Pizza on the Grill June 19, 2008

If you have never tried pizza on the grill, I suggest you do sometime this Summer.  Yum!  I want to try chicken pesto next time. 

    

Crust

I have to be honest, I used a store bought pizza dough for this one, it made my life a bit easier.  I think I bought the Meijers brand, it was actually pretty good, it had more of a buttery taste compared to homemade dough, nice for a change.

Sauce

I used the same sauce recipe I have been making for all my other homemade pizzas. 

Toppings

We went with half Pepperoni and Sausage and half mushroom and green pepper and of course cheese over the top of the whole thing!

Outcome

Awesome!!  I think this one takes practice to get it exactly right.  My husband and I talked about what we’d do different next time we make this but I think for everyone it will be different depending on your grill and how YOU like your pizza. 

This recipe didn’t come from any of my cookbooks, although I think I’m about 3 books into my goal of making one recipe I’ve never made out of each of my cookbooks for the next year.  I’ve seen a lot of blog posts on pizza on the grill and found this one from Al Dente to be the easiest to follow.  Give it a try, it’s fun and really good!

Chicken, Chicken and more Chicken May 19, 2008

I recently made a few chicken dishes that I really enjoyed and wanted to share.  I didn’t have enough patience to take my own pictures, so I’m posting pictures that I found from websites (since my favpart about blogging is seeing pictures, although I don’t think any of these pictures do the dishes justice!)  Out of these three, Chicken Marsala was my favorite.

Chicken Parmesan Pasta

Serves 2

(Recipe & picture from:  Kraftfoods.com)

2-3 chicken boneless skinless chicken breast

1 egg white beaten (I use milk)

1/2 cup Italian seasoned dry bread crumbs

1 1/2 cup spaghetti sauce

3/4 cup mozzarella cheese (shredded)

1/2 tsp oregano

3 oz spaghetti noodles (I like to use whole wheat spirals)

Dip chicken in egg (or milk) and dredge in bread crumbs to coat both sides.  Place in a 8×8 inch pan.  Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until chicken is cooked through topping with cheese the last 5 minutes.  In the meantime, cook the noodles, drain, place back in pan and mix in the sauce until heated through.  Serve the chicken over the pasta. 

Very simple and extremely tasty!

 

Chicken Marsala

Serves 2-4

(Recipe & picture from Olivegarden.com)

2-4 chicken boneless skinless chicken breast

1/4 cup cake flour (1/2 Tbsp corn starch + enough AP flour to fill 1/4 cup)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp Oregano

4 Tbsp oil

4 Tbsp butter

1/2 tsp Pepper

1 cup fresh mushrooms, sliced

1/2 cup Marsala wine

Combine flour, salt, pepper, and oregano and blend well (I just tossed it all together).  Heat the oil and butter in a skillet until bubbling lightly.  Dredge the chicken in the flour and shake off the excess.  Cook the chicken on medium heat for about 2 minutes on the first side, until lightly brown.  As you turn the breasts to the second side to cook, add the mushrooms around the chicken pieces.  Cook about 2 more minutes, until lightly browned on the second side.  Stir in the mushrooms.  When the second side is lightly browned, add the wine around the pieces, cover the pan and simmer for about 10 minutes. 

That’s it!  I’ve tried Rachael Ray’s Chicken Marsala which included a number of ingred. I didn’t have on hand and at least another 45 minutes to an hour longer than this.  I wasn’t happy with the result, but this recipe turned out really good!

 

Bruschetta n’ Cheese-Stuffed Chicken Breasts/Bruschetta Chicken Bake

Serves 6-8

(Recipe and pictures from Kraftfoods.com)

These two recipes I got from Kraft Foods.  I thought both recipes turned out really good.  They both use pretty much the exact same ingredients but for the stuffed chicken, the meat needs to be pounded and for the chicken bake the chicken needs to be in bite-size pieces.  So it really depends on what your up for doing that night, pounding or cutting.  Like I said both turned out great and another very easy recipe.  Here is where you can go for both recipes:

Bruschetta n’ Cheese-Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Bruschetta Chicken Bake

 

Pizza Night! April 5, 2008

Homemade pizza that is.  I’ve been wanting to make homemade pizza for so long!  We planned a pizza night with some friends of ours in early March.  Stuff came up, such is life, and we couldn’t make it work out until last weekend.  So, we decided on who was going to bring what, meet up and went at it!  We all agreed that the pizza turned out great and we will definitly be going back to the pizza dough and pizza sauce recipes we used again.  Doing this with another couple also worked well so one of us didn’t have to prepare all the ingredients.

Both the recipes came from Melanie at My Kitchen Cafe.  She says this is her tried and true recipe for slow-rise pizza dough.  She also has another one on her site for a quick dough that doesn’t need time to rest overnight.  Thanks for the awesome recipes Melanie!

Slow-Rize Pizza Dough

(Recipe from:  My Kitchen Cafe)

Serves 4

2 1/4 teaspoons yeast
1 1/3 cup water
3 1/2 to 4 cups flour
2 teaspoons salt.

24 hours before making the pizza, throw the above ingredients together to a desired consistency (still soft but not too sticky), place it in a greased bowl, cover with suran wrap and put it in the fridge.  Take the dough out 2-3 hours before making the pizza to let the dough come to room temp and relax.

Homemade Pizza Sauce

 

(Recipe from:  My Kitchen Cafe)

 

Enough to cover two pizza’s made with one batch of the slow-rize pizza dough.

 

1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes

1 small can tomato paste

1 tablespoon sugar

Oregano

Garlic powder

Italian seasoning

Crushed red pepper (optional)

 

Combine all ingredients in food processor/blender or use a hand blender, blend all ingredients until smooth unless you like your sauce a bit chunky.  Add seasoning to taste.  

 

Putting it all together!

 

(Some of these tips also came from My Kitchen Cafe)

 

*Preheat oven with pizza stone to 450-500 degrees for 30-40 minutes.

*Get all ingredients together:  sauce, toppings (sausage, peperoni, mushroom, green pepper, etc. unless you just want cheese!).  Grate cheese (can use shredded but results won’t be as good.) and fling dough in the air a few times to make the crust the thickness you want. 

*Take stone out of oven (careful, it’s extremely hot!) and as quickly as you can lay the crust down, spread the sauce, top with cheese and then toppings or toppings then

cheese, it’s your pizza, make it how you like it and slide the stone back in the oven.  (We used a floured pizza paddle for the first pizza, it did not slide easily off the paddle when trying to get the pizza on the stone so this is the way we did it for the second, which seemed to work good!)

*Bake for 7-10 minutes until the cheese is melted, slightly bubbly and a bit browned. 

*If you’d rather not have your crust continue to get crispy, take the pizza off the stone after you take the pizza out of the oven.

 

Sit, eat and enjoy! 

 

 

 

Pecan-Crusted Tilapia March 22, 2008

This is one of my new favorite easy meals when the hubby is out of town.  All there is to it is coat the fish with a few ingredients and throw it in a skillet for 5-10 minutes.  Tilapia, in my opinion, is not fishy tasting at all.  It is flaky and moist.  The original recipe came from Cooking Light, although I changed it up a bit (see parenthesis).

Pecan-Crusted Tilapia

(Recipe from Cooking Light)

Yield:  4 Servings

1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs (1/4 breadcrumbs, 1/4 wheat germ)
2 Tbps finely chopped pecans
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk (skim milk)
1/2 tsp hot sauce (Cayenne seasoning)
3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
4 (6-oz) tilapia or snapper fillets
1 tablespoon vegetable oil, divided
4 lemon wedges

Combine first 5 ingredients in a shallow dish. Combine buttermilk and hot sauce in a medium bowl; place flour in a shallow dish. Dredge 1 fillet in flour. Dip in buttermilk mixture; dredge in breadcrumb mixture. Repeat procedure with remaining fillets, flour, buttermilk mixture, and breadcrumb mixture.

Heat 1 1/2 teaspoons oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add 2 fillets; cook 3 minutes on each side or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork. Repeat procedure with remaining oil and fillets. Serve with lemon wedges.

Heat 1 1/2 teaspoons oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add 2 fillets; cook 3 minutes on each side or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork. Repeat procedure with remaining oil and fillets. Serve with lemon wedges.

CALORIES 302(27% from fat); FAT 9.1g (sat 1.1g,mono 3.9g,poly 2.6g); PROTEIN 38.4g; CHOLESTEROL 64mg; CALCIUM 98mg; SODIUM 530mg; FIBER 0.9g; IRON 1.3mg; CARBOHYDRATE 14.2g

Spinach and Cheese Roll-ups March 14, 2008

I made these the night before I ate them so they took about 50 minutes in the oven instead of 25.  I also made a few changes to the original recipe which you can see in parenthesis.  This dish needed more seasoning, I had to add salt, so if I make it again I’ll be throwing in additional spices that aren’t listed in the recipe.  Although I have to say it was a good light meal!

Spinach and Cheese Roll-Ups

(Recipe from lowfatlifestyle.com)

• 1/3 cup chopped onion
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 - 14.5 ounce can diced canned tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/4 teaspoon sugar
• Dash of salt
• Dash of black pepper
• 8 dried lasagna noodles (whole wheat noodles)
• 1 - 10 ounce package frozen chopped spinach, thawed
• 3/4 cup fat-free or reduced fat ricotta cheese (ff cottage cheese
• 1/2 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese (2 ounces)
• 2 tablespoons finely shredded Parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons snipped fresh basil (dried basil)
• 1 slightly beaten egg white

In a medium saucepan cook onion and garlic in hot oil until onion is tender, stirring occasionally. Carefully stir in undrained tomatoes, tomato paste, basil, sugar, salt, and pepper. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, about 5 minutes or until sauce is desired consistency, stirring occasionally.

Cook pasta according to package directions; drain. Rinse with cold water; drain well.

For filling, drain thawed spinach well, pressing out excess liquid. In a medium bowl stir together ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese and basil. Add spinach and egg white, stirring to combine.

To assemble, evenly spread about 1/4 cup filling on each noodle and roll up from one end. Place rolls, seam side down into 8×8 pan. Top with sauce.

Bake casseroles, covered, in a 350 degree oven about 25 (50 if made the night before) minutes or until heated through.

Slow-Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup & Corn Bread February 1, 2008

For those who do not watch Lost, the season premier was on last night.  Besides the Food Network, this is seriously the only show that I watch.  So, of course, we had to have a party to kick the season off right!  I invited the friends to come watch the premier and of course lured them in with some of my cooking :) 

I decided on a soup because of all the cold and snowy weather we have been getting here in Northwest Indiana.  Instead of cooking up the tortilla strips, like it says in the recipe, I made corn bread.  I changed the recipe a bit because of the reviews I read.  I used the corn bread recipe I recently had at my mom’s house from Faith Church’s cookbook.  Everything turned out great and the friends loved it! 

Slow-Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup

(original recipe from allrecipes.com, submitted by Elena)

1 lb frozen chicken breast or tenders

1 (15 oz) can diced tomatoes

1 (10 oz) can enchilada sauce

1 medium onion, chopped

1 (4 oz) can chopped green chile peppers

2 cloves garlic, minced

4 cups chicken broth

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp crush bay leaves

1 (10 oz) pkg frozen corn

1 can black beans

1 Tbsp chopped cilantro

(7 corn tortillas and cooking spray if making the tortilla strips)

Place chicken, tomatoes, enchilada sauce, onion, green chiles, and garlic into a slow cooker.  Pour in chicken broth and season with cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper and bay leaves.  Stir in corn and cilantro.  Cover and cook on Low setting for 6 to 8  hours or on High setting for 3 to 4 hours.  Take chicken out, shred and place back in slow-cooker.  Keep slow-cooker on Low or Warm until ready to eat.

It’s as easy as that!  I threw it all in before I left for work and came home to the great aroma of Tortilla Soup.  Delicious!

(Tortilla Strips:  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Lightly spray both sides of tortillas with cooking spray.  Cut tortillas into strips, then spread on a baking sheet.  Bake in preheated oven until crisp, about 10 to 15 minutes.  To serve, sprinkle tortilla strips over soup.)

 Corn Bread recipe coming soon…