Pesto Chicken Pizza

The first meal I ever cooked for M was a pesto pizza in my crappy Allston apartment in an ancient oven in the kitchen with windows that looked into a sketchy alley. I used pesto made my former boss' mother, a little Sicilian lady we liked to call "Mama T" (Mama T was crazy...for reals, but a good kind of crazy: she always used to say "wha's tha matta you? Shutuppa you face!"). We've made pesto pizza since then, but never with homemade pesto.

So, last night we decided to whip up some Chicken Pesto Pizza. I used the almond meal pizza dough derived from NorCal Strength & Conditioning, and a walnut pesto recipe derived from Everyday Paleo.

Walnut Pesto
Ingredients:

4 cups fresh basil
1 cup walnuts
1 cup olive oil
1 tsp sea salt
6 cloves garlic
2 Tbsp lemon juice

I combined the olive oil, garlic, walnuts, sea salt and lemon juice in the food processor and processed until well blended.

I then added the basil cup by cup until the mixture was a pesto-y consistency


Chicken Pesto Pizza
Ingredients:

Almond meal pizza crust
1 chicken breast
4 tomatoes
1/2 cup cheddar cheese (I used Cabot Seriously Sharp)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
As much pesto as is desired (I used a bunch, probably 1 1/2 cups)

I prepared the pizza crust and rolled it out onto a greased baking sheet. We allowed it to bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

While the crust was baking, M seasoned the chicken with garlic powder and parsley and cooked it in olive oil over medium heat.

Once the crust was finished pre-baking, I covered it in pesto and tomato slices (from my mother's garden in VT!)


Once the chicken was done cooking, we covered (smothered?) the pizza.

I added the cheeses,

and she was ready to go in the oven. We baked the pizza for about 15 minutes: until the cheese had started to brown.

While the pizza was baking, I whipped up a salad using cucumber and cherry tomatoes from my Mama's garden.

We snacked on homemade guacamole that M's mother had brought over!

After about 15 minutes, the pizza was finished.

The olive oil from the pesto ended up exploding over the sides of the crust. I'd never made pesto pizza with an almond meal crust, so I didn't account for the oil that would seep through--usually a wheat pizza crust will catch and hold the oil. All of the extra oil caused the almond meal crust to be a total fail-- it stuck to the bottom of the pan.

Even though it wasn't technically a pizza, it was still delicious! The pesto was so garlicky! Just the way I like it! The chicken was tender and the tomatoes were sweet. I'm sure that Mama T would be impressed...

Buffalo 'n Beets

One of my favorite "in moderation" foods is buffalo chicken. M makes a pretty meal grilled buffalo wing--which I adore--but my heart lies with the greasy fried goodness of buffalo chicken tenders. Every now and then I will convince M to add them on to our take-out order (I pretty much try every time we order Italian takeout, but M has this Jedi mind trick to get me to not want them anymore) and I bask in the bready, fried, blue-cheesy glory that are buffalo tenders.

In an effort to healthfully satisfy my buffalo craving, I decided to make baked buffalo chicken tenders:

Gluten-Free Baked Buffalo Chicken Tenders
(sheesh...what a name!)

Ingredients:

• Chicken tenderloins (or a chicken breast sliced into tenders)
• Almond meal (I used the Trader Joe's variety)
• Franks Red Hot
• 1 Tbsp unsalted butter
  

• Blue cheese dressing for dipping

I started by rolling each tender in almond flour (frowny face unintended)

After spraying both sides of each tender with olive oil, I placed them on a baking sheet. Then I placed them in the oven at 450 for 10 minutes on each side. It was about 90 degrees in Boston last night, and about 120 degrees in our kitchen...

In the meantime, I poured some of our gigantic container of Frank's Red Hot into a frying pan along with about 1Tbsp of butter over medium heat

When the tenders were finished baking, I coated each of them with the buffalo sauce

Voila: Gluten-Free Baked Buffalo Chicken Tenders

To go with our chickens, I decided to make a beet salad using beets I picked up at the Copley Farmer's Market.

I cut off the beet greens to save for another day

Then washed and wrapped each beet in aluminum foil and placed in the oven at 450 for about 30 minutes.

While the beets were roasting, I put together a salad of mixed greens, goat cheese, walnuts and blueberries

Once the beets were done, I rinsed them in cold water. The skin comes off easily in cold water after roasting--all you have to do is gently rub the beets.

Voila: Beet Salad

I was so excited that the beets worked out! They were a great way to spice up a salad that we make fairly often. Plus, beets are in season in Massachusetts right now! We needed a nice, cold salad to offset the spicy hotness of the buffalo tenders: it was, in my opinion, the perfect summer salad.

Pecan Crusted Chicken with Kale Chips

I'm all about trying out other blogger's recipes right now. Most recently, we attempted Everday Paleo's Pecan Crusted Chicken and a kale chip recipe found on Oh She Glows.

Pecan Crusted Chicken

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup spicy brown mustard (preferable of the organic variety)
• 2 Tbsp raw honey
• 1 cup pecans
• 4 Chicken Breasts

For this recipe, I used my favorite honey:

Honey Gardens Apitherapy Raw Honey from the town next to my hometown in Vermont, The Green Mountain State.

I combined the mustard and the honey in a bowl:


Chopped up the pecans in the food processor:

Next, I coated the chicken in the mustard/honey sauce and rolled in the pecans. I placed the chicken in a greased (olive oil) glass baking dish (aka my pie pan)...


...and baked the chickens at 350 for about 35 minutes.

While the chicken was baking, I washed and de-stemed one head of kale that I picked up at the Copley Square Farmers Market. I laid the kale out on a baking sheet, sprayed with olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt.

I popped the tray into the oven at 350 and baked for about 10 minutes per side, until the kale was crispy.

The results were delicious!


I will definitely be making both of these dishes in the future. The meal was so good that when I packed the leftovers in my lunch this morning, Chester went into my bag and attempted to open the tupperware containing the chicken! He was caught in the act (thankfully), and while I don't have a picture of the actual incident, he looked something like he does after destroying his "baby."

Note the mutilated baby in the background

No chicken for Chester!

Bacon Wrapped Sweet Potatoes Equal a Glorious Memorial Day

Last weeks module for my Integrative Nutrition course focused a lot on healthy cooking at home. Since starting the program, I've gotten much, much better at organizing my grocery store trips so that I have plenty of ingredients to cook dinners and pack lunches. I make sure to have lots of leafy greens for salads galore, a variety of fruits, and snacks for throughout the day. The beautiful summery weather has made us grill crazy, so we've also been making sure to stock up on turkey burgers, chicken sausages and chicken wings (M makes a mean grilled buffalo wing).

This being Memorial Day Weekend, we hosted the obligatory BBQ. The usual suspects showed up and we had a grand ole time playing games (beer pong and ladder ball), eating steak tips, burgers and some mouthwatering hors d'oeuvres.

My newly found love for cooking at home inspired me to make something different for this get together, so I experimented with two of my favorite things: sweet potatoes and bacon. This is what I came up with:

Bacon Wrapped Sweet Potatoes:

Ingredients:
Two sweet potatoes
One pound uncured, nitrate-free bacon (I used Nature's Promise from Stop and Shop)
Olive oil
Rosemary (I used dried, but fresh would work too)

I cut the sweet potatoes into "fries" (with the skin on), sprayed with olive oil and baked at 400 for 10 minutes on each side. After baking, I let the sweet potatoes cool to a temperature that I could comfortable handle them, and dipped them in a mixture of olive oil (1/4 cup ) and rosemary (1 Tbsp). Then, I cut the bacon strips in half and lightly fried them. I wrapped each fry in one "1/2 strip" and secured with a skewer. After laying each morsel on an aluminum foil lined baking pan, I baked them again at 400 degrees for 7-10 minutes on each side (until the bacon was crisp).

These were a hit! I will most definitely make them again...

Also among our mouthwatering hors d'oeuvres was this crazy-good (but probably not good for you) Buffalo Chicken Dip:

One of our friends makes this for basically every party we have...because it's addictive...like crack.

She won't divulge her secret recipe, but I'm pretty sure it's chicken, buffalo sauce, and many kinds of cheeses including blue cheese and cheddar.

The BBQ was a success! Everyone enjoyed themselves...including Chester and Meadow, who shared a rawhide bone.

They were in a rawhide induced coma for most of the evening...

Introducing Whil Wheber and Some Sick-Nasty Kabobs

For our birthdays this past year, M and I decided it was time to buy each other a grill. Not just any grill...a Weber Spirit E-310.

(Source)

We've named him Whil Wheber to honor Wil Wheaton of Star Trek fame via Family Guy (first runner up went to Gril Weber). Yes, it's a little nerdy. What's NOT nerdy is how awesome M is at grilling stuff. Most of the meals that we cook at home now involve the grill in one capacity or another. We love having people over for BBQs (recently mostly indoors because of the terrible New England Weather) to share the grill wealth.

Last night, we had the most de-li-cious grilled chicken kabobs that I've ever had-- and that's saying a lot as considering I am somewhat of a chicken kabob connoisseur. M marinated the chicken over the weekend using Organicville Island Teriyaki and Sesame Teriyaki marinades. These sauces are amazing! Not only do they taste great, they are also gluten free, and made with agave nectar.


We chopped up some red bell pepper and red onion and skewered:


Whil Wheber in action:

We also tossed on some tomatoes and some Cajun Chicken. Plenty of food for dinner, lunch and another dinner.

The end result:

On the side we had a salad with some lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber and mushroom. (Paper plates equal me not being in the mood to do dishes...)

These were, by far, the best chicken kabobs I've ever had...and we made them at home, which makes me really happy! Have you ever noticed that when you cook a really great meal at home, you feel one thousand times happier than when you get a great meal at a restaurant? M and I have been trying to cook at home a lot recently, and, if I do say so, our creations have been phenomenal. We feel more nourished and like we've accomplished something after we cook a nice dinner.

Yay for Whil Wheber! He makes us delicious food and saves us money!