Falafel/chicken tenders +zucchini muffins!

Over the weekend, my son Mark, who is 10, asked me to make his favorite: chicken tenders.  I told him I would make them on Monday night.  Although he wanted all the different varieties I have made in the past, such as pretzel coating, beer battered, I have even made them with crushed Doritos when they have had friends over for dinner!  But, since it was a school night, and I worked all day, I had to make do with just a flour batter. I cut the chicken breasts into tenders, pour skim milk over them in one bowl. In the other bowl I just put flour, corn meal, salt, pepper, paprika, and Lawry’s seasoning.  Dip the chicken into the flour, and cook in a skillet coated with Olive oil.  I cook them for about 3 minutes per side.  And, I decided to make the falafel’s I mentioned yesterday, and they turned out great!  I had 4 tenders, 2 falafel’s and some pea pods! Over the weekend I bought some zucchini to make zucchini muffins.  For the muffins I used:

•  1 medium zucchini, grated, and squeezed almost dry (with the skin on)
• 1 small container plain fat free yogurt
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• pinch of salt
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1 cup walnuts (optional)
• 1 cup dried raisins or cranberries (optional) *or chocolate chips!

I shredded the zucchini in a bowl, and using a few paper towels, just kind of sopped up the liquid.  Add everything else (I did not use the walnuts or raisins or cranberries, however I did add 1/4 cup chocolate chips!).  Stir together until everything is incorporated.  The batter may look dry, and I debated on whether to add some skim milk, but once I kept stirring, the batter turned out fine.  I baked these at 350 for 20 minutes.  I also like to add 1 tsp. of brown sugar on each muffin before baking so it has a nice crust on top.  1 tsp. of brown sugar only adds 15 calories. Each muffin is 200 calories, 1.5 grams of fat and 1 gram of fiber.     They turned out so good!  Plus my kids can’t wait to have these for breakfast!