Wednesday: Whole Grain Honey-Mustard Chicken Nuggets with Roasted Root Vegetables

These are SOOO much better than McDonalds chicken nuggets and healthier too! Add some scrumptious roasted veggies to the mix and a refreshing glass of milk and you've covered all your nutritional bases! This meal is super easy to make, so be sure to make it on a night that you don't feel like making anything BIG. 

Honey-Mustard Chicken Nuggets Recipe

2 cups bite sized shredded wheat cereal, crushed to 1 cup
1/2 cup Freshly grated Parmesan cheese (see note below)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp paprika or smoked paprika
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup low-fat mayonnaise
1 TB Honey
2 tsp mustard (my favorite: Trader Joe's garlic mustard spread)
1 lb Boneless, skinless chicken tenders, or breasts cut into strips
Cooking Spray

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Use cooking spray on a shallow baking pan. 
2. Combine cereal, cheese, salt, paprika and garlic powder  in a bowl then pour ingredients on to a plate. Mix mayo, honey and mustard in a shallow dish.

3. Place chicken strips into mayo mixture, roll in cereal mixture. Put strips on prepared baking pan.

4. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until strips are no longer pink in center. 



Roasted Root Vegetables

 

Use a mixture of vegetables like sweet potatoes, beets, turnips and yellow/red potatoes 
  3 TB olive oil 
salt & pepper
chopped rosemary (optional)
minced fresh garlic (optional)

1. Cover baking sheet with cooking spray. Place vegetables on baking sheet and drizzle with oil. Sprinkle with salt , pepper, and optional rosemary.
2. Cover with foil. Bake for 15 minutes at 400 * F.
3. Remove foil. Flip vegetables over. Bake for 15 more minutes.
4. Check to see if vegetables are crispy on outside but soft on inside. If not, bake for another 10-15 minutes.
5. Saute 2-3 garlic cloves of garlic with cooking spray in a skillet, and sprinkle over vegetables at the end. 

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Who likes to change it up?

~Use ground up cornflakes instead of shredded wheat cereal or a blend of both.
~Try adding fresh garlic and herbs to chicken nuggets.
~If you like your chicken nuggets crunchy, spray them with cooking spray right before putting them in the oven...that will give them a nice crisp texture.
~Replace paprika with your favorite seasoning.


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Why use fresh Parmesan Cheese?

Two reasons...it tastes better and it will save you money in the long run. Yeah, it does take a little more time to grate the cheese than just shake it out of a can, but you can grate it ahead of time and just keep it in a air-tight container in the fridge. So go ahead and buy it fresh!