Chicken Alfredo French Bread Pizza

Happy Nom Nom Monday!  Today I have a great recipe for Chicken Alfredo French Bread Pizza.  I found the recipe on What's Cooking With Ruthie.

Ingredients:

- 1 tablespoon of olive oil

- 2 chicken breast (boneless skinless)

- salt and pepper

- half a french bread

- 1/4 cup alfredo sauce 

- 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella

- 2 plum tomatoes

- a few basil leaves

Directions:

Cut up the chicken breast into bite sized cubes, and then season with salt and pepper.  Heat a skillet with the olive oil, and add the chicken chucks.  Stir regularly, and cook until the chicken is done, about 7 - 10 minutes.  While that's cooking dice up the plum tomatoes. 

Preheat the oven to 475ºF.  Cut the half of french bread in half, and then halve it lengthwise.  Place the bread on a cookie sheet, and spoon the alfredo sauce onto the bread.  My mom gave me a jar of Newman's Own sauce, but feel free to make your own or use a different brand.  

Shred the mozzarella onto the bread slices.  

Carefully place the tomatoes and cubed chicken on the bread.  Then bake for 5 minutes.  Top the pieces with torn basil leaves.  Serve and enjoy!  

This was so yummy I used the other half of french bread to make it for lunch the next day!  I also cooked three chicken breast instead of two, so I would have plenty of leftovers to recreate this.  I'll have to try different versions of this with other toppings and sauces.  What a great way to make a simple pizza for two.  Plus we have a great bakery within walking distance of our house, so it's hard to resist the fresh local bread.  So glad I found this recipe!

Hope you had  a great President's Day, and Happy Nom Nom Monday, chris!

Fresh Tomato & Bell Pepper Pasta Salad

Happy Nom Nom Monday!  Today I made a pasta salad using some of the fresh pickin's from our garden.  Cold pasta salads are perfect for lunch or dinner in the summer.  I could eat it everyday.  

I used some green grape tomatoes, riesentraube tomatoes, a couple black cherry tomatoes, and the peppers are technically purple beauties.  I couldn't wait until the peppers got purple, they've been tempting me for days, weeks on end.  Then I looked to our herb garden, and decided the lemon basil was the way to go.  I based my recipe off of this Lemon Pasta Salad with Tomatoes and Feta I found on yummly.  

Ingredients:

- 7 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil

- 2.5 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice

- 3 tablespoons of dijon mustard

- 2 garlic cloves (where were out, what! so I substituted with garlic salt)

- 12 ounces of bow-tie pasta

- 2 cups cherry tomatoes

- 1 1/2 cups bell peppers

- 1 1/2 feta cheese

- 1/4 cup parmesan cheese

- 1/4 cup white onion

- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon basil

Directions:

I began by boiling water, and cooking the pasta.  While that was happening I chopped all of the my cherry tomatoes, peppers, and onion up.  I also tore my basil into small bits and mixed that in.  Next I mixed together the olive oil, lemon juice, mustard, and garlic salt together in a medium bowl.  When the pasta was done I mixed the pasta and veggies together, then I poured the sauce over them, and mixed throughly.  Finishing with the cheeses.  Now truthfully I didn't have that much cheese, I used what was left in a half used feta tub, and about a tablespoon of freshly grated parmesan cheese.  I threw some black pepper on for seasoning, and called it lovely!  

It was tasty.  Even my hubby who usually doesn't go for cold pasta salads had seconds of this one.  I think the only thing that could have made it better was if I had more cheese, and fresh garlic.  

I love eating pasta salads the next day.  The flavors have a chance to really culminate and become alive together.  I already have this packed up for work tomorrow.  Hope ya'll are having a wonderful Nom Nom Monday, and happy DIYing, chris!

Garden Pickin's

I'm exhausted!  Aaron and I woke up early, and got some stuff at Lowe's before he had to go to jury duty.  Then I headed over to our house, and started working on scraping the floors.  My hands are so sore, and there is only a three foot by four foot section done.  I got another section scrapped, but we still need to go over it, and get the super icky sticky bits that don't come up with the large scrapper.  While I was scrapping I would occasionally take a break and scrub the kitchen.  Every inch of the house is covered in nasty grime.  I made up a solution of washing soda, bleach and warm water to cut through the ick.  It worked really well, but some spots, like around the stove needed something more powerful.  I sprayed those areas down with goof off, and let it soak for a bit before rubbing the dirt away.  It's looking better, but I still need to do a TON of scrubbing.  I don't have any photos to show of the house today though.  

Instead I have some photos of my first tomato harvest.  The first heirloom tomatoes that were ripe were our riesentraube tomatoes.  It's historically a German  heirloom that was commonly found in Philadelphia during the mid-1800's.  It has massive yields of flavorful cherry tomatoes.  

This is a black cherry tomato with a blue jay feather I found on our deck.  

This is the last bit of healthy lettuce I was able to pick.  I love all the varieties we tried out this year.  I want to figure out how to grow some lettuce through out the winter months.  

I love the colors in this variety.  So pretty.  

Hope you enjoyed, and happy DIYing, chris.  

Vegetable Tian

Font by Miss Tina

Welcome back to Nom Nom Mondays!  Today I made this fantastic Veggie Tian.  I found the recipe on Pinterest, and made it for the first time about a month ago.  Everyone loved it, and it was so easy to make I wanted to make it again.  I can't emphasis how easy this is to make, and it's healthy-ish while staying tasty.  

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

- 1 large yellow onion

- 4 - 5 cloves of garlic (this is my addition to the recipe)

- 3 large roma tomatoes

- 2 medium sized russet potatoes

- 1 zucchini

- 1 yellow squash

- 2 tablespoons of olive oil

- 1/4 cup parmesan cheese

- salt and pepper

- dried thyme

Heat the oven to 375ºF.  If you'd like to prepare this dish ahead of time, just leave the oven off :).  Dice the onion into small squares, and mince the garlic.  Clean your veggies, and cut into quarter inch thick slices.  Leave the skin on the potatoes.  I liked to cut the potatoes a bit thinner, and the tomatoes a bit thicker, so they both come out the right consistency.  

Heat a skillet with one tablespoon of olive oil, and then lightly brown the onion and garlic.  Then evenly spread over the bottom of a greased pie dish.  

Arrange all of the veggies in a spiral on top of the browned onion and garlic.  Make only one layer, you should be able to fit everything in.  The first time I made this I doubled the ingredients and baked them in two pie dishes.  

Drizzle the other tablespoon of olive oil over the top, and season with the thyme, salt and pepper.  We had tons of fresh thyme, and none dried which worked too.  Cover with foil, and you can either refrigerate until you're ready to bake, or stick it directly into the oven for 35 minutes.  

After baking for 35 minutes, remove from the oven, and coat the top with parmesan cheese.  Make sure to use the shredded kind, and not the powdery kind.  Stick the dish back in the oven uncovered for another 25 - 30 minutes.  

When the cheese is bubbly brown over the top the veggies are ready to be served!  

Here's a close-up of the yummy bubbly cheese.  Hope ya'll are having a good Monday, happy DIYing, chris.  

Blue Cheese, and Tomato Mac & Cheese

This is something I've been doing for years.  I've loved boxed mac & cheese since I can remember.  I probably loved it in utero.  As I've gotten older I've had to adjust the way I make it, to grow with my grown up tastes.  This is my most recent adaptation, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

-one box of mac & cheese (any brand but velveeta) 

-1/3 cup milk

-1/3 cup of crumbled blue cheese (use less if you don't want it to be extra blue cheesey)

-2/3 cup of shredded mild cheddar cheese

-1/4 cup tomato (diced)

Directions:

- Boil water in a medium saucepan.  Once boiling add two tablespoons of salt, then add the macaroni noodles.  The salt will help keep the noodles from sticking together.  Cooking according to the directions on the box.  When you drain the noodles run cold water over them, this will also keep them from sticking together.  Let the noodles sit in the strainer while you make the sauce.

- While the noodles are cooking cut up your blue cheese, and shred your mild cheddar.

- In the same pan you used to cook the noodles add the sauce pack, the milk, and both cheeses, and cook over a low heat.  Make sure the pan doesn't get too hot, or the cheese will overcook and stick to the pan.  While that's melting together dice up 1/4 cup of tomato, and set aside in a small bowl.  Make sure to stir the cheese sauce repeatedly, so that it doesn't stick to the pan.

- Once the cheeses are all melted together, add the noodles, and mix thoroughly.  

- Serve the mac & cheese, and then add the tomatoes to each serving.  I like to add a little of Lawry's Seasoned Salt too, but definitely not necessary.  

If you love blue cheese you have to try this!  Sooooo tasty.   Happy DIYing!