Family-Pleasing Pizza

From Taste of Home's Simple & Delicious



Ingredients:
1/2 pound bulk pork sausage
1 tube (13.8 ounces) refrigerated pizza crust
2 teaspoons butter, melted
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
2 medium Roma tomatoes, thinly sliced
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning

Directions:
In a large skillet, cook sausage over medium heat until no longer pink. Drain and set aside.

Meanwhile, press pizza dough into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish. Brush with butter; sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and garlic powder. Layer with 1 cup mozzarella, sausage and tomatoes. Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella and Italian seasoning.

Bake at 400° for 20-25 minutes or until crust is golden brown and cheese is melted. Yield: 6 servings.

Comments:
Yum, pizza. I left off the tomatoes since Adam's not a fan. I also doubled the sausage (kind of by mistake.) Oops. It was very good. I like the idea of cooking it in a 13x9 pan rather than a pizza pan. This allows a thicker crust to form and I definitely am not of the thin crust party. I have a feeling I'll make this one again - perhaps with different toppings.

Dijon-Crusted Chicken Breasts

From Taste of Home's Healthy Cooking



Ingredients:
1/3 cup dry bread crumbs
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (4 ounces each)
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon reduced-fat margarine

Directions:
Place the first six ingredients in a shallow bowl. Brush chicken with mustard; roll in crumb mixture.

In a large skillet, cook chicken in oil and margarine over medium heat for 5-6 minutes on each side or until juices run clear. Yield: 4 servings.

Comments:
I never get tired of a good chicken recipe. This has a good flavor combination and is kind of similar to the honey-mustard chicken I made previously. I still don't know about this pan frying thing though. All the breading always seems to fall off. Maybe it's just me...

Drunken Chicken

From Paula Deen via Delish.com



Ingredients:
House Seasoning:
1/2 cup salt
1/8 cup pepper
1/8 cup garlic powder

Chicken:
1 chicken (about 3 lbs)
1 can beer (12 oz)
a spring rosemary

Directions:
In a bowl, toss together House Seasoning ingredients.

Preheat grill to high heat. You'll be cooking the chicken over indirect heat, so prep the grill accordingly. Wash and drain the chicken. Coat the chicken inside and out with seasoned salt and prepared House Seasoning.

Open the can of beer and pour off 1/4 cup (or, I don't know, drink it.) Insert a spring of rosemary into the can. Place the beer can into the rear end of the chicken. Place the chicken, standing up, on the grill. Cover and cook until chickens are done, turning occasionally.

Comments:
While pretty simple to make, the chicken took a lot longer to cook on our gas grill than the original recipe said. It has 45 minutes to an hour. Our chicken went almost 2. I figured the time seemed pretty short and planned accordingly though. Nice flavor from both the rub and the beer. And as you can tell, Adam was so eager to get eating I couldn't get a picture before he cut into the bird. :) We also managed to spill quite a bit of beer on the serving plate. Oops.

New Format

You might notice I've started posting complete recipes. I recently cleaned house and recycled most of my cooking magazines, keeping just the recipes I needed (those I couldn't find online.) I figured it might be easier to just post recipes on this site so I can find them easily the next time I want to make them. It's a little tedious if I can't find an online version and have to type it out myself, but I think it will be better overall. We'll see if I get lazy and stop at some point. :) I'm definitely not going to go back and re-do all my previous entries (there are 224!), but going forward, this is what you can expect.

Grilled Turkey Sandwiches

From Taste of Home's Cooking for 2



Ingredients:
4 slices white bread
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
1/3 pound thinly sliced deli turkey
4 slices tomato
2 slices provolone cheese (1 ounce each)
1 tablespoon butter, softened (I used Brummel & Brown. Yum!)

Directions:
Spread two slices of bread with mayonnaise. Layer with turkey, tomato and cheese; top with remaining bread. Spread outsides of sandwiches with butter. On a hot griddle, grill sandwiches for 3-4 minutes on each side or until golden brown. Yield: 2 servings.

Comments:
A very simple meal for sure. I used our panini press rather than a griddle but it didn't brown up like I expected. I think I had the temperature setting too low. In any case, they tasted just fine. This will be made again at some point for sure.

Golden Chicken with Rice

From Taste of Home's Simple & Delicious (don't see it on the website)



Ingredients:
1 package (6 oz) long grain and wild rice mix
1 can (10-3/4 oz) condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 can (10-3/4 oz) condensed cream of celery soup
1-1/2 cups water
4 chicken leg quarters (I used breasts)
1 envelope onion soup mix

Directions:
In a large bowl, combine the rice, contents of seasoning packet, cream soups, and water. Spread into a greased 13x9x2 baking dish. Top with chicken; sprinkle with onion soup mix.

Cover and bake at 350º for 2 hours or until a meat thermometer reads 180º and rice is tender. Yield: 4 servings.

Comments:
The combination of the rice's seasoning packet and the onion soup mix gives this an extra kick. Overall the flavor is good. I don't know that I'd try this again though as I prefer my way better and Adam wasn't overly excited about either one.

Multigrain & Veggie Side Dish

From Taste of Home's Healthy Cooking



Ingredients:
2-2/3 cups water
2/3 cup uncooked long grain rice
2/3 cup quick-cooking barley
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large onion, chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped
1 medium sweet red pepper, chopped (omitted)
1 small turnip, chopped (omitted)
1/2 cup chopped celery or celery root
1 tablespoon minced fresh gingerroot
2 tablespoons Crisco® Light Olive Oil
1 package (10 ounces) fresh spinach, torn
1 cup canned pinto beans, rinsed and drained
2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce

Directions:
In a small saucepan, bring water to a boil. Stir in the rice, barley and salt. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 12-18 minutes or until grains are tender. Remove from the heat; let stand for 5 minutes.

In a Dutch oven, saute the onion, carrots, red pepper, turnip, celery and ginger in oil until crisp-tender. Stir in the spinach, beans, soy sauce and rice mixture; cook and stir until heated through and spinach is wilted. Yield: 8 servings.

Comments:
This was not good. I'm not sure if it was the ginger, maybe the spinach was a little old. In any case, I couldn't even eat more than about three spoonfuls. I didn't subject Adam to it at all. I might try it again sometime, altering the recipe a little bit more to my tastes and ensuring the freshness of the ingredients.

Andouille Egg Burritos

From Taste of Home's Simple & Delicious October 2008 (another subscriber only)



Ingredients:
onion
butter
andouille sausage
eggs
salt & pepper
cayenne
tortillas
jack cheese

Comments:
Yet another Adam recipe. I didn't eat this one either. I'm a big wimp when it comes to hot and spicy foods. I made this for dinner last week and I had some soup instead. He said it wasn't that hot, but that's in his opinion. I'm sure I would have died. In any case, he liked it and we still have half the sausage in the fridge. Yay.

Baked Parmesan Roughy

From Taste of Home's Simple & Delicious October 2008 (another subscriber only)



Ingredients:
crushed cornflakes (we don't eat cornflakes but I had some old corn chex in the cupboard so I just used those instead)
Parmesan cheese
salt
eggs
milk
orange roughy

Comments:
This is another recipe that Adam picked out. It was super easy, pretty quick, and although it seems like most of the breading evaporated or went missing, he still ate it all up.