Go Get a Croquette

Okay, again with the remake leftovers.  You can tell I am in desperate need for a trip to the food store.  Well, we had some honey ham and some chicken (from yes, the homemade rotisserie), so we made some croquettes.  Easy to do, but it does take some time.  I have made a quicker version of croquettes where you just grind and mix everything together, but they're definitely not as good.  Anyhow...the mac and cheese was per daughter's request (we always have it for emergency purposes in the pantry...and like I said, we need to make a food shopping trip, so this IS one of those emergencies).   :) 

Croquette lunch - mac and cheese, ham and chicken croquete, edamame, honey ham chunks   

Rachael Ray the Bento Way - Pretzel and Peanut Crusted Chicken

Since I didn't do a very good job of posting last week, I'm giving you two posts today...this is our dinner, and below you will see our lunch as well.

Okay, so first let me say that despite the fact that the recipe only calls for a 1/2c of honey roasted nuts, buy the large container anyhow!!!  I looked in several stores looking for a small jar of nuts because I thought they would go to waste if I bought the big one, but could only find the big momma jar of nuts.  WELL, you can probably guess that it DID NOT go to waste.  They are utterly addicting!  I think I ate half the jar before I even put any into the recipe!  Not to mention I had two little girls begging me for nuts the entire time I was cooking. Anyhow...getting back to the point. This is a very kid-friendly meal since they are just chicken tenders, so I didn't need to change antything this time...so this post is really just a "Rachael Ray, her own way" as opposed to "Rachael Ray the Bento Way."  Here's the recipe for the chicken and you can also click on the link for the accompanying "smashed sweet potatoes with honey". They have a bit of orange in them, which explains our fruit side today.  They went really well together, not to mention I had the other half of the orange to use up.  :)   http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/food/recipes/pretzel-and-peanut-crusted-chicken/

Rachael Ray Her Own Way Dinner - pretzel and peanut crusted chicken, smashed sweet potatoes with honey, orange, honey roasted peanuts

Kids Cook - Eve's Sweet and Sour Chicken!

My daughters cook and bake with me all the time, but I've never given them very much responsibility other than dumping, stirring, etc.  So when we fount a kids cookbook at the library (called Mom and Me Cookbook by Annabel Karmel), Eve was pretty excited to become the "chef."  I basically only cut up the chicken, did the reading (and handing her the right measuring spoons), and the actual cooking on the stove.  Other than that, she did everything by herself...from making the batter for the chicken, the sauce, breaking up the veggies into smaller bite sized pieces, and dipping the raw chicken into the batter before cooking.  Here's a picture of the girls snapping the baby corn and green beans in half.

They loved doing the work and Eve was so proud of what she had accomplished!  I was skeptical of the recipe only because it was so simple, but it actually tasted really good!  We will definitely be making this again!

Eve's Sweet and Sour Chicken Bento - sweet and sour chicken, baby carrots, baby corn, green beans, white rice, and apple stars on the side