The Meat Muffin

Now that we are working on eliminating grains from our diets, I have become a big fan of meatballs.  I use them to 'hide' veggies.  It is not that the veggies are hidden per se, but more that the kids get bored with trying to pick them out and just eat.  Oh, and there is sauce to dip it in. 

Today I tried something a little different.  I used ground chicken and made some reminiscent of chicken parmigiano.  Here's what you need

1 lb ground chicken
1 egg
3 T almond flour or 1 T coconut flour
Italian seasonings to taste
1/2 t salt

Red Sauce (marinara, spaghetti, whatever)

Parm cheese

Mix the first set of ingredients together.  Mush into 12 greased muffin cups.  Top each with sauce then cheese.  Bake at 350 for about 20 min.

What I will do next time to change this.  Add a little cheese, shredded carrots and spinach into the meat.  And triple the recipe.  This fed me and 3 young kids.  It would not have worked it my hubby was home.  It almost didn't feed all of us as it was.

Other ideas I have.  Take the basic ground chicken recipe and instead line the muffin cups with ham, put chicken in middle and top with mozzarella or provolone cheese.

Prepackaged Foods

Its not all bad.  So the other day someone had asked me why I never have prepackaged snacks for my kids.  Now, Never is a strong word...I would use rarely.  Like when I give my 5 yr old a few bunny grahams and some carrot sticks.  After all, bunnies eat the carrots and we eat bunnies.  (Don't judge...it works for him so I am totally down with that logic when 5 bunnies can get him to eat 10 baby carrots).

I started thinking about it and we do eat a lot of prepackaged foods and I am ok with it.  We usually take bananas, apples, oranges, snow peas, baby carrots with us.  None require me to do much with them.  All fruits and veggies are prepackaged.  Call it mother nature or god, evolution or creation...doesn't really matter.  But this is the way food should be.  Fresh and ready to eat. 

So, when the school asks for prepackaged foods for snacks...offer bananas or apples or peaches or baby oranges (mandarins).  If you want something a little more mainstream...applesauce, beef stix, fruit cups packed in juice.  The thing to remember for prepackaged is to think outside the box.

Been a While

I know, but I am making a lot of changes in our eating habits to include cutting grains left and right. Rob is less than thrilled, but the boys are doing fine for the most part.

Tonight I made a ton of chicken tenders for the week to send in lunches instead of sandwiches.

I stole from this recipe at Health-Bent but I have vilified the nugget so much to my children in the past, they would touch one with the consistency that ground chicken would give it. So here is what I did.

1 package of chicken breasts, sliced, or tenders (mine was 3 lbs)

Bowl 1:
1/2 C almond flour
Salt & Pepper to taste
1 t onion powder
1/2 t garlic powder
Pinch of cayenne

Bowl 2:
1 egg + 2 T water beaten

Bowl 3:
Dessicated Coconut or just whirl up coconut flakes in the processor

Process:
Dip chicken in Bowl 1, shake off excess, dip in bowl 2, dip in bowl 3 then fry in a pan. I just browned each side then finished them in the oven at 350 for about 10 min.

Yummy!!!!