Sunday, February 12, 2012

BBQ Chicken Pizza and Raspberry Yumminess

I don't know if Kar Kar will appreciate either of these recipes, but I sure did! A while back, I made BBQ chicken pizza that Jonathan loved and he has been asking me to make it again. I had been telling him for the past week that I would make it for him, but I haven't had time because it involves bacon that has to be cooked and I have been closing, meaning I haven't had time or desire to cook bacon after work. I made this pizza up and other than cooking the bacon, it's a pretty easy and quick dinner! Here is the recipe:

-1 Pillsbury refrigerated thin pizza crust
-BBQ sauce (I prefer Sweet Baby Ray's)
-A couple sprigs of fresh oregano, minced
-Cooked chicken breast (I have been lazy and using the Tyson chicken breast that you can buy refrigerated for salads)
-Bacon, cooked and crumbled
-Onion, sliced or diced, depending on preference
-Mozzerella cheese, shredded

Prepare the pizza crust according to the package (bake for 5 minutes, add toppings and continue baking). I just use about however much BBQ sauce looks right, mixed in the oregano, and spread it on the crust. Then I spread out the chicken, bacon, and onion, then cover with cheese. I like the toppings underneath the cheese so they don't fall off. After baking the pizza, I cut it and we eat it.

It's pretty straight forward and delicious. Not very fancy, but that didn't stop it from being completely gone after 15 minutes. Ben joined us, so it did take 3 of us to eat it all, but if it is just the two of us, it still feeds two with leftovers!

Tonight, I also made a dessert that I found on EatBetterAmerica. It was awesome. Technically, it is called Frozen Chocolate Wafer Raspberry Torte, but I am going to call it Raspberry Yumminess. Now, I feel a little bit like an old lady that I love this dessert because it is sugar free, low fat, and has an extra little boost of calcium, but damn it's good. And super easy. All you need is Sugar Free Cool Whip, Raspberry Yogurt, and Chocolate Wafers. It's grand, it's frozen, it's yummy. Not especially quick since it has to freeze for 4 hours, but worth it. I know Kar Kar doesn't eat chocolate, but maybe she will like this. Or she could modify it with a different kind of wafer...shortbread or something. I don't know, but she gives me ideas and suggestions about clothes, so I can do the same thing with food I hope...though really she should just eat some chocolate. It makes the world a better place in my opinion. :-)

We haven't eaten anything else spectacular lately. Though we did have chicken tenders and mac'n'cheese at home for dinner on Saturday night...it was kind of like we were 5, but also completely awesome and delicious. (I also had a pudding cup for dessert with a graham cracker!) Jonathan will be gone for the next week, so I don't anticipate cooking anything awesome for just myself. I will be making a cheesecake tomorrow for Linda's birthday, so I hope that will be awesome and will probably talk about that on here, but until then, I've got nothing! Here's to another week that will be just nuts. Completely pistachios.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

For my Kar Kar

I told Karie that I loved her blog and she wanted to see mine even after I told her that it is mostly about food. But she said that she could use more recipes, so I figured I would put up my recipe from tonight that I think even her picky, skinny butt will like (and I mean that with tons of love and she knows I'm just jealous!)

Tonight's dinner was actually an idea from my mom and it is a crockpot recipe, which I love because I have closing shift for the next two weeks and that doesn't leave me much time to cook. My mom made this with chicken breasts, I made it with pork chops because I didn't have any chicken breasts on hand. The recipe doesn't have a name, so we'll call it Crockpot Fajitas. All you need is the frozen meat (you can leave it frozen, no need to thaw it) and a jar of salsa. Put the meat and the salsa in the crockpot and cook it all day. When you get home from work, take forks and shred up the meat and add a little water if the salsa cooked down too much and make it a little juicier and runnier. Put the meat in tortillas with lettuce and cheese and whatever else you want. It makes these super yummy and juicy fajitas that are a little bit spicy, but not too intense! Plus, it only takes about 2 minutes to put the meat and salsa in the crockpot and hit the power button! Definitely will be doing this again, especially when my schedule is just nuts. Completely pistachios.

San Antonio Weekend

Jonathan and I went to San Antonio for the weekend, and we had some awesome food while we were there! We started at Magnolia Pancake Haus for breakfast. We met Alli there and luckily, she got there before us because there was a bit of a wait and the place was PACKED. They have tons of awards hanging on the wall when you walk in and you can tell it is definitely a favorite place for lots of people. I had the Bacon Cheddar omelet, which comes with a side of pancakes. And for $0.99 extra, you can make them an order of specialty pancakes. I had the Banana's Foster Pancakes. They are super delicious pancakes to begin with, but then they add slices of banana and a banana praline sauce and they transform into some of the best pancakes in the world. The omelet was very good too, it was massive and I was only able to eat part of it before giving up. Alli got an omelet too, but it is not on the menu online and I can't remember exactly what was in it. I do remember it involved goat cheese, spinach, something else, and a ribbon of creme fraiche. Both she and Jonathan got plain pancakes (weirdos) and Jonathan got Eggs Benedict.

After that breakfast, we should have been too full to eat ever again, but we went to the zoo, burned off a lot of calories walking around to see all the animals, and went to a Mexican restaurant that Alli suggested. Beto's, like Magnolia Pancake Haus, was on Diner's, Drive-Ins, and Dives. It was not as busy as Magnolia, but we had a later lunch (1:30ish) and probably missed some of the lunch crowd, there were still quite a few tables full. Because we had eaten such a big breakfast, we shared a combination plate. We picked the #3 combo, where you choose 3 things from the menu and it is served with rice and beans. We decided to try one of each type of thing, but next time I will definitely stick with the empanadas that they are known for. We chose the Chicken Poblano Empanada, the Al Pastor Taco, and Carne Asada Quesadilla. Next time, I want to try some of the sweet empanadas, I have had them other places before and I would bet Beto's knocks them out of the park.

We ended up joining Jonathan's family for dinner because his parents were in town to help his sister move. So there were 6 of us for dinner (her boyfriend joined too). We went to another of Alli's suggestions (she is doing well with these suggestions!), Max's Wine Dive. We started with an order of Pan Borracho (drunk bread). It was all warm and gooey and yummy and reminded us all of mac 'n' cheese, but grown up style. I had my first risotto that night, and I was very impressed! I ordered the Cracklin' Chicken and Butternut Squash Risotto. The description on the menu is as follows: roasted chicken breast served with butternut squash risotto, house-cured pancetta, pickled mushrooms, garlic sauteed young spinach, and a cinnamon brandy reduction. What is not in the description is how delicious the crispy skin is on the chicken. Or the unique but addicting tang that the cinnamon brandy reduction adds to the dish. All in all, it was an amazing meal. Jonathan got a Kobe burger (a little boring, but he said it was good), Alli got the Broken Arrow Cinghiale Bolognese, Ken and Steven got the fried chicken (both said it was the best they have ever had), and Jaye got the Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup. The grilled cheese was the only thing at the table that disappointed and not because it wasn't good, it was just very buttery and very heavy.

After all of that, Jonathan and I went and got a piece of cheesecake for dessert. We intended to eat at the Cheesecake Factory, but it was crazy packed when we went inside. Jonathan's first remark when we entered was, "This doesn't look anything like where Penny works!" (For those of you who don't watch "Big Bang Theory," shame on you by the way, Penny works at Cheesecake Factory and it does not resemble any Cheesecake Factory that I have ever been in.) We decided that our cheesecake would be much more enjoyable in bed at the hotel, so we took it back with us and indulged from the comfort of bed, it was a great idea. I had the White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle, which was not what I meant to get, but it was delicious, because, let's face it, when is cheesecake ever bad?

For breakfast, we stuck with a simple and easy breakfast at Einstein Bros. Bagels because every time that we go out of town and there is a bagel store nearby, I have to go. I just had a honey wheat bagel with jalapeno salsa cream cheese. I was intrigued by one of the new bagels that I'm sure was just seasonal, and I ordered one to take home. It was Maple Oatmeal and I brought it home to eat with peanut butter on it. I wish that I had gotten more of them because they were awesome and had raisins in them. I did totally luck out though because the guy getting my bagel accidentally toasted the one I wanted to take home with me, and when I asked him if he had toasted it, he told me to keep that one and then gave me a second, untoasted bagel. It was pretty great.

Though it sounds like we just ate all weekend, particularly a lot on Saturday, we did lots of other things too and had a lot of fun. We went to the zoo for a long time on Saturday morning and got to see a ton of animals. It was raining while we ate breakfast, so we weren't sure if we were going to the zoo, but the stars aligned and it cleared up enough for us to go. For the afternoon, we shopped a LOT. Then we went to Alli's apartment to help her with some moving. Then cleaned up and went to dinner. There really was a lot of shopping and walking around in the afternoon, my calves actually hurt the next day, that much walking. On Sunday morning we were going to see the riverwalk, but then it started raining right as we walked out of Einstein, so we just came home so that we could pick Otto up from the vet and watch the Super Bowl (and eat snacks of course!) :-)

All in all, it was a weekend full of food and fun. It was just nuts, completely pistachios.