How to Make Chicken Nuggets from Scratch

 

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I first saw this on a great channel called MeatManGary – if you haven’t visited him online you should.

Once I saw that it could be done, I both started planning a time I could get the wife out of the house (because if she saw it while I was doing it she would not have ate it) and to do some more research.

Basically chicken nuggets are a breaded and shaped meat paste.
The boy eats LOTS of chicken nuggets.

While it isn’t his only food group like the poor 18 year old girl that ONLY ate nuggets – it is easy to make and he really likes them.

The problem is that most chicken nuggets are made with “mechanically separated” meat – which is a very unappetizing process. Basically the chicken carcass bones and all is ground and turned into slurry and forced through a very fine sieve to catch the bone particles. That is NOT something little WT should eat.

If you want to make your own homemade chicken nuggets, here is the process

Ingredients

  • Ground Chicken
  • Spices (I used Salt, Pepper, Onion Powder, Oregano, and Parsley)
  • Flour
  • Eggs
  • Oil

Procedure

  • Mix Chicken and spices in a food processor
  • Shape mix into ping pong sized balls and mush gently into nugget shape (I found it was easier to do after dredging)
  • Dredge in flour
  • Dip in egg wash
  • Coat in flour again
  • Fry

Alternatively you could bake the nuggets. What I like to do is to fry briefly and then finish in the oven.

What works well is to fry, then freeze on a baking sheet, and then dump in a large Ziploc for bulk storage. Then you can thaw in the oven to finish cooking whenever you need a quick meal.

Two things to consider – ground meat has a large surface area for contamination, so clean hands and cold meat is necessary to prevent food-borne illness and you must fully cook the nuggets.

The boy and his mom both like this recipe, and I do admit it tastes good, but I think next time I am just going to chop the chicken into bite sized pieces and fry up real nuggets…

Recipe: Zucchini Chips

 

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My wife takes her journey to get healthy ever bit as serious as I treat my journey toward self reliance.  She does not “diet” she makes lifestyle choices.

As such she is constantly on the lookout for healthy foods that taste good and satisfy the desires for sweet, salty, or savory.

While I don’t really like Zucchini, these baked zucchini chips are easy to make, relatively inexpensive, and my wife likes to snack on them – which makes a win in my book.  They aren’t bad, my wife actually says she likes them.  I can tolerate them, but they sure aren’t pringles…

I am not going to write out instructions for these chips, because I’d rather you watch the video and give my wife some positive feedback in the comments to show her that her effort to share her journey to get healthy is appreciated by more than just me.

By the way, she lost over 80 pounds this summer – and foods like this are a big reason why.

Genny eats these zucchini chips on the weekend when she wants something crispy to snack on.  She also takes these to parties as a snack.  Try them, I bet you will like them also.’

Recipe Tuna Can Cake

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I like pineapple upside down cake, but I don’t make it often. We never end up eating the whole cake and I hate to see it wasted. (and lately Genny has been known to throw away sweets because she doesn’t want to be tempted)

When we made the bread in a can video I started thinking, and I wanted to see if I could cook other things in cans.

This is an experiment (but in researching I have seen others do this in similar ways) in cooking cake in cleaned out tuna fish cans.

I call it Tuna Can Cake

I made some yellow cake batter (from a mix), and made some individual portioned pineapple upside down cakes.

Grease and dust your can out with flour before you start cooking so everything will come out nicely.

A pineapple ring fits very well in a tuna can, and when the can is filled about ¾ full of the batter and cooked for about 20 minutes you get a very well formed cake.

Just dump the can over on a parchment paper covered cookie sheet and refill until you have made enough individual cakes.

My wife did appreciate the cakes, but after eating one she did say “You really just did this to make a video didn’t you”….

She even let me get away with an “of course not” – but then again I did clean up the kitchen before she got up…

Making this tuna can cake is probably best suited to cooking with kids, but it tasted good and looked good.

Recipe Ice Cream Bread

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I first saw Ice Cream Bread recipe on YouTube on the Cooking with Jack channel, but after doing an internet search I found several sites that had very similar recipes.

What makes this recipe so nice is how simple it is — it only takes 2 ingredients and just a minute or two of active cooking time.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

  • Ice cream (it does not matter what kind, but the premium brands have more fat and less air which makes a much better loaf)
  • Self-Rising Flour (Must be self-rising and not all purpose or bread flour)

It is almost a one to one mixture — especially after melting. But for my recipe I used a pint of ice cream and 2 cups of flour.

Procedure

  • Set your ice cream in the fridge to melt (I do this the night before)
  • Preheat oven to 350 F
  • Grease (or spray) a loaf pan
  • In large bowl, dump in melted ice cream; stir in flour until just blended.
  • Scoop into prepared pan
  • Bake 43 to 48 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
  • Cool on wire rack 10 minutes

I didn’t really taste the ice cream, but I used a plain vanilla ice cream.  If I used something like rocky road I bet It would be more noticeable.

This was a very easy recipe, easier than my tuna can cake.  I will probably make it again – especially during the holidays for the neat factor.

Mason Jar Salad

Mason Jar Salad
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My wife is very interested in figuring out a way to get me to eat healthy; apparently she wants me to be around for a while.

She figured out the novel approach that if she wanted to create a blog about healthy eating and start doing videos about it, then I would be more inclined to help her. I hate to admit it, but she is probably right.

Today’s video is her first video of an idea she found to make salads in mason jars.

I am not sure where my wife found this tidbit (I would guess either Facebook or Pinterest), but when she shared it with me I was excited.

My wife and I now make our lunches in bulk at the start of the week and store them in mason jars.

This helps with portion control, time management, and it keeps me eating my vegetables.

This is a pretty flexible way to get work lunches, but you need to beware of moisture.

What we have found is that if you layer your foods in the Mason jar according to moisture level and resistance to moisture you can get by with some creative ideas.
We start with the dressing, and then add things like chopped chicken, olives, and/or cherry tomatoes. We then add some cheese, then lettuce, and lastly any croutons.

These store easily in the fridge, are distinguishable in the break room fridge, and you can eat it directly from the jar.

However, I find that if you pack the jar full it can be heard to get a good mix of dressing and greens, but if you leave some room you can shake the jar and mix it up that way.

Like most things, I got an idea from somewhere and then took it farther, for the last couple of weeks I have been carrying one of these salad jars with a Mason jar of chili or other leftovers.

Score one for the wife.

Do me a favor and leave her some nice comments so she keeps positive about both her new videos and her struggle to get her family to east healthier…