3 Moms, 3 Kitchens, 31 Days ~ Day 5

Today was a little different for me because I had to be out of the kitchen for a few hours so that Eric could paint. (We are in the process of painting our whole house in preparation for selling.) I did manage to get some freezer cooking in during the morning, so the day didn't turn out to be a total waste.

The first thing I did this morning was make pancakes for breakfast. I made a triple batch so that I'd be able to freeze some for later. I was able to pack up 3 breakfasts worth of pancakes after what we ate this morning. I love to have breakfast in the freezer because it frees me up to be lazy in the morning, or if we sleep in, to have breakfast on the table on time and keep us on schedule.

After breakfast I made chicken fingers for our dinner, and some extra to freeze. I used only three chicken breasts which I pounded very thin. This is a great trick to stretch chicken breasts, especially when doing chicken fingers. The recipe I use is very similar to Toni's recipe. (And Joy has made it too. They both have wonderful tutorials posted on this recipe.) I ran out of bread crumbs and my food processor isn't working to make my own, so I improvised and crushed some crackers to use in my breading. This actually turned out to be a really good substitution. Since I like to have my dinners as done as possible before lunch, I don't want to have to cook the chicken right before we eat. What I do is brown the chicken in a little bit of olive oil, then put them in a casserole dish or on a cookie sheet and refrigerate. Then I just put them in the oven 20 minutes before dinner. That way they warm-up and finish cooking at the same time.
For lunch today we had quesadillas. This is one of our favorite lunches, and since it is Cinco de Mayo, I thought it was appropriate. We also had applesauce with lunch. For a snack today, the kids had seasoned oyster crackers. This is a super easy snack. Mix 1/4 c. olive oil with salt, and any other seasonings that sound good to you. We like spicy foods at our house, so I use cumin, cayenne pepper, and salt. Pour over 4 cups of oyster crackers and stir to coat. Spread the crackers on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 8-15 minutes. You could add in other things too, like peanuts or pretzels. We usually just do the crackers though.

For dinner we had the chicken fingers, brown rice pilaf, and mixed veggies. And of course everyone had a little ice cream for dessert.

Tomorrow I will have the kitchen back for the whole day so I have big plans! I have yet to get any baking done this month so I will try to focus on getting some of that done. I also need to prepare some of my fresh vegetable dishes that I can freeze before things start going bad.

My kitchen was not very adventurous today. I am sure Joy and Toni had some adventures to share though, so make sure you check out their blogs also!