Honey Nut Chicken

This post started out as a Bzzagent review for Crunchy Nut cereal because usually when they send me free product and coupons to spread around they request a blog post.  Not this time for some weird reason.  Which sucks because I had already taken the photos and planned out this post.  Oh well, why waste a good post right?  And I did like the cereal and I did fins a way to legitimately eat this cereal for dinner (not that cereal is ever wrong for dinner!).

I took this picture to primarily show off the roses my hubby got me for Valentine's Day.  Aren't they gorgeous?  If I genuinely tried to eat breakfast on my porch I'd get eaten by lizards and then the ants would finish me off and quite possibly my plants would then take over and destroy the planet.  Did I mention that those roses are just gorgeous!

Anyways, I came up with this recipe by going to get a bowl of cereal and getting teed off that someone had just left me crumbs (or practically).  It's like leaving the milk jug in the fridge with just a sip remaining.  Just not right!  There was just enough cereal left to feel guilty about throwing it away but not guilty enough to attempt to eat the sugary mess.  So I got out my rolling pin and pounded it down to make it even more crumby.  I felt less teed off after that. Of course I then realized I didn't quite have enough crumbs to make my chicken so I sent my husband and roommate to the store for some more so that the vicious cycle can repeat itself.

I'm pretty sure most people have scene a variation of this recipe but using corn flakes instead of Crunchy Nut cereal.  I have also made a version using Captain Crunch (with out the berries!).  It's all good.

It's really simple too and involves no frying!   I love friend chicken but hate the frying step.  House smells like grease for days.  All this requires is a little dippage into some flour, then into some egg and finally into the crumbs.  Put into a really hot oven and make sure to spray the pan AND the chicken with some cooking spray before baking.  Sometimes this makes my kitchen a bit smokey and my smoke alarm goes off but my smoke alarm is retarded and goes off even when I make toast in my toaster and when we're asleep at night.   Did I mention I hate our smoke alarm?  Don't worry we have the apartment complex people coming to take a look see since they are the ones who recently re-installed the suckers.

If you like this recipe I really recommend trying it out with some Captain Crunch cereal too.  So good dipped in some honey mustard!

Honey Nut Chicken 

1lb chicken strips or chicken breast cut into small pieces
2 cups crushed Kelloggs Crunchy Nut Golden Honey Nut Crunch Cereal
1 cup all purpose flour
1 egg
1 TBS water
1/2 tsp salt 
1/8 tsp pepper
non stick cooking spray

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Place the crushed cereal in a shallow dish. In a bowl, combine the all purpose flour and the salt and pepper. In a another bowl, whisk egg with 1 tablespoon water

Working with one piece at a time, dip chicken into flour mixture and then into egg mixture. Coat pieces with with crushed cereal, pressing crumbs to help them adhere. Repeat with the remaining chicken.Transfer coated pieces to a rimmed baking sheet coated in nonstick spray.  Arrange them so they don't touch each other if possible. Spray chicken pieces with nonstick spray.

Bake at 425° for 10 minutes.  Flip chicken pieces over and continue baking for 8 minutes.

General Tso's Chicken or Why I Hate Cornstarch

I have avoided making my own Chinese takeout style food for many reasons: too much prep, steps and frying. But mostly the frying part. Than, I saw this recipe on the Brown Eyed Baker.  My mouth began salivating just looking at the pictures.  So I decided to get over my aversion to frying and make it.  Yeah, I was right.  A lot of work but it made a lot of food and it was delicious.  I'll try to kick up the spice next time I make it.  On a spiciness scale from one to ten I give it a 1.  I have a feeling that my red pepper is old so my fault.  I'll buy some dried red chilies from the Asian market before making it again.  I may regret that decision!  Spicy doesn't agree with me.  But it burns so good!

THE Casserole

One of my favorite meals growing up was a chicken and broccoli casserole that my Dad claims to have concocted. I have seen variations of this casserole on numerous recipe sites so I’m not sure if Dad can completely claim that this is an original creation. Coincidentally my Mom also claims to be its inventor and has told me that it is based on some dish a friend in Germany once served them. I don’t really care who came up with it first. All I know is that it’s darn yummy.

Easy Chicken Pot Pie

During the week I really don’t like coming home and having to cook something for dinner.  This recipe is supper-duper easy and I always have the ingredients on hand.

Lemon Pepper Chicken Pasta

I have a ton of lemon pepper seasoning in my cupboard.  I don’t know who bought it or how it got there.  It may be my roommates.  Except I have rarely seen him cook.  I think I can count on one hand the number of times he has whipped up food not from a can or a box.  In fact I sorta-kinda took over our kitchen when I moved in.  I might actually be a bit territorial when it comes to MY kitchen.