Italian Baked Chicken and Pastina

I'll have to say that Giada was resting on her laurels with this recipe It's got potential, but it just turned out rather blah. I know she makes some good stuff, I've made a few of her recipes that turned out really delicious.

I thought it looked pretty yummy all mixed up together, and a little bit colorful too. But it definitely needed something.

There was a fair amount of butter on top....so that wasn't the problem. Maybe it needed some more garlic, or the addition of some Italian seasonings might have been nice. Maybe a different kind of meat, some sausage may have boosted the flavor a bit.

The topping was pretty good, just a mixture of bread crumbs and parmesan.

Well, thank goodness I had some yummy no bake cookies to make up for the disappointment. (yeah that's a dirty potholder there, sorry)

A friend of mine in college would make these for us all the time and she recently sent me her recipe. I used to be able to make these but lost the touch somehow, and they would always turn out too runny or something. But her recipe is just right!

1 stick butter 2 cups sugar 3 Tablespoons Hershey's Cocoa 1/2 cup milk Stir while boiling 4 minutes over med heat. Remove from heat and stir in 1 Teaspoon Vanilla 3/4 cup Jif Peanut Butter 2 Cups quick oats Drop quickly onto wax paper and allow to cool. Eat before the kids get out of school and hide all evidence.