Almond Chicken Nuggets

I was positive I had posted this recipe already, but when I went through the blog to find it for myself I couldn't find it! This is a favorite of mine and my husbands. It requires a more work than the store-bought frozen nuggets but they taste SOOOO much better.

Almond Crusted Chicken Nuggets

Ingredients:
- chicken, sliced into 1 inch cubes
- almonds
- 1 tablespoon ginger
- 1 teaspoon garlic
- olive oil
- salt and pepper

Optional items:
-Spinach
-Balsamic Vinegar
-Plum sauce

1) For the chicken, I prefer using chicken tenders (I find it easier to cut up), but you can certainly use chicken breast. After dicing, place into a plastic bag. Shake it up with olive oil (1/2 teaspoon should do), ginger, garlic, salt and pepper.

2) For the almonds, I buy them whole and grind them up in my coffee bean grinder. You could also smash them yourself with the back of a pan, buy them pre-ground or use walnuts that you smash up. I try to get an even and fine consistency so it can equally cover all the chicken. Throw your smashed up nuts into the plastic bag and shake it!

3) Bring a saucepan to medium to medium high heat, filled with 1/8 inch of oil. We want to almost pan fry the chicken, but we don't want to really fry it. Throw the chicken in the pot (don't do as much as I did though) until the pieces are cooked through.

4) I had lots of nuts get to the bottom of the pan this time, so I tossed on some spinach to serve as a side and pick up the goodies on the bottom of the pan. I hit the spinach with a drizzle of olive oil in the pot and 3 shakes of balsamic vinegar when out of the pot.

5) Serve with a side of plum sauce and enjoy!

I'm back! and with tuna cakes!

Maybe it's the new job or a fancy new toy or knowing that AWA is around the corner, either way I'm back and motivated to get going again!

Today I'm showcasing my "Tuna Cakes". Think a poor man's crab cake or the 4-hour body friendly crab cake. I would suggest combing with some green beans and either a small salad or Cole slaw


TUNA CAKES

Ingredients
~canned tuna (I used two cans for six cakes)
~mustard
~mayonnaise (skip if doing a strict four hour body diet)
~green onion
~seasoning to taste (I use salt, pepper, garlic and light lemon juice)
~walnuts


The directions are simple: make tuna as you normally do to your liking, just make sure to prepare it on the dry side so the tuna can be shaped into balls.

Once formed, crush whole walnuts by placing in a zip lock bag and smashing with a frying pan. You can then gently toss each tuna cake in the walnuts so it is barely covered. And bam!

Makin' (candy) sushi

For valentine's day, my husband and I like to do small, almost gag, fun gifts.This year,  he got me this make your own candy sushi kit! It's not bento or 4 hour diet friendly- it's just fun and I had to share our results.

Where do you find something like this? He saw it in a YouTube video and then found a website, White Rabbit Press, that will find any product in Japan for you from just a picture or video.  If you want to see the full process, then check out this YouTube video. Below is our adventures with it!

We start with the kit and its pieces....

Then we start to mix stuff up!

And we're still mixing

The fun part was making these little balls.

We also had to make and form all the rice!

And volia! Sushi candy!

It tasted yummy (like red and yellow if those were flavors). 

I'm already looking forward to getting another kit!

Two lunch double punch

While cleaning up some files, I cam across some lunches I never posted from the pre-4hour days. The nice thing about these lunches is that they can *easily* become 4-hour body diet friendly by changing the side items.

Lunch 1 - Turkey Kielbasa Salad

 The salad on your right is slices of Turkey Kielbasa with spinach and cheese. I would suggest adding in some green peppers if you have them. On your left is a tasty blend of grapes, walnuts and raspberries in greek yogurt. If you wanted to make this 4hour body friendly, remove the cheese from the salad and substitute with some diced pepper (red would look hot but green is more my speed) and maybe add some broccoli. For the snack, remove the fruit, add some beans but keep the walnuts in limited number.

Want to make it cute? Use a cookie cutter for the turkey to make it flowers, cars or stars.

 Lunch 2 - Beef Salad

 Clearly I was on a salad kick. Once again, the salad with its beef, spinach and almonds is still 4hour body friendly, though I would suggest adding something in to make it more interesting. The snack isn't too bad either. The picture shows grapes, celery and (my fav) non-fat greek yogurt. The only thing I would remove is the grapes!

Link day!

I want to get back into the bento mix (and I have a few lunches to share down the road!) but before I make my sad little attempts, I wanted to share the sites that inspire me with you. Let your eyes enjoy these cute sites!

Bento Anarchy - http://bentoanarchy.blogspot.com/
The original inspiration. The person who runs this blog hosts a panel every year at AWA. I attended her panel the past two years and it's great every time! Not to mention, these are the cutest and most beautiful lunches you will ever see. I bet everyone kid in her daughter's class is jealous.

Just Bento - http://justbento.com/
These bentos are more adult than Bento Anarchy, but equally beautiful. I also want to get my hands on their book.

Bento Box! - http://www.airandangels.com/bentobox/
Don't know anything about bentos? Start here. It tells you everything you need to know. (And I totally remember that episode of Sailor Moon the images on that website come from.)

All Things for Sale - http://www.allthingsforsale.com/
This is where I like to shop for supplies as they are both cute and affordable.

Work Lunch Boxes - http://www.laptoplunches.com/
And other sites like this...they sell easy bento boxes because it's already divided. Separate compartments also make it easy to clean in your dishware- a top priority for me. 

Mediterranean Platter

Food items: Salami Sandwich using Pita bread & humus, olives, pickles, pita slices, humus,
Tools: fish and car cheese cutter, multiple silicone cups
Time spent: way too much time, but totally delicious
Notes:  This took longer to make because I wanted to cut out cars in salami and fish in cheese (I like to play with my food!). Saw a Mediterranean plate lunch in Women's Health and wanted to make a bento version of it. I think I should have made one more salami sandwich because I devoured my snack - greek yogurt- shortly after lunch.

The Reverse Taco

This meal came out of me wanting some tacos but making it happen without carbs. I felt that using lettuce again was a cop-out, so I came up with this! Why call it reverse tacos? The name came into my head while I was shopping. You could stretch things and say it's reverse because the meat is bread instead of inside of it

Reverse Tacos serves 2 Ingredients: Turkey Kielbasa (I used half of one Kielbasa, sliced into 4 pieces) Salsa 1 Avocado, sliced Cheese (cheat item! I used Port Salut because it was leftover from another meal we made) Beans on the side (the chef suggests pinto but somebody in the house already ate them all)

Okay, it's real simple. I split open the turkey with three slices so I could fit as much in there as possible.

Then I placed the cheese in one opening, avocado in the other and salsa in the middle. Top with a drop of non-fat greek yogurt for looks if you don't mind a second cheat. Done!

I served this with a side of northern beans I seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic. I had plenty of left over avocado so I sliced up what was left and served that too! You don't need very much of the filler items because of the meat.