Michelle's Quick & Easy Pizza

Another old, but favorite recipe. We don't eat a lot of pizza anymore, but this was a quick & easy pizza dough recipe I liked.



Quick and Easy Pizza Dough

We really liked the pizza dough. I think next time around we'll add more spices to the pizza dough to give it a little flavor, but both James and I really enjoyed it and it heated up well for leftovers. It is definitely a keeper. Also, 2-1/4 tsp. yeast = (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast.

Ingredients

1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 2 1/2 cups bread flour
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). In a medium bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
2. Stir in flour, salt and oil. Beat until smooth. Let rest for 5 minutes.
3. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pat or roll into a round. Transfer crust to a lightly greased pizza pan or baker's peel dusted with cornmeal. Spread with desired toppings and bake in preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Let baked pizza cool for 5 minutes before serving.

and here is the pizza sauce recipe we made to go with it from Mel's Kitchen Cafe:

The Best Pizza Sauce

*Makes enough for 2 16-18 inch pizzas

1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon garlic salt
pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)

Combine all ingredients in food processor or blender and blend until desired consistency. All the seasonings can be modified depending on taste – add what you like!

We only had bay leaves (basil leaves?) so James crumbled them up in the pizza sauce. I think next time we'll get petite diced tomatoes (they were a little too big for our taste) and just go the usual dried basil route. Other than that it was DELISH!

Michelle's Sloppy Joes

Here is one I found on my old blog. Thought I'd share in case anyone wanted to try a new Sloppy Joe's recipe this summer.

Michelle's Sloppy Joes 

INGREDIENTS:

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 onions, roughly chopped
2 ½ pounds ground beef
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2/3 cup smoky BBQ sauce (or whatever BBQ sauce is in your fridge)
½ cup ketchup
¼ cup Worcestershire sauce
¼ cup soy sauce
Freshly ground black pepper
8 to 12 potato rolls

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring, until they start to turn translucent, about 4 minutes. Add the beef and cook, stirring and breaking up the meat, until it is finely crumbled, the liquid boils off and the meat begins to brown, about 10 minutes. Drain the grease off the meat and onions. Stir in the tomato paste, and keep stirring until the meat is coated. Add the BBQ sauce, ketchup, Worcestershire, soy sauce, and pepper, and bring to a boil. Cook until the sauce is slightly thickened, 4 to 5 minutes. You can make the sloppy joe meat up to 2 days in advance and reheat it over low heat or in the microwave.

Wrap the rolls in aluminum foil and warm in the oven for about 10 minutes. Serve the sloppy joes hot with the warmed rolls.

*Freezable Meals: The leftover sloppy joes can be frozen. I store it in a freezer-safe container and then thaw in the refrigerator prior to serving. I reheat on medium-low heat in a saucepan on the stove.

Here are my little guinea pigs. :)

What was the general consensus?



Thumbs up. Yay!

As far as Sloppy Joes go, this was very, very good. I particularly liked it with the warmed up, soft rolls. I kind of feel that the carrots weren't enough vegetables, but what can ya do. Next time. We also substituted soy sauce for watered down Worcestershire sauce and it worked great.

Julie's Cream Cheese Crockpot Chicken

Julie found this recipe on pintrest and said it turned out good. I bet this would be good with some seasoning added too (taco seasoning, salt and pepper, curry, etc). Thanks for sharing Julie!

Cream Cheese Crockpot Chicken

Bag of frozen chicken breast tenderloins (I use like 2-4 of the chicken breast)

8 oz cream cheese

can of corn, drained

can of black or pinto beans (drained and rinsed) -I've used both

can of rotel (diced tomatoes with chili)

place all in crockpot with chicken first. cook low 6-8 hours our high 3-4 hours

stirring every 2 to 1 hours. Shred chicken when its done, then let it sit for 30-45 minutes before serving. Serve with rice. (Julie said she enjoyed the leftovers in a tortilla like a wrap/burrito, but didn't care for it over a salad). 

Sean enjoyed eating it too. :)

Julie's Amish Casserole

I found this recipe from Jeanette's recipe compilation she has from our family. This comes from Julie's kitchen and she said it tastes like sweet and sour spaghetti. One night I wasn't particularly feeling in the mood for something healthy (we usually do a lean and green) and I wanted a pasta, so I thought I would try this yummy looking pasta dish.

My kids downed it and really enjoyed it. James and I thought maybe I need to cut down the brown sugar next time, and I also felt that it might taste a little better if I had mixed the cream of chicken soup with something or replaced it completely with another white cream sauce (or maybe cream of chicken with greek yogurt, sour cream?). I think I just like cream of chicken soup when its mixed with something than when its the only thing.

We used a 20+oz jar of marinara sauce, and I was pretty sure we used a lb of ground turkey. If we had only used 1 10.75 oz jar of spaghetti sauce it wouldn't have covered the amount of meat we had. So I think if I do it in the future, I'd not double the brown sugar per spaghetti sauce quota in the recipe (I put in 1/2 cup brown sugar since it was double the size)



Here's Jen's awesome recipe with my modifications we'll make in the future with our fam. (or rather, things we'll test out next time we try it)

Amish Casserole
Taste like sweet and sour spaghetti.

1 package egg /spaghetti noodles (we used spaghetti)
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1 (10.75 oz.) can of spaghetti sauce (we used the regular size jar that's around 20 oz)
¼ cup brown sugar (keep at 1/4 even if doubling sauce)
Salt and pepper
Cheese 
1 lb ground beef - for later - (we substituted ground turkey for a healthier option)

Cook 1 package of wide egg noodles or spaghetti noodles in boiling water for 8-10 minutes. Drain, then return to pan and coat with cream of chicken soup until noodles are coated. 

Brown 1lb. beef. Drain fat. Pour in spaghetti sauce, brown sugar, and salt and pepper. Put half the meat mixture on the bottom of a casserole dish. Layer meat mixture with a layer of cheese, then pour half of the noodles on top of that. Then just repeat with meat, then cheese and noodles and top with cheese. 

Bake for 35 minutes at 350°