Whole Wheat THICK Pizza Crust

Really this is my mom's french bread recipe but I use it for Pizza crust and if you like thick yummy pizza crust, you'll like this.  This recipe makes a LARGE and FILLING pizza... it fits in big 18 x11 (or so)jelly roll pan with 1 inch sides.

So here is the RECIPE:
2 1/2 cups warm water
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp yeast (or two of those little packets)
Instructions: in large bowl let yeast, water and sugar dissolve for 10 minutes.
Then add:
1 tbsp salt
2 tbsp oil
3 cups flour (you can use white flour but I always use whole wheat)
Instructions: stir together well in your mixing bowl, I have my kneading hook on my kitchen aid that I use for this part.
Then add:
3 more cups flour and stir and knead together until all is mixed.
Instructions: Then let rise for 20 min in a warm dry place, punch the dough down and stretch dough out to spread across your GREASED (I just use spray stuff) and then I bake my crust @ 350 degrees for about 10 minutes to give it a head start, then take it out... add all your ingredients and bake for another 15 minutes.  And your done!  It will be really lumpy... and thick but it is sooo good and really one piece fills you up. (for French bread I let it rise twice for 20-30 minutes and then just make a big ball and set it on a cookie sheet and bake it for 45 min or so.)
Topping suggestions: 
-Your favorite kind of Spaghetti Sauce (I use this because then I get all the flavors that are already in the sauce)
-Cheese (duh)
-Grilled Chicken pieces
-Spinach
-red pepper slices
-tomato slices
-and then season with garlic salt and oregano... yum.

Santa Rosa Chicken Salad

So I check the "Just Cook Already" Blog quite frequently because everytime I do I find a recipe on there that I LOVE.  This week my jewel of a find was this... 

and you can link to it right HERE.  Oh MY is it good... and Tyler LOVED it too... he even said "this can't be healthy, it tastes too good", but it is :)... Mwahahaha. Anyway try it. I dare you. Its really filling too... in my eyes this is a main dish.

Tip: I could only find the 6oz box of Uncle Bens Wild Rice so I used two of those for this recipe... but now I have enough to feed a family of 8 and there is just the two of us... so just eyeball how much of everything you need to make the size salad you want, or if you like leftovers, do what I did.  Also, I halved some green grapes and threw them in and it was a REAL nice addition. 

Easy Beef Enchiladas

I like quick easy meals and this is one that we really like.

1 lb ground beef, cooked
1 can refried beans
sliced olives
chopped onions
shredded cheese
tortillas
1 packet McCormick Enchilada Sauce (you will need tomato sauce for this sauce)

Make the sauce according to the directions on the packet. Mix the beef, beans, olives and onions together. I don't like olives and onions so I just do the beans and beef for me. Spoon about 1/3 cup of mixture into tortillas, sprinkle with cheese, roll up closing both ends, and put in a 9x13 pan. Cover with the sauce and sprinkle cheese over the top.
 If you want you can dip the tortillas in the sauce before adding the mixture and rolling it up.
This will make about 6- 8 enchiladas.
Cook at 350 degrees for about 15-20 minutes.
These make great leftovers!

Best Frosting EVER!!

Its a simple math equation really....
2 sticks of butter
2 8 oz blocks of cream cheese
4 teaspoons of vanilla
4 oz. of white chocolate
8 Cups of powdered sugar (add more if you want thicker frosting)

Instructions: for one, it makes quite a bit, so half it if you need to. Two, the butter and cream cheese should be at room temperature... cream them together for a few minutes... then add vanilla... then (this is the part I made up... and its sooooo good)... heat up 4 oz of broken up white chocolate in the microwave for 30 sec... stir, and do for another 30 sec until you can mix it and its smooth... immediately pour into the butter/cream cheese mixture and keep that mixer ON (the white chocolate will get hard if you don't) then slowly add the powdered sugar until its at the consistency you want.  If you refrigerate it you might have to get it out and let it thaw a bit and put a mixer to it again to make it soft and spreadable.  Perfect for everything... seriously!  This is the frosting we had on our wedding cupcakes... only now there is white chocolate in it, and its even tastier now.

Crock Pot Lasagna

I'm going to be lazy and just post the link to this recipe... but it was my first lasagna attempt EVER and it turned out really really good!  Its a vegitarian one... I'm sure you could spurce it up a bit with zuccinni and squash and maybe even some meat... but I just made it as it says here and it was really good... hope you like it too!  It makes A LOT so be prepared for leftovers.  Here is the link...

http://www.justcookalready.com/2011/02/crock-pot-lasagna.html

Meal Planning

I have found that our meals are so much better when I have a plan. At the beginning of every month I write up a dinner calendar for the entire month. When I go shopping at the beginning of the month I make sure to buy all the ingredients needed for those meals.  It makes my life so much easier and we tend to have better meals. Here is the link to the template that I use.

http://www.5dollardinners.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/monthlymenu.pdf

Cafe Rio Pork

In Salt Lake there is an addicting restaurant called Cafe Rio... I used to go there at least monthly... the most delicious thing on their menu that many people have tried to duplicate is their sweet pork salad and/or burrito... it is so tasty. So my mom and her sister and other women they know tried to duplicate what we all love at Cafe Rio and this is the recipe they came up with... and it tastes pretty darn close if you ask me...

3-4 lb pork roast (it must be thawed, the night before you cook it rub the roast with a mixture of about a 1/4 cup brown sugar and a tbsp of Cumin)
1 small-medium sized bottle of mild salsa (Pace works great)
1 cup of brown sugar
1/2 small can of chicken broth
and a small can of cream of mushroom soup (my friend taught me this trick, it thickens the sauce a bit)

Place the roast in your crock pot, dump all this stuff in there with it, close the lid and cook on high all day... for a smaller roast do 6-8 hours, and for a larger one do 8-10.

When its all done shred the pork (you can either do this while its still in the crock pot or take out the roast and do it and stick the shredded pieces back in the sauce.)
Then you serve it on Tortillas... some good serving options are to serve with lettuce, rice, sweet corn, black beans, avacado, some extra salsa, sour cream and this special dressing (also a Cafe Rio copy cat) all wrapped together in the Tortilla or some just as sides...
DRESSING:
1 c. Mayo (I use light)
1 c. butter milk (or just regular with a little lemon juice in it mimics buttermilk)
1 packet Buttermilk Ranch Dressing mix
1 cup of cilantro
3 tomatillos peeled (I didn't have these so I just added some canned green chilles for extra flavor and it tasted fine)
Squeeze the juice of half a lime
and a pinch of cayeene pepper if you want some kick (which I don't)
Throw all this into your food processor or into a blender and it will seem runny... but after you refrigerate it for a bit it thickens up nicely... and there you have it... this is TOTALLY worth making, it goes so well with the pork.
This is one of our favorite meals and it feeds us dinner for about 3 days and we never get sick of it.  ENJOY!