Place raw nuts (walnuts, pecans, or almonds) on an ungreased baking sheet and bake in a preheated 350 degree F oven for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring a couple of times. Cool completely before using. Toasting greatly enhances the flavor of nuts. Always toast nuts before chopping.
Not all chicken meatballs are soft but these are. The secret is to cook them right in the sauce. Ground chicken breast is very lean and healthy but since it contains so little fat, it’s easy for chicken meatballs to become dry. But when they’re cooked in the sauce, they are beautifully soft and even more flavorful from absorbing the sauce.
Using fresh bread crumbs also helps with their beautifully soft texture. Fresh crumbs are made by using fresh bread, in this case whole wheat bread, and running it through a food processor. Since I always bake my own simple whole wheat bread, that’s what I use for the crumbs so it’s important to use a soft whole wheat bread for these fresh crumbs. Click here for my recipe and video on making bread crumbs.
You can put this meal, with sauce, together in about 1/2 an hour if you use my Quick & Easy Spaghetti Sauce. In fact, you can follow my Quick & Easy Spaghetti & Meatballs recipe and just swap the beef meatballs with my chicken recipe. Both of these sauce recipes are exactly the same. If you don’t want to use sauce and would prefer to pan-fry or oven-bake these chicken meatballs, you can do that. They won’t be quite as soft, and not as pretty, but they still taste really good.
I experimented with both pan-frying and oven-baking and here’s how you would do that. To pan-fry, heat a little olive oil in a large pan and cook the meatballs for about 10 minutes, gently turning to brown all sides. They won’t be meatballs any more… more more like meat triangles. To oven-bake, place the meatballs on a greased baking sheet and bake in a preheated 400° F oven for about 20 minutes. The meatballs are done when the inside reaches 165° F. As I said, they won’t be as pretty as the sauce version and here is the proof:
Pan-fried Oven-baked
I told you they weren’t pretty!! Of the two options, the pan-fried meatballs tasted better, probably because they were browned. So now you have options, but I highly recommend cooking these chicken breast meatballs in sauce for the best result. – Jenny Jones
Click here for the recipe.
Our fourth of July is almost here. It’s a time for fireworks, fun, and food… especially food. And what could you make that would be as exciting as the fireworks? This is it, baby! My fresh strawberry cake. It’s one of my most popular recipes and now that strawberries are in season, you won’t need a loan to bake this delicious dessert.
It’s Independence Day. So declare your independence from store bought sweets and make this beautiful, show stopping, fresh strawberry cake. Click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE butterscotch pudding and you may not know just how easy it is to make. It takes just ten minutes to make and only uses five ingredients, items you probably already have on hand. You can make it with low fat milk or whole milk, just not fat-free milk. I usually make mine with 1% low fat milk but I had some whole milk left over this week from making my chicken pot pie, and homemade pudding is richer tasting when made with whole milk. Of course it won’t be as low in fat but I will take butterscotch pudding any way I can.
I use light brown sugar and remember that cornstarch is not the same as corn flour. Cornstarch is very powdery and is the perfect thickener for homemade pudding. There is no reason to ever buy a box of pudding mix filled with ingredients you can’t pronounce. Make your own healthier homemade butterscotch pudding. It’s so yummy good! Click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones
I couldn’t decide what kind of cookies to make today. I often make my giant breakfast cookies but I wanted something different. I like my crispy oat cookies too but I wanted something with even more fiber. So I made a hybrid of both cookies and LOVED them. They are super crispy and as with most of my cookies, they have no butter and no white flour. I followed my recipe for Crispy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies with these changes:
~reduced oats to 1 cup
~added 1/2 cup All-Bran Original Cereal
~used one egg instead of two egg whites
~doubled the vanilla
~added about five chopped mission figs
~added about 3 Tablespoons shredded, sweetened coconut
I baked them at 350° F for 16 minutes and they were perfect. Crispy. Not too sweet. Easy recipe. I like these healthy cookies so much they are now a new recipe here on my site. Click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones
THESE ARE NOT PAID ENDORSEMENTS. I am just sharing some of the products that I use for anyone who is interested.
Cheaper parchment paper usually sticks but Reynolds brand never sticks.
Sunday breakfast usually means there’s time to make something special. Today I made English muffins and as soon as I tasted them I remembered why I never buy them at the store. They’re delicious! You don’t need an oven to make these because they cook on a griddle or large pan. This first photo above is how they look just before cooking. And below is how they look after about 15 minutes on the grill, seven minutes per side…
My recipe is simple. You make a yeast dough, let it rest for 10 minutes, then roll and cut out six circles. You dust them with cornmeal and once they rise in a warm spot, you cook them on a griddle – no oven. I preheat the griddle and just rub it with a stick of butter. They cook for seven minutes per side and now you have your own homemade English muffins, ready to split in half and toast. And yes, there are lots of nooks and crannies!
If you’ve never tasted homemade English muffins, I will say they taste nothing like the ones in the package. They’re a hundred, million, zillion times better! Click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones
This is the best time to make pickles because cucumbers are in season. I make my 3-hour bread & butter pickles with either Kirby cucumbers (the pickling bumpy kind) or Persian cucumbers (seedless with a smoother skin) and today I found some beautiful fresh Persian cucumbers that were fresh and crisp and bright green.
So no matter what kind of cuces you use, these three-hour pickles could not be any easier. They really are ready to eat in three hours! All you need is the cucumbers, some sliced onion, white vinegar and three spices besides sugar and salt. Sometimes I slice the cuces thinly, other times a little thicker and they are always crisp and tangy.
I’m making them for the Memorial Day weekend to have with my fall-off-the-bone ribs and potato salad… or with a salmon sandwich.. or just as a snack right out of the jar. I love these pickles!
Click here for the recipe, and Happy Memorial Day to everyone. – Jenny Jones
I made my fall-off-the-bone ribs yesterday. Some leftovers are better than others. 🙂
Click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones
I got tired to throwing away half of my celery when it went bad so I found a way to keep it twice as long. Here’s how:
Separate and wash the celery.
Pat it to remove excess water.
Lay down a large sheet (about 18 by 18 inches) of heavy duty extra wide aluminum foil.
Wrap the still damp celery in 2-3 paper towels and place in the center of the foil.
5. Wrap the celery in the paper towels and then the foil, starting with the long side and then fold in the ends.
6. It’s easy to open and re-close the celery packet when you use heavy duty foil. The paper towels continue to keep moisture away from the celery, allowing it to stay fresh much longer. The worst thing to wrap celery, or any other high-moisture vegetables in, is plastic.