Supreme BBQ Chicken Pizza

We were getting tired of the same old pita pizzas, so one day, I decided to switch it up! I got a whole wheat pizza crust and made a sunshine on it!

I tried to recreate one of my favourite pizza from Kelsey's- their BBQ Chicken Flatbread pizza. So I put a thin layer of BBQ sauce, lots of cooked chicken breast - so much more than they put on- then a few of those pre-cooked bacon bits and then I took some thin slivers of red peppers and made a sunshine... for the sunshines of my life- Brent and Melanie.... ahhhhh!

Baked it, broiled it and... voila! Very delicious and using a lot less cheese and low-fat cheese. This makes real yummy leftovers too!

Chicken Parmesan English Muffin Delights

Trying to be creative with food (or leftovers) is a craft I think. And I think that I invented something new and delicious.  Meet the Chicken Parmesan English Muffin Delight!

This is really a little pizza, but I wanted to glam it up and called it a delight!  Just take some leftover cooked chicken and shred it. Then take your whole wheat english muffin, top it off with a marinara sauce or pizza sauce, place the chicken on top and then some mozzerella.

Place it into the oven and voila! You have little chicken parmesan english muffin delights. All you need now is some delicious green salad and some friends or family and you can have a wonderful lunch of dinner.



Weekend Decadence- Part 2- Pedicure and Lunch

Ok, now here's Part 2 of my Weekend Decadence with Mella. We went for our first pedicure of the season. What a sweet mother/daughter bonding moment!

Can you guess which is her foot and which one is mine????

You guessed right, she chose the neon green and neon pink pattern- and the girl even did a little design for free. They do real fast pedicures here though- like about 30 minutes in total- so I guess they throw in a free design once in a while! This is such s treat for Melanie, I bring her with me once a year as a treat. She loves the massage chair, but the scrubbing the feet part really tickles her!

I chose a grown up colour. O.P.I's Give me Moor! It's so hard for me to choose a colour, when I get to the spa and look at all the colour choices and I am usually drawn to the bright pinks and red and purples and oranges... you name it. But this time, for the first pedicure of the season, I wanted to stay with a dark colour, I wanted to look 'cool' and in style, just like my sister-in-law, Rebecca, she always wears these dark colours and her favourite is 'Lincoln Park after Dark'.

Here are our toes kissing again!

After our hard morning at the Spa -and with our freshly painted toes- we enjoyed lunch at the East Side Mario's- I really was hungry so I ordered a salad and individual pizza combo. I love their house salad there- it's the fresh oil and vinegar dressing- I even tried one of those pickled hot peppers they always put on- my Dad loves those- me... not so much- kinda spicy! As for for my pizza, I chose a healthier chicken and peppers option... and a giant glass of water.



Thai Pizza with Fresh Cilantro

You know I LOVE Thai Food, well it's mainly because of the peanuts and fresh cilantro. I love, love, love cilantro. I have been told that you either love it or hate it? Well I am on the love team, we buy a fresh bunch every other week.  This was so good, because of this unexpected twist... I used a whole wheat Naan bread for the crust. This was another great recipe from Eat, Shrink and be Merry.

Thai Kwon Dough (adapted from Eat, Shrink and be Merry)



Ingredients:

Peanut Sauce:

1/4 cup light peanut butter

1/4 cup hoisin sauce

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

2 tsp grated gingeroot

1 tsp each, honey, reduced salt soya sauce and red wine vinegar

pinch crushed red pepper flakes

1 cup chopped cooked chicken breast

1 pre-package pizza crust- I used 2 Whole Wheat Naan breads

1 cup shredded light Monterey Jack cheese (I used light mozzerela)

1/3 cup bean sprouts

1/4 cup each shredded carrots and chopped green onion

2 tbsp chopped roasted peanuts

1 tbsp minced fresh cilantro

Preheat oven to 425 F.

To make suace, comine all sauce ingredients in a small saucepan and heat over medium-high heat until bubbly, sitrring constantly. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

Mix 1-2 tbsp of peanyt suace with chicken and set aside. To assemble pizza, spread remaining peanut sauce evenly over crust. Top with half the shredded cheese. Distribute chciken evenly over cheese. Top with bean sprouts, carrots, green onions and peanuts, in that order. Sprinkle remaining shredded cheese over toppings.

Place pizza directly on middle oven reach and bake for 10-12 minutes, until cheese is completely melted and edges are lightly browned. Sprinkle the cilantro before serving (yumm!).

Cut each Naan into 4 so it makes 8 slices.

Nutritional information per slice:

220 calories, 9g fat, 13g protein, 22g carbs, 1g fibre

Hawaiian Pizza Night

As you may know, Friday night is homemade pizza night at my house. Well, lately, I have wanted to shake it up (you know that it has been almost 7 months of Friday Night Pizza!). So let me introduce you to my newest creation. Hawaiian Naan Pizza!

That's right, I said Naan. What a great substitute for whole wheat pita bread. It may not be as nutritious as the pita, but it's a nice change up.

Hawaiian Naan Pizza (serves 3 people)

Ingredients:

2 Naan bread ( I used the Blue Menu variety)

3-4 Tbsp of pizza sauce

3-4 slices of sliced ham cut into little cubes

1 cup of chopped pineapple - fresh or canned

1 1/2 cup of part skim mozzarella

Place the Naan on a cookie sheet, spread the pizza sauce over the Naan, then add the ham (keep a bit for the top). Add the cheese, then pineapple and remaining ham.

Bake at 425 for about 15 minutes, until the cheese is melted and gooey.

That's it! Of course you could add whatever you like, I might try chicken and hot peppers with the pineapple next time... nice, eh?

This is how you do a fun healthy lunch for kids!

Melanie's friend was over for lunch the other day, so I wanted to make something fun and kid friendly... but healthy too, so I used an old favourite. Little English Muffins Pizzas.  We used to make these all the time... but a little 'unhealthier'. White english muffins, full fat mozzerella, and pepperoni. 

This time, I made them healthier! I used whole wheat english muffins, turkey pepperettes and added green peppers and used part-skim mozzerella. They were a big hit! This is how I do it:
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Cut the english muffins and place them on a cookie sheet. Put a bit of tomato/pizza sauce. Add cheese and toppings and bake for about 10-15 minutes until the cheese is all melted and the english muffin is warmed through.

I served them with cucumbers and carrots and low-fat ranch dip.

And for dessert... fresh cut up mango, strawberries and blueberries with a little chocolate peanut butter haystack.

Here's the nutrional information for the whole meal:

480 calories
66g carbs
15g fat
24g protein
12g fibre
30g sugar

Homemade Healthy Mexican Pizza

Pie Caramba (from the Eat, Shrink and be Merry cookbook)

Weekends are often deemed 'Mexican Night' at our home. This past weekend we did it again. This time I went back to one of my old favourite cookbook. Eat, Shrink and be Merry. I always find that they use such a great combination of ingredients and spice it up just right so that you don't miss all the extra fat and calories.

Ingredients

    8 oz (227 g) extra-lean ground beef

    1/3 cup minced red onions

    1 tsp minced garlic

    ½ cup diced grape tomatoes

    ¼ cup each grated carrots and diced green bell pepper

    ¼ cup frozen or canned corn

    ¼ cup no-salt-added canned black beans, drained and rinsed

    1 tbsp minced fresh cilantro

    1 tsp chili powder

    ½ tsp ground cumin

    ¼ tsp each salt and freshly ground black pepper

    ½ cup pizza sauce

    1 12-inch prebaked whole-grain thin-crust pizza shell

    1 cup packed shredded light old (sharp) cheddar cheese (4 oz/113 g)

    2 tbsp minced green onions

    Garnishes: Light sour cream, salsa and guacamole (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 425ºF.

Cook beef, onions and garlic in a large, non-stick skillet until beef is no longer pink. Add tomatoes, carrots, green pepper, corn and beans. Cook and stir for 2 more minutes. Add cilantro, chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper. Cook 1 more minute. Remove from heat.

Spread pizza sauce evenly over crust. Top with half the cheese. Spoon beef mixture evenly over pizza. Top with remaining cheese, followed by green onions.

Place pizza directly on middle oven rack and bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until cheese is completely melted and crust is lightly browned.

Makes 1 pizza, 8 slices

Nutritional Information Per slice:

186 calories,  6.8 g fat , 12 g protein , 18 g carbohydrate, 1.9 g fiber

Since we (well Melanie and I) don't like black beans I omitted them, and changed the colour of the peppers to orange.

This is an awesome product found at Loblaws. It's a lighter/healthier version of a pre-made pizza crust.

I dressed the top of our pizza with black olives and green onions.

And then served it up with Herdez Salsa and light sour cream, you could try guacamole too.

It was really delicious. Next time, I would add more cilantro, next time, Melanie wouldn't add the corn! Girls!!!

Whole Wheat Pita Pizza

Every Friday night is Pizza night at my house. Well it used to be, 'let's order in a greasy mess'.... But now, we are choosing to make our own healthy version of that greasy pizza. We call it Pita Pizza, we make a variety with your veggies of choice, sauce of choice and 'good for you meats' of your choice, so we haven't seen pepperoni in 2 months- we use turkey pepperettes or chicken. I have bought whole grain pizza shells and tried whole grain enlgish muffins, but the pita is the best as it gets nice and crispy. This is my favourite kind below.


BBQ Chicken Whole Wheat Pita Pizza

Ingredients:            

1 Whole Wheat pita

2 Tbsp BBQ Sauce

¼ cup cut up chicken breast

1 Tbsp Sweet Red Peppers

1/3  cup of Shredded Part-Skim Mozzerella Cheese

½  Tbsp Real Bacon Bits

1 Tbsp sliced Manzanilla Green Olives W/Pimentos

¼ Broccoli

 Nutrional information:

452 calories

 55g carbs

12g fat

27g protein

6g fibre

Toss the chicken with a bit of BBQ sauce and then spread some BBQ sauce on the pita. Add all your ingredients and then finish with the cheese and sprinkle with a bit of the bacon bits- just a little adds a little bit of smokeyness.

I bake it at 400 degrees for 15 minutes and then broil it for a few minutes to make the cheese all bubbly and brown. I usually make the whole pack of pitas (6) and then we have leftovers. They are not bad warmed up in the microwave for 2 minutes. I serve it with a nice green salad and then you have a complete meal.

Mass production... time management at it's best.