I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This #LuvTyson Chicken Tenders shop has been compensated as part of a Valentine's Day social shopper amplification for #CollectiveBias and its advertiser. All opinions expressed are my own.
My husband and I have a date night about once a year and it rarely falls on Valentine's Day. That is the one day of the year when most of the adults whom we trust to watch our children have their own big plans. If this happens to you as well, why not make the most of it by have a fun Valentine's Day family meal? (Romantic candlelight dinners are overrated.) Since I only do "easy" when it comes to meals, let me show you how simple it would be to create a special kid-friendly dinner for Valentine's Day! First, you'll need a food that all your children love. In our case, this would be chicken tenders.
You may think that chicken tenders are just an everyday food, but it transforms into something fun when you introduce the concept of 2-step dipping . . .
"2-Step Dipping" is when you dip your chicken tender into a sweet or tangy sauce and then dip it a second time into something crunchy and savory!
Our Valentine's Day family meal had 6 components . . .
- Chicken tenders plus 3 sweet/tangy dips and 3 crunchy/savory dips
- Cheese and crackers with heart-shaped pepperonis (cut with kitchen shears)
- Valentine's Day themed plates and napkins
- Chocolate roses
- A red drink (ours was 70% lemon-lime soda & 30% pomegranate cranberry juice)
- Valentine's Day cookies
I found everything I needed at Walmart, including the disposable dipping cups with lids, Valentine's Day stickers (for just $1), 12" paper doilies, chocolate roses ($1 each), everything we needed for dipping, the ingredients for our red drink and our own special dipping sauce, Valentine's Day Peanut M&Ms for our cookies, and of course the Tyson Original Batter Dipped Chicken Breast Tenders.
Be sure to look for a coupon in your February 9th Sunday morning paper for Tyson Batter Dipped Tenders!
There were several things to prepare, but most of them were quite easy. Our 7 year old daughter was able to help with some of the prep work, such as placing the Valentine's Day stickers on the dipping cups, filling the dipping cups with some of the sauces, and placing the lids on the cups. We had some stickers leftover, so we wrapped the chocolate roses in a Valentine's Day napkins and secured them with napkin rings we made with the stickers and wide curling ribbon.
For the 2-step dipping, we used two sauces that we have enjoyed dipping other things into in the past. Then we made a 3rd dipping sauce of our own. We also crushed 3 of our favorite savory snacks. What we ended up using for dips were . . .
- Wise Onion Rings (crushed)
- Barbecue corn chips (crushed)
- Cashews (crushed)
- Honey
- Cocktail Sauce
- Soy Honey Lime Sauce (Recipe below)
RECIPE: Soy Honey Lime Dipping Sauce
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup low sodium soy sauce
2 to 3 Tbsp honey
1 tsp lime juice
Step 1. Pour soy sauce into a small mixing bowl.
Step 2. Add lime juice, blending it into the soy sauce.
Step 3. Add honey one tablespoon at a time, stirring to completely dissolve the honey in the soy sauce before adding the next spoonful. (Taste the sauce before you add more honey.)
I have to say that our children had a blast with the 2-step dipping! Since they each had their own set of dips, they could experiment with various combinations. Some of the favorites were the cocktail sauce or the honey with the crushed barbecue corn chips. Our Soy Honey Lime Sauce tasted great with the chicken tenders, but the solid dipping ingredients did not adhere to it as easily as they did to the honey and cocktail sauce.
Now I want to know what ingredients you would use for your 2-step dipping family meal!
