Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Healthy Baked Chicken Nuggets

I am always trying to find ways to get my son to eat protein.  He would be happy to live off of pancakes if given his way.  So you can imagine how happy I was when he and my daughter literally INHALED this dinner!  I was searching the web for some healthy dinners and I came across Skinnytaste.com.  Love it!  Gina has so many yummy looking dinners and she includes all the nutrtional information.  I pretty much used recipes from just her blog for my menu this week. 

I was excited to try this recipe. I knew my kids would love it.  What kid doesn't love chicken nuggets?  And I was not disappointed.  The breading on it was light and slightly crunchy and I love that they are baked--so they are definitely healthy.  I also loved the oh so subtle parmesan cheese flavor in it.  I had a cookie sheet full of nuggets and was worried that I had made too much.  But oh how mistaken I was. My kids were begging for the nuggets off my husband and I's plates.  So next time I will definitely make a lot more. 

She gave such a cute idea with this recipe to let your kids eat it with toothpicks.  So I hammed it up and told them we were having a really special dinner.  They were pretty excited about it.  And were even more thrilled when I told them the special part was that they could only use toothpicks as their utensil for dinner.  I made everything bite size and they probably have never eaten so much at dinner.  So I will definitely be using toothpicks again and definitely be making these again. 

Healthy Baked Chicken Nuggets from skinnytaste

16 oz (2 large) skinless boneless chicken breasts, cut into even bit sized pieces
salt and pepper to taste
2 tsp olive oil
6 tbsp whole wheat Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
2 tbsp panko
2 tbsp grated parmesan cheese
olive oil spray 

Preheat oven to 425°. Spray a baking sheet with olive oil spray. Put the olive oil in one bowl and the breadcrumbs, panko and parmesan cheese in another. Season chicken with salt and pepper, then put in the bowl with the olive oil and mix well so the olive oil evenly coats all of the chicken. Put a few chunks of chicken at a time into the breadcrumb mixture to coat, then on the baking sheet. Lightly spray the top with olive oil spray then bake 8 - 10 minutes. Turn over then cook another 4 - 5 minutes or until cooked though.

Servings: 4 • Serving Size: 1/4th of nuggets • Old Points: 4 pts • Points+: 4 pts

Calories: 164.9 • Fat: 4.6 g • Protein: 22.1 g • Carb: 7.7 g • Fiber: 0.9 g • Sugar: 0.1 g