"Best Of"

What about a "Best Of" recipes post? I need to get my butt in gear and start coming up with new and exciting things for dinner. In the mean time, here are a few of the "Best Of" selections that are made over and over again and somewhat east to do.

Pizza Bites-- Remember these? A few ingredients you may already have laying around and in less than 30 minutes you have hand-held pizza bites to munch on, take for lunch, or a great appetizer!

Baked Zucchini Sticks-- Ok so maybe not a meal, but another great snack. Better if made & eaten fresh, as they may get soggy as leftovers. Very few ingredients. 

Broccoli Chicken Bake-- One of the most requested recipes. Simple, vegetable, pasta, chicken. Dinner in a dish & bake. 

Easy Enchiladas-- I realize these are just cheese enchiladas, so adding ground beef would be extra better. EASY!

Potstickers or Dumplings-- I need to make these again! So easy, finger food and can be customized to whatever you want to fill them with!

Now I feel like I need to go make a bunch of food!

What are some of your favorite, easy, go-to meals? What would you like to see me make?

Chicken Pesto Pizza

Did you think I forgot how to cook or how to post food & recipes? Nope! I just don't post often. I'm still cooking.

While looking through The Pioneer Woman's cookbook for dinner ideas I came across her Pesto recipe and Pizza dough. I absolutely love Pesto but never have basil and always want to make my own. This meant a trip to the grocery store!

Chicken Pesto Pizza

Pesto sauce (recipe below)
Chicken, about 1 lb, grilled & shredded
Cheddar cheese, about 1-1 1/2 cups shredded
Pizza dough (recipe below)
Oregano (to taste)
Basil (to taste)
Garlic salt (to taste)

Pesto Sauce (taken from The Pioneer Woman's cookbook: Food From My Frontier)

3/4 cup fresh basil
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons pine nuts
2 garlic cloves, peeled
salt & pepper
1/3 cup EVOO (olive oil)

Place basil, parmesan, pine nuts, whole garlic cloves and salt and pepper to food processor. Put lit on and begin to blend. Adding EVOO as you go. Add enough so the pesto is a sauce and not so thick. Set aside or put in the fridge for a day or so. Can also be frozen in cubes to be used later!


Next, make the pizza dough...which can also be stored in the fridge for a few days.

Pizza Dough (Also taken from The Pioneer Woman's cookbook: Food From My Frontier)

1 scant teaspoon active dry yeast
3/4 cup warm water
2 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons olive oil

First combine yeast and warm water in a small bowl. Allow to sit for 10 minutes. Add flour to the bowl of a mixer, using paddle attachment. Sprinkle in the salt. Turn the mixer on and add olive oil. Finally, pour in the yeast water mix. Stop mixing when it becomes sticky. Allow dough to rise for about an hour before using. If storing in fridge, take out and allow to rise for about an hour before using

Before cooking

And after cooking

Once you have the dough and the pesto, and the chicken is cooked and the cheese is shredded, heat oven to 350 degrees. I lined a cookie sheet with foil so it wouldn't stick. Roll out pizza dough and lay on the cookie sheet. Cover with pesto sauce. Next, sprinkle cheese around. Then, add chicken. I sprinkled with oregano, basil and garlic salt. Baked in the oven for 15-18 minutes. If you want a crispier crust, bake a little longer.

This was delish! I made the pesto and dough a day ahead of time, so that saved time. All I had to do was grill the chicken and shred the cheese while the dough was rising. Good to make a head of time! There were no leftovers :)

Breakfast: French-Omelet

Alert the presses. I'm back in blogger world & in the kitchen.  Haven't had a whole lot of time to be cooking anything fancy or taking pictures of it, but I'm making a better effort to try. I find myself using my phone to take pictures and send it more often.

Had some time this "weekend" (my weekend off work) to do some cooking. This consisted of making Jackson's food and some delish items for us grown ups too! Who you calling "grown up"?


French-Omelet (created by me)


8 eggs
about 1 cup milk (soy or regular)
3 slices of bread (whole wheat) tore up into 9 slices
1 bell pepper (I used red)
2 teaspoons cinnamon (or to taste)


Mix all these in a bowl. Preheat oven to 350. Use a cheesecake pan (with the outer ring that can be removed, and obviously I don't know the real name of it) and spray with non-stick or olive oil. Place slices of bread on bottom of pan. Sprinkle cinnamon on the bread. Pour egg mixture into pan. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20-25 minutes. **The more eggs you use/larger batch will require more baking time as it will be thicker. 

World Traveler via The Kitchen

I was able to get in the kitchen this weekend and crank out some meals for this week, especially helpful since I will be working overnights. Welcome zombie shifts!


Here is what you have to look forward to for recipes to come:


Pork Fajitas
Sloppy Joe's
Pork Fried Rice
Greek-Jamaican Chicken
BBQ Chicken


Sense a bit of world travel there? I covered almost all the basic continents! Prepping things ahead of time can help so much and make it that much easier to cook a meal in little time. I'm all about time management  since my work and family life schedule are pretty crazy at times.

So here's to a week of great food! Still working the Juneathon and going strong!

Kitchen Rewind!

I've been lacking posting recipes and dish's that I've been cooking so I'm going to send it all at you at once--it will get your mouth watering and hopefully spark something for you to make for dinner this weekend or this coming week. Enjoy!


Regular and Whole Wheat pizza dough made from scratch

 

Homemade Baked French Fries--need to perfect this!

Ketchup & Mayo to dip the fries in--pretty good!

 Turkey meatballs in General Tso's sauce



Italian Taco Casserole--Y-U-M!

 



Deep fried soy sauce & chili sauce marinaded chicken potstickers

  I think one of the best thing about all of these dishes is: they were all homemade and made on the fly following no recipe. I just looked in the pantry and the fridge and saw what I had and went with it. Sometimes this works out and sometimes it doesn't. The french fries I need to perfect, they were a bit mushy but still got the job done and tasted they way I had wanted.  There was also a dish I made that I didn't take a picture of, hamburger casserole. This turned out pretty good and now I know what I would change next time I make this. The Italian taco casserole is amazing and I've made it numerous times now with different noodles and it turns out great.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Stay warm--most places are pretty chilly out there! One thing I don't miss about living in Colorado is scraping my windows before I drive away or shoveling snow. Phoenix sure did have it's share of cold weather this week though. However not as cold as -30 degrees, 30 degrees is quite cold for the desert!

I'm not a big NFL fan or follower, but I'm excited to watch the superbowl after work tomorrow just purely for the commercials and half-time show. That's all I ever look forward to!

Empty Kitchen

Well not completely :) I just haven't been cooking much lately, and not much that is exciting either. Also, haven't taken any pictures. Ah, life. That is just it, life. Life has been getting in the way, geez. I've been working a lot and working on a lot. We've had visitors this month and its been fun but I need to get things back on track. Oh and I'm training to run a half marathon in February. I'm pretty excited about that and I'm going to do my best at training for it. By no means am I going to compete for a great time, just to finish and hopefully run the entire thing without walking or minimal walking is my goal right now. 

With all of that said, I will work on cooking up some more goodness and awesomeness, edible that is, and get back on track. Thanks for checking in and reading about all the craziness. Have a great weekend all! 

not my kitchen, though i wish! googled it