What's for dinner tonight?

Thank you so much for your sweet comments on the post below! What girl doesn't want to hear nice things about her love story? They meant a lot, thank you.

Sooo, what's for dinner tonight? I really want fried chicken! But, I know better. I found this recipe (Submitted by Ena Quiggle) for a much healthier alternative and will try it out tonight. I'll let you know how it tastes!

Oatmeal Baked Chicken

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats

1 tablespoon paprika

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 (3 1/2) pound broiler chicken, cut up

1/2 cup milk

2 tablespoons (Smart Balance) butter, melted

1. Coat a 13-inch x 9-inch x 2-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray; set aside. In a shallow bowl or large resealable plastic bag, combine oats, paprika, chili powder, salt if desired, garlic powder, cumin and pepper. Dip chicken in milk, then coat with oat mixture. Place in prepared baking dish. Drizzle with butter. Bake, uncovered, at 375 degrees F for 45-50 minutes or until Juices run clear.

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Before I go, I want to share one more recipe with you. My husband loves meatloaf, but I've never been a fan of it. I don't like the idea of it having a lot of "fillers", breadcrumbs, etc. I want to make it for him since he likes it, so I went on a hunt for a recipe that doesn't use "fillers". I found this recipe online and am actually pretty excited about making it. The member of RecipeZaar who submitted this recipe says it's from the Chez Melange Restaurant in Redondo Beach, CA. It's unusual in that it doesn't use bread crumbs as a filler and was done originally for the texture, years before the "low carb craze". At first I was a littler nervous about the length of ingredients, but if you notice, most of them are simple and don't require a lot of dicing or chopping. I plan on making this one Thursday evening. :o) I'll let you know how it goes!

Restaurant Style Meatloaf

(no breadcrumbs!)

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons (Smart Balance) butter

2 finely chopped green onions

1 cup finely chopped onion

1/2 cup finely chopped red pepper

1/3 cup finely chopped celery

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

2 bay leaves

1/2 cup ketchup

1/2 cup half-and-half

2 lbs ground beef (or mix with part veal or pork or beef)

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons worcestershire sauce

1 1/2 teaspoons red pepper sauce

1. Melt the butter in medium skillet over medium heat.

2. Add the green onions, regular onions, red pepper, celery, and garlic and cook until softened.
3. Stir in salt, cumin, peppers, nutmeg and bayleaves and cook 1 minute.
4. Stir in ketchup and half and half and simmer 2 minutes
5. Coll and remove bay leaves
6. Heat oven to 350 degrees
7. Combine meat, eggs (lightly beaten), worcestershire, red pepper sauce in large bowl.
8. Stir vegetable mixture into meat mixture until well blended.
9. Spoon mixture evenly into a 9x5 pan or freeform the mixture (author says she uses the 9x5 pan as the mold and then places on a rimmed cookie sheet.
10. Bake 70 minutes or until temperature of meat registers 160 degrees.
11. Cool in pan 5 minutes (at least) and drain and unmold onto serving platter.

Bon Appetite!

XOXO,