barbeque chicken pizza

This is a copy-cat recipe for California Pizza Kitchen's BBQ Chicken Pizza.  Now, a confession.  I've never tried that particular pizza there.  BUT.....this recipe is to die for!  It is seriously so good!  And again, it's easy.  Don't be afraid of the homemade crust.  I am not a bread maker (yet) and I made it without any meltdowns or catastrophes.

Again, the picture isn't great.  I don't consider myself a photographer and the only camera I have right now is in my phone so the pictures might not be that great for awhile.  Please bear with me on this one.  :)

BBQ Chicken Pizza:
1 pizza crust (recipe included, the recipe also makes two crusts)
2 whole boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup bbq sauce*
olive oil
salt
16 oz. fresh or bagged mozzarella (if using fresh, slice thinly)
1/2 whole red onion, sliced thinly
chopped cilantro

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Salt chicken and place in oven proof dish.  Pour bbq sauce over the breasts and turn to coat.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until chicken is done.  Remove from oven and dice, set aside.  Increase oven temp. to 500 degrees.  Drizzle some olive oil on a cookie sheet or pizza stone and roll/stretch out the pizza crust as thin as you can (if it has a hole here or there that doesn't really matter, you just want it thin so it can be crispy).  Drizzle a little olive oil and sprinkle a bit of salt onto the crust (sometimes I skip the olive oil on top).  Spoon some extra bbq sauce on the crust and spread it evenly.  Top sauce with half of cheese, chicken, onion, and a little salt (the other half goes on your second crust, or you can save it for later).  Bake for 15 to 17 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and the toppings are bubbly.  Remove from the oven and sprinkle on plenty of chopped cilantro.  Cut and serve.

*Here is my secret change to the recipe:  I use half bbq sauce and half hot wing sauce.  If you like spicy food then this little change will elevate this pizza from delicious to divine!  My favorite hot sauce to use is Frank's. 

Pizza Crust: (I use this recipe for almost all my pizzas now):
1 teaspoon instant or active dry yeast
1-1/2 cup warm water
4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/3 cup olive oil

Sprinkle yeast over warm water (not lukewarm) and let stand for a few minutes.  In a mixer with a paddle attachment, combine salt and flour.  On low speed, drizzle in olive oil until combined.  Next, add the yeast/water mixture and mix until just combined.  The dough will be fairly sticky.  In a new bowl, drizzle more olive oil and add the dough, working it into a ball that is coated with oil.  Put plastic wrap on the bowl and set aside for 1 to 2 hours, or store it in the fridge until you need it.*  When ready to use, grab half the dough (recipe makes two crusts) and spread out nice and thin.  You can use a rolling pin or your hands for this.

*You can make this recipe a day or two in advance if you want, just store the dough in the fridge and get it out a couple of hours before you need to use to to let it warm.

Recipes are adapted from Pioneer Woman and can be found here here

I really hope you enjoy!

 

-Megan

a quick craft

St. Patrick's Day is just around the corner!  Are you planning anything fun?  Festive meals or crafts?  My sister-in-law and I do a monthly craft.  Each month we make a craft for the next holiday coming up.  So this last month we made a craft for St. Patrick's Day.  It was so easy and we were done within a couple of hours (and that included paint drying time and figuring out the cricut).  My in-laws are adding on to their house right now so we have an abundance of scrap wood at our disposal.  We made these cute "Lucky" blocks.

 

 

It really was sooooo easy!  Here are the steps we took:

1. Cut and sand your wood into different sizes

2. Paint the blocks (we did two coats), let dry, and sand if desired

3. Cut out your letters (we borrowed my mom's cricut and used vinyl, but you could use paper and the cricut isn't needed, it's just useful)

4.. Adhere your letters to the blocks

 

Voila!  You have some very festive, fun, and cute decor for your home.

 

You could do so much with this idea but we were going for easy and quick this time around.  You could modge podge paper over the paint to create a border look or you could even print the letters onto fun paper and then modge podge that and you wouldn't even have to worry about cutting letters out.  Take the idea and run with it!  :)

 

We found this idea somewhere on Pinterest and I don't have the direct source.  However, there are about a billion of these blocks out there so really I can't source just one. 

 

-Megan

pesto ravioli with chicken

This is such a yummy meal!  And it's perfect because it's all you need.  You have veggies, pasta, and chicken so it truly is a one pot meal.  I mess around with the recipe almost every time I make it.  I put different veggies in and sometimes add more of something or use less of something else.  It's really hard to mess this one up!

 

 

Here is the recipe (with a few of my changes):

 

 

Pesto Ravioli with Chicken

 

2 teaspoons olive or vegetable oil

1 package (15 oz.) chicken tenders

3/4 cup chicken broth

1 package (9 oz.) refrigerated cheese-filled ravioli

1 or 2 small zucchini, sliced

1 small bunch asparagus, cut into small chunks

1 bell pepper (I like yellow or red), sliced

1/4 cup refrigerated pesto

any other veggies you might like

 

Heat oil in 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat.  Cook chicken in oil about 4 minutes, turning occasionally, until brown and cooked through.  Remove chicken from skillet.  Add broth and ravioli to same skillet.  Heat to boiling; reduce heat.  Cover and simmer about 4 minutes or until ravioli is tender.  Stir in veggies (sometimes I do this before so the veggies will cook a bit more, it just depends on how done you like your veggies).  Add chicken back in.  Cook over medium-high heat about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, until veggies are crisp-tender.  Toss with pesto until coated.

 

 

Recipe is adapted from Betty Crocker's Sunday Dinner Cookbook

 

I really hope you enjoy!!

 

-Megan

the beginning of this adventure

 

Well, there is not much to say.  I can't believe this is finally happening and I'm so excited!  I hope you enjoy.  Please let me know what you'd like to hear about!

 

-Megan