BLOGGER TEMPLATES AND TWITTER BACKGROUNDS

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Garden Pizza


My internet friend, Liz, sent me a recipe for Three-Cheese Garden Pizza that she got at a Pampered Chef Party. Frankly, I was a little skeptical because my family likes very few vegetables, and the thought of giving them a pizza with zucchini on it is pretty darn ridiculous. I made a barbecue cheddar pizza with ground turkey as a backup...just in case. This pizza was fantastic, though! Zoe loved it, and Ben said it was all right. Yay! This pizza is good enough that even if my family didn't like it, I would make it again just for myself.

I used my own pizza dough recipe that I always use, instead of refrigerated pizza dough that the recipe calls for. I also did not prebake the crust, and I do not own anything Pampered Chef, so I made the recipe work for me. I used regular Italian seasoning and I sliced the onion and zucchini really thin with my mandoline. I love my mandoline! If you do not own one, I highly recommend it!

Recipe can be found here: Three-Cheese Garden Pizza

Friday, December 4, 2009

Chicken Cordon Bleu


When asking for requests, my friend Tina suggested Chicken Cordon Bleu, then changed her mind and asked for Thai Sticky Sweet Rice. I thought they both sounded good, so be expecting sticky sweet rice as soon as my mangoes are ripe!
This meal was amazingly good, but I didn't enjoy fumbling with rolling and toothpicking the chicken breasts. To make good chicken cordon bleu, you have to really encase the cheese and ham inside the chicken, otherwise the cheese just melts right out into the pan. This is easier to do if the chicken is hammered out pretty thin and even. Worst case though, if the cheese oozes out (several of mine did) then it just becomes part of the yummy sauce.
Next time I will try Chicken Cordon Bleu Balls (thanks Kimberly) made with ground turkey or chicken with cheese encased inside.
I served this meal with roasted garlic brussel sprouts, honeyed carrots, and some free bread that I received from the MHTeen meeting (!!).

Recipe can be found here:
Chicken Cordon Bleu II

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Sweet Potato Pancakes with Honey Pecan Butter



My friend Kelly told me about these sweet potato pancakes months ago, so I asked her for the recipe and promptly forgot about it. Several days ago I asked for meal suggestions on Facebook, and she reminded me of these. This recipe is from Boatwright's restaurant at Port Orleans-Riverside resort in Disney World. First off, these pancakes take FOREVER to cook! I had a hard time trying to find the right heat to cook these at so they didn't burn and fall apart when I tried to flip them (Kelly, you will have to tell me your secret, or make these with me someday). That said, these pancakes are SO INCREDIBLY DELICIOUS!!! I thought we would have a ton of leftovers since the recipe made so many...eh, there weren't. Hehe.
I served these with sausages I had on hand, and some apples I cooked in a little apple juice and cinnamon.
Recipe can be found here:
Sweet Potato Pancakes with Honey Pecan Butter
*I did make one alteration by cooking my own sweet potato instead of using canned sweet potato that the recipe calls for, since the canned sweet potato I found had corn syrup in it. Ick.