Low Sodium Life: Chicken Nugget Recipe and Applesauce Update

I rarely get to toot my own horn when it comes to dinners, but tonight's went particularly well for non-favorite foods (e.g., tortellini or pizza) so I wanted to share.  I made homemade chicken nuggets based on a recipe out of my 500 Low Sodium Recipes cookbook, hash browns, homemade applesauce, and carrot sticks.  The kids initially freaked out at the nuggets; they had just had some at Wendy's a couple days ago and these most certainly did not look like Wendy's nuggets.  But Bryson explained that these were dinner chicken nuggets, and they were satisfied enough with that explanation to proceed happily.  The hash browns, however, were totally new to them and at first they flat-out refused to eat them.  Once they tried them, though, they asked for seconds and thirds.  Music to a mother's ears, I tell you.

So here is the chicken nugget recipe!  As I mentioned previously, I got it from Dick Logue's 500 Low Sodium Recipes cookbook (an awesome one if you're in need of some low sodium recipes) and it was a total hit.

Chicken Nuggets

1 pound boneless chicken breast
1/2 cup cornflakes, crushed   (I did not have these and used Panko breadcrumbs instead, making it even lower in sodium)
2 tablespoons nonfat dry milk
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1 egg, beaten

Cut chicken into nugget-size pieces.  Mix together cornflakes (breadcrumbs), dry milk, and spices in a resealable plastic bag.  Dip chicken pieces in egg, then place in bag.*  Shake to coat evenly.  Place on baking sheet sprayed with nonstick vegetable oil spray.  Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until chicken is done and coating is crispy, about 20 minutes.

* After you dip the chicken, make sure you let most of the excess egg drip off before you put it into the bag otherwise the dry ingredients tend to clump together and won't coat things well.

Previously I wrote about how I make homemade applesauce ... cut apples, cook apples, puree with immersion blender, enjoy.  Last year for Christmas, though, Bryson's grandma got a food mill for me; she heard I liked to make my own applesauce on occasion and decided to get one for me.  I'll admit, I was really skeptical at first; her applesauce was fantastic and she uses one of these, but she also leaves the peel on and I didn't know how things would go if I didn't do the same.  Then we had a few terrible frosts this spring that killed off most of the local apples, making apples a lot more expensive than usual around here.  I finally gathered up enough "second" apples from the bags I was buying and made a batch using the food mill.  It basically went the same as before, except instead of pureeing with the immersion blender in the pot, I scooped the hot, mushy apples into the food mill and cranked away.  Surprisingly, it was easier and more fool-proof than the immersion blender.

As for the hash browns, I used the directions on the side of the OreIda bag:  1/2 a bag of frozen hash browns, 4 tablespoons vegetable oil, heat in skillet until browned, flip, brown, enjoy.  Next time I think I'm going to try to add onions for a little more flavor.  Oh, and an interesting fact ... the name "OreIda" comes from the fact that they get their potatoes from Oregon and Idaho.  Pretty cool, huh?

Anyhow, I hope you enjoy these foods as much as we did!