Chicken Barbeque Pizza

I made this on Saturday night as an impromptu visit from my parents. I knew Emi wasn't going to be home when I got home from work so I gave them a call and bribed them with food.
I have been planning to make BBQ pizza for the last 3 months and have just never gotten around to it. I've been trying to find a recipe that I thought would be amazing since I love BBQ chicken, but I was afraid that on a pizza it would just be too strong of a taste. I came up with this concoction myself. :-D This is the best BBQ pizza I have ever had. Emi and my parents would agree with me.
You can find the original pizza dough recipe here, but I've made a few changes.

PIZZA DOUGH
1 pkg. Dry yeast (2 tsp. = 1 pkg.)
2 Tbsp. Lukewarm water
Dissolve yeast in warm water.
1 egg
1 tsp. Salt
½ tsp. Sugar
1 Tbsp. Shortening or oil
1 cup boiling water
3 cups flour
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
1 tsp. parsley flakes

Beat egg, add shortening, salt, sugar. Slowly stir in boiling water. Cool to lukewarm and add yeast mixture. Add ½ flour, italian seasoning, and parsley; stir (or beat with electric mixer) until smooth. Add remaining flour. Knead to soft dough. Roll to fit pan. Spread light coating of oil over dough on pan. Let rise 15 minutes. (You can spread on sauce and toppings while waiting for dough to rise.)

Cook at 425 for 15 - 20 minutes. (Check at 15 minutes.)

HINT WHILE BAKING: Turn oven to BROIL for one minute at the very end of pizza cooking time. This gives the cheese a nice brown that is so delicious!

BARBEQUE CHICKEN PIZZA
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts cubed
Italian seasoning
Parsley flakes
Worchestershire sauce
Salt
Pepper
1/2 cup Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce (or your preferred)
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 red onion, sliced
Mozzarella cheese
1 T. olive oil
1 T. fresh cilantro chopped

Cube chicken breasts and saute over medium-high heat seasoning with italian seasoning, parsley flakes, worchestershire sauce, salt and pepper to taste. Mix BBQ sauce and cream together and spread over crust. Top with chicken, then cheese, then red onion slices.

Creamy Ranch Chicken Enchiladas

Yesterday was mine and my husband's 2-year anniversary. We had a really great night watching our wedding video and just remembering April 26, 2007. It was just a small celebration, nothing too fancy because we're going to be going out to dinner later in the week. Emi and I both love enchiladas! I have two other enchilada recipes that I swear by and now I'm going to have to add these to the list.
I was very intrigued by this recipe because I just couldn't imagine eating an enchilada with ranch and I was a little scared to even try it, but that is why I ended up trying it anyway! :-D I definitely reccomend these. I made a couple of small changes, which I'll include below. Yum!
I found these on another blog that I found recently (don't you just LOVE finding new food blogs???) called Annie's Eats. I have over 30 recipes marked to try from this blog so be sure to check it out here.

CREAMY RANCH CHICKEN ENCHILADAS
4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I used 2 bone-in chicken breasts and had more than enough to fill 10 tortillas.)
8 oz. reduced fat sour cream
8 oz. Ranch salad dressing
2 stalks green onions
1- 7 oz can green chiles
flour tortillas (10-15)
shredded mexican cheese

Directions:
Cook chicken breasts by preferred cooking method until cooked through. Set aside to cool a bit. (I cooked mine by throwing them in the crockpot for 6 hours with the green chiles, salt, and pepper. I love cooking chicken this way for anything I need shredded chicken for. It's much easier to shred than baking, grilling, or boiling.)

While chicken is cooling, mix up the sauce. In a large mixing bowl, combine half of the sour cream and half of the Ranch dressing. In a small bowl, combine the rest of the sour cream and Ranch dressing. Stir both until well combined. Shred or chop the cooked chicken and add to the large mixing bowl. Mix well with sauce.

Preheat the oven to 375°. Grease a 9 x 13″ pan (and possibly another, smaller pan if needed). Add some of the chicken mixture to the center of the each tortilla. Sprinkle with shredded cheese, to taste. Roll up tortilla and place, seam side down, in the prepared baking dish. Use the sauce in the small bowl to top enchiladas, spreading well. Sprinkle on cheese to taste.

Bake in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes (30 for a crispier tortilla). Allow to cool a few minutes before serving.

Roasted Red Pepper Pasta

I made this dish last Sunday when we went up to my parent's house to have my mom cut Emi's hair. My mom never misses an opportunity for me to cook for them. :-D
I got this recipe from a new blog I found a couple of weeks ago and I have quite a few more recipes to try from her blog. Be sure to check out Norah's blog here. This recipe turned out so good! I will definitely make it again once red peppers go on sale! :-D The only thing I did differently is that I added the parmesan to the sauce and let it melt in instead of just using it as a topping.
Side note on the picture: My mom took this picture and she wanted some "green" on there so she stuck her salad bowl next to the pasta on the plate. I told her it would look goofy, but she is just too cute to listen to me. :-D

ROASTED RED PEPPER PASTA
3 red bell peppers
2 tablespoons pine nuts (optional)
1/2 medium onion, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup heavy cream
Flat leaf parsley, finely minced
Fresh Parmesan, shaved or grated
1/2 to 1 pound pasta: orecchiette, penne, fusilli, etc.

Roast red peppers, then place in a Ziploc bag to allow to sweat. Peel the charred skins from the peppers, then removed seeds. Set aside. (Here are instructions for roasting bell peppers.)
Lightly toast pine nuts in a skillet. Set aside.
Puree peppers with pine nuts. Set aside.
Cook pasta according to package directions.
In a skillet or pot over medium heat, drizzle in olive oil. Add diced onions and garlic and cook until soft. Pour in pepper puree and stir together. Add plenty of salt. Pour in cream and parmesan cheese. Stir to combine. Taste and add more salt, if necessary. Add cooked pasta, then stir together.

Bacon Wrapped Chicken

This dish turned out amazing! I was a little worried about it since I am not a huge fan of cream of chicken. In fact, I almost used cream of mushroom instead, but I am very glad that I didn't! My husband and his friend Cody said that this dish was better than anything you could ever get at Olive Garden and said that I need to make this again. To me, the chicken actually took a back seat to the sauce this time which is weird in this family of meat lovers. I made a couple of changes to the recipe, which I'll include below. I want to make this again and next time I think I will skip the bacon wrapped chicken all together and do something a little more like this, but definitely keep the same sauce recipe.
One little piece of advice to those who want to try this recipe with the bacon wrapped chicken, you might want to slightly cook the bacon in the microwave or very briefly over the stove. Since the bacon in covered by the sauce, it cooks but it is still really soft when it comes out of the oven.

BACON WRAPPED CHICKEN
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, sliced
1 pkg bacon
3 stalks green onions
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 pound wide egg noodles

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. Pound the chicken breasts until flat. Put a slice of cream cheese, 1 teaspoon chopped green onions, and 1 teaspoon minced garlic in the middle of each breast and roll up. Wrap each rolled breast with 2 slices of bacon and secure with toothpicks. Place in a 9x13 inch baking dish.
3. In a medium bowl, combine cream of chicken, mayonnaise, heavy cream, lemon juice, leftover green onions, 2 Tablespoons of garlic, pepper and salt. Mix until smooth, then pour over chicken (I also added the cream cheese I had leftover from the slices for the chicken).
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour, or until no longer pink and juices run clear. Turn on broiler for 4 minutes to get a nice crispy top.
5. Serve chicken and sauce over egg noodles.

Flautas

You will have to excuse me for my lack of updating and commenting lately. I just recently started a new job and I will need a little while to get used to the change. Speaking of jobs... I wouldn't usually do this, but I really dislike the place that I am currently working, mostly because I just graduated from a school and I'm not even doing what I went there for. If any of the people that read this site have any connections with Medical Transcription, I'd really appreciate any help that I can get. I have been trying to find a job in that field (since I went to school for it) but it is tough right now because of a lot of graduates and companies aren't hiring because of the economy. Any help/advice would be much appreciated.
Anyway! Back to food. When I saw Real Mom Kitchen's recipe for Chicken Flautas, I knew I needed to give it a try. I hit one little snag in that my deep fryer is too small for the tortillas. I remembered seeing on For the love of cooking that she baked her taquitos in the oven so I combined these forces :-D and came out with an awesome meal!
Immediately following my husband's first bite, he explained to me that he didn't expect to like these, but that he ended up LOVING them and told me I could make them anytime! :-D

FLAUTAS
Please click on the above links to check out the original recipes
3 chicken breasts
1 Tbsp. Fajitas Seasoning
1 tsp. garlic salt
1 small can chopped green chiles
10 flour tortillas
1 cup shredded cheese (whatever you like, I used cheddar)
toppings of your choice to dip them in such as salsa, guacamole, etc. (I used the green enchilada sauce mixed with sour cream. Next time I'd like to dip them in this.)

Place your chicken in a crock pot with the fajita seasoning and garlic salt and cook on low for at least 6 hours. About 1 hour before you want to eat, remove chicken from the crock pot. Shred the chicken and allow to cool for about 30 minutes. Then mix in shredded cheese.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Put flour tortillas for 1-2 minutes in the microwave to soften. Place a bit shredded chicken on the side of the tortilla then roll. Place, seam side down, on a baking sheet that's been coated with cooking spray. Finish rolling the rest of the flautas, then spray each of them with cooking spray and bake for 5-6 minutes then turn over and cook for an additional 5-6 minutes or until crispy and golden brown.

I served this with sour cream rice. This ended up being REALLY good! I changed it slightly to make it a little more tasty. I will definately make it again!

SOUR CREAM RICE
2 cups rice, cooked
1 tsp salt
1/2 T. garlic powder
2 cups sour cream
1 cup grated monterey jack cheese or any soft white cheese
3 cups grated cheddar cheese
1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chilies, no seeds or 1/2 cup chopped fresh chili pepper, no seeds

While cooking rice, season with salt and garlic powder. Mix cooked rice, sour cream and green chiles. Mix grated cheeses together and reserve 1 cup for topping. Stir in cheeses with rice/sour cream mixture. Pour rice mixture into a lightly greased casserole dish. Top with reserved 1 cup grated cheese. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 30 minutes.

Crispy Herb Baked Chicken

I made this easy dish last night for Emi and I. It was a quick put together, but tantalizing wait while the smell of the chicken drifted through the house. I added a few things to the original recipe and I'm glad I did. After coating the chicken, I sprinkled the rest of the breadcrumb/potato flake mixture over the top of the chicken for extra crispyness. This was very crispy and the taste was fantastic, almost like fried chicken. Yum.
The only thing I would do differently is next time I will flip the chicken over halfway through the cooking. The bottom of the chicken had a nice crust while the top was still a little flaky. Emi loved this dish and told me I could make it again... anytime.
I chose to serve this with vermicelli and marinara sauce, kind of like a chicken parmesan thing. Like I've said before... I have never made my own marinara sauce and I am SURE that I am missing out. I (guiltily) use the jars from the store, but I usually add additional spices to make it WABAM a little better. Last night I used Prego Roasted Parmesan and to that I added some sugar, italian seasoning, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and little bit of red pepper flakes. Emi likes his sauces creamy so I also added a can of cream of mushroom to the sauce. Yum.

CRISPY HERB BAKED CHICKEN
4-6 bone-in chicken thighs or drumsticks
2/3 cup dry potato flakes
1/3 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/3 cup butter, melted

DIRECTIONS
1. Heat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease or line with foil a baking sheet or a 13 x 9 inch baking pan.
2. In a medium bowl, combine potato flakes, Parmesan cheese, and garlic salt. Stir until well mixed.
3. Dip chicken pieces into melted butter or margarine, and roll in potato flake mixture to coat. Place in prepared pan.
4. Bake for 45 to 60 minutes, or until chicken is tender and golden brown.

Wisconsin Cauliflower Soup

I have had my eye on this recipe for the past couple of months, but had never gotten around to making it. A couple of months ago, my parents took Emi and I to Zupas. It is a restaurant that serves soups, salads, and sandwiches and they seem to be sprouting up all over the place now. This wasn't my first experience with Zupas, but it was my husband's and he LOVED it.
My dad's favorite soup is the Wisconsin Califlower Soup, so I was really excited when I found this copy cat recipe. I've never tried it so I didn't know whether the taste was right or not, but my family really liked the soup. We had a couple of setbacks since my mom accidently picked up a mild cheddar cheese and monteray jack with jalapenos instead of pepper jack, but it all turned out in the end. :-D
Good thing I made it because *hopefully* (crosses fingers) last night will be one of the last cold days this season, but it is Utah afterall and we all know how Utah's weather can change.

ZUPAS WISCONSIN CAULIFLOWER SOUP
2 tablespoons margarine or butter (1/4 stick)
1 medium onion, chopped
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
1 can (13 3/4 to 14 1/2 ounces) chicken broth
1 head (2 1/2 pounds) cauliflower, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 cup Sharp Cheddar cheese
1 cup Pepper Jack cheese

In 4-quart saucepan, melt margarine or butter over medium heat. Add onion and cook until golden, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in flour and salt; cook 2minutes, stirring frequently. Gradually stir in milk, chicken broth, and 1 1/2 cups water; add cauliflower and heat to boiling over high heat. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer until cauliflower is tender, about 10 minutes. In blender (with center part of blender cover removed to allow steam to escape), blend cauliflower mixture at low speed in small batches until very smooth. Return cauliflower mixture to saucepan; heat over medium heat until hot, stirring occasionally. Remove saucepan from heat; stir in mustard and 1 1/2 cups cheese until melted and smooth. Garnish soup with remaining cheese to serve.