A Frugal Version of Shake & Bake Nuggets

I was shopping last week and realized that while a box of shake-n-bake isn't overly expensive, per se, it is really expensive considering its about 99% bread crumbs. So I decided to find a homemade version.

I found this one:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/homemade-shake-and-bake-mixture/Detail.aspx

And it was awesome! I made a half batch and used about half of that on about 1.5 lbs of chicken tenders. I baked them in the oven for about 25 minutes at 400 degrees.The kids thought they were eating McNuggets, HA! Little did they know they were getting actual chicken breast.
The one thing I would change is I would add a little Cayenne pepper but other than that it was great. I put the extra in the freezer, not sure if I really even needed to refrigerate it but that seemed liked the safest choice without wasting any of it.

Art Day

On Saturday afternoon, we had a art day at our house. We started making Rainbow Bags. I got this recipe, and a few others, from my Learning Activities parenting class at LBCC. Its part of the soon-to-be defunct Perwinkle Child Development Center.



Here are the directions:
Mix in a sauce pan:

• 1/3 c sugar
• 1 c corn starch
• 4 cups warm water

Stir and cook over medium heat until thick. The corn starch will thicken the mixture all at once. Once it start to thicken in to globs, pull it off the heat and whisk hard!


Here is my assistant Simon helping me stir the mixture




Divide the mixture evenly into 3 bowls and using food coloring make one red, one blue, and one yellow. (We went a little too heavy on the yellow and it turned out orange.)















Here is my other assistant mixing the color into the sauce. The other picture shows the three colors all mixed up.






















Now the fun part! Scoop a couple large spoonfuls of 2 or 3 colors in to a zip lock sandwich bag. Press the air out and seal with packing tape.





















These bags are really fun to make especially if you let the kids be part of the cooking process. Simon is figuring out how colors mix and this was a really nice tactile experiment with mixing colors. Eventually all the bags turn purple-brown. This is also a good life lesson. Simon said to me, "Unmix the colors Mom!!"

After the rainbow bags we whipped up a nice new batch of homemade no-bake playdough. Here's the recipe, it is super quick.

"Cooked" Playdough
In a large bowl mix:

• 2 c flour
• 1 c salt
• 4 tsp cream of tartar

Add to this mixture:

• 2 cups of boiling water
• 1/8 c oil
• Food Coloring

Stir until thoroughly mixed. Knead until cool enough to use, although my boys and the kids at their school LOVE to play with the warm playdough. Store in an airtight container.