Chicken Nuggets

This is a recipe from the book Once A Month Cooking by Mimi Wilson and Mary Beth Lagerborg.  I currently owe about $3.00 in library fines for this book.  I maybe should consider just buying it for myself. 

I have about four bags of these in my freezer.  I love the way they taste.  The original recipe uses dried, Italian-style breadcrumbs.  I used Panko breadcrumbs and added some Italian seasoning.  Makes 'em crunchy!  These aren't quite as "ready to go" as the nuggets in a bag, but they are healthier.

makes 4 to 6 servings

2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3 Tablespoons butter, melted
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs
1-2 teaspoons Italian seasoning (I prefer Penzey's)
1/3 cup grated Parmesan (I just use the stuff from the green can)

Cut the chicken into 1-inch chunks.  Combine chicken, melted butter, and Worcestershire in a 1-quart freezer bag to make a marinade.  Combine the bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese in a second freezer bag.  Tape the bags together; label and freeze.

TO PREPARE:

Thaw and remove the chicken chunks from the marinade.  Put them in the bread crumb bag (a few at a time) and shake to coat. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.  Arrange chicken on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Bake for 7 to 9 minutes or until no longer pink in the middle.

Bulk Cooking

So, I kind of started a new group at church.

Accidentally.

See, my friend Rachel and I would get together every six weeks or so and cook together.  We'd figure out what we wanted to cook, plan a grocery list, go shopping, and then meet at her house to cook.  We'd leave with enough food in our freezer to make our weekly meal planning much easier.  We started planning a new cooking session when our freezers were close to empty.

Over the months as we did it, we had several friends say they would like to be a part of our cooking sessions.  It never worked out for anyone to join us, so I didn't think too many people were really interested.  Plus, Rachel and I weren't too sure about adding a lot of people to the kitchen.  It could end up crowded, messy, and just really ugly :)

Then I found a website by a supper swap group in Minnesota.  And the way it was set up sounded pretty genius to me.  So I started a Facebook group for those friends that had expressed interest to meet and see about setting up a similar group.

And this Thursday, we'll meet to discuss the group and splitting up the TWENTY-TWO people that signed up to join into smaller groups!

I'm in way over my head.

And some of the other ladies feel that way.  So, I'll post a few of the recipes I've found that are for this type of cooking (label: OAMC) to provide a bit of a starting point.  And the supper swap website linked above contains all of their recipes.

Some of the recipes already posted on this blog freeze well.  The ones listed below are the ones I've tried myself and know for certain they do well as freezer meals.

Skinner Lasagna
Chicken and Macaroni Casserole