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Butternut squash pizza

Butternut squash pizzaWe get Fine Cooking, and when it arrives in the mail, it’s always fun to flip through the pages and read about food and pick recipes to try out. We do end up using many of the recipes, though probably not as often as we should…Then there are a few that we use all the time, over and over again…I think I’ve about memorized the Cream Scone recipe we’ve made it so many times! The pizza dough recipe from a recent edition looks like it will become another standby…we’ve already made it twice and it is really good. A couple of weeks ago, I was looking for a pizza topping and ran across A Zesty Bite’s Butternut Squash Pizza. We ended up using a red sauce, and it’s really good.

Butternut Squash Pizza

  • Pizza dough
  • Spaghetti sauce or pizza sauce or pesto
  • Butternut squash, diced and roasted
  • Cubed ham
  • Goat cheese

Make the pizza dough ahead of time. The recipe calls for at least 3 hours in the fridge (so 5 hrs total), but we’ve had really tasty dough leaving it in the fridge for 2 days. Take the dough out and let it warm up for a half hour or so before rolling it out into pizzas.

Dice and roast the butternut squash (450 for 20-30 min).

Preheat the oven with a pizza stone in it to 450-500.

Spread the sauce on the pizza, top with butternut squash, ham and goat cheese. Bake until nice and brown.

 

 

 

General Tso’s Chicken

Frying chicken for General Tso's Chicken

The following is adapted from this recipe at Food For My Family. The coating on the chicken fries up nice and crispy. The original recipe didn’t have much in the way of veggies, so I added some red bell pepper and a bag of stir fry veggies (broccoli, snow peas, etc.). The recipe for the makes quite a bit, I keep cutting it down, and think this recipe has about the right amount, especially with a good amount of veggies. Sorry there’s no picture of the final product with all the veggies added in. Serve over rice–brown if you have time.

General Tso's Chicken

MealsWeLike.com, adapted from Foodformyfamily.com
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
Course Main dish
Cuisine Chinese
Servings 4 -6

Ingredients
  

For the chicken:

  • 1.5 lbs chicken breast cut into 1-1/2″ chunks
  • 1/4 cup cornstarch
  • 1 teaspoon pepper
  • 1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
  • 1 egg
  • oil for frying

For the sauce:

  • 1/4 cup cornstarch
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 2 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 1/2 tsp grated ginger
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 1/4 cup rice vinegar
  • 1 cup hot water
  • 3-5 Tbs oil--for frying chicken

Some Veggies

  • 4-6 scallions chopped
  • 10-15 dried thai or cayenne peppers--I left these out for the kids
  • 1 red bell pepper sliced
  • 1 bag stir fry veggies or whatever sounds good or is on hand

Instructions
 

For the sauce:

  • Mix together cornstarch and 1/4 cup of water.
  • Add garlic, ginger, sugar, 1/4 cup soy sauce, rice vinegar and the hot water.
  • Stir until the sugar dissolves.
  • Refrigerate until needed.

For the Chicken

  • In a separate bowl, mix together the cornstarch and pepper.
  • Add the egg and the soy sauce to the cornstarch.
  • Mix well.
  • Add in chicken pieces and stir to coat.
  • In a wok or large skillet, heat oil on medium high and fry chicken in batches for 5-7 minutes until chicken is cooked through.
  • Set chicken aside and cover to keep warm
  • Pour off excess oil, keeping about 1 Tbs of oil
  • Add in scallions and sauté for a couple of minutes.
  • Add in the peppers and other veggies and cook a couple more minutes.
  • Add in sauce and hot peppers, if using, and cook for 5-10 minutes until sauce begins to thicken.
  • Add in chicken and cook until sauce thickens and coats the chicken.
  • Serve over steamed rice.

 

Happy Birthday Meals We Like

Hard to believe that it’s been a year! Over the first year, I’ve written 120 posts, with 47 weeks of menus…not too bad. Of course this would be a week we missed! There’s 29 recipes. I hope to do more recipes in the next year. I think I have some photos on my computer for recipes that need to be written up still.

Not sure if many people read the blog, but it has served it’s main purpose–organize our family’s dinner plans for the week. With menus made before grocery shopping we’ve kept costs under control and reduced food going bad in the fridge. So on that note alone, I’ll consider is a success and keep it going. Hopefully others find the recipes and weekly meal plans useful.

 

Blueberry chicken salad

Blueberry chicken saladThis recipe for blueberry chicken salad from Allrecipes.com was fast, easy and really good. The dressing is lemon yogurt (6oz) and mayonnaise (3 Tbs), which sounded odd, but is really good, especially with the sweetness of the blueberries. Throw in some diced cooked chicken breast (we grilled a bunch earlier in the week and used it in several recipes), red pepper, celery and the blueberries. This was one of the only times the kids eat up a salad, including the lettuce!

Chicken, Oatmeal, Mushroom and Spinach Quiche

Chicken, oatmeal, mushroom and spinach quicheThis recipe from the Food Doctor was a little hard to follow but turned out quite good. The recipe is spread out over a long post and a bit more complicated than we normally do, but it made a good weekend dish and really only took about an hour to make. We added some thawed and drained spinach to the oatmeal and mushroom layer. The balsamic tomatoes turned out well too.Chicken, oatmeal, mushroom and spinach quiche with tomatoes