. When all of your chicken has been coated and your baking sheet is full, place in the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden.

Ok... the Low Fat Creamy Cheese Sauce from 1001 Low-Fat Vegetarian Recipes... I think I said in the beginning that we aren't going to be making our own cheese or anything TOO extreme, but that we are going to try to get as clean as possible. I just wanted to say that from the start of this recipe! We decided to make this recipe because we wanted something on top of the broccoli that wasn't going to be too full of calories or unhealthy junk. So here is the recipe, with our alterations to it. It was very yummy and we can't wait to make it a little cleaner next time!

*2 tbsp of minced onion (we didn't have fresh onion on hand and it was such a small amount that we used dried minced onion, which was fine)
*2 tbsp of whole-wheat flour (this was another change we made... we used whole wheat instead of regular, which was great!)
*1 cup of skim milk
*1/4 tsp of dried mustard
*2-3 drops of red pepper sauce
*1/2 cup (2 oz) of cheese (we used what we had... a little bit of all natural mozzarella and some American Cheese to make up the difference since we didn't have 2 oz)

1. Saute onion in 1 tbsp of margarine (we didn't do this step since we used dried onion so we excluded the butter/margarine) in small saucepan 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in flour; cook over medium low heat, stirring constantly, 1 minute. Whisk in milk and heat to boiling; boil, whisking constantly until thickened, about 1 minute. (We started with the milk and whisked everything into the milk since we weren't sauteeing the onions, etc.
2. Reduce heat to low. Add cheese, dry mustard, and pepper sauce, whisking until cheese is melted.

We drizzled a small amount over steamed broccoli and it was very yummy and added that flavor we wanted!

Enjoy!

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