Cooking Lessons - Chicken Patties

I decided to forgo the usual chicken nuggets this month and change it up a bit. Chicken patties! In an attempt to make them even more healthy I also stuck some veggies in with the chicken. The results were amazing. Nathan gobbled them up and asked for more. Here is the recipe, it makes about 20, 3 inch round patties, 1/2 inch thick.

I had some leftover carrots and celery in my fridge so thats what I chose for veggies. Im sure you could use zucchini or squash or anything that you can dice up really fine and mix into the patties.

I peeled my carrots.
And then chopped the carrots and celery really fine with my amazing Pampered Chef chopper. Seriously, I cant live without this chopper, it is such a time saver. I chopped 1/2 cup of celery and 1 cup of carrots.
I added some dairy free margarine to a skillet and cooked the carrots and celery together, until really well done. Nathan is a texture kid, and the last thing I want is for him to be finding finely chopped hard pieces of celery and carrot from his patty while he eats and spitting it out onto his plate. Therefore, the more cooked the better.
Add the cooked carrots and celery to a bowl with about 1 cup of bread Crumbs. I used Panko this time because its what I had. Make sure your Panko is egg and milk free. Kikkoman brand is.
Add ground chicken, I used about 2 lbs for the recipe. You could use turkey or ground beef too.
Add the equivalent of two eggs in egg replacer to the mixture. Be sure to mix the egg replacer prior to adding it to the chicken. Egg replacer is a tricky substance. Ive found that proper technique is essential for it to "work" in the recipe. I use very warm water to be added to the egg replacer powder because I find that it mixes better this way. Then I stir, stir stir until all of the lumps are out, then I let it sit for a good 5 minutes to get frothy. Then I add it to my recipe.

Add salt and pepper. I also added onion salt and garlic powder for more flavor. Im hoping Nathan will start growing his taste buds a bit with some actual flavors in his foods. Onion and garlic are a good start. I just added a pinch or two of each. Mix everything together well. Form patties with your hands.

I cooked my patties on my electric skillet which I love, love, love. I got 10 of these patties on there at a time and still enough room to flip them! Cook them until browned on each side. I only lightly brown mine, because Nathan is a texture kid, and he doesnt like really browned crunchy patties. But, the patties werent cooked through. So, then I popped the patties into the oven at 375 for another 5-10 minutes to bake through.
I cooled the patties and then froze them. Nathan can eat two patties a day (in addition to all his other foods) so these will probably only last me two weeks.