Tonight's Supper in Pictures

Well, I enjoyed yesterday's post so much that I'm doing the same thing with tonight's supper! Hope you enjoy as much as we did. Homemade Pesto Chicken Veggie Pizza!

Start with pizza dough. I made my own. You can buy it at the store, or use flatbread. I'm not posting my recipe because I can't remember my favorite way of making it, and wasn't thrilled with what I ended up with today. I spread a bit of olive oil on my pizza stone and rolled out my dough (ok, smashed it with my hands) and set it aside.

Chop up some veggies. Slice up half an onion (use the other half of the one from the lasagna last night). Slice the zucchini whose life you spared last night, and cut up whatever tomatoes you have from your garden. Halve the cherry tomatoes and quarter the full sized tomato. You want chunky pieces, or else they'll fall apart on the grill. Drizzle all with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Preheat the oven to 375*.

Cook your veggies. Carmelize your onions in some olive oil with a tab of butter. Grill your zucchini and tomatoes. When your tomatoes are done, slice them up.

Put your crust in the oven for 5 minutes or so, depending on your recipe. If you use store-bought or roll it very thin, you won't need to do this. You just don't want a doughy uncooked crust.

Pound a boneless skinless chicken breast until it's a fairly even thickness. You can use a mallet. Personally, I put a paper towel over it and hammered on it with my fist. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Grill the chicken.

Slice your chicken as thinly as possible. Now, I'm not generally one for too many little gadgets. But this little pokey thing is fantastic. Never have to touch the chicken, keeps it from sliding around, and you can slice very thin. It's from Pampered Chef. Oh, and don't worry if you have a bit of pink left in your chicken like I do. It'll cook off in the oven. You'll only need half this chicken breast for one pizza. Slice up the other one to use later for a salad or wrap. Or make yourself two pizzas.

Make your "pizza sauce." Take your jar of pesto with a little left in the bottom, scoop in a couple spoonfuls of Ricotta cheese (I'm a little in love with the Ricotta-pesto combination lately), and smash well.

Spread sauce on your crust.

Arrange your beautiful grilled zucchini on the crust.

Spread carmelized onions over the zucchini, even though they stick together like crazy.

Now your tomatoes.

And the chicken.

A light sprinkle of mozzerella. Seriously, not a lot. I just finished up the last of a bag in my fridge. Maybe 1/3 or 1/2 cup.

Into the oven for about 15 minutes. Until the cheese is melted and starting to brown at the edges, and the crust is golden brown.

Clean your plate. Seriously. Yum. Mark ate four pieces, I ate three, and Nora ate two.

And we have a couple pieces left over for lunches! Yay!

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It's a cooking blog!

I invented a lasagna today, and thought I'd share a recipe in pictures.

Chop up half an onion and remove several sausages from their casing. I used mild Italian sausage, but you can use spicy, sweet, or plain ground meat. Whatever makes you happy. I only had 2 1/2 sausages, but could have used more. Maybe even double that. Or you could go meatless too. Just add more veggies.

Boil water in the biggest pot you have for your lasagna noodles. It will take a long time to boil, so go ahead and start it. Don't forget to put a handful of salt in the water. You'll want to boil the noodles for about 4-5 minutes (the box says 8-9), so they don't end up over-cooked when you bake it off later. Just cook them enough that they're nice and pliable.

Heat some olive oil in a skillet and brown the onions and sausage.

You want a nice high heat for this, so the meat gets nice and brown and flavorful. It should be golden brown, not grey, when you get through with it.

When it starts to get nice and brown, add a couple cups of diced butternut squash (and a little salt and pepper) to the skillet. You think it's a lot, but it cooks down and you're making a lot of lasagna, so you want at least 2 cups. Preferably more. Also add a few cloves of crushed garlic.

Cook and stir until the meat finishes browning and the squash starts to really soften and gets some of the nice brown flavor on it.

Decide not to use zucchini in this particular recipe. You'll be tempted, since you have a fridge full. But since you've worked it into every possible recipe lately and have plans for it again tomorrow....this zucchini will live to fight another day.

Do all of this awkwardly angled away from the stove to protect your sweet little passenger who won't stay down for a nap.

Get out a green bowl because it's the first one you grab and you are limited in your reaching abilities by the small person in your pooowwwch (see my last blog if this is confusing). Enjoy arranging a Ricotta cheese tower (1 15 oz. container), a pile of Parmesan, 1 egg, a couple big spoonfuls of pesto, and some salt and pepper. Feel compelled to share that the pesto is not old, even though it looks brownish. In fact, I used half regular green basil and half purple basil. It is fresh and delicious. Just not the bright green you expect.

Smash it all together with a fork.

Put your passenger in a swing for a nap. Quickly realize that she is determined to keep an eye on you until she falls asleep. If you even think about moving, she will cry. When she falls asleep, be careful. Even if you make no sound, she will wake up and cry if you move more than 4 feet away from her. Be patient and crochet a sock.

You know you could make your own marinara sauce, but since you have pre-prepared sauce on hand, decide to use the canned stuff. You'll need 2 cans.

 

Get 2 medium pans out. One for tonight and one oven-safe Pyrex one with a good lid to go in the freezer. Spray them with cooking spray and smear a little sauce in the bottom.

Lay a layer of noodles in the bottom. Burn your fingers a little and mangle a couple noodles as you try to cut/rip them to the right size.

Spoon on some squash and sausage. Squausage.

Spread some ricotta mixture over that, then some marinara.

Mozzerella.

Do all layers again, then another layer of noodles, then sauce, then a nice layer of mozerella on top. Realize in the second layer how much more cheese you use when nobody's looking.

Label the Pyrex one well and freeze.

Cover with foil and bake 30 minutes at 375, then take the foil off and finish uncovered for 15 minutes. The pan we had tonight was 9 generous pieces. We ate less than half and were all full and happy. So happy.

 

MarsuPOOios!

Mark took Nora to the zoo. She sat in the pouch of a pretend wallaby, and saw a real wallaby. This conversation about wallabies naturally followed, and hilarity ensued. Enjoy.