When it all goes wrong

I'm not really used to cooking for kids, well, let me qualify, I'm not used to cooking main meals for kids. Mostly I enjoy bribing my nephews and nieces with cupcakes, biscuits and a cornucopia of chocolate-based sweets. So now the challenge is to create something foolproof to avoid some of those dramas when my smaller guests aren't so keen on the thyme and chilli quail.

Now the criteria is that it has to be quite safe - so nothing spicy, it has to be something I'd eat myself, and it has to be able to be prepared ahead of time. The results were the pasty, gluggy nuggets on the right. The ones on the left were cooked in the frypan. My opinionated two-year old taste tester declared the ones on the left to be yummyummyummmm and wouldn't touch the ones on the right.

So back to the drawing board and my best effort so far is to fry the nuggets first in butter so that they brown quickly and then finish the cooking for 30 minutes in the oven. That's to leave 30 minutes before guests arrive to shower and dress. To be honest I'm not quite happy enough with this, it doesn't leave enough time for a glass of bubbles on the back deck, but hopefully a few more goes and I'll get something I'm happier with.