Thursday Dinner

I was still in a cooking frame of mind tonight, but in the mood for something a bit more homey.

I made Ultimate Chicken Fingers (an oven-baked recipe from the side of the Bisquick box) - they're so buttery and good you don't need sauce for them. They're also 10 times better than frozen, pre-breaded tenders, with the added benefit of knowing exactly what went into them. (The only change I make from the recipe is I don't use the parmesan cheese.)

On the side I made orange mashed sweet potatoes and spinach with hot bacon dressing. Both went really well with the rather plain chicken and the flavors played nicely off each other. As a bonus, I was able to put both side dishes together well ahead of the entree, so I didn't have to time everything together perfectly at the last minute.

I've had a big can of sweet potatoes in syrup kicking around my pantry since Thanksgiving (I decided not to make them), and I thought they'd go well with the chicken. I brought the entire contents of the can to boil in a saucepan. Then I drained out the syrup, mashed the sweet potatoes with a fork, and added the juice and zest of 1 orange, a pat of butter, salt & pepper, and a dash of pumpkin pie spice. They were perfectly sweet and creamy without any additional sugar, and the orange flavor was wonderful and fresh. (I made them a little early, then reheated in the microwave for 2 minutes just before serving.)

For the hot bacon dressing, I diced 1 slice of bacon and cooked it until crisp in a large skillet. I removed the bacon from the pan and added the following to the bacon drippings: 3 T. each of cider vinegar and water, 1 T. of sugar, plus salt, pepper, and a dash of ground mustard. I did this part ahead of time and left the dressing in the pan. At serving time, I reheated the dressing until hot, then added 1/2 of a bag of fresh spinach and quickly tossed to coat. Sprinkle with reserved bacon and serve.

Totals:

$2 - chicken breast (frozen, bagged, BOGO)
$1.39 - sweet potatoes (always cheap around Thanksgiving)
$1 - 1/2 bag spinach
.50 - remaining ingredients (butter, orange, etc.)

$4.89 for dinner for 4 (sister joined us), plus leftover chicken and sweet potatoes