Crabby Pizza

Story time! I love pizza and when I saw the pizza dough at Trader Joes, I just knew that i had to make pizza tonight. If you have read one of my previous posts, you would also know that I love Feta cheese. Now, my mom wanted crab on the pizza and I wanted Feta so I decided to make it a challenge to have both! We just picked up some whole wheat crust and ingredients, I made the creation below, and we feasted! Yummy and filling!

















Feeds 2-3 people

Ingredients 
1/3 cup Mexican Cheese
1/3 cup Feta cheese
1/2 cup "Real Crab Meat"
16 oz whole wheat pizza dough
1/3 cup pizza sauce
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp dried onion
flour for rolling
1 tsp olive oil

Directions
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and oil your baking dish.

First, take the pizza dough and roll it out to about 12 in diameter on a floured surface.  Then, take about 1/4 cup of feta and delicately place it one piece at a time around the pizza. Fold the dough over the feta cheese and press down making sure it is secure.
Now, lather the pizza sauce over the dough making sure to cover it completely. Then throw on the crab meat making sure there is no blank space! Sprinkle the pizza with the onion and garlic powder. Finally, sprinkle the Mexican cheese over the pizza and sprinkle the rest of the Feta.

Cook the pizza for 10-15 minutes or until the bottom of the pizza is golden brown.

Authors note: I used a toaster oven which worked great! However, on the package for the dough it did say to put the pizza into a regular oven at 425 degrees and to cook it for 6-8 minutes. However, in the toaster oven it DID take longer.

Roll the dough

Add the feta and tomato sauce

This is what it should look like after the crust has been folded and the crab, Mexican cheese and Feta are on there

ENJOY

Turkey burritos with veggies and beans

Today, my family was asking the age-old questions: What should we have for dinner?. Now my dad wanted to have burritos with home made guacamole. Except he wanted to use the packets for both the meat AND the guacamole! I, however, decided to be up for the challenge to make burritos ENTIRELY from scratch (spice wise that is). So he and I went to the store to get the ingredients and while we were there I saw ground turkey. That then sparked an idea on my part to try something new. I mean, how many times have people had turkey in there burritos, right? So we brought home the ingredients and I went to work. It was difficult to figure out what spices to add so I did have to use the internet to get some inspiration but I think my burritos turned out alright. Hope you enjoy! 

Side note: When making these burritos, you could just buy guacamole instead of making it from scratch. 

Guacamole 

Ingredients

A bunch of Cilantro chopped (to taste)

1 Red tomato diced

1 Onion diced

1 TBS garlic

2 Avocados

1 tsp cumin

1 lime juiced

salt and pepper to taste

Directions 

Peel and mash up the Avocados in a medium sized bowl. Then squeeze the lime and add the onion, tomato, garlic, cumin, salt, pepper, and cilantro. Mix well and place in refrigerator for 20-30 minutes. 

Turkey

Ingredients 

2 pounds ground turkey
A bunch of Cilantro (to taste)

2 Tbs Red pepper

2 Tbs Cumin

2 Tbs Chili powder

3 Tbs garlic

2 Tbs Paprika 

Salt and Pepper 

1 Tbs Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Directions 

Heat the pan and add the Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Then Cook the meat until half way cooked. Next, add all of the spices and cilantro to the pan. Let it finish cooking and take it off the burner to sit (this will allow the spices to sink into the meat). 

Beans and veggies

Ingredients

1 Red pepper diced

1 Green pepper diced

1 onion diced

1/2 cup mushrooms chopped

1 can Refried beans

1 1/2 tbs cumin (or to taste)

1 Tbs Garlic (or to taste)

Cilantro (to taste)

1 Tbs Extra Virgin Olive oil

Directions

1. Heat the pan and add the Extra Virgin Olive oil. 
2. Saute the onions until lightly golden. Then add the peppers and mushrooms. Let them cook for about 1 minute. 
3. After the veggies have cooked some, add the Refried Beans and spices to the pan. Cook for about 5-10 minutes. 

Take all of the parts that you have just cooked, place onto a warm flour tortilla and enjoy! You can garnish it with salsa and sour creme. I personally used Whole Wheat tortillas which tasted just as good as the flour tortialls but that's just my preference!

Feta stuffed crusted pizza

You know that feeling when you want pizza SO BAD! Well I had that feeling today but I also wanted to be somewhat healthy and to get rid of some hamburger meat that I had laying around. So I ran to the store, grabbed some vegetables and other pizza ingredients  and was ready to cook! I personally really like lots of stuff on my pizza because it brings out lots of flavors. However, you can really add what ever you want onto the pizza. I also tried adding feta cheese, green and yellow peppers into the crust which was DELICIOUS! I always liked stuffed crusts but adding the feta, green, and yellow pepper seemed a tad bit different than Dominoes or Papa Johns pizza. I hope you enjoy this recipe! Stay posted for more delicious dishes!

Ingredients

16 oz can pizza sauce

1 green pepper (1 more if you want to make the stuffed crust)

1 yellow pepper (1 more if you want to make the stuffed crust)

1 onion

1 can black olives

Hamburger meat

1 8 oz box Feta cheese

1 cup grated cheddar cheese 

Whole wheat pizza dough

Flour

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Then Dice the green and yellow pepper and the onion. Cook the hamburger meat until thoroughly cooked (about 10-15 minutes). Make sure that the hamburger meat is broken up into small pieces to make it easier to put onto the pizza. 

After you have done that, grab the pizza dough and place it on a floured surface. Then stretch out the dough until it is about 12 in diameter. Place the pizza dough onto a non-stick cookie sheet or pizza stone. Once on the baking sheet, make the crust by flipping the edges around. 

Then grab the pizza sauce and lather it onto the dough until almost the whole pizza is covered (but leave room for the crust!). Then sprinkle the cheddar cheese until the whole pizza has a think layer of cheese.

Grab the green peppers, yellow peppers, olives, hamburger meat and onion and distribute.  Finally, add feta cheese to taste around the whole pizza. 

Place in oven for 40-50 minutes until golden brown. 

Side note: I tried adding feta cheese, green and yellow peppers into the crust which tasted delicious! All you have to do is place a piece of feta around the edge of the whole pizza and then turn the dough over the cheese as you would when making a regular crust. It does take some extra time but it is definitely worth it!

Mediterranean Chicken Salad with Hummus

Last week I had the most phenomenal Mediterranean salad that I ordered in! It was so good that I wanted to see if I could make it up for myself (without having to pay ten dollars to eat it ;) ). Anyway, I just ran down to the store and grabbed some lettuce, feta cheese, hummus, Roasted Red peppers, chicken, cucumber, marinated mushrooms, and Kalamata Olives All that I had to do was clean the lettuce, cook the chicken, and then throw everything together on top of hummus. Then you can just put on some salad dressing like Balsamic, Greek, or Italian (I tried adding the marinade from the mushrooms as dressing which was delicious!) and Enjoy!

Serves 5 people

Ingredients 

1.5 pounds of chicken breast

1 head of lettuce

1 container of marinated mushrooms (about 5 per plate)

1/2 container of kalamata

1 cup feta cheese

2 cups hummus 

1 8 oz container of roasted red peppers 

Extra Virgin Olive oil (For cooking chicken but you can use PAM too)

Salad dressing

Prep work

-Cube chicken into bite sized pieces 

-Clean lettuce

-Slice cucumber at the maximum 5 cm

Directions 

1. Cook chicken in a sauce pan in a little bit of oil (Just enough to coat the bottom of the pan). Once it has been cooked put aside and let cool for about 5-10 minutes. 
2.  Place 5 plates in front of you and use a ice cream scoop in the Hummus and place 2 scoops on each plate. Then spread it around just enough to make it flat. 
3. Put the lettuce leaves on top of the Hummus along with the cucumber.  Then add   the olives and mushrooms.
4. Distribute the chicken until there is none left and sprinkle with feta cheese
5. Finally add the Salad dressing and then you are ready to eat!

Making something out of nothing

After a week with my parents, we ended up running low on food since they did not go grocery shopping. Now we could have gone out but seeing that we went out last night---that was not going to happen. The only other option was to scrounge around in the pantry and fridge. You know that feeling right? Looking into the pantry and saying "What am I going to eat?". Now we could have run to our freezer and grabbed some frozen microwave food. Except I looked the frozen goods and yelled "NO!" while shutting the cold door. Grabbing tidbits from our fridge I created a great low carb and hearty meal.

Feeds 3 people

Directions

----In a skillet cook

• 1 zucchini diced
• 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
• 1/2 cup shredded spinach 

---In a sauce pan heat 8 oz tomato sauce. Add:

• dash of curry
• garlic to taste
• 1 tbs oregano

----Stir in veggies and 1/4 cup Mexican cheese into tomato sauce

-----In a skillet (can be a new one or the same skillet) cook 1 boneless Chicken breast sliced into thin strips
----Toast 3 pieces of bread and butter. (optional: add slice of cheese)

-----Place the chicken evenly among 3 plates. Evenly distribute the tomato mixture over the chicken.  Place toast with cheese on it to the plate too. Enjoy dinner!

NOTE: You can also have this with pasta!

Greens never tasted so good

  So this evening I made an amazing dinner! Dinner salads, although don't sound like enough food, actually are very filling. It's great because you can throw in all of your favorite veggies and a meat to make a hearty dinner.

What I did was:

Ingredients


1 cup lettuce leaves washed
1/2 medium sized red pepper
1/2 medium sized green pepper
1/3 cups mushrooms
1/3 cup diced onion
1/4 cup black olives
1/2 cup teriyaki marinade
1 tsp cilantro
1/2 pound chicken breast cut into small pieces
2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

     In large bowl

• Clean lettuce and dry
• Add the olives and the peppers. Mix contents

In a small pan

• Cook onions and mushrooms and saute them in a pan until onion is golden

In a large pan

• Cook chicken in olive oil until it's not pink in the middle. Add the marinade and cilantro. Stir until all the contents are covered. Let cook for 5 minutes.
• Add onion and mushrooms to mixture and turn off burner. Mix the contents in the pan until everything is covered in the marinade

Take the chicken mixture and pour over the salad. Don't forget to let the marinade get onto the lettuce! Sit and Enjoy!! :)

Stuffed shells

                             
I decided to try to make stuffed shells without a recipe and ended up creating my own delicious dish.
Feeds 6 people
Ingredients:
1 cup of Ricotta Cheese
1.25 pounds of chicken
1/2 a white onion
1/3 cup of mushrooms
12 oz. stuffed shells
1 tsp. dried garlic
pepper to taste
2 tbs. olive oil or 1/3 stick of butter
24 oz. Classico Marinara with Plum tomato's and olive oil sauce (or try a different kind of tomato sauce)
Directions:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350
2. 1. Heat skillet or pan on the stove and cook chicken for 10 minutes per side in 1 tbs. olive oil or 1/4 stick of butter.
3. While chicken is cooking, dice onions and mushrooms. Heat a second pan and put the remaining butter into pan. Sauté the onions and mushrooms.
4. Take a large pan and heat water until it boils. Then cook the stuffed shells. It should take about 10 minutes.
5. While the shells are cooking, take the ricotta cheese, garlic, onions, mushrooms, and chicken and stir in a large bowl.
6. After the stuffed shells have been cooked, take a 13x9 pan and then fill each stuffed shell with a tablespoon of the ricotta mixture and place in a the pan. After all of the stuffed shells have been filled, take the tomato sauce and pour over the stuffed shells. Cook for 10 minutes. Enjoy! Add some green beans and a salad to make it a hearty and healthy meal.

This was amazing and the reviews that I have received were very positive. I would definitely  would recommend it. Maybe next time I will try adding spinach to it too.  Tell me what you think!