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Melinda's books

I Am Watching You
The Maid
Hopeless
It Ends with Us
Unmissing
The All New Ball Book Of Canning And Preserving: Over 200 of the Best Canned, Jammed, Pickled, and Preserved Recipes
Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
Jurassic World: The Official Cookbook
Halo: The Official Cookbook
Ugly Love
Verity
Where the Crawdads Sing
The Moonlight Child
Becky: The Heartbreaking Story of Becky Watts by Her Father Darren Galsworthy
Freed
Drowning in Stars
Behind Her Eyes
The Girl in the White Van
Regretting You
Defending Jacob


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CopyCat Del Taco Chicken Tacos

Living in Arizona for 13 years of my adolescent life I grew up loving Del Taco. My parents would get take out there often. My sister, Michelle, that was her favorite taco out. If we did take out one night, Michelle always wanted Del Taco over anything else. She loves the chicken tacos. Now that I live in Ohio, Del Taco is not really out here. I have found 1 or 2 but they are some distance away from us. So, I decided to try and make that for my Sunday Family Movie night pick. Tonight, is my pick and I drew Mexican food so why not give it a try.  Marinade: 3 Large Chicken (I used thin chicken breast), diced 1 Lime, juiced 1 tbsp Taco Seasoning  1 tbsp Soy Sauce 1 tsp Garlic Powder 1 tsp Onion Powder 1 tsp Chicken Bouillon Powder 1/4 tsp Paprika Place all ingredients above into a ziplock, shake well and marinade for 30 minutes to an hour. I found the longer the better flavor.  White Sauce: 1 cup Mayo 1 Lime, juiced Whisk together in a bowl until smooth, set aside until ready for assembly.

Homemade Chicken Strips

Who are we kidding?! Chicken strips or chicken nuggets are a child's favorite food and a parents too because they are simple to heat up and take little to no time to make. I make these a head of time so that I do not have to worry later on down the road when the kids want chicken nuggets or strips for lunch or dinner. This can easily be diced into three even parts and you got chicken nuggets. Store bought chicken strips and nuggets are full of unnecessary additives that "prolong" shelf life, I find that to be a load of crap! When I make these, if they last, they stay for 1 year! (As long as chicken can freeze for before going bad- assuming they will last that long, in my house they last a couple weeks if I am lucky)! Store bought chicken strips have things like Soybean oil, autolyzed yeast extract, dextrose, and something called maltodextrin; I am sorry but what is all that crap?! My chicken strips have organic ingredients, nothing add to preserve them because they will last long enough for my kids to enjoy and are cooked in coconut oil then baked! I found organic chicken at my local store on clearance, very cheap, I got 6 packages and used the all to make roughly 70 chicken strips cost me roughly $1.48/ per chicken strip!! BEAT THAT TYSON CHICKEN! Well let's get to the cooking/freezing part!! 

You Will Need:

1 Cup Raw Milk (or regular)
2 Cups Plain Bread Crumbs
3 pkg Organic Chicken (tenderloins) 
2 tbsp Organic Garlic Granulates
2 tbsp Organic Onion Granulates
2 tbsp Organic Italian Seasoning
4 Organic Pasture Raised Eggs
1 Cup Organic Flour
Salt & Pepper (to your liking) 


Gather your ingredients


Place all your dried ingredients, except flour, you can add fresh shredded Parmesan cheese, it is not needed, but can be added- Daniel requested I add it to this batch 


Mix together the ingredients, set aside


Crack eggs in a bowl add milk and whisk, set aside


Make sure to have a third bowl for flour, here I have all my ingredients laid out ready to go. Now I suggest you open all your chicken and place in another bowl, or plate until you need them, it was tricky trying to get them opened while my hands were icky! 


Dip chicken into flour


Then into the egg wash bath (haha)


And into the breadcrumbs mixture


Back into the egg wash


And bread crumbs one last time


Place all chicken onto a baking sheet, you can line it with unbleached parchment paper, silicon mat or nothing at all; place into the freeze for 2 hours or until fully frozen. From this you can cook or place into a zip-lock bag, label and date


In a cast iron skillet, place enough coconut oil to cover half the chicken, allow to warm, add chicken in and cook on medium heat for 5 to 6 minutes per side


Place them on a paper towel to drain the grease, then on a baking sheet, and cook in the oven at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until fully cooked


I added organic home grown corn, that I froze last year, and homemade potato wedges! (recipe for potato wedges) I also could not decide on a dipping sauce, so I made homemade BBQ sauce, Ranch and homemade (home canned) ketchup.. I dipped using all three and they were amazing!! Hands down the best homemade hungry man T.V. dinner!!! 


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