Parmesan Crusted Chicken Fingers

During TBS, Luke's schedule was not quite conducive to normal marriage. He had late nights and early mornings, getting home around 9 pm and leaving around 4 am sometimes. I did not envy his schedule, especially during FEXes when he was sleeping in the woods and not bathing for a week at a time. I do love my husband very much for showering before he came home from the FEXes. To help the FEXes pass, we often got together at different wives' houses each night and the creative wives (not me) had themes. One of the best and strangest was the bacon and parmesan party (shout out to Andrea!). Everyone brought dishes that contained either bacon, parmesan, or both. One of the strangest yet most delicious things was the bacon chocolate chip cookies. Don't knock it til you try it. For this particular party, I made these parmesan crusted chicken fingers. Being as my tastebuds have not matured since childhood, chicken fingers are still my second favorite food of all time, second only to mac and cheese. I thought these were a step in the right direction for maturing my taste by disguising chicken fingers with the words "parmesan crusted." Dipped in some marinara, they were really delicious! There were no leftovers for Luke when he got back from the field, so I am going to make these for dinner tomorrow.

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 eggs

1/2 cup finely shredded Parmesan cheese

1 1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs

1 lb chicken tenders

1 tbsp Italian seasoning

1 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup marinara, heated

Preheat the oven to 450. Spray cooking spray on your baking sheet to prep. Put the flour in a shallow dish, and lightly beat the eggs in another shallow dish. In a third and final shallow dish, mix the Parmesan and breadcrumbs. In a bowl, toss the chicken tenders with the Italian seasoning, garlic powder, and salt. Coat each tender in flour, shaking off the excess, and then dip it in the eggs, again shaking off the excess. Roll the tender in the breadcrumbs and then place it on the baking sheet. When done with all the tenders, spray the tops of the chicken with cooking spray as well. Bake the tenders for 10 minutes, and then turn them over to cook 10 more minutes. Serve them with marinara, and maybe some bacon chocolate chip cookies?