Aaron McCargo Jr.'s Chicken Taco Pizza

So these were a HUGE hit at our house, especially with Aaron.  This was an easy recipe I found here, but I made some changes.  The calories, the way I made it, were 620, and Aaron, Noah and I gave this a perfect 10, Jonah says he gave it a 9, and Owen gave it a 7 because he said it was too spicy :).  Here's what I did:

1 T onion powder
1/2 T chili powder
1/2 t dried oregano
1 dash cayenne pepper
1 t ground cumin
salt

1/4 c oil
4 whole garlic cloves, minced
pinch of cumin
1 tube crescent roll dough
1 lb (I used a little more) chicken tenders, cut into bite size pieces and seasoned with salt
2 c shredded Pepper Jack and Mexican blend cheeses
Guacamole
Pico de Gallo

Preheat the oven to 425.
Mix the spices together and set aside.
Mix the oil and garlic together with the cumin.  Roll the crescent roll dough out into 2 long strips on a cookie sheet, brush with the oil, sprinkle with a little of the spice mixture, then set it aside.  Mix about 2/3 of the remaining spice mixture with the remaining oil.
Place the chicken in the oil/spice mixture, turning to coat, and then leave it to marinate, around 30 minutes.
Remove the chicken from the marinade, place it on a broiler pan, and bake for about 10 minutes.  Turn the oven down to 375, then bake the crescent roll dough about 7 minutes.  Remove the dough, spread it with more seasoning, then top it with the chicken and the cheese.  Bake for another 5 minutes or so, maybe a little more, then cut into pieces and serve it with pico and guac.

Bobby Flay's Oven Baked Pizza

This was a fun, delicious idea for a pizza, and although the kids didn't love this, Aaron and I thought it was great.  This seems to be a theme with Bobby Flay's recipe, they are catered to a more adult palate.  Noah didn't like the onions, but he really loved the gruyere cheese, and Owen wished there were more cheese, funny guys.  I used an easy crust recipe, rather than the one in the Bar Americain cookbook, but the toppings for this are listed here with the method I used.  This averaged an 8 in our house, and each slice was 365 calories.  Here's what to do:

Make pizza crust according to recipe, then cook for 10 minutes or so on hot pan.  Top with 8 oz Gruyere cheese, 6 slices crispy bacon, chopped up, 3 c caramelized onions, sour cream, parsley, fried garlic pieces (garlic cooked in oil for about 1 minute, checking constantly), and some oil if desired.  After the pizza has been in the oven for 10 minutes, top with the cheese, bacon and onions, cook for about 10 more minutes, then serve with the sour cream, parsley, garlic pieces and oil.  Super delicious.

Pesto Cheese Pizza

This was a success!  We made this with just a simple pizza dough, the one with the Kitchenaid mixer book, and we topped it with pesto and then lots of cheese.  Everyone said it was their favorite homemade pizza ever!  Hooray!  You get no recipe or calories today, but try this easy meal if you can, everyone loved it.  Aaron and I gave it a 9, and the boys gave it a perfect 10.

Jalapeno Popper Pizza and Iny's Prune Cake

Pizza days!  We tried another pizza today, Jalapeno Popper Pizza, and it was not our favorite.  The boys liked it okay, they both gave it an 8, but Aaron and I didn't like it.  Aaron gave it a 3 and I gave it a 5.  It was the alfredo sauce that killed it for us.  I thought it would be better if we bypassed the alfredo sauce entirely and just added seasoned cream cheese as the sauce, and Aaron thought we should make a red sauce pizza and just put jalapeno poppers on top.  I don't think I would do Aaron's idea, and I don't think mine would be awesome, so I don't think we'll be revisiting this recipe.  Oh well.  The calorie count was 335 calories/slice, 12 slices in the pizza.  Now on to something better ;)

Iny's Prune Cake was our yummy dessert.  Everyone loved it except for Aaron.  He doesn't like cake, and he especially doesn't like spice cake, so I'm counting his vote of 4 as not very reliable.  Noah and I gave it a 9, and Owen gave it a 7, because he wanted more than just a spice cake flavor he said.  The frosting was incredible, and the cake was moist and flavorful.  I love spice cakes anyway, I like that this one had the prunes in it, and I especially loved the ease of the cake, and how well it keeps.  Yum!  We cut it into 24 pieces, and since I changed the oil in the recipe for sour cream, the calories were only 158/slice.  If you wanted to cut down on fat/calories even more, you could use lowfat plain yogurt instead of the oil.  I would recommend this cake to anyone, and hopefully you'll enjoy it as much as we have!  Tomorrow we're having a pesto pasta from the Pioneer Woman.  We're making our way through her cookbooks, so it's been fun to try such different things.

Carnitas Pizza

So we had the carnitas pizza from the Pioneer Woman's second cookbook.  We used her pizza dough recipe, and then made the carnitas in the crockpot using a roast, spices and papya pineapple nectar.  Aaron loved the meat, he said he gave the flavor a 9, but didn't like the juicy meat on the pizza, so overall he gave the pizza a 6.  Noah, Owen and I  gave it a 9, and although I liked it better without the meat on it, I liked both parts, pizza and meat.  We sliced it in 12 slices, and each slice with meat was 350 calories per slice.  We served it with tomatoes and avocado.  The only problem I had with the recipe is the cooking temperature and time were off.  We needed to cook the crust a little bit first, then add the toppings, but the recipe didn't call for that so part of the crust was delicious and part of it was still underdone.  I'll remedy that next time.  Tomorrow we're having jalapeno popper pizza and the Pioneer Woman's prune cake.