SparkPeople.com, the free weight loss website, is supposed to "spark" you to drop pounds and gain support from millions of other online users. The first thing it "sparked" me to do, though, was buy a bottle of hot sauce.

That's because the first Recipe of the Day delivered to my inbox was for boneless chicken hot wings that were intriguingly hot from the inside out. The baked recipe is coated in whole-wheat bread crumbs. Sure, we've all heard of dipping our finished chicken nuggets in hot sauce before popping them into our mouths, but dredging them in hot sauce in place of the usual milk or egg wash before breading?

Soon, just as SparkPeople states it hopes, my "spark" had gone into overdrive. I thought of all kinds of foods that would benefit flavor-wise from being dipped first in their usual sauces or serving accompaniments before being breaded and oven fried.

After the nuggets, first up was a recipe inspired by the famed fresh-caught shrimp that fills the glass cases at San Pedro Fish Market. It's a market/restaurant smack in the middle of Los Angeles' biggest port, where you inspect and pick your catch, choose the cooking method and then enjoy it sans plate — straight from a plastic tray as you sit on picnic tables overlooking the fishing boats. Shrimp dripping in garlic chili butter is one of the house specialties.

At home, I made scampi sauce, then partially cooked the shrimp in it, shook it a bit with tongs and then breaded it with Japanese panko bread crumbs — the light, crispy treat recently available from major brands in supermarkets. The scampi flavor turned oven-fried shrimp inside out in a great way.

I love tempura vegetables and found that the "sparky" method worked magic there, too. Tubs of soy sauce-based dipping sauce almost always accompany tempura at restaurants. Instead, I first dipped my sweet potato pieces, mushrooms, zucchini and carrots in now widely available supermarket Japanese ponzu sauces, the soy sauce-based, citrus-infused condiment, and then slathered on the tempura batter. This left the already snappily flavored final product ready to dip in innovative dressings while munching, like creamy cilantro-lime and chili-cayenne salad dressings I found at my local supermarket.

Even dessert benefited from the "spark" method. Rizzo's Pizzeria has been a family-run favorite in Torrance, Calif., for almost 30 years, attracting lots of critical raves along the way in Los Angeles County's South Bay community. Gradually, their standout bread stick chunks began to outsell even their wildly popular pizzas. One specialty comes dripping with cinnamon butter that they pour from a pitcher on top.

Inspired by that, at home, I chopped some thick egg bread into 1 1/2-inch-wide strips and dipped them in a melted cinnamon butter mixture before coating in finely crushed cinnamon graham cereal crumbs. I baked at 300 F on a nonstick-sprayed baking sheet for a minute on each side, or until lightly brown and crispy. They were great served with sugar-free chocolate sauce and all-fruit spreads for dipping.

Imagine all that "spark" just from the first Recipe of the Day. The free SparkPeople.com was started by Chris Downie, one of the initial benefactors of the eBay craze, who decided to put his money where other people's mouths were in order to help inspire the world to become involved in controlling their diets.

There are countless motivational tools and techniques on the site, including an easy one that seems to work: getting Spark Points for everything you do (site members have racked up more than a billion and a half points). This includes little things, even as simple as logging into the site, scanning a brief health article, exercising or reading the Recipe of the Day in your inbox. Here's the one that got me "sparked."

CHEF MEG'S BONELESS CHICKEN HOT WINGS

1/3 cup whole-wheat or plain bread crumbs

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon black pepper

8 ounces boneless, skinless chicken, cut into bite-size chunks

2 tablespoons Tabasco sauce, plus additional (optional) for serving

Bleu cheese dressing, (optional) for serving

Celery sticks, (optional) for serving

Yields 2 servings.

Preheat oven to 375 F. Place bread crumbs in a pie pan. Add seasonings and mix well. Place chicken pieces in a separate dish, and cover and toss with hot sauce. Spray a sheet pan with nonstick spray.

Give each chicken piece a shake (so it's not dripping with hot sauce), and then coat it evenly with the bread crumbs. (Use one hand for the wet ingredients and one for the dry ingredients so that the bread crumbs will not clump.) Place the nuggets on the sheet pan. Bake 10 minutes.

Flip and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes or until fully cooked. The USDA recommends cooking poultry to an internal temperature of 165 F. If desired, serve with additional hot sauce, bleu cheese dressing and/or celery sticks.

— www.SparkPeople.com

SCAMPI OVEN-FRIED SHRIMP

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

1 small onion, sliced thinly

2 tablespoons chopped garlic

1 lemon, juiced

1/2 cup white wine

1/2 cup seafood, vegetable or chicken stock

2 tablespoons cold butter

2 tablespoons chopped parsley leaves

2 pounds medium shrimp, peeled, deveined and tails removed

Salt, to taste

Pepper, to taste

2 teaspoons store-bought Creole seasoning

1 1/2 cups (preferably panko) bread crumbs

Store-bought Japanese ponzu sauce, (optional) for dipping

Yields 4 to 6 servings.

Place olive oil in a saute pan and heat until medium-high heat. Add the onions and saute just until they begin to soften, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook another 30 seconds. Add the lemon juice, white wine and stock, and reduce by 2/3, about 5 minutes. Swirl in the butter. Sprinkle in parsley.

Preheat oven to 360 F. Spray a sheet pan with nonstick spray.

Season shrimp with salt and pepper. Saute in the butter sauce until just starting to turn pink but not cooked through.

In a large bowl, combine Creole seasoning and panko bread crumbs. Using tongs or another utensil, carefully give each butter-drenched shrimp a shake (so it's not dripping in butter), and then coat evenly with the panko bread crumbs. Place the coated shrimp on the sheet pan and bake for about 2 minutes per side, or until completely cooked. Good served with ponzu sauce for dipping.

— Adapted from Emeril Lagasse/Food Network

Lisa Messinger is a first-place winner in food writing from the Association of Food Journalists and the author of seven food books, including "Mrs. Cubbison's Best Stuffing Cookbook" and "The Sourdough Bread Bowl Cookbook." She also writes the Creators News Service "Cooks' Books" column. To find out more about Lisa Messinger and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.