Chick Pizza, according to John

AKA: Whole Wheat Pesto Chicken Artichoke Heart Pizza (yes, I made that name up myself)


This pizza was delicious, and I like to think of it as semi-healthy, with the whole wheat dough, artichoke hearts, pesto sauce and all. Seriously, go make this, now! Yum.

I used this whole wheat dough recipe I found off of allrecipes.com. I substituted garlic salt for regular salt, just to give it a little more flavor. It made a really nice thick crust. Or you could have made two thinner crust pizzas, according to the recipe anyway.

On to the pizza toppings:
Pesto sauce
Chicken
Bacon or sausage (I used sausage)
Artichoke hearts cut/diced
Mozzarella cheese
Grated Parmesan cheese
A sprinkle of feta to top it off


Assembling:
Spread pesto sauce on dough, in lieu of pizza sauce
Shred cooked chicken and coat with pesto sauce, spread out on dough
Next, layer with artichoke hearts
Followed by sausage
Cover with Mozzarella cheese
Add a little Parmesan
Top off with some feta (I only used this because I had it on hand, and needed to get rid of it, but boy was I glad I added some...I bet goat cheese would be good, too, if you're a goat cheese kind of person)

Bake at 425 degrees for about 18-20 minutes.

D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S

Caramel Bar Goodness

These are similar to caramel brownies, but made with a yellow or vanilla cake mix instead, and white chocolate chips are added. I know I made these when Andrea and I were living with Rob and Lorena, and everyone really liked them, but I don't think I've made them sense. I randomly thought of them the other night and thought they deserved a post.

Carmel Bar
1 pkg. butter cake mix or yellow (the moist ones are the best.  I’ve used vanilla before as well)
1/3 c. oil
2 eggs
1 pkg. chocolate chips
1 c. white chocolate chips

Mix all these ingredients and put half of it in a cake pan and spread it
around then bake at 350 degrees for 10 min.

While cooking above cake mixture, put these ingredients in a saucepan:
1 sq. butter or margarine (I do half this much—tastes the same!)
32 caramels unwrapped (I've even used caramel sauce when I didn't have caramels)
1 can sweetened condensed milk (I use fat-free if I have it—no difference in taste)
Stir until all melted.  Don’t let it scorch.

Pour over cake crust and dollop the rest of cake mixture on top and
continue baking for 25 more minutes or until starting to get golden brown.
Don’t overbake.  (it’s the saddest thing if you do)


Side note: They're really good frozen...weird I know, but I also love frozen cookies, so...

Cabbage Rolls

I thought I'd post this recipe, not because I particularly think Dad or Rob will love it, or John for that matter, but it's good, and worth having on hand. It will most definitely be a meal for us next week. Yum!

Turkey Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

Ingredients:

-1 head of cabbage

-1 egg

-1 8oz can tomato sauce

-1/2 cup uncooked brown rice

-1 envelope onion soup mix

-1 lb lean ground turkey

-1/3 cup shredded parmesan cheese

-2 cups**(see note below) regular V8 juice

Directions.

-core your cabbage, and save it for the guinea pigs.

-very carefully, peel off large cabbage leaves (8-12) and wash them. You need to lightly steam the cabbage leaves to wilt them enough to handle. I put the leaves in a covered casserole dish and microwaved on high for 2 minutes. They were perfect.

-in a mixing bowl, combine the turkey meat, raw rice, the egg, the onion soup mix, the cheese, and the can of tomato sauce. Mix well---the mixture will be like very gloppy meatloaf.

-Using a spoon, scoop about 1/3 of a cup of mixture into each cabbage leaf and roll or fold. Put the stuffed cabbage leaves into the bottom of your crockpot, seam side down.

If your cabbage has a bunch of nice leaves, use them all. I was stuck with only 8 good ones, and got frustrated and fed the rest of the cabbage to the guinea pigs.

It's okay to stack the rolls on top of each other in the crock.

**Top with 2 cups of V8 Juice. I used 2 cups of juice because I made 8 rolls. If you are using more rolls, use another cup of juice. The original recipe called for an entire 46 oz bottle of V8 which is an awful lot. I didn't want to use that much, and did not fully submerge my cabbage rolls. They steamed and cooked fine in less juice.

Cover crock and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Ours cooked for exactly 6 hours, and the meat was cooked and the rice was tender. That's what you're looking for.