Cooking for Beginners: Buffalo Chicken Pizza

For a beginners recipe, this got a bit more detailed than I intended but it still turned out really good so I thought it was worth it.

Buffalo Chicken Pizza
Servings: 2 pizzas, 16 slices 

Ingredients:
1 package chicken tenders (I forgot to include these in the picture)
1 package pre-made pizza crust
Jar of pizza sauce (we used Ragu)
mozzarella cheese
hot sauce
garlic powder
honey
oregano
crushed red pepper
black pepper
butter (not pictured)





Buffalo Chicken:
1. Put the chicken tenders into a large zip lock bag.
2. Add 1/2 cup hot sauce, 1 tsp. garlic powder, 1/2 tsp. black pepper, and 1 tbs. honey into the bag.
3. Squeeze the air out of the bag, seal, and squeeze chicken around until it is all coated with the ingredients.
4. Marinate for 15-20 minutes.

Cooking the Chicken:
1. Once marinated, heat a large skillet (bigger than the one I used, preferably) over medium-high heat and add the chicken.
2. Cook for 5-7 minutes on each side or until the chicken is lightly browned and cooked through.

3. Transfer the chicken to a cutting board and let cool for 5 minutes or until its cooled enough to handle.
4. Shred the chicken. I used my fingers for this and just pull it apart into small pieces.

Making the Buffalo Sauce
1. Melt 2/3 cup butter in a microwave safe bowl. Add 1/3 to 2/3 (depending on how much heat you like) of hot sauce to the butter and stir to combine.

Preparing the Pizza:
1. Preheat the oven to the temperature suggested on the pizza dough. Mine said 450. It also said to brush some olive oil onto the dough, which we did as well, but its not a necessary step. If you choose to do this, I used about 1/2 tsp. on each.
2. Spread the pizza sauce over the dough to your liking.
3. Season with garlic, oregano and crushed red pepper flakes. (optional)

4. Add 1-2 cups of mozzarella cheese.
5. In another small bowl, add half of the chicken and half of the buffalo sauce. Using your fingers or a fork, mix to coat the chicken.

6. Spread the chicken over the cheese and repeat on the other crust.

7. Bake the pizza for the amount of time directed on the pizza dough. Mine said 7-10 minutes, but it took about 12 minutes before the cheese was fully melted and the crusted started to brown.

8. Cut and enjoy!

Yay!

I got the email approval today that I was added to the foodie blogroll. YAY!

I know its not a gigantic deal, you just have to have a blog older than a month with 80% about cooking, but I think its pretty neat. Tom said he wants to start presenting my meals better for the pictures. =)

I thought about skipping a cooking for beginners recipe this week because its been a stressful and annoying week, but I think I'll blog tonight's dinner, spicy chicken pizza.

Lime & Cumin Pork Chops and spiced corn

This is another Rachael Ray recipe so I was kind of hesitant as to how it would turn out. Luckily, except for the pork chop being a bit dry, it wasn't bad at all and the corn was amazing.

Lime & Cumin Pork Chops with baked potato and spiced corn
Servings: 4
Adapted from: Rachael Ray 30 Minute Meals

Ingredients:
3 pork chops
3 large potatoes
10 oz. frozen corn kernels
1 red pepper
1 jalapeno
1/2 small onion
1 tsp. cumin
3 tbs. lime juice
2 tbs. minced garlic
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup light cream
2/3 cup panko bread crumbs
1 tsp. olive oil
1 tsp. butter
1/4 tsp. Old Bay
salt, pepper, cilantro and parsley for garnish/to taste

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Dice the red pepper and onion. Remove seeds and membrane from the jalapeno. **Wear gloves when handling the jalapeno. It takes forever to get the juice off your hands.  In a medium skillet, add the butter and olive oil over medium heat. Once melted, add in the red pepper, onions, corn and jalapeno.
3. Stab the pork chops with a fork or knife. Squeeze lime juice over the pork chops, spread the garlic on top of the pork chops and season with cumin, salt and pepper. Place pork chops in a baking dish and put into oven. Bake for 15 minutes.
4. Once the vegetables are softened, whisk in the chicken stock and light cream. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes.
5. Wash potatoes, stab with fork and wrap in paper towels. Put the potatoes in the microwave and used your preset option for 3 potatoes, usually 11.5 minutes.
6. Slowly add the panko bread crumbs to the corn mixture until it starts to thicken up. Leave over medium heat until the mixture is thick and creamy. Add in the Old Bay and mix well until combined.
7. Remove pork chops from the oven and let rest for 1-2 minutes while you are plating everything else.
8. Enjoy!

Weekly Budget Breakdown #8

Once again this week will only have 5 meals instead of 6. I forgot to pull out dinner one night so everything got bumped back a day and Saturday we visited with the wedding caterer and I completely forgot to pull out dinner again.

Monday - Italian Chicken with tomato, corn and basil risotto
3 chicken breasts - $4
1/2 cup Italian dressing $.50
Arborio rice - $0.39
1/4 bag frozen corn $0.25
Total: $5.14

Tuesday - Steak with roasted red potatoes and green beans
3 steaks - $6
4 red potatoes - $0.64
canned green beans $1
Total: $7.64

Wednesday - cajun pork chops w/ roasted corn and garlic rice
3 pork chops - $2.50
1 boil-in-a-bag rice $0.66
1/2 bag frozen corn $0.50
Total: $3.66

Thursday - tacos
1 lb. ground beef - $1.69
lettuce & tomato $0.28
Mexican cheese $1.50
taco shells $1.49
Total: $4.96

Friday - chicken pizza
pizza shells $3.49
1/2 can pizza sauce $0.50
4 cups mozzarella cheese $3.00
1/2 package chicken tenders $3.12
Total: $10.11

Well, thats a bit ironic. I definitely wasn't expecting the pizza to be the most expensive thing on the menu. I'm not sure if I want the chicken or the pork chops to be the beginner meal for this week. I might just do both. And now onto the important part of this post, the total for the week....$31.51. YAY!

Asian Noodles with Beef

I was reading something today and decided I want to make some changes to this blog. I feel like I'm already doing something decent by showing just how cheaply I can make meals and including pretty versatile recipes, but I realized I wasn't really doing much for that cook that is just learning. So I'm going to create a section for beginner cooks and try to make a recipe each week that gives better detailed instructions on how to cook the meal. Kind of like how the Pioneer Woman does it.

This would have been a good recipe for that, but I didn't think about it until I had already started chopping and figured if I'm going to do it, I might as well do it right. Ironically, this recipe turned out to be more appetizer sized than meal sized. I still can't figure out why.

Asian Noodles with Beef
Servings: 4
Adapted from: www.allrecipes.com

Ingredients:
1 package sliced shitake mushrooms
1 green pepper, cut into bite sized pieces
1 red pepper, cut into bite sized pieces
1-2 lb. flank steak, cut into strips (or stir fry meat)
1/2 onion, diced
1/4 cup rice vinegar
2 tbs. soy sauce
1/2 tsp. ginger
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. parsley
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 big squirt (1 tsp. maybe) lime juice
1/4 box capellini pasta
oil

Directions:
1. Add the oil to a medium pan over medium heat. Add in the red pepper, green pepper and onions and cook for 3-5 minutes or until soft.
2. In a medium bowl mix together the rice vinegar, soy sauce, ginger, sugar, pepper and lime juice. Put the meat into the bowl and mix around to coat. (If you have some extra time you can let the meat marinade in this for up to 24 hours.)
3. In a medium saucepan, boil water, add some salt and add the pasta. Cook according to directions. (The brand I have only takes 3 minutes which is awesome!)
4. Add the meat and marinade to the vegetables and cook until meat is well done.
5. When the pasta is done, drain and add into the pan with the meat and vegetables. Mix well to incorporate everything.
6. Serve in bowls and sprinkle with parsley.

Maybe its just me, but usually when I go to buy a red pepper they are humongous! Usually twice the size of a green pepper which bugs me because I feel like if I want equal peppers than I need 1 1/2 green peppers to 1 red pepper. Today that was not the case. Tom picked out the peppers when we were at the store so I didn't notice the size until I started cooking.

See, this is the size that I expect a red pepper to be! Not overly gigantic and not too small. Maybe this combined with the fact that my mushrooms went bad somehow contributed to my typically dinner sized meal turning into an appetizer size. Hmmm...

Personal Shopper

I have a slight addiction to a certain wedding message board. One of the boards are other ladies getting married the same month as me. We talk about wedding stuff and basically any other topic that we can think of. Somehow we started talking about shopping for other people. One of the ladies that lives in MD too jokingly said to me that we should start a personal shopper business.

While I was on there today she got 3 pages for people asking to find her shoes. Since I was bored at the time, I did some searching and added to the posts. Everyone was really impressed with what all we could find. So, we joked about this personal shopper business so more.

When I got home today I decided it was worth googling to see what all I could find. Apparently, a personal shopper can make up to $50 an hour and/or 20% of the total purchase price. Now I'm seriously debating it. I don't want $50 an hour or 20%, I'd settle for $15 an hour and 15%, depending on the price.

Its SO easy for me to shop for other people. Shopping for me on the other hand is a nightmare. I can never find what I'm looking for in my size. But other people, no problem.

Polka Dot Wedge Shoe in Navy blue under $50? No problem.
(http://www.6pm.com/tommy-hilfiger-sabrina-navy-pin-dot)









Teal pashmina for your bridesmaids, under $10 each? Got that too. (http://www.beltoutlet.com/pashwrjeto.html)

Haute Inspired Faux Pearl Bracelet under $25? Too easy! (http://www.whiteaisle.com/october_bracelet.htm)

Cherry Blossom Ring Dish under $35? (http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=42366837&ref=cat1_gallery_6)

Purple Bra in a size 32G under $50? (http://www.bravissimo.com/products/lingerie/sensational-sets/freya/balconette-bras/fyl7-details.aspx?colour=amethyst&ck=ZJc6eCdzb54%3d)

The picture won't work for that one. =(

See how easy it is? I spent less than 20 minutes finding that stuff and 10 or more minutes was trying to think of things that I could google.

So what do you think? Should I start a personal shopper business? What would you be interested in having someone find for you? How much would you be willing to pay?

Lemon Cup Risotto

Hmm, where to begin with this post. Dinner tonight was supposed to be garlic lemon double stuffed chicken with the lemon cup risotto and corn, however I looked at the chicken recipe and decided I just didn't have the energy tonight to do all of that. So I used seasoned Panko breadcrumbs for the chicken and called it a day.

As for the risotto...here is the recipe I wanted to make: Risotto in a Lemon Cup 
However, once I took a better look at the lemons I bought I realized that this just probably wasn't going to work out. It looks cool and fancy and would be great for a dinner party, but its really not a practical recipe unless you have really large lemons. So, for the sake of the blog, I put the risotto in it, but I didn't serve it that way.

It looks pretty doesn't it? But you can see that the lemon is just too small for even a tiny serving of risotto and I'm not sure how it would affect the flavor even with the inside of the lemon removed.

So I created a general risotto made from the basics and since we had mascarpone cheese, I added that in too. It turned out really well, but darker than usual. I think its because I used a different type of chicken stock. Usually I would use Nature's Promise Organic Low Sodium Chicken Stock, but this time I used the Kitchen Basics brand. Anyway, onto the recipe.

Cheese Risotto
Servings: 4

Ingredients:
2 slices small onion, diced
3 tbs. olive oil
1 1/2 tsp. minced garlic
3/4 cup Arborio rice
1/4 cup white wine
2 cups chicken stock
1 tbs. butter
1 tsp. mascarpone cheese
1 tsp. cream cheese
1/4 tsp. parsley (optional, garnish)

Directions:
1. Heat a medium sized skillet over medium heat. Add in 1 tbs. olive oil and the onion. Cook until the onion is translucent.
2. Pour the chicken stock into a small saucepan and put over low heat. 
3. Add in the garlic and the remaining olive oil. Cook 1-2 minutes more.
4. Add in the rice and stir around until the rice is coated with the oil and garlic and turns a translucent/pale color. Pour in the white wine (I use cooking wine by the way) and cook until the rice has absorbed the wine.
5. Once the rice has absorbed the liquid, pour in 1/2 to 1 cups of chicken stock and stir occasionally until absorbed. Repeat with the remaining chicken stock.
6. Once the rice looks like its going to start sticking to the pan, turn the heat down to low and add in the butter, mascarpone and cream cheese. Stir and fold until the cheeses and butter are melted and incorporated into the risotto. Garnish with parsley and serve immediately.

I didn't take a picture of the chicken, but if you are interested in trying a really simple breaded recipe, here it is.
1. In a shallow bowl, crack two eggs and whisk. (Tom added in some hot sauce and A1 for flavoring. It came through on some parts of the chicken but not others. If you want to do this, I'd suggest 1/2 tsp of hot sauce and 1 tbs. of A1 and to stab holes in the chicken first and let it marinade in that in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.)
2. In another shallow bowl pour in 1 1/2 cups of seasoned Panko breadcrumbs and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese.
3. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Dip the chicken in the egg mixture and then into the breadcrumbs. Place in a glass baking dish. You can add a small pat of butter to the top of the chicken to keep it moist while it cooks. Bake for 25-45 minutes, depending on how thick the chicken breast is.