Gourmet Night at Casa Mac & Cheese

I finally opened up that Jessica Seinfeld cookbook that I bought many moons ago, but tossed aside due to pregnancy nausea, coupled with some pretty gross sounding recipes. Every recipe in the book is designed to hide nutritious food in other food such that kids don't know that they're eating something good for them. It would be great if I could get Pumpkin to eat well, but I have to confess, I'm not much better than Pumpkin. I'm actually worse because I'm supposed to know better. I do force down veggies at some of my meals, but it's usually in the form of a salad or coleslaw, and not some of the more "hard core" veggies. Today I decided to make Jessica's chicken nuggets, which are made by dipping the chicken in a broccoli/egg mixture, then breading it in a bread crumb/flax meal mixture. The chicken nuggets are then supposed to be fried in a pan, but I baked them in the oven as I was certain that I would burn them in the pan. I did try to fry a couple of them as an experiment, and although I did burn them a little, I think I could figure out how to do it right for next time. Anyhow, since Jessica Seinfeld included family testimony along with each of her recipes, I figured I'd let you know what my family thought.

Mom thought they were delicious! She even suggested that I make them again, and not worry about frying them.

Hubby thought that they were really good. He even stated so in a tone that told me that he meant it, rather than his usual, scripted tone. You know what I'm talking about. The same tone that accompanies phrases such as, "Nah, your ass didn't change at all with this pregnancy".

Pumpkin didn't like the way that the breading fell off the chicken when she pinched it. Once that happened, she refused to actually taste it. Instead, she had a time-out for blowing spit bubbles at me, then returned to the kitchen to eat a banana. That's actually an example of a good eating night.

I thought it was quite tasty. Although my house smelled like fermenting garbage as a result of steaming something as vile as broccoli, the other ingredients hid most of it's disgusting flavour, which I was able to totally finish off by using a honey mustard dip.

Chichi sat in her swing and said, "Ack!", which I think translates to, "What's the deal with the fermenting garbage???"

This gourmet meal was inspired by the pressure to sit down to dinner as a family, which, according to the media, will increase my childrens chances of having a bright future, and be less likely to use drugs. Whatever. I am personally more likely to abuse alcohol after these attempts to get Pumpkin to sit still and actually eat.