Shake and Bake

When I hear “Shake and Bake”, I think of two things. One is from way back in the day when i was a cheerleader in Middle School. Cheerleading in New York is Useless. Especially when there are no sports teams, no competitions and no school events that would require a cheerleader. It was just the mere excuse i used to get out of class. “Can’t do this Math test Teach, I got practice!”. One of our cheers was called “shake and bake”

SHAKE *clap- clap*

Bake *clap- clap*

And rattle and rattle and rattle your snake…

God AWFUL cheer! but when we did our cheers for the school in the auditorium- every one loved it… but i think it has something to do with the fact that they were out of class.

My second thought of Shake and bake is mom. Mom has, since I was a little girl, used the variety of crunchy coatings on chicken and pork for our “fried” dinners. At some point in my childhood I never knew what real fried chicken was (ignorance is bliss) and while i love a greasy piece of fried chicken (dont lie- you know you do too) oven fried is my comfort food. Mom always bought the boxed mix but i thought i could make my own creation using panko…

Chicken legs and thighs. These babies were meant for stew but when comfort is calling you have to make sacrifices. See the sacrifices I make for the sake of this blog???

I wanted to create a nice “glue” for coating my chicken. I was considering egg yolks but then thought my favorite creamy dressing would be quick and easy because its already seasoned and a little goes a long way.

I placed a generous portion of the dressing in a freezer bag with the chicken and let it marinate overnight.

For my breading I will use Panko. Japanese bread Crumbs.

The Breading Station. Use one hand for wet stuff and one hand for dry stuff to avoid that awful coating build-up on your digits.

place breaded chicken in a non stick baking dish. Bake at 350 for about 40 mins… 20 on each side.

To go with my chicken I prepared some Quinoa. I love this stuff! But then again, I love anything thats in the noodle/rice/ bread family. added some sweet corn to the mix. for texture. Love it this way!

And sauteed snap peas in soy sauce!

Success! and Delish!

a Super Healthy Dinner (for a change)

No, your eyes are not deceiving you. Those are Two MAMMOTH chicken legs! Let me just say something about Fresh Directs Organic Chicken… OH MY GOD! These legs are the ones I saved from the Grill when Henry was grilling. So glad he didnt char every piece of chicken i purchased! But I decided to whip out all of the organic veggies I could stand and serve them up with some broiled chicken. I love broiled chicken- but I hate cooking in this heat! so I use my toast-r-oven.

Kath has kale chips like every other day and when i saw some organic greens on sale, kale was on the list so i figured why not. Kale is actually a cinch to make! and once I get my hands on some more I will be cooking it! I took a small bunch of kale, cleaned it really well and let it drip dry in my colander. Once ready, I peeled off the stems because they are too tough to munch. ripped them into bite size pieces and laid them on a cookie sheet, sprayed with oil and sprinkled with sea salt. I put them in the toast-r-oven for 18 minutes on 350 degrees.

While the kale was cooking, i got to my zucchini and sliced it up like match-sticks. I saw this method on Smitten Kitchen and decided to give it a whirl.

I sauteed my match sticks in a little EVOO and crushed garlic, sprinkled with salt. i set them aside. They were done in 5 minutes!!!

While the veggies were cooking and the chicken settling with its yummy juices, I made some chicken flavored Quinoa with some niblets of corn.

then the kale was ready! I took a bite and thought they tasted a lot like chips. Salty, crunchy and had a slight “green” taste to them. Henry was a bit turned off that he was chewing on a crunchy leaf but he shut up when I gave him hot sauce and ketchup. he LOVED it with Ketchup… but he puts ketchup on his eggs so i think the man just really likes ketchup (gag).

Dinner was a bit over the top. I might have been fine with just the kale chips and chicken – but i eat with my eyes.

So… lots of leftovers.

Henry didnt like the Zukes…but no worries, he left his plate unattended again and Mickey ate his greens…and Quinoa.
*sigh*