Sun-butter Rice Krispy Treats

I love peanut butter Rice Krispy Treats! But as with many things I have had to find other ways of enjoying some of my favorite recipes, and it's been incredibly easy with the wonderful Sun Butter product. I know everyone is raving about Nutella right now, but it's not peanut allergy safe so I won't be jumping on that bandwagon. I do hope that more people will catch on to how delicious Sun Butter is and that it's 100% peanut allergy friendly!

Ingredients
2/3 cup white corn syrup; light agave nectar works great too!
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup Sun Butter
2 T margarine
6 cups Rise Krispies or cornflakes
3/4 cup sunflower kernel, optional

Directions
Combine corn syrup ans sugar in a saucepan, bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Add SunButter, margarine and sunflower kernel. Spread in a 9x13 pan. Cut into bars

Recipe found at www.sunbutter.com/recipes

Puppy Chow!

I have apparently been spoiling my wife with sweets, because every day we don't have something sweet for her to eat she lets me know about it. Thankfully this time she requested something that's as delicious as it is addictive, which means it's not a good thing to have around if your on a diet, it's puppy chow! No not the stuff your actually feeding your puppy.......OK that's a horrible joke and incredibly lame but I couldn't help myself. But seriously, if you haven't heard of this stuff by now you have been living under a rock.

To make this recipe safe for my DD with a peanut allergy, I swapped the 1/2 cup of peanut butter for 1/2 cup of Sun Butter with excellent results.

Ingredients
9 cups crispy rice cereal squares
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup peanut butter or 1/2 cup Sun Butter
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

Directions
1. In a saucepan over low heat, melt the chocolate and butter, add peanut butter and mix until smooth.
2 Remove from heat, add cereal and stir until coated
3. Pour powdered sugar into large plastic bag, add coated cereal and shake until well coated. Store in airtight container.

Fried Chicken & McDonald's Sweet and Sour Sauce

I have great news, your getting two recipes for the price of one today! I hadn't intended on it working out this way but it has. I've been wanting to do fried chicken and make a copycat recipe of McDonald's Sweet and Sour dipping sauce for a while now. After finding a recipe for the dipping sauce at Top Secret Recipes I knew I needed to have it with fried chicken, it's sort of a package meal.

 The sauce recipe is very close and was a hit for my little girl who LOVES McDonald's Sweet and Sour sauce. The chicken was my own recipe and used what I had on hand, I unfortunately never had a fried chicken recipe handed down to me. Which given that I live in Missouri where we have a great mixture of foods I find a little shocking. But I am working on getting my hands on a good recipe or get my attempt to where I would like it. Now the great news is that both of these recipes obtained Tot Approval from my little girl, and yes I will be making these again.

McDonald's Sweet and Sour Dipping Sauce
Ingredients
1/4 cup peach preserves
1/4 cup apricot preserves
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
5 teaspoons white vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon yellow mustard
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons water

Instructions
1 Combine all ingredients except the water in a food processor or a blender and and puree until the mixture is smooth.
2. Pour mixture into a small saucepan over medium heat. Add water, stir, and bring mixture to a boil. Allow it to boil for five minutes, stirring often. When the sauce has thickened, remove it from the heat and let it cool. Store sauce in a covered container in the refrigerator.
Makes about 3/4 cup.

Fried Chicken
2lbs chicken tenders
1 cup butter milk
1 cup flour
1 tbsp seasoning salt
1 tsp pepper

Directions
1. Place chicken and buttermilk in an airtight container and allow to marinate for at least 4 hours.
2. Combine flour, seasoning salt, and pepper in a bowl. Remove chicken from buttermilk and dredge in flour mixture being sure to coat chicken thourghely.
3. Fry chicken in canola oil or vegetable oil till chicken is golden brown, remove from oil and allow chicken to cool a little before serving.

Buttermilk Waffles

If you remember, I got a waffle maker for Christmas and I've been on the look out for waffle recipes to try. Well to no surprise the amazing Katie featured this recipe for Buttermilk Waffles and I knew I had to try it. This recipe did not disappoint and has earned a spot in my recipe box, as well as earning a Tot Approved award. I served it up with some bananas drizzled in natural maple syrup, theres no room in my kitchen for the artificial stuff. This is the second recipe I've used in my waffle maker and we have all ready abandoned ever going back to any store bought waffles, we freeze any left overs and then just pop them in the toaster to heat them up. I must give a big thank you to my wife for buying me the waffle maker and to Katie for the delicious waffle recipe.

Ingredients
2 large eggs
1 3/4 cups buttermilk
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted and cooled to room temperatue
2 teasoons vanilla
2 cups Pastry or 1 3/4 cups All-Purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teasoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda

Directions
Ina a medium-sized bowl, beat together the eggs, buttermilk, melted butter or margarine and vanilla. In another bowl whisk together the dry ingredients. Combine the wet and dry ingredients just until almost smooth.

Spray your waffle iron with a non-stick cooking spray before preheating it. For an 8-inch round waffle iron, use about 1/3 cup batter. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until the iron stops steaming. Yield; about ten 8 inch waffles

Giant Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies

Oatmeal raisin cookies are my wife's all time favorite cookie, so when I found this recipe in my Cooking Light cookbook I had to make them. If you like your cookies fluffy and light then this is your recipe. My daughter loved making them and eating them, in fact I'm ashamed to say they did not last long.

I apologize for the photo, it's from my phone and it's the only record of these short lived cookies. I wasn't kidding when I said they didn't last very long.

Ingredients
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup stick margarine or butter, softened
2 large eggs
3/4 cup applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin-pie spice
1/4 cup regular oats
1 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup chopped pecans(omitted for peanut allergy)
Cooking spray

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375º.
2. Beat sugar and margarine in a large bowl at medium speed of a mixer until well-blended 9about 4 minutes). Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add applesauce and vanilla; beat well.
3. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking soda, pumpkin-pie spice, and salt in a bowl. Add to sugar mixtures; beat well. Stir in oats, raisins, and pecans.
4. Drop dough into 24 mounds 2 inches apart onto baking sheets coated with cooking spray. Bake at 375º for 14 minutes or until almost set. Remove cookies from pans; cool on wire racks. Yield: 2 dozen

Chicken Potpie

It's winter, even if the weather here doesn't feel like it, and it's time for great comfort foods. Well here's a great recipe for you. In fact it made plenty of left overs that were fought over for days to come, it almost got ugly let me tell ya'! I will be making this one again for sure, in fact it will likely be in my weekly rotation for many winters to come.

Prep: 40 minutes
Cook: 1 1/2 hours

Ingredients
9 cups water
1 tablespoon black pepper corns
2 1/2 pounds chicken pieces, skinned(making a stock?! I used bone in skin on chicken thighs)
3 celery stalks, each cut into 4 pieces
1 small onion, quartered
1 bay leaf
1/2 cups diced unpeeled round red potato
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
1 garlic clove, minced
3/4 cup thinly sliced carrot
1/2 cup chopped leek (about 1 small)
1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
1/2 cup frozen green peas
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup 1% low-fat milk
Cooking spray
Biscuit Topping

Directions
1. Combine first 6 ingredients in an 8 quart Dutch oven or stock pot; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium, and cook, uncovered, 1 hour. Remove from heat.
2. Remove chicken pieces from broth. Place chicken in a large bowl, and chill for 15 minutes. Strain broth through a cheesecloth-lined colander into a bowl; discard solids. Set aside 4 1/2 cups broth; reserve remaining broth for another use.
3. Remove chicken from bones; cut meat into bite-size pieces.
4. Preheat oven to 400º.
5 bring 4 1/2 cups broth to a boil in a large sauce pan over medium-high heat. Add potato, chopped celery, bell pepper, and garlic; cover and cook 5 minutes. Add carrot and leek; cover and cook 3 minutes. Add mushrooms and peas; cover and cook 5 minutes or until vegetables are tender.
6. Combine flour, salt, and black pepper in a medium bowl. Add milk, stirring with a whisk; add to vegetable mixture. Cook over medium heat 3 minutes or until thickened and bubbly, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; add chicken.
7. Spoon into a 13/9 inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Drop Biscuit Topping onto mixture to form 16 biscuits. Bake at 400º for 30 minutes or until golden. Yield: 8 servings (serving size: about 1 cup chicken mixture and 2 biscuits).

Biscuit Topping
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpse flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1 cup 1% low-fat milk
1 1/2 tablespoon stick margarine or butter melted

Directions
1. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and garlic powder in a bowl. Stir in milk and margarine just until flour mixture is moistened. Yield; 16 biscuits.

Simple Waffles On New Waffle Maker

We had an amazing Christmas even though I spent Christmas day at the fire station. My wife surprised me with a gift that wasn't on my list but I had mentioned several times, a waffle maker. She bought me the Black & Decker 3 in 1 Grill, Griddle, & Waffle Maker. So far I love this thing! It's got removable grates, which after the torture of cleaning my last waffle maker those are a must! Also it's got an adjustable thermostat, which I haven't played with a whole lot, but we'll see how helpful that really ease later. I also got me the Chicago Metallic Baking Essentials Cupcake/Batter Dispenser, which is something I really wanted. I've used it about three times and the last time I tried a different recipe that was just to thick for it, but it worked great for the thinner batters.

The first time I decided to use my new waffle maker I used the recipe that was included in the manual, which is a pretty good recipe. It also freezes nicely and I just tossed it in the toaster to warm it up. As you can see this waffle maker makes square waffles, which is actually pretty neat. I'm considering looking for a whole wheat waffle recipe and using it to make a breakfast sandwich.

Ingredients
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions
1. Lightly brush waffle cooking plates with vegetable oil. Close unit and preheat at WAFFLE setting.
2. In medium bowl, Beat until smooth.
3. Pour 1 cup batter evenly on preheated cooking plate. Close unit; bake until light goes out (about 5 minutes).
Makes: 2 (4-sectioned) waffles