Confetti Chicken

This past Saturday, David and I went over to his parents' house for his brother Patrick's birthday. While we were there, we ventured out into Shirley's garden. I came home with a basket full of home-grown produce. Earl issued me a challenge. He said he wanted to see every item on my blog this week. Okay, Earl! Here's the first of many meals featuring some of the bounty from Shirley's garden! Today, I present to you...Confetti Chicken. It's kind of a loosey-goosey interpretation of a dish I found in a Kraft Food & Family magazine a couple of years ago. I can't find the magazine, but I was able to remember a few of the ingredients. Here's what you'll need:
You'll need some black olives, garlic, an onion from your mother-in-law's garden, a red pepper, and feta cheese (pretend that there's a block of feta cheese on the cutting board).
Cut up all your ingredients, stir them up together, and spread them out over some chicken breasts that you've liberally seasoned with Greek seasoning (or the seasoning blend of your choice) and placed in a greased baking dish. Bake in a 350-degree oven for about 30 minutes (depending on how thick your chicken breasts are).It turned out really well. It was a very light main dish, but it was full of flavor! I just fixed some green beans to go with it (Shirley's aren't ready yet), and we had a delightful, healthy meal in about 30 minutes! Yum!

Coming up tomorrow: Parisian Apple (and Nectarine) Tartlets. It's TWD time!

Thrifty Thursday: Spice Mixes

One night last week, I decided that David and I would have tacos for supper. Tacos are pretty regular in our dinner rotation, because they're quick and easy. They're a filling, no-frills dinner for those nights when you've worked until 7 and you're hungry. I always have a couple of packages of McCormick's taco seasoning mix on hand. I opened the cabinet last week to get out the seasoning mix and...it wasn't there! I was out! I had already browned the ground beef, chopped the onion, fixed up the olives, chopped the lettuce...I was committed to tacos. So what to do?! I made my own taco seasoning! I logged onto Recipezaar, because I knew I could find something there. There were tons of taco seasoning blend recipes there, so I just picked one that had a high rating. In a matter of a minute or two, I had mixed up enough homemade taco seasoning for three or four taco dinners! I must admit, I didn't like it as much as McCormick's, but it was good. I've got it stashed in the cabinet for future emergencies! I've also made my own Greek seasoning blend (it's on the left; the taco seasoning is on the right). Again, it's not as good as the Cavender's blend that I buy (the homemade version is a little heavy on the cinnamon), but it's still good. And I'm always amazed at the quantity of these mixes that I can make with what I have on hand in my spice cabinet. If there's a spice blend that you're tired of paying for, check out Recipezaar, because they've got tons of recipes for any spice blend you can think of!

Pizza from Leftovers Challenge!

Yesterday afternoon, I was trying to decide what to make for supper. Of course, I thought about something made from chicken...probably some kind of pasta and chicken dish. But then, I had a flash of brilliance and decided that I wanted pizza. I hadn't had pizza in a long time, and I knew David would be more excited about pizza than the prospect of yet another variation of chicken. I decided to challenge myself and make my pizza entirely out of leftovers, just stuff we had around the house. Luckily for me, I had a portion of pizza dough leftover from my Superbowl Pizza Extravaganza, during which time I fed my parents and my in-laws since they had been out of electricity for a week due to a huge ice storm. I had never used frozen pizza dough, and it was a bit of a bear to roll out. But I persevered!

I was sure that I had about half a pound of Italian sausage in the freezer, but to my dismay, it was just ground beef. *sigh* I did try to jazz it up a little with some Italian seasonings, onion, and garlic. It did give it a little kick.
I also didn't have any pizza sauce. However, I did have some tomato sauce and a variety of spices, so I made do. It turned out better than I thought!
Let's start putting this pizza together, whaddaya say?

The homemade, thrown together pizza sauce was a little runnier than I would have liked, but it worked fine in a pinch. I had about four partial bags of different shredded cheeses, so I used those. We had some red onion in the fridge and some black olives (YUM!). I put a little olive oil around the edges of the crust, just to make it crispier and because I thought it would be a good idea. I baked it on my pizza stone at 400 degrees for a little while (I can't remember how long...maybe 20 minutes?), and pretty soon, we had pizza-from-leftovers goodness!
It would have been better with Italian sausage, but I have to admit, it was pretty darn good to have been made entirely of leftovers! I think David was pretty impressed, too. But he's generally amazed that I can get a couple of chicken breasts and some canned veggies on the table in less than 20 minutes. He's not picky and easy to please. Just a couple of the many reasons I love him!