Feed Your Family and Save Your Sanity with This Cookbook

May 20, 2014 10 Comments

Sally knows something about losing her sanity since she has two young kids.

Yes, they can be quite crazy – “No, you can’t put your finger in the socket!” – “The spoon is not for your ear!” – “Give me the car keys!”

Maybe not the car keys problem – yet.

She is the author of the blog Real Mom Nutrition and of a new book – Cooking Light Dinnertime Survival Guide.

Sally is a registered dietician who is out to make dinnertime both healthy and fast. I think her book is beautiful (lots of lovely photos) and it covers all the dinnertime dilemmas in my house.

For example – “I have zero time!” or “I can barely boil water!” and my personal favorite – “I’m on a diet, they’re not.”

I get the question about how to feed a family when someone is on a diet all the time. The recipe below is easy, fast, healthy and low in calories. You can’t go wrong!

My only problem with the book is the focus on “women” as being the primary source of dinner every night. Maybe it is true that women are still cooking a majority of dinners around the country - but in my house, my partner cooks half the meals. He needs this book, too!

Whether you are a dad, mom, guardian, grandparent, or a teenager who wants to help out – this book has a bunch of easy, delicious, affordable, and fun recipes for your family.

How do you deal with the dilemma of being on a diet when you cook for your family?

This book was received for review consideration. No other compensation was provided.

Rosemary Oven-Fried Chicken Recipe

1.6 from 24 reviews

Reprinted with permission from Cooking Light Dinnertime Survival Guide: Feed Your Family. Save Your Sanity by Sally Kuzemchak

Hands-On Time: 15 min. Total Time: 40 min.

Print Pin

Ingredients

1/4 cup nonfat buttermilk
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
4 (4-ounce) chicken cutlets
1/3 cup whole-wheat panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
1/3 cup finely chopped dry-roasted cashews
3/4 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
Cooking spray
4 teaspoons honey
Rosemary sprigs (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 425°.
2. Combine buttermilk and mustard in a shallow dish, stirring with a whisk. Add chicken to buttermilk mixture, turning to coat.
3. Heat a small skillet over medium-high heat. Add panko to pan; cook 3 minutes or until golden, stirring frequently. Combine panko, cashews, and next 4 ingredients (through ground red pepper) in a shallow dish. Remove chicken from buttermilk mixture; dredge in panko mixture.
4. Arrange chicken a wire rack coated with cooking spray in a foil-lined jelly-roll pan. Bake at 425° for 25 minutes or until chicken is done. Drizzle each cutlet with 1 teaspoon honey. Garnish with rosemary sprigs, if desired. Serves 4 (serving size: 1 cutlet).

Instructions

CALORIES 248; FAT 8.7g (sat 1.8g, mono 4.2g, poly 1.4g); PROTEIN 27.4g; CARB 15.1g; FIBER 1.1g; CHOL 73mg; IRON 1.4mg; SODIUM 375mg; CALC 30mg, 6 Points+

Points values are calculated by Snack Girl and are provided for information only. See all Snack Girl Recipes

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10 Comments:

Wow! If that is supposed to be a fast easy sanity saving dinner (buttermilk! Finely chopped cashews! Minced fresh rosemary! Many complicated steps!) then I am doomed forever.

Ruth

Nothing quick and easy about this at all.

Niosha

I agree with Ruth and Niosha especially when I glanced at it and the list of ingredients was longer than 5 and half of them would require a trip to a grocery store...

Ann

I am so jealous that your other half cooks! My hubby had worked as a restaurant manager (Applebee's and then Cracker Barrel) and feels he doesn't need to cook anymore despite the fact that has NOTHING to do with home...Sigh...personally the Snack girl cookbook is great for the whole family...even my picky eater loves all the recipes I've fed her from your book!

Barrie

Well, when I'm watching my weight I usually just eat less than the rest of my family because I prepare whole foods with little to no added fat, salt, sugar [the 3 enemies of good health]. I consider meal preparation a creative satisfying outlet, usually consisting of at least mincing garlic or onions. Its quite speedy once it becomes routine; my chef knife, cutting board, and garlic are always together! Personal taste only, I find rosemary to be delicious, but very objectionable in my mouth, sort of like pine needles, sharp, uncomfortable and nasty--even minced, however I do grow, dry, and use rosemary in bouquet garnis [when time permits] or use full sprigs that can be extracted before serving, but that is all my personal hangup! I have to agree with the above comments that this isn't a very quick dish for most harried working moms, dads, or whoever has the responsibility. One of my quick chicken dishes is using boneless chicken [not cutlets], shaken in flour, with or without seasonings [like s/p, garlic powder, etc.], lightly browned in evoo, just enough, placed in shallow baking dish, deglaze pan first with approx 1/4c white wine, couple cloves minced garlic, tsp. capers, shake of red pep flakes, then 1 pat of butter, whisk til combined, pour over chicken, bake 30mins at 350deg. while baking, make salads, veg, starch, mince parsley. I think if you do your family's favorites they get to be a fast throw-together pleaser. When I was a full time working mom my Monday thru Thursday meals were mostly our favorite standbys, Friday was always pizza or eat out at local italian restaurants where we met up with friends with kids. The weekends though busy still allowed for creative meals and the next week's menu-planning. Nothing is ever perfect, but it can reach a good level of organization and healthy meals. In a real pinch there's always hotdogs and beans [organic of course, LOL] but there again, I'd be throwing cornbread in a skillet, melting cheese on our dogs, SOMETHING to add the warmth of a homemade meal!

BarbL, Ct.

I have this book and LOVE it.

Katie

I chose this recipe to share because it is low calorie and it has a lot of flavor. I hear the pain over the many ingredients - but once you get the hang of this - it is quite good.
Maybe some of you will find this inspiring.

Snack Girl

Thanks so much for featuring my book and this recipe! It's one of my favorite recipes in the book. In my own kitchen and in this book, I'm big on shortcuts and substitutions as needed. For example, you can make a swap for buttermilk using a cup of regular milk mixed with a tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice (let it sit five minutes). I chop the cashews quickly in my $15 mini chopper (which I use all the time, great investment). You can use dried rosemary if you don't have fresh. I wanted readers to feel like they could take those shortcuts and do those swaps and not feel badly about not following the recipe to the letter. Thanks again!

Sally Kuzemchak

I wouldn't have time to prepare it exactly as written on a weeknight either, but it looks delicious! And I always appreciate recipes like this that can be dressed up or down, so to speak, with a few basic tweaks. Thanks for the inspiration!

Jessica

Thank you, it is an easy recipe! :)

Denise