Snack Basket Chicken

I have kids so we have lots of small bags of snacks- especially Goldfish.  If your kids are anything like mine, I also have lots of half-eaten bags of snacks that end up in the "snack basket".  One day I thought I would use my repurposing skills and make breadcrumbs for chicken, and voila!  Snack Basket Chicken was born.  I've used Cheetos, Potato Chips, Pretzels, Cheez-its, etc in the mix and it all seems to turn out well.  Heck- my 5 year old sous chef actually requests Snack Basket Chicken regularly.

4 (or whatever works for your family) boneless, skinless chicken breasts.
Various snacks as listed above
Garlic powder
Salt
Pepper
Italian Seasoning
Parmesan Cheese

Place random snack assortment in a food processor and crush to breadcrumb consistency.  Add spices- listed above and/or add your favorites.  I don't measure, so if I had to guess, I'd say 2 tsp garlic powder, and 1 tsp seasonings, 2 TBS Parmesan cheese, dashes of salt and pepper.

I don't dip the chicken in eggs or anything to save some calories, but you certainly could.  I just take the rinsed chicken and dredge it in a bowl with the crumb/seasoning mix.  I flip it over and make sure it's well coated and place it on a greased (sprayed) cookie sheet, allowing space for each chicken breast.

Bake at 375 degrees for 35 minutes, or until the thermometer says "Safe!!" (160 degrees)

Oh….FUDGE!

For some reason I had it in my head that making fudge was some big ordeal that was majorly complicated.  I had memories of my Gramma with her candy thermometer and a kitchen full of pots and pans.  So imagine my surprise when I used my Google powers and found out that fudge is actually easy to make!  I changed the white chocolate one enough to truly call it mine, but the chocolate one is courtesy of allrecipes.com where you can find several yummy variations.

I wanted to make a little "Christmas Happy" for my work friends, and thought a little bag of home made sweets would be nice.  It seems to have been a hit!  My 5 year old sous chef suggested we make another batch of the white fudge with pretzels, hence the recipe below, although we originally did the cookies and creme version from allrecipes.com and it was yummy.  I keep thinking of other variations-- Craisins, crushed candy canes, dark chocolate covered blueberries…the possibilities are endless!


White Chocolate Pretzel Fudge
2 packages of white chocolate chips
2 cans of Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk
1/8 tsp salt
6 cups of crushed pretzels



Chocolate Fudge (found on Allrecipes.com)
2 packages of semi-sweet chocolate morsels
2 cans of Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk
1 stick of butter


Place chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk in a pan on low heat. Add the stick of butter. Occasionally stir as the mixture melts.  Line a 9x13 inch pan with waxed paper or foil and put the mixture in and smooth out.  Cover and refrigerate over night.  Turn upside down on a large cutting board and cut into little squares.