Okay, that title is a mouthful!  I thought I would make a Big Mac pizza last night but was very disappointed! 

Here are my ingredients:

I seasoned the beef with salt, pepper and A-1 sauce.  The base was thousand island dressing.  I did love my dough though!  Here’s how it looks in just 5 minutes:

I used half for our pizza tonight, the other half is in the fridge.

Here is how it looked out of the oven:

Then with lettuce, tomato and pickle:

It was boring, no flavor at all.  In fact, I got up and diced some pickled jalapenos to kick mine up a notch!  So I don’t think I’ll be making this one again!

We got caught up on all our Thursday night shows – off to make breakfast, so you later!

Hannah and I went out and about so ended up having a late lunch – more homemade pizza!  See I told you I like eating the same things over and over!

This was about 500 calories

I decided not to make zucchini bread today, with temps in the 80’s, I didn’t want to have the oven on in the afternoon.  But, I decided to make a new soup!  My inspiration came from my local newspaper:

Creamy Stilton Soup with Sauteed Pears

Of course, I made some modifications, i.e. NO ONIONS! “:evil:”  And I reduced the amount of butter from 5 tablespoons to 1, reduced the potatoes from 2 pounds to 1.5 pounds, and then reduced the amount of cheese from 10 ounces to 8.  It calls for all blue cheese, and while I am a fan, I didn’t want to have it overshadow the whole soup, so I did 4 ounces of blue cheese and 2 ounces of the last of my gouda mustard seed cheese.  And while I think the sauteed pears are a nice touch, for soup for lunches, it didn’t make sense.

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 cup diced celery
• 1.5 potatoes, diced
• 6 cups chicken stock
• 1.5 tablespoons fresh thyme
• 4 ounces blue cheese
• 2 ounces mustard seed gouda
• 1/2 cup 2% milk

In a large, heavy pot over medium heat, melt the butter.  Add the celery and saute until softened, about  5 minutes.  Add the potatoes, stock and thyme.  Bring to a simmer and reduce heat and cook, uncovered, until the vegetables are very tender, about 20 to 25 minutes.

Transfer soup to blender (unless you have a stick blender like me) and puree.  Over low heat, whisk in the cheese until it melts, then whisk in the milk.  heat for another minute and salt and pepper totaste.

My version: Makes 8 cups: 182 calories, 8 fat, 17 carbs, 1.75 fiber, 8 protein. 

The result?   So good!  Look at all that goey cheese before it melted!

I decided to try the Blogger Secret Ingredient challenge from this weeks ingredient: POLENTA!  Check it out at www.rhodeygirltests.com. 

This is what I started with:

And this is my recipe (for one serving):

• 3 ounces sliced polenta (two 1.5 ounces slices)
• 3 ounces garlic shrimp
• 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese
• .5 ounce pancetta
• 2 ounces homemade marinara

Dice up 2 ounces of pancetta and pan fry to render out some of the fat.  Remove to separate plate after its browned.  Rinse out pan and pan fry slices of polenta in splash of olive oil mixed with butter flavored Pam.

When browned on both sides, remove to plate.  Heat pan to high and stir fry 3 ounces raw shrimp in 1/2 teaspoon olive oil, Italian seasoning and minced garlic (and lots of cracked pepper!). 

Assembly for 1 serving:  3 ounces pan fried polenta, 3 ounces shrimp, drizzle with warmed up marinara sauce and then sprinkled with .5 ounce diced pancetta and 1 tablespoon of Parmesan cheese:

Finished product:  262 calories, 8.3 fat, 20 carbs, 1.1 fiber, 25 protein

My daughters exact words: “I would pay $45 for an appetizer of this!”

The only thing I would do differently was to pan fry the polenta a bit more for a crispier crust, but this was SO GOOD!  Thanks to the hubby for suggesting the pancetta – it made the recipe!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Yes, I am a creature of habit!  I don’t know what it is, but I don’t really mind eating the same things over and over while reading 30+ food blogs every day, and subscribing to 5 food magazines! 

So tonight was again PIZZA PARTY FRIDAY!  I ended up making individual pizzas again.  Husband had margherita pizza (sliced tomatoes and basil).  Hannah had fresh garic, chopped peppers, and spinach.

After I pre-cooked hubby’s pizza on the bottom rack, I removed, added his toppings and put it on the top rack.  Hannah doesn’t like crispy pizza, so hers stayed on a cookie sheet.  Hers cooked while hubby’s continued to cook.

Then Hannah’s gets removed – heaven forbid its too crunchy!  Then I added my dough to pre-cook.

look at all those bubbles in my dough!

My ingedients:  1 ounce Mexican sausage, spinach, fresh garlic, pepperoni, fresh/dried basil:

But the Mexican sausage was a mistake – it had a weird taste after it was cooked, so Hannah happily picked it all of for me!

perfect cracker crust!

Does anyone have any tips on keeping dough crispy while using fresh tomatoes?  I even seeded the tomatoes, but the crust was still soggy in the middle. 

Don’t really have any concrete plans for the weekend – although I can’t wait for all the sunshine!  See you at breakfast.