Published Jun 26, 2003

A defining feature of my recent life is dietary restrictions. I’m allergic to something (not yet determined, so I avoid a lot), and my girlfriend’s on the Atkins diet. There’s not a lot of things we can eat, and even fewer things we can both eat together.

So, the other night, when we ran errands and hung out and suddenly realized that, gosh, it was late and we should have dinner already — well, that was trouble. The little woman didn’t have much in the fridge, and we’d planned to shop but had never gotten around to it. What could we eat?

The shopping-free dinner is a fun challenge in and of itself. And, here, we had additional limitations of what ingredients I could eat and how little carbs she could have. I rummaged through the fridge and the pantry, and came up with a simple recipe for fried chicken strips:

Emergency Backup Chicken Strips
2 Chicken Breasts
2 Eggs
2 1/2 T Peanut Butter
2 1/2 t Mustard (a fancier kind, not the plain yellow good-on-hot-dogs type — you want the additional flavor)
Salt
Pepper
Cayenne Pepper
Peanut, Soybean or Safflower Oil to fry in

1. Cut the chicken in thin strips
2. Mix the ingredients except the chicken and oil until well-combined
3. Dip the chicken in the breading
4. Heat the oil ‘til smoking
5. Fry on each side ‘til brown
6. Remove to paper towels and drain

Mmm! Look, the girlfriend couldn’t wait for me to take the picture before she ate them!

mmm well-fried chicken strips

2 Comments

hey, I’m on atkins too. and I’ve gotten REALLY GOOD at cooking nothing but protein and salad. Tell Brenda she’s invited to come over and eat with me. give her my contact info. I promise there won’t be three-chocolate cake in the house. (mmmmmmm that was some good cake, huh?! I remember cake……)

I’ll give her your info, and I’ll be fascinated to see what your menus look like! I’m not averse to protein-heavy cooking myself - I love to roast - but the most fun thing is always new ideas. Brenda has been on Atkins before, and it really worked for her, but for some reason this time it’s not. I bet an infusion of new recipes would surely help!