Vittles Divine

Last week I made some delicious homemade chicken strips. The recipe came from my food-loving friend Emily, who originally pilfered it from Rookie Cookie . I may never eat another dino nugget for as long as I live. (If you know how deep-rooted my love for dino nuggets happens to be, you'll understand just how much I enjoyed these strips!) Our whole family loved them, even the difficult-to-impress husband. He begrudgingly admitted they were fantastic. Four times. I have made a really yummy Ritz Chicken before and assumed this recipe would turn out to be very similar. It didn't. Since I'm in a declaration kind of mood: I'll never make Ritz Chicken again either. Ingredients 2 sleeves of Ritz Crackers ( I used a generic store brand, not Ritz ) 1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese 1 tsp paprika 1/2 tsp garlic powder 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp ground pepper 4 or 5 chicken breasts 4 eggs 4 Tbsp honey 2 Tbsp water Directions: Set the oven to 400 degrees. Spray ...

Mmmmmm.... we're heading into the time of year when it's more respectable to eat pasta for every meal. As with most marinara sauces, this is best served at least one day after it has been simmered. This recipe makes a huge party pot of yummy delicious spaghetti sauce. Any extras can be easily frozen for future use. Ingredients 2 pounds ground beef 1 medium onion, chopped 1 medium green pepper, chopped 8 oz. fresh mushrooms, sliced 3 celery ribs, chopped 1-1/2 teaspoons minced garlic 2 cans (14-1/2 ounces each) Italian stewed tomatoes (I blend the contents briefly in a food processor; my kids and husband hate tomato chunks) 1 jar (26 ounces) of your favorite store-bought spaghetti sauce (we love Ragu Mama's Special Garden Sauce, but any flavorful recipe will work) 1/2 cup ketchup 1 can tomato soup 2 teaspoons brown sugar 1 teaspoon sugar 1 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon dried oregano 1 teaspoon chili powder 1 teaspoon prepared mustard Hot cooked spaghetti Directions In a larg...

I was originally inspired by this recipe that I found online (it was delicious, btw). I decided to take it in a different direction and the end result was sensational! I'm only judging by the groans of ecstasy from every quadrant of the dinner table, but they're usually pretty reliable food critics. Ingredients 24 rolls Mayonnaise Baked chicken breasts, shredded BBQ sauce of your choice (I'm a sucker for KC Masterpiece Hickory Brown Sugar) Cheddar or provolone cheese, shredded or sliced Brush Sauce 1/4 c. melted butter 1 Tbs mustard 1 Tbs Worcestershire sauce Optional Toppings Lettuce Tomatoes Sliced apples Cole slaw Carmelized onions Avocado Directions Mix together shredded chicken with bbq sauce until well coated. Slice rolls in half. Spread of mayo on the inside of each roll. Assemble rolls with bbq chicken and cheese. Place assembled rolls on a cookie sheet. Mix together the melted butter, mustard, and Worcestershire sauce with a whisk. Brush t...

I learned this "recipe" while I was teaching English in Russia 15 years ago. I was thinking about it recently and decided to make it again so that I could see if it was as delicious as I remembered. It was, and then some! In fact, I was hard-pressed to convince my neighbor's husband that I really and truly only used one ingredient. Ingredient: 1 can of sweetened condensed milk Directions: Take the wrapper off the can. Boil the UNOPENED can in a pot of water for *3 hours. Keep adding water as it evaporates. Keeping a lid on the pot really helps with that problem. Stir the can once in a while. Tip it over, roll it around, whatever. Remove it from the pot after 3 hours. Set aside until cool. When I made it, I set it aside for about an hour, but the can still felt hot. At that point I dropped it in a bowl of ice water for about 4 minutes and then it was all ready. Open the can, scoop out the yummy, decadent deliciousness, and serve as a sweet, carmel-like dip! It i...

Let me describe them this way: "Muffins so good even Crew will eat them." Many of you know that I am not a baker. At all . Nevertheless, after sampling a few dozen of these mini-muffins on a recent visit to my friend Kerrin's house, I rallied my courage and bought ingredients for the proffered recipe. Only 48 cents for baking soda? Who knew? I am pleased (and a little shocked) to report that they turned out just as good as Kerrin's . Ingredients: Wet Mix: 1 cup pumpkin (or 1 cup pureed canned yams!) 2 eggs 1/4 cup vegetable oil 1/4 apple sauce Dry Mix: 2.5 cups all-purpose flour 2 cups sugar 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice 1 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt Final Add-in 2 cups peeled and chopped apples Streusel Topping: 2 tsp flour 1/4 cup sugar 1/2 tsp cinnamon Cut in 4 Tbs cold butter (I grated it with a cheese grater!) Directions: Mix dry mixture and wet mixture separately. Mix together just until wet. Stir in apples. Spoon batter into greased mini-muffin cups, fill 3...

This recipe came from the Top Family Recipe Collections of two of my friends. Knowing what talented cooks they both are, I took a leap of faith, despite my reservations on the whole concept. Peanut butter? With my pasta ? That seemed rather sacrilegious to this little Italian. Especially when I don't really love peanut butter all that much in the first place. Consider me converted. Thank you , Wendy and Allison! Kinley's response: "Wow... Wow.... WOW . This is good. SO good. If you ever go on The Next Food Network Star, you need to make this for sure to win the whole thing!" I made the recipe exactly as written and it was perfect just the way it was. I wasn't familiar enough with some of the ingredients to mess around anyway. I have never used sesame oil, ginger, rice vinegar, or chili-garlic sauce before. 12 ounces linguine ( NOT 16 ounces!) 2-3 breasts of cooked and chopped or shredded chicken. (I used 2 somewhat large ones) Sauce: 1 ...

I made this dressing for our weekend getaway. Mmmmm..... I made it with low-fat buttermilk and it was still delicious. The original recipe came from my friend Bethany. It's been a while since I've had Cafe Rio, but it tasted just like I remembered it, for whatever that's worth. Ingredients 1 pkg. Ranch dressing mix 2-3 tomatillos (remove papery skin), rough chop 1 cup mayo 1 cup buttermilk ½ bunch cilantro 2 cloves garlic juice from 1 lime ½ - 1 jalapeno pepper depending on the size ( remove seeds for less fire... I removed the seeds; 1/2 of a jalapeno pepper without the seeds was plenty for our uber-gringo weak-sauce palates ) Directions Dump everything in a blender and blend until smooth. Refrigerate in air-tight container.