Missing my Kitchen Groove

After the various “Oh, crepe!” moments mentioned in my last post, you could say I’ve lost my groove in the kitchen. Z from Z’s Cup of Tea called it her “kitchen confidence”, and I could relate to what she was going through. My various pancake recipes smoked up the house. My experiments lacked something crucial in every recipe I tried. Multiple meals stuck to the bottom of the pan. Even my fitness regimen seemed to be lacking something.

"You threw off my groove!" (source)

I don’t think I’ve lost my kitchen groove (mojo, confidence, or whatever floats your boat), but it has been misplaced and I miss it terribly.

Despite being thrown off my game, I do what I can to remain positive. For instance, my runs seem less exhausting, and although my face is often the color of a sunburned tourist who couldn’t tan to save their life, my breathing is less haggard and I’m running faster for longer periods. As for rock climbing, I seem to have hit a wall (ha.), but I can go up and down E4s – E6s in seconds and I’m falling significantly more gracefully than before. There’s a V0 that requires transferring from one wall to another with a protruding corner, and then using that wall to get to the incline with the remaining holds to reach the top (this is the same one that I fell off of and my chin and chest collided with each other) that I want to conquer next week. That, and the E5 right next to it that is similar in difficulty, only without an incline.

Anyway, it’s Sunday. It’s daylight savings. We’re one hour closer to next week, and one hour closer to getting my groove back. In the meantime, I want to share a lunch I had earlier in the week that’s high in protein, keeps you full, and isn’t wasteful of leftover batter.

I was intrigued by Ashley’s use of leftover French toast batter and turning the “cinnamon eggs” into scrambled deliciousness or a fruit-filled omelet with yogurt on top. Still in a crepe-y mood, I wanted to embody that waste-not mentality. Thus, after lightly breading egg washed chicken tenders in almond meal, I combined the remaining amounts of both and turned it into a wrap for my chicken, green beans, and leeks.

Garnish with tomatoes, and you’re good until dinner.

Almond Meal Omelet with Chicken Tenders, Green Beans, & Leeks

3 (187 g) Chicken breast tenderloins
1 (52 g) Egg
52 ml Water
25 g Almond meal
Pinch of salt
85 g French cut green beans
50 g Leeks, thickly sliced

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
Cook the green beans and leeks together until tender over medium heat and set aside.
Mix together the water and egg thoroughly to make the egg wash, and set aside in a bowl.
Pour the almond meal in another bowl of the same size and also set aside.
Generously dip the chicken tender meat into the egg wash and transfer them to the almond meal to cover with “breading”.
Lay them on a baking pan lined with greased tin foil and bake for twenty minutes*, flipping them over midway (you can also pan-fry them, in which case the oven is not needed).
Combine the remaining egg wash and almond meal together, and place a skillet pan (or in my case, a cast iron griddle pan) over medium heat.
When ready, grease with your cooking oil of choice and cook as you would a crepe (the crepe is very delicate, so I found it handy putting it under the boiler instead of flipping it).
When cooked all the way through, plop the crepe onto a plate, line the center with the greens and the cut up chicken tender pieces, and cover the edges.
Garnish with tomato wedges and your favorite savory condiments like sour cream or mustard.

Serves 1.

*Note: the meat came out a tad dry, and I'm not sure if it had to do with me leaving them in the oven after it was turned off or if it needed something else to keep it moist. Thoughts?