Sunday Night - Using Up Walnuts

Last week, when I did my great pantry organization, I found that my giant bag of walnuts was about to expire.  I hate wasting food... seriously.  So the fact that the walnuts were going bad really annoyed me.  I felt they had to be used.  So, for dinner last night I made walnut crusted baked chicken (which was exactly what I was supposed to make according to my meal plan).  I did make some adjustments to the recipe based on what I had on hand in the house:

• I didn't pulse my walnuts too small since I wanted to see and feel the crunch (see my future recommendations on this one).
• I used panko breadcrumbs instead of regular bread crumbs.
• I used 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts that I cut up into 4-6 oz pieces (because the breasts are entirely too big nowadays - as opposed to when I cooked back in olden-times - for one serving).
• I only cooked the breasts for 25 minutes.
• I didn't make her sauce, instead I used Cardini's honey mustard dressing (that I also found out was about to expire soon).  It is more mustard than honey and for Evan and I was a good dipping sauce (Brian didn't want any sauce and the chicken didn't need it but I liked it).

As sides I had a salad (same balsamic vinegar dressing as last night) and homemade ravioli... that I didn't make.  Every Sunday we go to the Grant Park Farmer's Market and buy ravioli from the pasta guy (he has a name it's just escaping me right now).  This past Sunday we got to the market late (around 11:30 am) so I literally got his last 4 bags - 1 bag of spinach and ricotta, and 3 bags of arugula and goat cheese.  I just dress the ravioli lightly in a butter and parmesan sauce.. yummy.

I would say this was a highly satisfying meal that everyone enjoyed.

Recipe: Modified Walnut Crusted Baked Chicken
Rating: Brian (even though we all agreed this wasn't our favorite flavor of ravioli - mine is mushroom and Brian's is butternut squash - we did eat every last piece)
Future Recommendations: I think I have mustard on the brain recently because I think this would be very good if instead of dipping the chicken in eggs I dipped it in the honey mustard dressing and then the walnut mixture.  And I will definitely pulse the walnuts more next time... too big and they burnt.

PS - I'm working on remembering to take pictures of the food so I can post them.  I'm also working on remembering my anniversary, where I put the car keys, and to always close the garage door so you see where the pictures are on my list.