Tell Me Thursday - General Mills Table Talk Trip

While I liked Kraig's guess yesterday that this was a new kitchen Bo built for me, this amazing kitchen is actually Betty Crocker's kitchen at the General Mills company in Minneapolis. I was one of a group of lucky bloggers who were invited to General Mills' Table Talk event to find out more about General Mills, learn some ideas and tips for making dinners easy and fun, and share our thoughts. It was a fabulous trip and I learned so many things!

Not only was I able to see the Betty Crocker kitchen, where they cook and test new recipes, I was able to cook in the Betty Crocker kitchen! My group made Oven-Fried Chicken Tenders and they were scrumptious and easy!

The shot of the kitchen above is only a portion of the kitchen. There are many more stations -- all equipped with sink, stove, rangetop, microwave and individual refrigerators. The huge windows allow in a ton of natural light, which makes the kitchens bright and cheery.

Did you know they have one person on staff who ONLY does grocery shopping? Every day she heads out to regular grocery stores to purchase groceries for all the recipes they prepare. This way, they make sure that the ingredients they choose are easily available to the average cook. I wonder if that employee dreads her own grocery shopping trips?

Here's a shot of Toni & Nicole breading the tenders: (Amanda was also in my cooking group, but I didn't get a shot of her)


And here's a shot of the tenders after we sampled them:



If you want to make them yourself -- here's the recipe straight from Betty Crocker's kitchen!

Oven-Fried Chicken Tenders

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Start to Finish: 30 minutes

1/4 cup Gold Medal all-purpose flour
1 egg
1 T water
1 cup Progresso Panko crispy bread crumbs
1/2 cup grated Parmsan cheese
1 package (about 1 1/4 lb) chicken breast tenders
2 T butter, melted
Favorite dipping sauce (we tried bbq sauce, honey, and a really yummy peanut sauce)

1. Heat oven to 425 F. Line cookie sheet with foil, spray with cooking spray.
2. In shallow dish (we used pie plates), place flour. In another shallow dish, beat egg and water. In third shallow dish, mix bread crumbs and cheese. Coat chicken with flour; dipe into egg mixture, then coat with bread crumb mixture. Place on cookie sheet. Drizzle with melted butter. (We drizzled half the chicken with butter to see if it was necessary. I understand they included the butter to help brown the bread crumbs, but we didn't notice much difference. I will leave this step out to save the calories and the time to melt / drizzle.)
3. Bake 15 - 20 minutes, turning once, until chicken is no longer pink in center and coating is golden brown. Serve with dipping sauce.

4 servings

1 serving: Calories 330, Fat 18g, Protein 18g
Exchanges: 1 1/2 starch, 2 lean meat, 2 fat
Carbohydrate Choices: 1.5

Even though I was only at General Mills for a few hours, I learned so much that I have a bunch of posts planned for the next couple weeks. I also did an interview about my experience for the Moms Love Shopping podcast that should go live tomorrow. Come back over the next couple weeks and read more about my experiences!

Did you play Wordless Wednesday yesterday? If so, don't forget to tell your story today & link to Tell Me Thursday!