What a Whirlwind!

These past two weeks have been CRAZY. First the Jellybean got sick. She had a fever and an upset stomach for a few days but nothing super major. I played with my new bread machine all the while and life went on. 2 days after her fever started, The Nerd gets sick. Now he usually shakes these things pretty fast. If anyone in the family is known for having a body that blows illness out of proportion it's me. This time was very different. He comes home from work the next day and he has a rash all over his feet. I slapped some Benadryl cream on him and basically said "buck up!" One hour later we had driven to the urgent care. These stupid blisters (yeah, they turned into blisters) spread farther up his feet and popped up on his hands and around his mouth on his face. By this point I was out of my league. Turns out he had Hand Foot and Mouth Disease. A virus with an awfully descriptive name as it primarily affects your hands, your feet, and your mouth. He wasn't able to walk normally or stand up for long periods of time because his feet hurt so much. We fell behind on chores. He probably got it from Jellybean. We're lucky she didn't blister. It's extremely rare for adults to blister. I guess we're just lucky or something ha ha. A few days later I of course develop the fever and general ickys but luckily no rash. Needless to say our house was a wreck. Fortunately we didn't have any real complications!

Even though we mostly ate Chicken and Rice or Chicken and Dumplings here is a yummy meal that is a crispy cheesy treat.

Oven Fried Crispy Creamy Chicken.

You'll Need:
4 Chicken breasts (or 2 ridiculously large organic breasts from Sprouts that may have been from alien chickens)
6 Tbsp Crispy Coat (recipe below)
16oz Cream Cheese
4oz Milk
1 Tsp Celery Seed
1 Tbsp Kosher Salt (I use organic cream cheese, other brands like Philadelphia may need less salt)
1 Cup Shredded Colby Cheese (Or whatever cheese you like)

Preheat your oven to 375°

Put your crispy coat in a bag, then drop in one chicken breast at a time and shake to coat. (Yes, this is GF Shake n' Bake). Put your coated chicken breasts in a baking dish sprayed with cooking spray. Cook for 25min at 375°.

Combine your cream cheese, milk, celery seed, and salt in a saucepan over medium heat. Heat and whisk until smooth and creamy.

Once the chicken is done pour some of your cream cheese sauce over each breast. The remaining sauce should go in the bottom of the dish. Then top each breast with 1/4c shredded cheese. Return to the oven for about 5 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbly and the cheese has melted.

I like to serve this with rice, and maybe some broccoli. It's a simple and budget friendly meal!

Crispy Coat

You'll Need:
1 box Rice Squares Cereal (Like Chex, I use a gluten free store brand.)
1 Tbsp Dry Mustard
2 Tbsp Onion Powder
1 Tbsp + 1 tsp Garlic Powder
2 tsp Paprika
2 Tbsp Kosher salt
2 tsp Black Pepper

Grind your cereal into a powder in a food processor, or smash it in a Ziploc with a rolling pin. (Kiddo helper time.) Make sure you have a fairly fine end product. Add in all your spices and salt and shake well to combine. I usually put my spices in the food processor with the cereal. That works very well.

I use this stuff as a breading and a binder in meatloaf or meatballs. It's pretty versatile.

Happy Eating,
Tori