Baked Chicken Tenders

YUUUUUMMMM.

Peeps, these are so easy and worth the few (quick!) minutes of prep to get them done.  You probably already have most of the ingredients in your fridge and pantry.  Not to mention they are healthy, fun to eat, and great for kids.

They take a few minutes longer than popping frozen nuggets in the oven, but they are SUPER easy, and you can feel good knowing what's in them!  I promise they'll take you just about 10 minutes of prep time!

First, you get some stress relief by pounding out two chicken breasts, then slicing them up.

Dredging in the batter is as easy as 1-2-3!  Here, I'm starting with my seasoned whole wheat flour mixture.

 Egg/milk mixture is next.

And then, the panko flakes.

Finished product!

My recipe is below, but you really don't even need a recipe; you can just get the gist of what ingredients you'll need, then have at it!

Baked Chicken Tenders
*makes approx. 1 dozen chicken tenders; serves 2 adults for dinner or several kids

2 chicken breasts, trimmed of skin/fat
approx. 3/4 c all purpose or whole wheat flour
2 eggs
splash or two of milk (buttermilk would work great too)
approx. 3/4 c panko bread flakes
salt & pepper
cayenne pepper, optional (you could even do finely chopped rosemary leaves instead)

Preheat oven to 350.

Set up your dredging station.  Get out three medium to large dishes or soup bowls and lay them side by side.  Put the flour in the first one, adding approximately 1 t of salt and 1/2 t pepper.  If using cayenne pepper, add now.  Shake the dish or stir so the ingredients combine.  Put the two eggs and a splash or two of milk in the second one; gently beat together.  In the last one, pour in the panko flakes.  Add a dash of salt and pepper (and cayenne or rosemary) if desired.  Set dishes aside. 

Spray non-stick cooking spray on a large baking sheet lined with aluminum foil; set aside.

Get out two large pieces of wax paper and lay one on your cutting board.  Put your two chicken breasts  down, a few inches apart, on the wax paper.  Cover the chicken with the other sheet of wax paper.  Using a kitchen mallet (or small cast iron pan), beat the chicken breasts several times each until they have a relatively even flatness, about half an inch thick.

Remove top sheet of wax paper and slice the chicken breast into approximately 1 x 4 inch pieces, or whatever size you desire.  Once all your chicken pieces are lined up, you're ready to dredge.  Using one hand only (you'll want to keep the other one clean), dip the first chicken piece into the flour, being sure to cover all sides completely, and shaking off any excess batter.  Then dip in the egg/milk mixture, and then in the panko.  Place battered chicken tender on the baking sheet.  Repeat with all chicken pieces.

Bake at 350 for approximately 20-25 minutes, until tenders are golden brown and cooked through.  When you remove them from the oven, sprinkle a little sea salt on top of the hot tenders.  Serve with fun dipping sauces such as BBQ, honey mustard, aioli, etc.

For a quick weeknight dinner, we paired ours with steamed artichokes.  It was a dipping sauce kind of night.

I really hope you give these a try!  Let me know if you do :)  Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

While sorting through my China photos and otherwise catching up with my regular goings-on, I decided to take a break and make some banana bread.

My mom gave me this recipe for healthier banana bread years ago, and it has been foolproof and delicious ever since.

I made two loaves; one a tad bit healthier with no chocolate chips and a higher ratio of whole wheat flour to all purpose flour, and one regular (still healthy!) with about a cup+ of chocolate chips. 

I like to jazz up the regular recipe with fresh blueberries or semi-sweet chocolate chips when I'm in the mood for an extra treat.

I brought the chocolate chip loaf into work (after chipping away at the plain loaf at home), and it disappeared fast.  Yum!

Healthier Banana Bread
2/3 c white sugar
1/4 c butter, at room temperature (you can substitute in 1/3 c applesauce and just use 1/4 c butter if you really want to get crazy)
2 eggs, at room temperature, lightly beaten
1 c mashed, overripe bananas (about 3 large bananas)
1/4 c water
1 2/3 c all purpose flour (I use 1 c whole wheat and 2/3 c AP, but it's up to you!)
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1/4 t baking powder
splash vanilla extract
2 T flaxseed

optional:
1 c (heaping) of chocolate chips, fresh blueberries, chopped walnuts, or whatever your heart desires!

Preheat over to 350.  Spray a 9x5 loaf pan with non-stick baking spray.  In a medium bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until it's a thick, grainy paste.  Add in the beaten eggs, water, mashed banana, and vanilla extract.  In a separate bowl, sift or mix together all dry ingredients.  Gradually add dry ingredients into wet ingredients.  Mix until just combined.  If using chocolate chips, berries, or nuts, add now and mix gently to incorporate only.  Pour batter into loaf pan and bake for 60 minutes, or a testing stick or knife comes out clean.

This banana bread keeps great in the fridge for at least a week when wrapped tightly in foil.

Hope you're having a great weekend.  Easy recipe for homemade chicken tenders coming soon!

Food in China: Beijing Edition

We had so many memorable meals in China and HK.  Mostly nostalgic dishes I wanted to have again, along with a few new things neither of us had tried.

After a late evening arrival into Beijing, we headed to this delicious and dependable Taiwanese dumpling chain around the corner from where we were staying.

Yes, please.

Keep them coming.

How about a refreshing, cool cucumber side dish, to go with our dumplings?

The one below has all kinds of mushrooms inside.

Because we wanted to get a little something more after trying a few different kinds, we tried these little beggar's purses which were actually filled with savory sticky rice!  Can we say "heaven"???  I had actually never tried them before!

How beautifully crafted are these babies??  So beautifully I had to eat them.

Sigh.

I have good news for you!  Din Tai Fung has branches in the USA and in other global locations!!!!  Check 'em out here!

Another noteworthy meal we had in Beijing was Sichuanese.  Super hot and spicy -- it's called "numb spicy" in Chinese.

That's a gigantic pan of spicy hot oil and broth with a whole fish and BUNCH of other things in there, like vegetables, peanuts, tofu, etc.  Woah.  Our wonderful Beijing hosts took us to that place.

Kung pao shrimp (Sichuanese version) and fried Chinese green beans.  MMM.

Next up, hot and spicy soupy noodles we had at a cheap place outside Peking University's campus.  Not our best meal, but tasty nonetheless.  Remember the "numb spicy" idea?  See below!

The brown sauce is a sesame-based sauce.

After a really long walk one afternoon, we managed to find a Muslim/Uighur place, called Red Rose, recommended to us by friends.  Approximately 9 million Uighurs live in China, mostly in the far western province of Xinjiang.  However, all big cities have small populations as well, which means there are Uighur restaurants around!

This was mostly J's show, as he was on a serious quest to try lamb skewers ("chuar"), a very basic specialty.  He went slightly bonkers.  If one can go slightly bonkers.

Which he did, and enjoyed every minute of it!

I was definitely into this wide, knife-cut noodle dish, which was spicy, salty, chewy, and a little bit lamb-y.

Last, but not least, we can't forget about Peking Duck (Beijing kaoya).  I am not a fan, but of course J wanted to try it.

I don't have any dramatic photos; we ordered just half a duck.

Here it is below, all sliced up next to the fix'ins - special plum sauce, sliced cucumber, sliced scallions, pancakes, etc.  

Yikes!

J was a happy camper.  

I have a few more random treats from Beijing that I will save for another post.  

Hope you are enjoying this early fall weather!  Enjoy!!

"Wash Hands Usually"

Can we talk about the signs for a minute?

China is a bustling, crowded place full of contradictions, absurdities, and staggering statistics.  There is so much to see and do.  Sometimes, things get lost (i.e., completely butchered) in translation.

I had to show you some of my faves.

Taken at an antique and furniture market in Beijing.

Heh?  Taken on the walk up toward the Great Wall at Mutianyu.

Taken outside a random restaurant at the Summer Palace in Beijing.  Don't think so.

WE NEED TO PROTECT THE RAILINGS!  Taken at the park at the back of the Forbidden City.

Jeez.  How many times do we have to tell you?  Taken outside our hotel in Shanghai.

In case you need to be somewhere in, oh, say, 3-17 minutes...  Taken at the Dongtai Lu Antique Market in Shanghai.

Last, but not least, J took this one....above a urinal at the Great Wall at Mutianyu.  No further comments...


Whereas some signs you see are just cool.

Old propaganda in an urban art gallery.

Map of where we hiked the Great Wall.

Random menu in Hong Kong.

Part of an entire wall-sized inscription/dedication in the foreign affairs building at Peking University, right across from my old dorm!

Ok...that's it for now...jet lag is taking a toll.  Food pics coming soon!  Promise!

I'm Back!

Hi, guys!  You might be wondering where I've been over the past few weeks.  (Hint above.)

Yep!  I just returned from a trip to China (Beijing and Shanghai) and Hong Kong.  And boy do I have a lot of fun things to share with you.

For now, though, since I'm jet-lagged and full of Mexican food, I thought I'd just leave you with a few photos and ideas on what's to come.

I'm thinking that you'll be seeing some of the following posts soon:

• Beijing/Shanghai: Street Food Edition!
• "Only in China": Ridiculous signage (and random things) seen out and about
• Scenes of the Big Cities
• Shoutout to My Old School Days (Summer of '98 in Beijing; '01-'04 in Shanghai)
• Hong Kong Markets (flowers, jade, produce/seafood/meat!)
• And of course more food pics and stories!  We had SO many good meals during our nearly two-week trip, it's going to take many posts to capture even the best of them!  

Isn't Peking University's (Bei Da) campus beautiful?

We were lucky to visit there on a blue sky day....more on that later!

There's also plenty of hilarity to go around.  I had to capture this dude posing for his photo shoot along the Bund facing Pudong in Shanghai.  You had to be there!

He kept bossing his wife-lady around to get a better shot.  There were more poses (e.g., arms spread wide on the railing), but I wasn't sly enough.

Hope you've had a great past few weeks!  More soon!

Chicken Sausage Cioppino

I have been feeling out of sorts lately.  Lots of eating out and little cooking.  So today I decided to load up on some fruits and veggies at the store and made a pot of hearty and comforting Chicken Sausage Cioppino.

I adapted the recipe from Giada's in Weeknights with Giada.  We've made her recipe for Shrimp & Sausage Cioppino before, and it was delish (if a tad salty).  

This time I threw in some white Swiss Chard, used garbanzo beans, and omitted the shrimp. Oh!  And I used beer (Stella) instead of wine.  Hehe.

This dish has so many veggies in it and just the right amount of heartiness from the chicken sausage and the beans.  I used spicy Italian chicken sausage.

The finished product -- soup, stew, chili, cioppino, whatever you want to call it! -- is so satisfying, you almost don't realize there are no carbs in it.  HELLO!!!??  Yep, I just said it.  Again.

Here is my little personal-sized snack version...as I wait until dinner time.

Ho hum.

Vivienne says, "Ta-ta for now!"