Easy Pizza Pillows ~ Perfect for any occassion!

I have been thinking about doing these for a few weeks now.  Last night I decided I would give them a try, with just items we had on hand.  

Easy?  Absolutely.  This was a type of dish that would be great to teach the little ones to do.  

First what you'll need:

Pepperoni, cut into Fourths.  ( I did this to make biting into them would be easy.)

String cheese ( I would have preferred to have fresh mozzarella balls.)

Grands Biscuits

Basil

Olive Oil

Minced Garlic

Sauce for dipping

You'll need to split each biscuit in half.  So for each package of 8, you'll end up with 16 pillows.  Once you have them separated, flatten out each piece. 

Layer each piece with a few slices of pepperoni, and a piece of mozzarella.  

Begin by folding over one side of the biscuit.  

You'll end up making an envelope of sorts.  

Once you have all the sides folded over, gently roll the pillow between the palms of your hands, you want to create a ball like shape.  

Place close together in a pan.  ( When they bake up, they'll be touching each other.)  Lightly drizzle olive oil over each of them. 

Sprinkle a little basil and minced garlic over each of them. 

Bake in oven at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes.  

Serve warm with pizza sauce for dipping! 

Like little pillows of pizza heaven! 

Not Your Ordinary Pastrami Sandwich!

I love a good Pastrami sandwich, but I was really getting tired of the same old, same old.  You know the pastrami, cheese and mustard routine.  That's when I decided to come up with a good complimenting sauce the other night, and would again use my family as my test subjects.  

Now, if my husband likes it, than I know it's a hit.  When he does like something that I create, I am floored.  Not because he's picky, because he's really not, but when I start to mess with a classic, he's just a hard one to please.  

The key was the dressing in this recipe:

Here's what you'll need for the sauce:

Approx. 1/4 brick of cream cheese, softened.  (This was plenty for the five sandwiches)

1 tbsp of minced garlic

1 tsp parsley

1 tsp minced chives

1/2 tsp. basil pesto

(Fresh herbs are always the best if you have them.  The flavors just "pop")

Combine all the above ingredients in a small bowl and mix thoroughly.

Cook your pastrami as you normally would, top with your onions, tomatoes and lettuce, and there you have one of the best tasting Pastrami Sandwiches you'll eat.

Farmers' Market Melon & Herb Salad

Farmers’ Market Melon & Herb Salad

Serves 4

Collect

Carapelli Extra Virgin Olive Oil

½ Canary melon

½ Charentais melon

½ Red watermelon

3 sprigs fresh marjoram, leaves picked

1 tbsp salt

Moscato vinegar

Assemble

Seed and cut all the melon into bite-sized pieces. Toss the melon in a large bowl and sprinkle with salt. Drizzle the moscato vinegar and extra virgin olive oil over the melons and gently mix. Marinate for up to an hour.

While you wait, imagine your melons soaking up all that lovely flavor. Kind of like when you soak up all that lovely sun (with lots of sunscreen on, of course).

Right before serving, toss marjoram leaves into the melon salad. Serve family style on a large platter.

Would You Try This Burger?

We love trying new and different food combinations, and my husband and I are always watching the Food Channel to come up with "Do It Ourself" recipes.  So needless to say we were watching a show the other night and saw a burger...

Yes, that is infact a glazed donut!  This was super easy to do, and although it was very delicious, it's not something that we would make all the time, well not unless we want to have a couple of bypasses in the next few years.  

It was just something that we both wanted to try.  So try we did.  

First cut a glazed donut like you would a roll.  Place face down in a frying pan.  There really isn't a need to use butter in the bottom of the pan, as long as you use a non stick pan.  Brown the bottom of each side.  This will make the donut all the easier to hold onto when biting into the sandwich.

Cook the burger to your desired "doneness".  Place on top of one side of the donut.  Add your cheese, and bacon.  

Serve.  

The explosion of both sweet and savory was, I have to say incredible.  The sugary glaze from the donut had quite the contrast from the saltiness of the bacon and burger.  

Reminded me more of a breakfast sandwich really.  

We made a few other burgers last night as well...  You'll just have to wait and see what the others were!  

Gluten-Free Orange Shrimp

Created by Carol Kicinski for San-J. (www.san-j.com)

Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds raw large shrimp, peeled and deveined
3 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
8 green onions, cleaned, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces on the diagonal
5 Thai chilies, whole
1/3 cup San-J Orange Sauce

Preparation

Pat the shrimp dry with paper towels and put into a mixing bowl with the cornstarch, toss to coat.

Heat the oil in a large skillet or wok over high heat until it starts to shimmer, add the shrimp and cook, stirring often, until they turn pink and start to curl, about 2 minutes. Add the green onions and chilies and cook for 1 minute. Add the San-J Orange Sauce, cook for 1 minutes or until the sauce is heated through. Serve immediately; don’t eat the chilies unless you can tolerate really spicy food.

Serves 4.

Pillsbury Biscuits Pizza Cups!

I get tired of the same meals, and am always looking for news ways to make the classic dinners, and when I thought of this one, it quickly became a huge hit, and now, I have the girls asking for them at least once a week.  One of my favorite features of this dinner, is that we can each put whatever we choose to inside each cup, and if you want several different kinds, it's super easy to do, without having to make 5 different full pizzas. 

What you'll need:

~ Muffin pan (s)

~ Pillsbury Grands Biscuits

~ Tomato Sauce

~ Mozzarella Cheese

~ Pizza Toppings of your choice

~ Non Stick Spray

With the Pillsbury Grands Biscuits, you'll need to separate each biscuit into 2, turning a package of 8 biscuits in 16 pizza cups.  After each one has been separated into 2, you'll want to gently stretch and pinch the biscuit into a round pizza like dough form.  now place each one into a greased Muffin cup. 

Now comes the fun part, each person can put whatever they choose to in each cup,  I like pepperoni, onions, mushrooms and peppers.  My husband is a meat man, and the girls like everything from just cheese to pepperoni and olives.  Fill each cup about 7/8ths full, add a teaspoon of sauce, and top each cup with cheese. 

bake at 400 degrees until desired color, I usually like mine slightly well done so we cook them for about 20 minutes, let cool for a few minutes, and serve. 

These are great for parties too, just remember not to put too much sauce, as it will begin to leak out the bottom. 

A New Take on Grilled Cheese!

I hate...  I mean really hate making the same dishes day after day, week after week, month after month.  I love trying new dishes, new combinations, new ideas on old dishes, and this past week was one of those weeks, where I just scored a complete home run, on an old idea....


Grilled.    Mozzarella.    Sticks.


I only wish I had thought of this years ago! 

 

 

Grilled Mozzarella Sticks

 

What You'll need:

 

2 sliced Sourdough bread ( for each sandwich you'll be making)

2 slices of Mozzarella Cheese ( for each sandwich you'll be making)

Butter

Marinara sauce (for dipping)

 

Prepare your grilled cheese sandwiches as you normally would, buttering one side of each slice for cooking.  Once done, remove from heat and slice into thin strips.  I can normally get four slices per sandwich.

 

pour your marinara sauce into a dipping cup, and enjoy!  The kids love these! 

Homemade Kentucky Fried Chicken!

My husband and I are always looking for new recipes.  See, I am a type of person, that gets tired of the same recipes very quickly. 

We tend to watch a lot of Diners, Drive-ins & Dives, Man V's Food, and a few other shows that showcase recipes from around the country. 

Even more, I'm a KFC girl.  I love my chicken.  However, I hate the price, I mean it's chicken.  It's not like it's lobster.  No.  It's chicken!  Chicken should not be that expensive. 

So through trial and error, and concocting a few different batter recipes to try out over the last several weeks, I think we finally came up with a recipe close to, if not even better than real KFC Chicken! 

Here's the recipe:

2 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts, cut into small pieces

2 Eggs beaten

4 Cups All Purpose, Unbleached Flour ( Any Flour will do.)

1 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Pepper

1/2 tsp Garlic Powder

1/2 Ground Mustard

1/2 tsp Onion Powder

1/2 tsp Oregano

1/2 tsp Paprika

1 package Tomato Soup Mix ( Lipton makes a great one)

Add all dry ingredients together, and set aside.  Place cut up chicken pieces into a large Ziploc bag, add beaten eggs, and seal bag up.  shake up the bag to coat all the pieces of chicken evenly.  Let stand for a couple of minutes, and shake up again.  Open up the bag, and add the dry ingredients, and shake up bag vigorously, until all the chicken is coated.  Empty bag back into bowl, you may need to continue to mix up chicken to coat any pieces that didn't get coated in bag. 

Heat oil (We use a Cool Daddy) to highest temp, 375 degrees.  Two Chicken Breasts usually take two batches in the Cool Daddy.  Fry for approx 9-12 minutes.  Pieces will be golden brown.  Take chicken out of fryer, and place on some paper towels to drain any excess oil. 

2 Chicken Breasts were more than enough for my family of four.  Of course we also made Cole Slaw, and Mashed potatoes, just like when we order used to order from KFC. 

I am always forgetting to take pictures during the different steps, which is something I am working on trying to remember. 

Quick & Easy Stir Fry

This is probably my favorite dish to make.  It's so easy, and full of flavor, it's a family favorite here.  This dish can be made by itself, or with chicken or beef stir fry, so it's extremely versatile.  I often make this dish for lunch, when I'm craving something salty.  Here's what you need:

This is for each person
~ 1/2 cup of Instant white rice.  (you can use other types of rice, instant, just makes it very quick to make.)
~ 1/2 cup chopped Green Pepper
~ 1/2 cup chopped sweet onion
~ 1/2 cup chopped baby bella or Shitake Mushrooms

In a smal pan, prepare rice as directed on box.  In a separate pan stir in 2 tablespoons oil oil with all the vegetables, cook until tender (on high for about 8 minutes, contantly stirring). 

Once rice is done, season with a single pat of butter and lemon pepper seasoning instead of salt for a healthier option.  place rice onto plate, and top with vegetables.  Enjoy! 

Since rice is one of our stockpile items, this makes for a very budget friendly dish, especially when vegetables are purchased when they are on sale. 

Best BBQ Chicken Pizza

This recipe came out of a just discovered pizza we had ordered from a recent pizza parlor that is nearby our home.  The BBQ sauce that is used, has an incrediable flavor, that makes this whole pizza, and it's a good thing I took this picture of it while it was still in the oven.  I had meant to take a second picture when it came out, unfortunately, it had been devoured rather quickly! 

I have been, for the last several months, not only learning how to "Meal Plan" but also prepare many of our foods ahead of time, and store them in the freezer.  By doing this, we have shaved so much time off the actual prep time each night, that my husband now helps prepare all the meals! 

This pizza uses the chicken pieces that we cook up ahead of time.

Here's how to make this delicious dish.

~1 Boboli Pizza Shell

~4 Tablespoons of Hunt's Tomato Sauce.  (We use the small can's for pizza making)
**left over tomato sauce gets frozen in ice cube trays, and when frozen popped out, and put into freezer bags.  This makes a great way to add additional sauce to crock pot dishes**

~2 cups of bite size cooked chicken pieces

~2 cups mozzerella Cheese

~ Cattlemen's BBQ Kansas City Classic Sauce (This sauce makes the whole pizza!)


Build your pizza, and place into a 425 degree oven for 18 minutes, longer if you like your pizza well done.  Cut and enjoy! 

This costs just $8.90 (for 2 pizzas)