Coconut Chicken Tenders

Ingredients:

1 C. Angel Flake coconut

½ C. flour

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp black pepper

¼ tsp garlic powder

1 ½ lbs boneless, skinless chicken tenders

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/3 C. butter or margarine

Directions:

Heat oven to 400°F. Mix coconut, flour, salt, pepper, and garlic powder in medium bowl. Dip chicken strips into egg, then coat with coconut mixture. Place in a shallow baking pan; drizzle with melted butter. Bake 25 minutes or until chicken is browned and cooked through, turning once. Serve with dipping sauce (see below).

Dipping Sauces:

• Apricot Dipping Sauce 
• Cranberry Mustard Sauce 

Recipes adapted from the internet. I am unable to remember their location.

Agave Nectar Rice Pudding

Ingredients:

1 1/2 C. cooked white rice

1 1/2 C. skim milk

1/4 C. Agave Nectar

1/4/ tsp salt

1 egg, beaten

1 Tbsp butter

1/2 tsp vanilla

Directions:

In a saucepan, combine the rice, milk, agave nectar and salt. Cook over medium heat until thick and creamy, 15 to 20 minutes. Stir in beaten egg. Cook 2 minutes more, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in butter and vanilla. Serve warm.

Notes: You may add 2/3 C. raisins when you add the egg, if you desire. You may also sprinkle this with cinnamon. 

Recipe from Jen

Tortellini, Peppers and Tomato Soup

Ingredients:

4 Tbsp butter

8 cloves garlic

8 C. chicken broth

12 oz  fresh or frozen cheese tortellini

2 – 14 oz cans diced tomatoes, with their juice

2 yellow or orange peppers, chopped

1 16 oz bag shredded carrots

1 Tbsp basil

Parmesan, grated

Directions:

Melt butter in large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add garlic, peppers and carrots and sauté until tender. Add broth and bring to a boil. Add tortellini and cook halfway, about 5 minutes for frozen pasta, less if using fresh. Add tomatoes and juice, reduce heat to simmer and cook just until pasta is tender. Stir in basil and cook about 1-2 minutes. Serve with grated parmesan.

I can't remember where I got this recipe, so I can't give proper credit. 

If you recognize it, please let me know where it's from so I can credit 

the correct place. Thank you!

Agave Nectar Ketchup

I made this because we ran out of ketchup and I had a bunch of frozen tomatoes, as well as some agave nectar and decided to try my hand at homemade ketchup. I have always been a Heinz gal myself but really don't like that it has corn syrup in it. Corn syrup does really strange things to my children so I try not to feed it to them very often. I wasn't sure if my kids and my husband would like it and I SURE wasn't sure I'D like it (I'm the picky one in our family), but lo and behold - we ALL loved it! So, it looks like we'll be switching to homemade from now on! I'm so excited!

Ingredients:

1- 28-oz can whole tomatoes (I used about 5-6 tomatoes that I had frozen)

1 medium onion, chopped

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp tomato paste

1/2 C. agave nectar

1 Tbsp molasses

1/2 C. cider vinegar

1/2 tsp salt
1/2 Tbsp garlic powder

Directions:

Heat oil in a large, heavy pan. Sauté onions until soft, about 8 minutes. Meanwhile, puree tomatoes in a blender. Add tomato paste and puree another 30-seconds or so.

When onions are soft, add tomato puree and remaining ingredients. Simmer for approximately 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat.

Once mixture has cooled slightly, puree in batches. Cool for 2 hours before serving. 

Makes approximately 2 cups. Keeps for approximately 3 weeks in a well-sealed container.

Enjoy!

Adapted from The Kitchen.com

Caramel Toffee Cheesecake

Gingersnap Crust Ingredients:

Nonstick vegetable spray

1 1/2 C. ground gingersnap cookies

5 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted

2 Tbsp (packed) golden brown sugar

Crust Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray bottom of 9-inch springform pan with 2 1/2-in-high sides with nonstick spray. Stir ground cookies, butter and sugar in medium bowl until moist clumps form. Press cookie mixture firmly onto bottom of prepared pan. Wrap outside of pan with 3 layers of heavy-duty-foil. Bake crust until firm and beginning to darken, about 14 minutes. Cool crust. Maintain oven temperature. 

Caramel Topping Ingredients:

1/4 C. plus 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour, divided

1 jar (12-1/4 oz) caramel ice cream topping

Toffee bits, if desired

Topping Directions:

In a small bowl, stir 1/4 C. flour into the caramel topping. Set aside 1/3 C. caramel mixture for garnish. Drizzle remaining caramel mixture over crust; sprinkle with toffee bits, if desired.

Cheesecake Ingredients:

4 8-oz packages cream cheese, room temperature

1 C. (packed) golden brown sugar

2 Tbsp butter, melted

5 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

4 1.4-oz English toffee candy bars, chopped

Cheesecake Directions:

Beat cream cheese and sugar in large bowl until smooth. Beat in butter, then eggs, 1 at a time, until just blended. Beat in vanilla. Pour batter over crust in pan. Place springform pan in large roasting pan. Add enough hot water to come halfway up sides of springform pan. Bake cake uncovered until filling is puffed around edges and moves slightly in center when pan is gently shaken, about 1 hour 10 minutes (I found that to be way too long, so I'd check it at about 50 minutes). Remove pan from water; remove foil. Place hot cheesecake uncovered in refrigerator overnight. 

Directions For Remaining Topping:

Spoon remaining caramel over top of cake just to edges. Garnish top of edges with chopped English toffee. Chill at least 2 hours and up to 6 hours. Run knife around pan sides to loosen cake; release pan sides. 

Enjoy! 

(Recipe adapted from Epicurious and Taste of Home.)

Breakfast Oatmeal Cookies

I marked this as kid-friendly because, well... what kid wouldn't want to be able to eat COOKIES for breakfast?! ;-)

1 C. Olive Oil (I'd like to try this with coconut oil)
1 C. Brown Sugar (I use 3/4 C. Agave Nectar, you can also use 1 C. honey)
2 eggs (I'm going to try this using 3 eggs next time, as they didn't stick together very well this time.)

Cream until fluffy.

1/2 C. Buttermilk
1 3/4 C. whole wheat flour (I use 1 1/4 C. all-purpose flour, 1/4 C. Ground Flaxseed, 1/4 C. 7-Grain Cereal)(You can also use wheat germ or whatever you'd like. Next time I may use oat some oat flour and bran flour as well - I just forgot I had some in the freezer.)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg

Mix together and then add:

3 C. oats
1 C. dried cranberries (or any fresh or dried fruit)
1/4 C. sliced almonds (or walnuts or any other nut)
1/4 C. sunflower seeds
a couple handfuls of angel flake coconut (if I had regular on hand, I would have used that instead)
about 1/4 C. butterscotch chips

(If this gets too dry, you can add another egg. You can make this as healthy - or not - as you want. Just experiment!)

Drop from Tbsp 2" apart on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake at 400°F for 7-8 minutes.

Enjoy!

Recipe from someone at the Sonlight Forums. If you are this person, or know whose recipe this is, please tell me so I can give proper credit!

Grilled Chicken Alfredo

Ingredients:

2-4 Chicken breasts, diced (I sometimes use canned chicken, drained)

9 Tbsp butter or margarine

3 Tbsp flour

2 C. Milk

3/4 C. grated Parmesan Cheese

1 15 oz can diced tomatoes, undrained

Directions:

Either grill chicken breasts or fry them in Olive Oil until juices run clear. If you grill the breasts, don't dice them until they're grilled! :-)

Meanwhile, cook penne noodles according to package instructions. 

In another saucepan over medium heat, melt butter.

Stir in flour until smooth.

Gradually whisk in milk.

Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. 

Remove from the heat; stir in Parmesan cheese. 

Drain noodles, add chicken and alfredo sauce. Gently stir in diced tomatoes and heat through. 

Enjoy!

Recipe originally by Karyn - tweaked a bit by me! :-)