A Thursday KISS

The boy's school used to celebrate Grandparents' Day by inviting students' grannies and grampas to come have lunch with their grandkids. Considering how few students have grandparents living nearby, the school opted to retool the event. Thus today was KISS--Kids Invite Someone Special--Day for the boy's class.

I'm sure the boy would much rather have had any and all of his grandparents join him for lunch, but as he has no money for airfare to fly the four of them in, he had to settle on Mommy and Daddy. Yeah, I know, Gentle Reader--big friggin' whoopdedoo. So I though I would try to make the lunch a bit more special for the boy, as well as for the husband, who would be taking time out of his day to truck back to our neck 'o the woods for 30 minutes of quality time with the fam. No, I didn't get all Martha Stewart-y, but I did get awfully busy in the kitchen.

(Eww, no! Not that kind of busy, Gentle Reader!)

Forget PB&J or lunch meat and sliced cheese. Forget an apple or a banana. No, our little fam's KISS lunch would be special: balsamic-glazed chicken and bell pepper sandwiches with salted nut roll bars for dessert. Yum!

This Ain't No Subway Sandwich
The boy delighted in telling him how his little friend (whom I thought would be a better friend than the first little snot he hooked up with, but now I'm sincerely having my doubts) had lunch with his mom recently and his mom brought the kid a sandwich from Subway along with two cookies that were chocolate and a special drink and something else that I cut him off from saying because, quite frankly, I didn't give a rat's ass. Yeah, I know I'm supposed to be kind and respectful and listen when my kid talks, but, hey, the kid talks a lot, and a lot of it is just blather. Plus I'm appalled by how other parents feed their kids at school--McD's, Taco Bell, Subway, KFC, Wendy's and crap from every other fast food joint within a mile of the school--and I'm appalled that my son has to see this and form expectations of his own parents "treating" him to this garbage.

So maybe I was attempting a little oneupmanship when I decided to make the balsamic-glazed chicken sandwiches for KISS. So the hell what? I'm proud that I don't feed my kid crap from a fast food chain. Sure, he doesn't always eat the most healthful foods, but the food I set before him beat the hell out of the garbage.

Okay, sorry, I'm ranting. Onto the recipe!

This one arrived in my inbox earlier this week from MyRecipes.com. It was originally published in Cooking Light back in July 2005. I forwarded the email to the husband, who was a bit peeved at me for making him hungry with the email. Too bad so sad....

Balsamic-Glazed Chicken and Bell Pepper Sandwiches4 t olive oil, divided
1/2 t salt, divided
1 1/4 pounds chicken breast tenders
1/2 C balsamic vinegar, divided
2 C red bell pepper strips (about 2 medium)
2 C vertically sliced onion (about 1 large)
2 8-ounce loaves focaccia bread, cut in half horizontally
4 ounces provolone cheese, thinly sliced
1/8 t black pepper

1. Heat 2 teaspoons of olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.
   
2. Pat the chicken tenders dry with a paper towel, then sprinkle them with 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Add the chicken to pan and cook until lightly browned (about 1 min. on each side).
   
3. Add 1/4 cup of vinegar to the skillet, then cook until the chicken is done and the vinegar is syrupy (about 2 min.).
   
4. Remove the chicken mixture from the pan, cover and keep warm.
   
5. Wipe the pan clean with a paper towel, return it to medium-high heat and add 2 more teaspoons of olive oil.
   
6. Add the bell pepper and onion strips, then sauté them until tender (about 7 min.).
   
7. Stir in the remaining 1/4 teaspoon of salt and remaining 1/4 cup of vinegar, then cook until the vinegar is syrupy (about 1 min.).
   
8. Arrange the chicken mixture evenly over the bottom halves of the bread. Top the chicken with equal portions of the bell pepper mixture. Next, arrange the cheese over the pepper mixture, then finally sprinkle with black pepper. Place the top halves of bread on top.
   
9. Place a cast-iron or heavy skillet atop the sandwiches and let stand 5 minutes. Cut each sandwich into 6 wedges.

Yield: 6 servings (a serving is 2 wedges)

Nutritional Info
Calories: 433
Fat: 11.4g
Sat fat: 4.2 g
Protein: 34 g
Carbs: 49 g
Fiber: 1.9 g
Cholesterol: 68 mg
Na: 709 mg

The Faudie's Futzings

• I forgot to sprinkle black pepper atop the finished sandwiches. We here at Chez Boeckman-Walker are unaccustomed to the constant presence of salt and pepper shakers that adding such "final touches" is just strange and foreign and thus easily forgettable.
  
• Instead of provolone, I used the Kraft fat-free Swiss cheese slices stowed in the back of the refrigerator's meat drawer.
  
• I used ciabatta instead of focaccia because when I was at Whole Paycheck downtown yesterday, I couldn't remember if the recipe called for foca or cia, and I chose the wrong thing. The husband enjoyed the ciabatta, while the boy found it a bit too chewy. His jaws certainly got a workout during lunch for eating rather than yapping for once!

I'm not terribly familiar with balsamic vinegar, neither consuming nor cooking with it. Naturally, I have the brand that rated very poorly in an America's Test Kitchen product testing. (Here are highlights of taste-testers' thoughts on Pompeian balsamic vinegar: “All harsh hit; no subtlety or character”; “Bad flavor. I would only color Easter eggs with this”; and “You know the drill: Sip, squint, wince, shudder.”) Therefore, I wasn't surprised when a nauseating smell emanated from the skillet when I poured the vinegar in each time. Blorf! But by the FSM's bountiful bowl of fettuccine, the result was damn tasty!

Like a Trip to Stuckey's...
I suppose I was shafted as a child or I have a faulty memory (and I do), but I somehow missed out on that road trip mainstay Stuckey's and its ever-present pecan log roll. Instead, I was introduced to the pecan log roll when I received a trio of falsas as a gift (a gift I wanted, Gentle Reader, for my yoga prop supply--they're a helluva lot cheaper than 100 percent cotton Mexican blankets sold for yoga), for the falsas came with a freebie pecan log roll. Oh joy!

What does a pecan log roll from Stuckey's have to do with the salted nut roll bars I made? Dunno. You'd have to ask the husband, who was much more traveled as a youth than I was and, upon seeing the recipe for the salted nut roll bars, declared, "Oh, just like Stuckey's!"

(Perhaps the husband has a faulty memory too.)

This recipe we found on the back of the freebie issue of Cuisine at Home. I heavily modified it, so stayed tuned for my futzings!

Salted Nut Roll Bars1 lb. peanut butter sandwich cookies
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
2 C peanut butter chips
2/3 C light corn syrup
4 T unsalted butter
1 t vanilla extract
2 C mini marshmallows
2 C dry roasted peanuts
2 C crisp rice cereal

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prep a 13" x 9" baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.
   
2. Pulverize the cookies in a food processor until fine crumbs form. Add the melted butter, and process until the crumbs clump together.
   
3. Press the clumpy crumbs into the pan, then bake 15 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.
   
4. Melt the peanut butter chips, corn syrup, butter and vanilla in a saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring until smoother (about 5 min.).
   
5. Spread 1/2 C of the peanut butter goo over the crumb base.
   
6. Sprinkle the marshmallows atop the peanut butter goo, then return the pan to the oven. Bake until the marshmallows puff (about 2 min.). Do not let the marshmallows brown: They will turn crunchy.
   
7. Stir in the peanuts and cereal into the remaining peanut butter goo. Drop spoonfuls of this mixture atop the puffed marshmallows, then spread it with a spatula.
   
8. Let the pan cool before cutting the bars.

Yield: 28 bars

Nutritional Info
Calories: 310
Fat: 18 g
Sat fat: 8 g
Carbs: 32 g
Protein: 7 g
Fiber: 5 g
Cholesterol: 13 mg
Na: 206 mg

The Faudie's Futzings
Oh boy, where to start with this one....

• I replaced the peanut butter cookies with Barbara's Bakery Peanut Butter Puffins cereal. Sure, the cereal was more expensive than a cheapie package of kill-your-heart peanut butter cookies, but do you really think, Gentle Reader, that I'm going to make something that has 18 g of fat without trying to make it more healthful?
  
• Speaking of those Peanut Butter Puffins, I made the mistake of letting the boys have a bit of it before I made these bars. Therefore I had about two-thirds of a box, which only has 11 ounces in it in the first place. Filling a 13" x 9" pan just wasn't going to happen, so I used an 8" baking square instead.
  
• Because I used cereal instead of cookies and wasn't sure how comparable the substitution was in light of baking time, I initially let the crust bake for about 10 minutes. Six minutes into that 10-minute time, I checked the crust and noticed it didn't look like it had burned (hazaa!), yet it didn't look like it had browned or turned more golden (it was golden to begin with). So I added about 10 more minutes to the 4 or so remaining, and when the buzzer buzzed, I called the crust good.
  
• In lieu of light corn syrup, I used agave nectar. I was a bit worried that I'd end up with bars that wouldn't set like the power bars I love. Surprise surprise, Gentle Reader, these bars set. It's a miracle! Praise the FSM!
  
• Concerned that the Puffin cereal dust would have difficulty sticking if I used my favorite Promise fat-free butter, I melted the required stick of butter--Land 'o Lakes light butter, that is. Because the butter had fat, the crumbs stuck quite nicely. Hoorah!
  
• Because I had about half the crust the recipe was designed to make, I used only about half a cup of marshmallows. I also had them in the oven for twice the time--4 minutes--because after 2 minutes, they didn't look like they'd changed at all. But after 4 minutes, I definitely saw puffing, so I pulled out the pan.
  
• And because I had about half the crust the recipe was designed to make, I wound up with twice as much peanut butter goo as I needed, so I did use the full two cups of Rice Krispies but only about half a cup of peanuts to make the topping. The topping that's about twice as thick as the crust--but damn delicious!

The husband arrived home for KISS just in time for the cutting 'o the bars. I made him wait until dessert to try them because, after all, I had a great lunch planned.

Lunch Is in the Bag!

When dessert time finally did come, the husband assured me it was well worth the wait. The boy, on the other hand, took a few small bites then decided he didn't want the rest of his. Oh well. His loss was Daddy's gain.

Lunch Bunch

By the way, I probably don't have to tell you, Gentle Reader, that the nutritional info I posted for the bars does not take into account my changes. One of these days, I might bop over to a nutrition calculating Web site, but not now. I've had a busy day, and I'm ready to kick up my feet and have a salted nut roll bar.