Deceptively Delicious

When Mary Sue, aka Grandma, came to visit a couple of weeks ago she brought me a present. Yeah! It was Jessica Seinfeld's new cookbook, Deceptively Delicious. The premise behind the cookbook, if you haven't seen her recently on Regis and Kelly or Oprah, is that she hides vegetables in her cooking- so that her kids will get some vegetables. She purees them and adds the puree to macaroni and cheese, brownies and even pancakes. What a great idea! Parker is getting better at eating vegetables but not as much as I'd like. He will eat carrot sticks, cucumber, and broccoli and sometimes other veggies when they're in dishes like chicken pot pie. But this is a great way to get a vegetable in him more often. Right now Maryn loves vegetables, especially broccoli and peas.

Last night we tried the chicken nuggets. They were really good- and fairly easy! It was a little tough to do the breading part but that's how it is with any recipe with breading. If I had already had the puree done and just thawed from the freezer that would have made it easier too. Mark and I enjoyed them and Parker said he liked them too! Recipe as follows...

Chicken Nuggets
(with broccoli, spinach, sweet potato or beet puree)

1 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup flaxseed meal (I omitted this because I didn't have it.)
1 T grated Parm cheese
1/2 t paprika
1/2 t garlic powder
1/2 t onion powder
1 cup puree (I used spinach- to make steam spinach and then puree in food processor- like you're making home made baby food.)
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 lb chicken tenders, rinsed, dried and cut into small chunks
1/2 t salt
Nonstick cooking spray
1 T olive oil

1. Combine breadcrumbs, flaxseed meal, Parm cheese, paprika, garlic, and onion powder in a shallow bowl (can also use a plate or a large sheet of foil) and mix well.

2. In another shallow bowl mix the puree and egg with a fork and set the bowl next to the breadcrumb mixture.

3. Sprinkle the chicken chunks with salt. Dip into egg mixture and then toss in the breadcrumbs until coated.

4. Coat a large nonstick skillet with cooking spray and set over med-high heat. When the skillet is hot, add the oil. Place the chicken nuggets in the skillet inn a single layer, being careful not to crowd the pan and cook until crisp and golden on one side, 3 to 4 minutes. Then turn and cook kuntil the chicken is cooked through, golden brown and crisp all over, 4 to 5 minutes longer.

*This is not typed word for word from the cookbook.

Enjoy!