Chicken Nuggets and Bean Soup

The girls (my 2 and 3 year olds) helped make chicken nuggets. We used this recipe and they turned out great! The outside was crispy and the inside was moist and juicy. We used Kix cereal instead of bread crumbs and rice flour as our "all purpose flour". I had enough of the coating/crumbs left that I added 2 more eggs and another cup or so of milk to make a thick batter. I also mixed in some garlic salt and dried basil. Then I put clumps of the batter on a cookie sheet and baked them. They made delicious biscuits! My daughters loved helping crush up the cereal for the coating. A gallon sized plastic storage bag worked well to contain the cereal as it was pounded and crushed. The plastic toy hammer the girls started with made it fun, but wasn't very effective. On the other hand, the rolling pin was very effective and the girls enjoyed using that as well.  They seemed pretty proud to be able to tell Daddy that they helped make dinner. When I wasn't looking, though, my 3 year old took a chunk out of one of the uncooked chicken breast pieces. I freaked out when I'd realized what she'd done. I had her wash her hands and gargle mouthwash. Afterwards, she told me she didn't like the mouthwash and she won't eat chicken anymore unless it's cooked. I guess if she forgets how to make chicken nuggets, at least she'll remember they have to be cooked first!

Tonight we made black bean soup. My husband loves the black bean soup that one of our local businesses makes every Christmas to share with people in town. However, that only happens once a year. So I decided to try my hand at it. This is the recipe I used. At first it smelled as if I had added way too much garlic, but it ended up turning out great. I used chopped garlic from the jar, not fresh. I also was lazy and decided to throw the green pepper and the onion in the Magic Bullet. So instead of adding finely chopped green pepper and onion, I added a puree. Next time I will probably soak the beans for an extra few hours. I started soaking them in the afternoon yesterday and started cooking the soup around noon today. There were still a few beans that weren't soft all the way through and the soup didn't get as thick as I would've liked. When I served the soup, I realized that we had used the last of the sour cream when we'd grilled chicken and potatoes this weekend. However, I did have half a carton of plain yogurt. I've heard of people substituting yogurt for sour cream, so we gave it a shot. My husband was very doubtful that he'd like it, but he ended up loving it. Maybe there is still hope to converting him to a healthy eater!