Chick•en Nuggets

Chick•en Nuggets

What child doesn't like chicken nuggets!?  There are many gluten-free frozen brands at the grocery store that you can purchase, although many still contain a large amount of sodium and cholesterol.  Tyson is a brand that has just came out with their Gluten-free Chicken Nuggets & Chicken Strips.  They claim they use all “natural” ingredients, yet how do you know?   In this recipe it exchanges all the things that make up a chicken nugget, into a “chick-pea” nugget.  When eating chick peas, they make up 50% of your daily dietary fiber.  When going to the grocery store, you will need:

·      1 can chickpeas

·      Onion

·      Parsley

·      Garlic Clove

·      1 egg

·      Cumin

·      Salt

·      Pepper

·      Lemon Juice

·      Baking Powder

·      Olive Oil

As you can tell from the grocery list, many of these things you can find in your pantry!  This will help these “chick-pea” nuggets become cost friendly as well as kid friendly. 

Your first step in creating the “chick-pea” nuggets is to DRAIN & MASH the chick-peas into a bowl.

Then into a food processor, combine:

½ White onion (Red will also work)

Parsley (own digression on amount)

1 garlic clove

You then are going to combine the mashed chick-peas and the food processor mix!

In another bowl you are going to combine:

·      1 egg

·      1 teaspoon cumin

·      1 teaspoon salt

·      1 dash pepper

·      1 teaspoon lemon juice

·      1 teaspoon baking powder

·      1 tablespoon olive oil

Then combine this bowl (breading) with your chick-pea & onion mix.  Make sure you add enough of the breading mix so you are able to shape your “chick-pea” nuggets into whatever you would like!  You can either bake or fry these.  Enjoy!

Glu•ten

What is Gluten?  

When coming across my own family members who deal with their gluten allergy I was unsure.  I was sure that many others were just as lost as I was.  According to the Mayo Clinic, Gluten is a protein that is found in such things as "wheat, barley, rye and triticale (a cross between wheat and rye)".  When children or adults become Gluten-free, this means they have to exclude all gluten from their diet.  Gluten-free diets are used to treat celiac disease.  People who have this disease, feel inflammation in their small intestine when consuming foods that contain gluten.  In an era of "clean eating" it is good to incorporate this gluten-free diet in with your clean eating.  Many of you are probably thinking, if you're on this gluten-free diet, all the things you used to LOVE to eat that contain gluten are out of the question.  Well, you are wrong.  There are recipes today that are foods that include wheat and barley, just revamped and even healthier.  For many kids dealing with this gluten-free diet, they may feel left out or different because they are eating different things.  Although, there are many “kid” foods that are now made gluten-free.  As a true testament, I was asking my cousin about her son with this allergy, and his sisters do not understand why he was eating differently. Jen eventually realized these “kid” foods (chicken nuggets, mac&cheese, bagels, animal crackers, ect.) that are gluten-free, all of her kids can eat!  The best plan for kids with a gluten-free diet is to make them feel like they aren’t different from other children without this allergy.