Pizza!

Pizza and movie night! Here's my crust recipe. I have a one-pound loaf Zojirushi bread machine (this recipe will work in larger machines too, of course). If you don't have a bread machine or don't have an hour forty-five to wait for dough to be made, your local pizza joint would probably sell you some. Ours sells dough for $2-$3, depending on size.

This dough is pretty dense, so you will want to stretch it as thin as you can. After it's stretched, I put it on a pre-warmed pizza stone that I sprinkled cornmeal on. Drizzle with olive oil and dried basil, then add sauce and toppings. Bake at 375 for 25 minutes.

Pizza Dough
In bread machine, add the following in this order:
3/4 c. Water
1 T. Olive oil
2 1/4 c. Whole wheat flour
1 t. Dried rosemary
2 T. Sugar
1 T. Dried milk powder
1/2 T. Sea salt (place the salt in the corner of the pan so it doesn't come in contact with the yeast.
1 heaping t. Yeast.

Set machine to dough setting.

Pinterest Week!

I have decided that this week shall be Pinterest Week at our house. I have been a pinning fool the past few weeks, so I figured I might as well actually try to make some of the pins. There's a bit of a twist though to this week's meal planning; I have a Full Circle CSA box to pick up on Thursday, with as-yet-unknown veggies in it. Here's the game plan for the week, or at least a starting point. I'll post the results as they come through, and how I actually made the recipes.

Monday: Crockpot Chicken Taco Chili

Wednesday: Beef and Veggie Sloppy Joes, green salad

Thursday: Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas, green salad, mystery veggie from CSA box

Friday: BBQ Salmon, Roasted Parmesan Green Beans, another mystery veggie from CSA box

And for dessert, these Rolo Chocolate Cookies.

Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas

These were pretty tasty and very filling. In the future my husband and I agreed we would use less honey and the whole big can of green enchilada sauce.

Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas

Ingredients:

Marinade -

6 tablespoons honey

5 tablespoons lime juice (1 large lime)

1 tablespoons chili powder

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 pound chicken, cooked and shredded

8-10 flour tortillas (I used whole wheat tortillas)

1 pound monterey jack cheese, shredded

16 ounces green enchilada sauce

1 cup heavy cream

Directions:

1. Whisk the first four ingredients and toss with shredded chicken in a Zip-loc bag.

2. Let it marinate for at least a 1/2 hour, but preferably a half day or so.

3. Pour about 1/2 cup enchilada sauce on the bottom of a 9X13 baking pan.

4. Fill the tortillas with chicken, saving marinade, and shredded cheese, saving about 1 cup of cheese to sprinkle on top of enchiladas.

5. Put tortillas in 9x13 pan as you go.

6. Mix the remaining enchilada sauce with the cream and leftover marinade (if there is any).

7. Pour sauce on top of the enchiladas.

8. Sprinkle with remaining cheese.

9. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes until brown and crispy on top.

Thanks to this blog and Pinterest!

Caramel Bite Cookies

This recipe turned out pretty good. It's obviously pretty easy. I did not get too much help from my preschooler with these as he was too mesmerized by the bag of Rolo candies.

Caramel Bite Cookies 

Ingredients
1 pkg. Rolo candies
1 box Devils Food Cake mix
2 eggs
1/3 c. oil

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix cake mix, oil, and eggs. Take a small ball of dough and form a ball around the Rolo. (Only use enough dough to cover the Rolo so it can spread through the cookie.)

Place on cookie sheet and bake for 7-8 minutes.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

 Yields about 3 dozen.

Thank you to Pinterest and the Six Sisters blog for this recipe.

Roasted Parmesan Green Beans and Dry Rub Salmon

We are nearing the end of pinterest week. The last recipe I wanted to try was these roasted parmesan green beans. I made them, and I've included the recipe, but to be honest they were pretty chewy. The flavor was excellent, but I don't think green beans are the best veggie for roasting. In the future, I think I would either boil or steam the beans until they are tender, then rub them with the oil, season and 'cheese' them, and broil for a couple minutes. What do you think, have you oven-roasted green beans with success before?

I did a very basic spice rub on the salmon I served it with, and it turned out very tasty. The recipe is also included here. 

Roasted Parmesan Green Beans

Ingredients:

12 oz dry green beans, trimmed
olive oil
sea salt
fresh ground pepper
garlic powder
shredded parmesan


Preheat the oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum for easy clean-up.

Lay green beans out on the baking sheet and drizzle oil over them. Season with salt, pepper and garlic powder and toss to evenly coat. Spread them out on the sheet so that they all lay flat and place on the lower third section of your oven. Bake 10 minutes, shake the pan to turn; bake 7-10 additional minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with grated cheese.

Dry-Rub Seasoned Salmon

Ingredients:
wild salmon filet
paprika
sea salt
fresh ground pepper
garlic powder
cayenne pepper*
olive oil

Preheat oven to 425. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray pam on it. Place salmon pieces, skin side down, on the foil. Sprinkle the seasonings on the salmon, going easy on the cayenne (if you don't like spicy foods, simply omit this). Drizze the salmon with the oil, then rub the oil into the fish. Bake for about 20 minutes, until the fish is flaky and opaque in the center.

*optional

Crock Pot Chicken Taco Chili

This is another Pinterest recipe, tweaked to my family's taste buds. It was pretty good and very filling, lots of protein and fiber and very little fat. The first couple bites I found to be a bit mild to my taste and I was wishing I had added some Rooster sauce, but the heat got stronger as I motored through the bowl and by the end, I would describe it as gringo medium. Pretty tasty, I would make this again. Also, note in the picture the ginormous chunks of onion. I would normally NOT do onions this chunky, but they were crazy-strong and I felt like I was watching Steel Magnolias before I was even halfway through a rough chop.


Crock Pot Chicken Taco Chili
 

Ingredients:
1 onion, chopped
1 16-oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 16-oz can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can corn, drained
2 14.5-oz cans diced tomatoes
1/4 c. taco seasoning (we buy in bulk at Costco; you can also use 1 packet)
1 t. cumin
1 t. chili powder 

1/4 t cayenne pepper

1T. vinegar
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
   
Combine everything but the chicken in a slow cooker. Place chicken on top and cover. Cook on low for 10 hours or on high for 6 hours. Half hour before serving, remove chicken and shred. Return chicken to slow cooker and stir in.

Thank you to Pinterest and this blog for the inspiration.

Veggie & Goat Cheese Fettucine

So, we were going to do individual pizzas tonight. I set up the bread maker in the afternoon to make the dough. Turns out, 1 2/3 c. flour is not the same as 2/3 c. Oops. I needed to come up with something on the fly, and this is what I did. At risk of tooting my own horn, it was pretty yummy.  So yummy, I kind of want to go make another bowl of it.

Veggie and Goat Cheese Fettucine

Ingredients:
1/2 package fettucine
3 smallish zucchini, chopped
1/2 can black olives, chopped
1 can diced tomatoes
4 T. olive oil, divided
garlic salt
pepper
1/2 log goat cheese

Cook the fettucine per package instructions. While it cooks, saute the zucchini in 1 T. olive oil in a large skillet, over medium-high heat. When the zucchini begins to brown (but isn't tender yet), add the garlic salt and pepper to taste, plus the olives and remaining oil.

When the zucchini is tender, drain most of the liquid from the tomatoes and add to the pan. Give the pan a stir and heat to a simmer. Turn the heat to low. When the pasta has about a minute left to cook, add the goat cheese (break it into chunks by hand so it melts evenly). Stir until the cheese is melted and distributed in the sauce.

When the noodles are done, strain and toss with the sauce. Serve immediately.

Makes about 4 good-size portions.