Homemade Pizza

It has been a standing tradition at our house on Friday nights for the last few years to have pizza for dinner. It started because that was date night for Sean and I so it was easy for the boys to just do frozen pizza. Then we were unemployed and poor, so we started having our date for lunch because the lunch menu is cheaper than the dinner menu and we also started making pizza from scratch to save money also. My nephew Tyler doesn't like pizza, but he thinks that Aunt Lori's pizza is ok, so Tyler, this recipe is for you!

Crust (makes two 12 pizzas)
2 T. rapid yeast
1 1/4 c. warm water
1 T. sugar
2 T. olive oil
1 tsp. salt
3 1/4 c. flour
1/2 tsp. garlic powder


Put 1/4 c. warm water in large mixing bowl. Sprinkle yeast on top and then sprinkle with the sugar. Let sit until it is foamy. Add the rest of the water (1c.), olive oil, salt, and garlic powder. Stir just a little to mix. Add all of the flour and knead by hand until mixed well. If it is sticking to your hands, add a little more flour. Cover and let rise until double. I use a Tupperware bowl and let it rise until the lid pops off.

Sprinkle a little flour on your counter. Split dough into 2 equal pieces. Roll out into a 12" circle and place on pizza pan sprayed with non-stick cooking oil. Poke holes in dough with a fork.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Put dough into oven and cook for 5 minutes. Take out and spread pizza sauce (I like the Contadina pizza sauce you can buy in a can) on top followed by grated cheese and any other toppings you wish. Put back in oven and bake for an additional 15 minutes or until crust starts to brown and cheese is melted.

Chicken Alfredo Pizza
Make dough according to directions above.
Cut 2 chicken breasts into bite size pieces and brown in olive oil sprinkled with garlic powder.
Once you cook the dough for the 5 minutes, spread with alfredo sauce, sprinkle with cheese, spread chicken around the top and sprinkle with a little more cheese. Bake. YUMMY!

Pancakes from Scratch

These are so yummy! I can't eat pancakes from a mix anymore. The recipe calls for Buttermilk, but you can use regular milk if you want. BUTTERMILK makes them so much better though! I also sometimes mix in fresh or frozen blueberries when I want to give Trevin a treat because he loves them with blueberries.

Pancakes

1 1/2 c. buttermilk
3 eggs
1/3 c. sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baing soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 T. canola oil (or vegetable oil)
1 3/4 c. flour

I put all the ingredients in my blender and mix up then you can just pour it out on your griddle easily.

Heidi, I doubled this when you guys were here.

Pumpkin Cookies

I can never find this recipe when I need it and I should be able to remember it since it is so easy, but I always second guess myself wondering if there is anything else that needs added, so I'm adding the recipe here so I don't have to search for it every time. I always think it needs eggs or something added and it doesn't. I made these for our YM/YW activity treats last night and they were a hit!

Pumpkin Cookies

1 can pumpkin (29 oz)

3 spice cake mixes

2 bags chocolate chips (you can just put 1 bag in if you want but we like lots of chocolate chips)

Mix pumpkin and cake mix with mixer until well blended. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop on cookie sheets sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Cool. I piped on some cream cheese frosting for these and it made them so much yummier!

Makes 8 dozen or so.

Banana Cream Layered Dessert

This is such a yummy and quick dessert to make. I usually make it in a 9x13 cake pan but you make individual ones like in the photo.

• 1 pkg cream cheese
• 1 T. vanilla
• 1 can sweet & condensed milk
• 12 oz. whipped cream (kool whip is great)
• 3 c. milk
• 1 lg pkg vanilla pudding
• 1 box vanilla wafer cookies
• 5-6 banana

Mix softened cream cheese, vanilla, sweet & condensed milk, 1/2 of the whipped cream, 3 c. milk and vanilla pudding in a large mixing bowl. Slice bananas. In a 9x13 cake pan, put one layer of sliced bananas, repeat this step then add the remaining whipped cream and crumble the remaining cookies on top.

Ice Cream in a bag

We did this the other night for Family Home Evening and to also fill one of Derick's class requirements. I think it turned out pretty good.

Recipe:
You will need two seperate bags for each serving, one for the salt and ice and one for the ingredients.

Ice cream mix:

• 2 T. Sugar (For Kirk, Derick and I we used Splenda and for some reason the ones with the splenda set up quicker than the regular sugar.)
• 1 cup half & half
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla

In a seperate bag put 3/4 cup rock salt and some ice. Make sure that your bags are zipped really good and put the ice cream mixture into the salt and ice mixture. Then you just flip your bag around and around until the ice cream mixture is how you like it, anywhere from 10-15 minutes. Wipe off the ice cream bag and then squeeze into a bowl or just eat out of the bag.

Chicken bow-tie pasta salad

This is one of our favorite salads at our house.
Ingredients:

• 1 box bow tie pasta cooked until tender
• 1 can crushed pineapple
• 2 cans cooked chicken or 2-3 cooked & shredded chicken breast
• salt and pepper to taste
• grapes
• cashews

Dressing:

• 1 bottle coleslaw dressing or homemade coleslaw dressing
  
• 1 c. mayo.

Combine the pasta, pineapple, chicken, salt & pepper, grapes and dressing in a large bowl. Add cashews as you like on your individual servings. Enjoy.

Bernies Enchiladas

Yummy Enchiladas!

This is the easiest enchilada casserole that I've ever made. I got this recipe from a friend named Bernie that I worked with. Bernie won several bar-b-que cook offs in Texas and many of her recipe's are featured at the Texas Roadhouse Restaurant's..... The best part with this recipe is it's flexibility - I like to change it up by adding black beans to my layers so enjoy and try experimenting.

1 LB of Hamburger (or shredded chicken)

1- Medium Onion

1/2 of a Green Pepper

1 - Package of Chile Flavored Doritos

1-2 LBS of Grated cheddar cheese

1 - Small can chili peppers diced

1- Small can of diced black olives

1- Can Cream of Mushroom Soup

1- Cup Chicken Broth

Saute onion, green peppers and chopped chili peppers in butter. Crumble and fry out hamburger (if you substitute shredded chicken it should be cooked first)
Combine soup and chicken broth together and set aside.

Assemble ingredients in layers. Bottom layer of crushed Doritos, next layer hamburger , sauteed onions and cheese and repeat.

Pour soup mixture over top of layers and add additional cheese to top it off

Bake in a 9x12 dish at 325 degrees for 30 minutes. - Delicious!!