End of the Month Grocery Blues Cooking

I don't know about you, but in my house dinners get unpredictable spontaneously creative at the end of the month. The grocery budget is short, two little piglets have eaten far more than I have planned for them to eat, and I'm digging around my cabinets for something that looks like it could blend itself into a semblance of a meal.  And I thought, why not celebrate the unexpected meals (that are sometimes startlingly good)? We'll call tonight's meal:

Baked Chicken Fingers with Pass the Pasta Peas ;)

Pasta Dressing

• 1/4 C Olive Oil
• 2-3 Tbs Balsamic Vinegar
• 1 Tbs Brown Sugar
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• a big shake of the following
• onion powder
• Italian seasoning
• oregano
• sesame seeds (trust me)
• salt
• a grinding of fresh pepper

Mix ahead of time so flavors can meld.

Baked Chicken Fingers

• Chicken cut into fingers
• Bread Crumbs
• 4 eggs
• water
• a greased baking sheet

Preheat the oven to 350. Beat eggs with water.  Dip chicken in egg mixture and then in breadcrumbs.  Repeat once and then place on the baking sheet.  Bake for 12-17 minutes depending on the thickness of your chicken pieces.

Pass the Pasta Peas

• 1 package angel hair (or whatever you got!) pasta
• 1/2 bag of frozen peas
• The dressing you made above
• grated Parmesan cheese

Cook pasta according to package direction with the peas tossed in the pot.  Drain in a colander.  In the same pasta pot, pour your dressing, cook over med-low heat for 2-3 minutes to take some of the sharpness out of the raw garlic.  Dump pasta and peas back in the pan and stir until the dressing is soaking the noodles.  Dump tons of yummy cheese on the pasta while stirring.  

Serve hot and enjoy!  The girls just ate this up :)