Chinese Chicken Salad

I have always loved this salad, and everyone that tries it loves it too.
Marinade 2 cut up cooked chicken breasts in:
1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup soy sauce
*I marinaded mine for a few hours and it was perfect.

Dressing:
1 cup vegetable oil
3 T. sugar
6 T. rice vinegar
1 t. pepper
2 t. salt
2 t. Accent
Mix dressing ingredients together.

1 head cabbage-chopped
1/2 cup slices almonds
green onions-just use as many as you like, but not too many or it will be very strong.
1/4 cup sesame seeds (optional)
2 pkg. dry ramen noodles (without seasoning packet
Mix all ingredients together. If you're making this salad a day before serving, add the noodles the day of so that they will be crunchier. Yum!

Raspberry Cream Cheese Muffins

2 Muffin Mixes (I use Betty Crocker's Wild Blueberry muffin mix and omit the blueberries. I'm sure a recipe from scratch would be delicious)

about 3 c. Raspberries (fresh or frozen, thawed)

Cream Cheese Topping
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/3 c. sugar
1 egg
Mix together and set aside

Crumb Topping
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup flour
Mix together and set aside

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place paper baking cups in jumbo-size muffin pans. Prepare muffins according to directions on package. Gently stir in raspberries. Pour batter in muffin cups.

Add about a tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture to each muffin. Don't overdo it. You'll want to because this is the yummiest part. But too much of the cream cheese mixture will prevent the muffins from cooking through properly. You'll probably have leftover. Sprinkle tops with crumb topping mixture.

Bake about 21-25 minutes or until muffins are golden and set (cream cheese may still be a little soft).

Oh, yeah!

Makes about 12-14 jumbo muffins

Sugar Cookie Bars

I really love cookie bars. Sugar cookies are one of my favorite cookies, but they just take so long to make. This is a great recipe, but I'm sure that your favorite sugar cookie recipe would work great too.
1 c. butter; softened
2 c. sugar
4 eggs
2 t. vanilla
5 c. flour
1 t. salt
1/2 t. soda
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing after each egg. Add vanilla & mix well. In a separate bowl combine flour, salt & soda & stir with a whisk to combine. Add to wet mixture and mix just until combined. Spread on a greased baking sheet (use a 13 x 18 pan). Bake at 375 degrees for 10-15 min, until light golden brown or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely and frost.

My favorite frosting
1/4 c. butter; softened
3 T. milk
3-4 c. powdered sugar
1 t. vanilla
food coloring
Combine ingredients and mix well. Spread onto cooled sugar cookie. Allow frosting to set up before cutting into bars. Yum!

Calzones

A fun idea for kids is to make the calzone recipe below and make it into a snake by assembling it as usual and at the end, turning the snake body to resemble a snake's. Add olive slices for the eyes and cut out a slithering tongue from pepperoni.

My mother-in-law gave me this wonderful recipe and it's one of our favorite things to eat right now. I hope you enjoy it as much as we have. This is what your dough should look like before you add sauce and toppings. Fold strips over one another and pinch to seal.
1 1/4 c. hot water
3 c. flour
1 t. dry milk
1 1/2 T. sugar
1 t. salt
2 t. yeast
Combine water and yeast until dissolved. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Let raise for an hour. Roll out into a rectangle onto a cookie sheet. Place pizza sauce, toppings, and cheese down the middle of the dough. Cut slits down each side and fold over middle and pinch ttight to seal. Bake @ 400 until it starts browning. Remove from oven and sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese, return to oven until golden brown.