Wordless Wednesday

Blogstyle Iron Chef - Crispy Chicken or Rice Krispie Chicken

Ok, I told Heidi that I was going to do the Iron Chef thing this month so I had better get to it before it's too late. I am not really much of a cooker and I rarely make things from "scratch" but here goes. We have a favorite dish that I do not make too often because I find in a bit time consuming (and not from scratch things get thrown together so quickly). It is actually pretty yummy and I am not even sure if I made the recipe up myself or got it from somewhere because I've been making it for so many years. I think I was attempting to make something similar to Shake n Bake. They are basically homemade chicken nuggets but the amazing thing is my husband loves them and he won't eat any other nuggets.

I am unfortunately not much of a measurer in this recipe so you will have to try things out for yourself and adjust to your tastes. It really depends on how much chicken you are starting out with and we vary every time depending on the size of the package I happen to pick up. Anyhow, I will do my best but please use your best judgement if anyone is trying this.

We call this Crispy Chicken or Rice Krispie Chicken

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut up in to roughly finger sized pieces or whatever shape you would like.
Any brand of crispy rice cereal(I always use generic and we still call it Rice Krispie, oops)
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Pepper
Butter

Preheat oven to 350.
Put the amount of cereal you think is enough for the chicken you have cut up into your blender, I suppose a food processor would work as well but I have never used one so I'm not sure. I always try to make extra because I sprinkle the leftovers over the chicken at the end.

Once it's a fine powder, add the spices, feel free to add more or less to your tastes, we are pretty bland here so it's probably only about 1-2 tsp each. If you have other spices you like feel free to throw some of those in too!

Melt the butter in a container that you can dip the chicken into.

Dip each piece of chicken into the butter then into the cereal mixture.

I usually use a glass baking dish because they stick so badly to our cookie sheets (and worse to aluminum foil) and all the crispy coating comes off (and that's my favorite part)....I actually use several because to make enough for all of us it takes a lot.

I bake them for about 20 minutes or so depending on the size of the chicken bits. Larger ones make take a bit longer.

That's it. I really should make it more often because it's something everyone likes but it's so much easier to just grab a bag of Tyson nuggets and be done with it. Good Luck Everyone!

It's Not Me! Monday Time!

Well it's time again to bear our souls to everyone and say what we have not been doing this week. If you want to join in the fun, you can head over to MckMama's blog and have at it.

I was not driving home Friday night trying to figure out what movie was playing on the vehicle in front of me. It did not take me less than a minute to figure out that it was The Lion King. I did not proceed to watch the movie until they pulled away from me. That would be unsafe driving and I am always a safe driver.

I did not crash my desktop computer last night simply by hitting the back button when the website I was trying to pull up gave me an error message. I am not very sad about this since my laptop is not compatible with Pogo games.

I have not started keeping a small notebook in the van so when Not Me's happen, I can write them down immediately. I would never try to write while I am driving.

I did not take my 4 year old to the grocery store in her pajamas on Wednesday after preschool because it was pajama day. I was not a bit embarrassed to have a 4 year old out of the house in her pj's when it was after noon. I am not that worried about what other people might think.

I was not super excited Saturday to figure out that my girls made it into the 500 club with their Girl Scout cookie sales. I am not extremely grateful to one of the cookie moms for pointing out to me that I should check how many they had each sold since Jaquelyn was already over 250 boxes. I am not still amazed that she sold that many. We are not now a big hassle to all three troops cookie moms since they need to figure out how to do the paperwork properly to combine all my kids boxes somehow. Sorry cookie moms!

I was not incredibly irritated with my 14 year old when she suddenly remembered Saturday morning at 930am that her color guard practice was cancelled. That would not have completely changed everything since we had planned a whole sleepover Friday night based on the fact she had to be home before 11am. I am not anxiously waiting for color guard to be finished in a month.

I am not such a cheapskate that I refuse to take Rebecca out to get her haircut. I did not just stick her on a stool on the back deck and chop it off. It is not a little crooked still. I am not trying to decide if I should keep hacking away to even it out. Not Me!

When the temps reached 70 this weekend, it was not me who grabbed some tan in a bottle so I could bear wearing some capri's without blinding everyone under the sun with my fish belly colored legs. I am not that self conscious about being hideously, naturally white legged (with a smattering of freckles).

Random Picture Challenge

Ok I don't take part in too many of these but this one seemed fun and easy and I needed something to post about so I said "What the Hey". Now I am curious if it should be the first folder that pops up when I open my pictures from the main menu or from the blogger upload menu, because they are completely different. I am going to go with the one from my main menu because in the blogger window, I think I would have to go through about 4 folders to find one without the kids in it somewhere.

Here is a totally random picture taken in Wildwood, NJ last summer. I was there for the day with my friend Pam and her family. They always go for a week and usually take one of both of my older girls with them. We were riding a big speed boat called the "Silver Bullet". This was supposed to be a picture of the Wildwood shoreline but it's so far away it doesn't really look like anything. I was bummed because a few pictures farther are some of the dolphins we saw and they are kinda cool. But I stuck to the rules and posted this one. I only had to go 30 pictures into the folder to finally find one that the kiddos weren't in.

Thirft Shop Buys

I would assume most of my regular readers are well aware that I love a bargain. There are great bargains to be had at the grocery stores out there but I really feel that's nothing compared to the deals at thrift shops. I cannot possibly see spending large amounts of money on clothes for my children. All they are going to do is grow out of them, put holes in them, decide they are out of fashion and generally just not where half of the things I buy them.
We took a trip across the bridge Friday night and hit my favorite shop called Value Village. It is so awesome because it is roughly the size of a grocery store and it's about 80% clothing. You can spend 45 minutes just going through their jeans if you look at all of them. I have been visiting this place for probably 6 years or so and even though they have raised their prices a bit, they are still a great bargain. I picked up 8 pairs of pants(not all for me), one pair of overall shorts, a shirt and a pair of water shoes for a little over $40. I am sure that if I had chosen to buy these same items new it would have been almost that for one of the pairs of pants. I have trained my kids well and they truly appreciate that if they want to wear expensive designer clothes, the only way they are getting them is used. I guess I'm lucky that they are still so good about it as I am sure some teenagers would die before wearing used clothes. They also enjoy hitting garage sales in the summer time which is the other way they get their name brands (best deal ever was the Hollister pants for $1.00).
I sooooo love a good deal!

Lent

It is the Lenten season here in our Catholic household. For those of you unfamiliar with the practice, it is common to give something up that means a lot to you. We usually try to encourage the girls to give up one thing they truly enjoy and one behavior trait we would like to see them break. It doesn't have to be anything too difficult, soda, chocolate, ice cream, fighting with your sister, talking back, yelling, that type of thing. It can't be anything that will make meal time very difficult, vegetables, milk, hamburger, etc.
This year we decided to try something new. We have all given up watching TV Monday through Thursday. (We thought about everyday but our DVR really can't handle 6 weeks worth of our shows) So far it hasn't been too difficult except for the snow days. Then it was a bit tough but we made it through just fine. I am actually enjoying the silence of no TV but I don't think the girls are sharing my sentiments.
For me it's harder to pass on watching movies since I frequently watch them after the kids have gone to bed and we have Blockbuster online which sends us movies all the time. I guess this month they will be making money on us. I am anxiously awaiting tomorrow evening when 3 of our kids will be at sleepovers and I can finally watch The Changling which I have been dying to see. It's much harder to find a time when I can watch movies that I don't want them seeing when I only have the weekends to work with.
I guess we will see how things are going in a few weeks.

Last Ballet

Rebecca and Jaquelyn had their last ballet last week and the parents were allowed to sit in the room and watch.
As far as Rebecca's class goes, I can definitely understand why the parents are not normally allowed in the room. Not a single child was able to concentrate on the instructor and do what they were told without turning to their parent and waving, smiling or just make sure the parent was paying attention. The teacher was very patient with them though and everyone enjoyed themselves.
Jaquelyn's class was an older group and they did a much better job paying attention. Poor Jaquelyn was not feeling well this day and wanted nothing more than to go back to sleep. (which is what she was doing during Rebecca's class)
Even though the classes are free at the Y if you are a member, I think this will be the last one we sign up for. They are at an inconvenient time and seem to throw our whole afternoon off. Plus Jaquelyn was so bored and really didn't like the class since the other kids were way younger than she was.

Wordless Wednesday - Don't Worry, Those Bangs Will Grow Out Soon

Not Me! Monday Here We Go Again

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.


When Rebecca spilled water down the front of her shirt I did not just grab a blowdryer and dry her shirt instead of getting her a new one. I am not that lazy.

I did not come home from working out at the Y this week and proceed to eat 1/2 box of girl scout cookies. I have much more willpower than that and I always eat healthy snacks after working out.

I did not stay up until 12:30am one night doing our taxes. I am not completely amazed at how we can get more in our refund than we paid in taxes. The system is not totally screwy.

Becca was not snoring so loudy this week during her nap that she woke me up and I couldn't get back to sleep. If that did happen, I wouldn't have gotten the camera out and taped her and then blogged about it.

I did not stay up all night on Friday at a Girlscout Lock-In at the YMCA. I was not totally exhausted when I got home Saturday morning. If that had happened I certain would not have stopped and blogged about said lock-in before I went to bed.

Pictures Galore

Here is the last pictures of the event. Teresa was exhausted and didn't even want to get her picture taken. Luckily her friend Kimmie helped me convince her it was a good idea.












Jaquelyn was exhausted and fell asleep anywhere I left her alone including on the floor by the door while we were waiting for everyone to be picked up.