Homemade Pizza Dinner

BBQ Chicken Pizza

Last nights yummy dinner. BBQ Chicken pizza for parents and pepperoni for the kids.
Everyone's happy!

BBQ Chicken Pizza

1 loaf Frozen bread dough or pizza crust mix

1/2 cup bbq sauce

3 cooked chicken breasts, cubed or shredded

3 garlic cloves, minced
red onion, sliced
red and/or green peppers, sliced
Jack and Cheddar cheese, shredded
cilantro, chopped

Place frozen loaf of bread dough in a large resealable bag sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Allow to thaw to room temperature and rise. Preheat oven to 400°. Roll out dough on baking stone. Snip edges of dough with scissors to form scalloped edge. Spread a thin layer of bbq sauce over dough. Mix cooked chicken with bbq sauce and garlic; sprinkle chicken mixture over dough. Top with  peppers, onions, cheese and parsley. Bake for 20 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Serves 6.

Pepperoni Pizza

Traditional Pizza Sauce

4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

4 fresh garlic cloves, minced

1/2 cup onion, grated with box grater

1 can tomato sauce (15 oz.)

2 tsp oregano, dried

2 tsp basil, dried

1/2 tsp chili powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

4 Tbsp tomato paste

In a medium saucepan, sauté garlic and onions in olive oil until tender. Add seasonings and continue cooking a few more minutes. Stir in tomato sauce, and then tomato paste. Simmer on low for about 10 minutes. Yields about 2 cups of sauce, enough for about 4 pizzas. Freeze leftover sauce in ½ cup servings for future use.

To make pizza, follow steps above using Traditional Pizza Sauce, pepperoni and mozzarella cheese.

Shoyu Chicken

A delicious recipe a good friend passed along to me loaded with flavor.
I think it's a Hawaiian dish or maybe Philippino.

Shoyu Chicken

1 - 1½ lb. chicken, bone in (thighs work well, skinless is fine, but boneless breasts don’t do well in this recipe)

1 cup shoyu (soy sauce)

1 cup sugar (for thicker sauce use ½ c sugar & ½ c brown sugar)

3/4 cup water

garlic, at least 2 cloves minced (jar is ok too)

ginger, to taste 1-2 cloves (or use ground, generous dashes)

chopped green onion

toasted Sesame seeds

Rinse/clean chicken & place in a large pot or pan. Add shoyu, sugar, water, garlic, ginger, & green onion. Bring to a boil. Lower heat & simmer about 45 minutes to an hour. Sprinkle w/ sesame seeds. Serve over steamed rice.

I cheated a little on this one. I only had boneless breasts so I cooked them in the sauce for about 20 minutes and realized that wasn't enough time for the sauce to thicken. I removed the breasts and kept them warm then added a little cornstarch and water mixed together, turned the temperature up and let it reduce and thicken. I thought it was very good with little effort. Enjoy!

Fast and Fabulous Dinner

I put this in the slow cooker early yesterday morning and when I walked in the door from work at 5:30 the smell was to-die-for. I just microwaved white rice and dinner was ready in 20 minutes. Delicious!

Slow Cooked Pork with Salsa, Cilantro & Lime  

1 jar salsa (16 oz.)
1 package dry taco seasoning mix or 2 T. homemade mix
½ red onion, diced
1 lime, juiced
3 T.  chopped fresh cilantro
1 ½ cups frozen corn
2 to 3 lb. boneless pork loin roast, sliced into 5 to 6 pieces about 1" thick

Rub pork pieces with taco seasoning. Place the salsa, remaining taco seasoning, and onion into a slow cooker, and stir to combine. Add the pork and stir to coat with the salsa mixture. Cover the cooker, set to High, and cook until the pork is very tender, about 4 hours. If desired, set cooker to Low and cook 6 to 8 hours. Stir in lime juice, cilantro and corn during last hour. Shred pork with 2 forks and serve over white rice. Serves:  6

Note:  The pork broke apart easily with a spoon, no need to shred. You can also use 3 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breasts instead of pork.

New Pizza Mac Recipe

Another Recipe for You!

I talk a lot about the cookbook I made, "Home Cooked Goodness - A Collection of Over 140 Family Favorite Beef, Pork and Poultry Recipes." I created it as a Holiday gifts in 2010 and only printed about 50 copies. The plan at the time was to self-publish it and market it myself, but the effort required to do that just seems so overwhelming. So I figured I would turn it into an ebook and offer it as a download. So the next step was to buy Adobe Distiller to create the interactive PDF file, which is still on my list of things to do. But in the meantime, everytime I create a recipe that didn't make it into the printed version of the cookbook, I offer it on  my blog. So here's the latest and greatest. Enjoy!

Pizza Mac
16 oz. elbow macaroni
1 lb. ground beef
½ onion, diced
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. pepper
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 jar pizza sauce (15 oz.)
½ tsp. Italian seasoning
½ cup parmesan cheese, shredded
1 pkg. pepperoni, sliced (3.5 oz)
1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded

Cook pasta according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large skillet cook the ground beef, onion, garlic cloves, salt and pepper over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Stir in pizza sauce, Italian seasoning, parmesan cheese and pepperoni. Add half the cooked macaroni and gently stir; add more macaroni as desired. Serve and top with mozzarella cheese. Serves 6