Homemade Chicken Nuggets - YES you can!

My friend Sally at work and so many other friends have said to me, 'how do you get your kids to eat all of this stuff. My kids will only eat pizza and chicken nuggets.' I realize that kids don't become adventurous eaters over night. This is a great 'bridge' recipe. It's easy and familiar and I promise you can feel better about serving this than something processed from the freezer. What's even better, is that you can actually make the nuggets all the way through baking and then freeze them to make instantly on another night. All you need to do is follow the recipe through the breadcrumbs and then freeze. When you bake the nuggets, you can bake them from frozen - just add about 5-10 minutes. Once you get your kids started on these nuggets, the possibilities are endless for many more homemade meals.

Tonight, I served these with roasted cauliflower with Parmesan cheese. Jacob loved it; Lucas didn't (gotta be honest!). You could do roasted broccoli as well (which both the boys love). All you need to do is cut the vegetables in to florets, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, and roast for 25 minutes along side the chicken on another sprayed baking sheet.

Chicken Nuggets (YES you can - in honor of Barak Obama tonight!!)

Timing - 40 minutes (plus time to marinate - one hour or over night)

Ingredients
1.5 lbs chicken tenders (you can also buy boneless skinless breasts and cut them in nugget pieces)
1 quart buttermilk
1.5 cups store bought or homemade seasoned breadcrumbs
3/4 cup Parmesan cheese
cooking spray

How to Make
Place chicken tenders in a bowl and cover with buttermilk. Marinate in the refrigerator at least one hour or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.

Mix the breadcrumbs and cheese in a bowl. Shake off each chicken nugget to remove excess buttermilk and then dredge in the breadcrumb mixture to coat. Place the nuggets on the baking sheet making sure to leave a little space between them. Spray the tops of the nuggets with cooking spray and bake for 15 to 20 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. If cooking from frozen, add 5 to ten minutes.

Serves 6