Buffalo Chicken Pizza, From Start to Finish

I've loved Frank's Hot Sauce since the first time I tried my friend Joel's buffalo chicken dip many many moons ago. I can't remember where we were or why he made it, all I remember is that is was goooood.  And then for weeks we would all say, "Remember how good Joel's dip was?!"

Then he told me he made it into pizza. And that was awesome too.

So when I saw this crockpot buffalo chicken recipe on YoungMarriedChic's blog last week, I knew I had to make it!

Shredded Buffalo Chicken
6 raw chicken breasts
1/2 cup Frank's Hot Sauce
1/4 cup yellow mustard
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

I whisked together the sauce and poured it over the chicken.  Mine cooked on high for 3.5 hours.  During that time I flipped it back and forth a couple times. When you think it is about done, take a fork and shred it up really stirring up the juices that have formed.  Let it cook for another twenty minutes.

I have big plans for this shredded buffalo chicken- salads, sandwiches, with sides of veggies.

But first, pizza!

I had gotten into the habit of using Trader Joe's pizza crust- which is great- but I was so excited to have some time to make my own crust again!

I used a recipe for Wheat and Honey crust from eat8020's blog.  Since we're reminiscing, I should tell you this is the same recipe I used the first time I ever made pizza crust before I had the KitchenAid.  

1 1/3 cup warm water
1 package active dry yeast
3 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp honey
1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 3/4 cups white flour
1 tsp salt

I used my KitchenAid to make this so in my big mixer bowl I put the yeast, olive oil, honey, and topped it with the warm water. I used my hand mixer to mix the ingredients together for thirty seconds. Then the mixture sat for about ten minutes until it gets foamy.  I added the flours and the salt and mix again for one minute .  I used the dough hook to "knead" the dough for 6 minutes. Next, I put the dough in a nicely olive oiled bowl, forming the dough into a bowl and coating it with the olive oil. I put a nice clean kitchen towel over the top of the bowl and let it sit for about an hour while it doubled in size.

The next part is the best part, punching the dough down!  I punched it down and turned it out on my floured counter.  I knead (kneaded?) the dough a few times, placed the bowl over the dough and let sit for twenty minutes.

After that twenty minutes, put it in the oven on 325 for another twenty minutes.

During this time I got everything together for the pizza.
Ranch
Frank's Hot Sauce
Celery heart
Tomatoes
Buffalo chicken
Shredded cheese

I stirred together some ranch and Frank's Hot Sauce in a 1:2 ratio and found the heart of the celery and chopped it up finely.  II grabbed some tomatoes from the fridge, shredded some cheddar jack cheese, and set aside some of the buffalo chicken.

Pour the sauce on the pizza.  Top with the cheese, chicken, and tomatoes.  Bake for 7-9 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Serve hot with the celery heart on top!

Enjoy!

Nothing says Valentine's Day Like Steak & Pasta

Our Valentine's Day tradition continued this year with a freaking awesome dinner.

Every year for the past few years, we've stayed home and cooked ourselves whatever we thought sounded best.  This year was no exception.

Although I wouldn't call myself Valentine of the Year this year, Breeze did an awesome job of making me feel special! I did my part in the kitchen, though and together we made a delicious meal. It doesn't fall under the healthy category, but it just felt special and that's all that matters on this day.

After a little prepping, we had our meal on the table in about twenty minutes.

Breeze made steaks.  He seared a couple filets that he marinated last night in Worcestershire and then cooked them through on the griddle.

While the steaks cooked, he made our salads with romaine lettuce, carrots, celery, and tomatoes. 

I made us tortellini from Pallucas- half cheese, half meat- with garlic butter sauce adapted from here. 

Some bread sticks from Pallucas rounded out the meal. 

Garlic Butter Sauce for Tortellini

Ingredients

6 tbsp butter (I just used what I had left in my Brummel and Brown container, I think it was less than 6 tbsp)

5-6 garlic cloves, smashed

1 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

Big shake of Italian seasoning

Parsley

How to-do

On low heat, melt the butter.  Add the garlic and let cook for 10-12 minutes.  Your kitchen will smell ah-mazing.  At the same time, boil salted water and add the tortellinis until cooked through.  Ours were frozen so they took about 10 minutes to cook. When the tortellinis are cooked, pour the sauce over them and stir. Sprinkle parsley over the top.

Enjoy! And Happy Valentine's Day from the Breeze's!

Breeze's Favorite Muffins

Breeze LOVES banana muffins.  Banana chocolate chip, banana peanut butter, banana whateva, he loves them.

He asks me to make them somewhere around 5 nights a week.  Lucky for him I frequently buy bananas with every intention of eating them on the oatmeal I also have every intention of eating for breakfast and then I don't.

I like muffins just as much as the next person so I gave in tonight and made the following muffins.

Banana Muffins with Crunchy Topping
(Muffins adapted from this TastyKitchen Member recipe, topping from HowSweetEats)

For the Muffins
¾ cups Whole Wheat Flour
¾ cups All-purpose Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
½ teaspoons Sea Salt
3  Large Ripe Bananas, Mashed
¼ cups Brown Sugar (lightly Packed)
½ cups Sugar
1  Egg
⅓ cups Unsalted Butter, melted


Except the egg, I forgot the egg!

For the Topping

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon flour

2 tablespoons softened butter

Except the butter, I forgot the butter too!

These muffins are seriously good.  I ate three (they're mini!) before I came in to write this blog post and realized they had no egg and no butter.

Enjoy!

Weekend Fajitas

I've been lucky recently in that I've spent a ton of time in the kitchen.  I've really made an effort to prep and grocery shop to make sure we eat good, nutritional meals.  This weekend was no different and I have lots of ideas for meals throughout this week.  Fingers crossed- I'm hoping/planning on sharing a few of them.

Like I was saying, we ate good this weekend.  Friday night we ate Louisiana Pan Roast at Turtleheads, which I highly recommend as well as the grilled oysters.

This picture tells it all.

Saturday, after some glorious sleeping in and a good workout I spent a while researching new fajita and margarita recipes.  I wanted to make the fajitas that I posted here a few months ago and Breeze wanted to try something new so . . .

Drumroll, please . . .

Here is the winner.
Steak & Chicken Fajitas with Pico adapted from TastyKitchen

Chicken- fajita sliced from the grocery store
Steak- about one pound of tips cut into strips
1 Red bell pepper
1 Green bell pepper
1 Yellow onion
3 Jalapeno peppers
3-4 Roma tomatoes
6 Tbs Vegetable oil
2-3 Limes
2 Tbs Soy sauce
1 Tbs Worcestershire
1/2 c. Chopped cilantro
2 Cloves minced garlic

Shredded cheese
Shredded romaine lettuce
Tortillas
Greek yogurt with fresh lime juice mixed in

Prep (~35 min.):
Make the pico. Finely chop tomatoes, half of the onion, jalapeno peppers, and cilantro. Place in a bowl and squeeze fresh lime juice over the vegetables and stir.  Refrigerate until ready to use.

Make the marinade. Whisk together vegetable oil, juice of one lime, soy sauce, Worcestershire, cilantro, and garlic.  Pour marinade over chicken and steak. Refrigerate for a few hours.

Slice peppers and half of onion.

Cook (10-15 min):
Pour meat with juice into a skillet.  Heat between medium to medium-high until cooked through.
Pour a little bit of olive oil into a skillet. Add peppers and onion.  Heat on medium until veggies are cooked through but not soggy.

We ate our fajitas as fajita tacos.  I layered veggies, combination of meat, cheese, pico, and lots of lettuce.

Margaritas adapted from Sandra Lee
Makes about 4 servings.
3 Trader Jose Light beers
1 can Lemonade concentrate
1/2 - 3/4 cup Tequila

Mix together and enjjjjoy.

We are eating leftover fajtas tonight, we're all pretty tired after Dyl's bath today.

Spice Cookies after a long day

So I didn't get to eat much lunch today.  I had a granola bar at 8:00 with my coffee followed by a small snack at lunch.  I had every intention of eating at least an apple in the afternoon, but time just got away from me and I didn't get around to it.  Because of this occurrence, I was STARVING when I got home today.  All I wanted when I finally got home tonight was one loaf of french bread with a container of butter.  Good ol' white flour carbs.  So, I went to the store to buy a loaf of French bread before Breeze got home.  On the way I stopped to get gas (second attempt of the day) but my gas tank opening would not open.  No budging.  I knew for sure it was broken and we would have to take it into the shop tomorrow.  I went to show my sister the problem when I arrived at home and it freakin' popped right open!  To make a long story somewhat short, I got gas and finally went to the store to get french bread, a spice cake mix to make cookies, some veggies, flour and cinnamon sticks.  My only thought on the way home was which item I was going to eat for dinner first.  Fortunately I have a rational husband who made me tacos for dinner and I made the cookies for dessert.  The recipe is below. 

Recap- Hunger is NOT good for the mind!! I'm pretty sure there are studies out there that say you get dumber (see!) when you don't eat.  

One Spice Cake + One Can Pumpkin + 10-12 minutes on 350 = Deliciousness

You don't even have to be smart to make these... Perfect for a day you skip lunch

 

First Trip to Trader Joes

I got to go to Trader Joes this weekend!! And to add bonus points, it was with my mom, sister, aunt, and cousin and they love food as much as I do.  We had so much fun.  I walked around the perimeter of the store first, then I walked up and down each aisle, up one side then down the other to make sure I didn't miss anything.  I'm pretty sure I bought one of each of everything they had to offer.

This isn't everything.  I kept trying to get everything together for a picture and just couldn't manage it.  I kept forgetting 1-5 items.  I was tired, okay.

Booze, baby!  Ginger beer for Moscow Mules (my girl Oprah's favorite drink), 3 Buck Chuck, and Trader Jose.

Grocery items, some of which I needed anyway and some of which I just had to take home.  2 salad dressings- Spicy Peanut Vinaigrette and Champagne Pear Vinaigrette with Gorgonzola (OMG!), fancy cherries, better 'n peanut butter, Trader Joes pizza sauce, Gouda cheese, Munster cheese, whole wheat pizza dough!, almond milk, and spicy jalapeno chicken sausages.

Sweets and junk.  Reduced fat cheese puffs (total hungover impulse buy), Fiberful fruit bars, dark chocolate pistachio covered toffee (ah-mazing), smashed smores, vanilla something caramels, chocolate frozen banana bites, brownie batter, and dark chocolate with caramel and sea salt.

Believe it or not this isn't even everything.  I had so much fun there!  The only thing they didn't have was Kombucha tea but I won't bring that up because I don't want to be a Debbie Downer.

Chili + Corn Muffins + Apple Cake

Yeah, it's totally fall around this neck of the woods.  It's stormy and rainy today and I was so happy we went to the store before the nasty weather rolled in.  We planned for the ultimate "first weekend it really feels like fall" kind of weekend.  I'll give you three guesses on what we planned to make.

Chili, duh.

We made Breeze's famous chili!  And corn muffins (I'm not talking about Jiffy here).  And apple cake.

Since you'll be making all this tomorrow, here are the recipes.

Chili- There is no recipe, but this is the general outline of how we make chili.

Recipe
Black beans
Chili beans- medium and mild
Kindey beans
Red beans
Fire roasted diced tomatoes
Chili diced tomatoes
Tomato paste
Tomato sauce
Orange pepper
Yellow pepper
Red peppers
Green peppers
Pickles
Pickle juice (this is the secret ingredient that makes all the difference)
3 lbs. ground beef
Onion
Salt and pepper


Brown the meat with the onion.  Add everything together in the crock pot on high for a few hours or until heated through.

Corn Muffins
Adapted from How Sweet Eats Blog
Recipe
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup cornmeal
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 cup creamed corn
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 egg
1/3 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 jalapeno, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 425.
Stir together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a bowl.  Add the cream corn, melted butter, milk, cream, and egg.  Mix it all together.  Fold in the grated cheese and jalapenos if using.  Bake for 15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Caramelized Apple Upside Down Cake
Adapted from Food Network
Recipe
1 stick butter
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Dash nutmeg
1 apple, thinly sliced
For the cake
6 tablespoons butter, very soft
1 cup sugar (I only had 1/2 cup white sugar left so I used 1/2 white, 1/2 brown sugar)
2 eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup flour
3 tablespoons cornmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare the cake 9 inch round cake pan by buttering the bottom and the sides.

In a small saucepan, combine the butter, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  After everything melts together, let boil for 30 seconds.  Pour the mixture into the prepared cake pan, scraping all of the mixture with a spatula evenly into the pan. Place the apple slices on top.

Now make the cake.  Beat the butter and sugar until creamy.  Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until smooth and fluffy (about two minutes).  Add in the dry ingredients and beat 10 seconds.  Add the milk and beat until until fully mixed, about one minute.  Pour the batter on top of the apple slices.

Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean. Flip the cake over onto a plate.

To review-
Chili
Corn Muffins
Apple Cake

Enjoy!  And try not to do this!

So we put too many chili ingredients in the crock pot.  Our bad.