Mashed Potato Pizza

Mashed potato pizza. What a great idea. Saw this right before Thanksgiving on Iowa Girl Eats. In her post, Kristin talks about how she used to work right above a pizza parlor. That would be heaven in my husband's book. In fact, I am not sure I'd ever see him again :)

Kristin's idea was to use up leftover mashed potatoes to recreate one of the parlor's pizzas at home. We found ourselves with some extra, extra mashed potatoes after our little Thanksgiving gathering, so I thought I would give it a whirl as well. Our verdict - unique and absolutely delicious. As Kristin did, I would recommend making it on a thinner crust to counteract the layer of potatoes. This pizza is everything that is good about a loaded baked potato piled on a crispy crust.

If you have any mashed potatoes leftover from Christmas dinner, I would highly recommend giving this pizza a shot! 

(Printable Recipe)

Mashed Potato Pizza
Adapted from Iowa Girl Eats

Ingredients:
1 prepared or purchased thin crust pizza dough
1-1/2 cups mashed potatoes
chopped broccoli, steamed or cooked (I used part of a steamer bag)
1 roma tomato
1-1/4 cups sharp cheddar cheese
4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled

Place a pizza stone (if you have one) in the oven and preheat to 450 degrees.

Roll out the pizza dough on a piece of parchment paper. Let it rest for 10 minutes. Spread the mashed potatoes over the dough. Layer with broccoli, cheese, tomatoes and crumbled bacon. Briefly take the hot pan out of the oven and slide the pizza (on the parchment paper) onto the hot pan. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the crust is browning around the edges and the cheese has melted. Slice and enjoy!

SRC: Crockpot BBQ Chicken Loaded Baked Potatoes

Another month, another Secret Recipe Club post. I can't believe how fast this past month has gone! Summer - unofficially out the door, my birthday - yesterday, my residency - picking up steam like an unstoppable freight train, football - depending on the league you follow started either last week or this past weekend. I guess fall must really be knocking on the door because they are forecasting temperatures below the triple digit mark here next week. Not sure I am ready yet...

This month for SRC I was assigned Tami from Tami's Kitchen Table Talk. I am somewhat familiar with Tami's blog as she is the wonderful host of the Cookie Carnival in which I've been involved for quite awhile. While I've somewhat known about her blog through the carnival, I was excited to get a chance to look around! Much of the time I've spent over there has involved cookies in some form, so I wanted to find a non-sweet dinner recipe from her archives.  As it turns out, this was harder than it sounds as Tami has some yummy sounding desserts over there! Nonetheless, I ended up combining two of her recipes - BBQ chicken sliders in the crockpot and homemade BBQ sauce to make a great, non-involved, easy dinner.

My only change to her recipes was omitting the whiskey from the barbecue sauce. In reality, this wasn't an intentional change. If you are worried about the alcohol, it will all cook off while the mixture is boiling. My issue was the lack of whiskey in our pantry. I swore we had some but when I went to look for it, none was to be found. As a result, my barbecue sauce ended up a little on the sweeter side. While it was still great, I think the whiskey in here serves the purpose of cutting the sweetness a little bit. I also blended it with my immersion blender at the end to incorporate the onion chunks. 

The idea for this pairing came from our love loaded baked potatoes. Not the side-dish kind. The meal kind with chicken, onions, and cheese. It has been a long time since we have had them! Growing up, mom always made ours with canned or rotisserie chicken mixed with bottle barbecue sauce. By combining Tami's recipes for BBQ sauce and crockpot pulled chicken, I was able to make both from fresher ingredients in my own kitchen with only a little bit more effort. By making the barbecue sauce ahead of time one Sunday morning and cooking the chicken with it in the crockpot later that day, the only step left was cooking the potatoes and chopping a few ingredients right before serving. A perfect busy day recipe. Success if you ask me. My husband is already asking for them again!

(Printable Recipe)

Crockpot BBQ Chicken Loaded Baked Potato
Adapted from Tami's Kitchen Table Talk

Ingredients:
BBQ sauce:
1/2 large onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups ketchup
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup molasses
1/2 tsp. pepper
1-1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup tomato paste
2 tsp. mesquite flavor liquid smoke
1/2 tsp. tobasco sauce
2 Tbsp. whiskey (optional)

Loaded Baked Potatoes:
1-1/2 to 2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1-1/2 cups of BBQ sauce
5-6 russet potatoes
cheddar cheese, shredded
sour cream
red onion, diced
black olives, sliced
aluminum foil

For the barbecue sauce, warm a medium saucepan over medium high heat. Saute the onion and garlic with the whiskey until the onion begins to soften. Combine remaining ingredients and bring the mixture to a boil. Turn the heat to medium-low and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. If a smoother sauce is desired, blend with an immersion blender or let cool and add to a regular blender. Blend until smooth. Use 1-1/2 cups in the following recipe. Save the remaining sauce in the refrigerator.

Layer the chicken breasts into the crockpot by alternating one piece of chicken with a little barbecue sauce. Add the remaining barbecue sauce over the top of the chicken. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours. After 4 hours, check to see if the chicken is cooked through. It should begin to shred itself if it is finished cooking. If it is not quite done, continue to cook for another hour. Remove the chicken and place on a plate. Shred using two forks. Place the chicken in a resealable container and mix with any remaining barbecue sauce from the crockpot. Refrigerate until ready to use.

On the day you are planning to eat the potatoes, wash and wrap each in aluminum foil. Place the wrapped, raw potatoes in the clean crockpot. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours. When ready to eat, warm the chicken on the stove or in the microwave. Add more barbecue sauce to the chicken if desired. Top the potatoes with your desired ingredients. Enjoy!

Savory Chicken Sausage, Spinach, and Onion Turnovers

Since I finished my school schedule a couple months early, I have been enjoying the opportunity to spend a decent amount of time in my kitchen. I have been trying to use this extra time "wisely" to tackle some of the meals on my "must-make list" that tend to take a little bit longer. You know the type. Yeasted breads. Decorated cupcakes. Mile long ingredient lists. While I have some time right now, this may not be the case in a couple months because a couple weeks ago I accepted a residency position that starts in July. I am REALLY excited for it to get started, but I also know that this means I need to start looking for some quick meal ideas.

This is a recipe I spotted in a section of Cooking Light called "store-bought shortcuts for easy, home-cooked meals." They included a section about how using store-bought pizza dough, pie crust, rotisserie chicken can be okay (even nutritionally) if you have a night where you need to get dinner finished quickly. I actually defeated the purpose of the article by using my own pie crust, but to my credit, I had one in the freezer that I only had to thaw before using. They have a good point, and while I like to try to make these things at home when I plan out our menu for the week, there are nights (like last Sunday) where Trader Joe's pizza dough certainly comes in handy.

So what about the part that matters. Were they good? Definitely! I was a little disappointed that my homemade pie crust didn't brown much like the one in their photo, but on that thought, I don't think it was a pie crust recipe that I will use again anyway. It just didn't work quite right here or in the pie that I made. I only made one change because I realized at the last minute that the chicken sausages we had were already pre-cooked, so rather than crumbling them, I simply diced them and browned them quickly in the skillet. Besides my aesthetic browning issue, the turnovers were great! I was pleasantly surprised that they packed as much flavor as they did from a list of pretty unassuming ingredients, and I know that the hubby really enjoyed them too. Don't let the pie dough turn you away. Even with it, all of this comes in at less than 350 calories per turnover. It is certainly a recipe that will be going in the "quick and easy" file for the next year. Enjoy!

I am linking this post to Melt in Your Mouth Monday!

(Printable Recipe)

Savory Chicken Sausage, Spinach, and Onion Turnovers
Adapted from Cooking Light April 2011

Ingredients:
Cooking spray
2/3 c. diced, peeled red potatoes
1/3 c. diced red bell pepper
1/3 c. diced yellow onion
2 (3.5 oz) links hot chicken Italian sausage, casings removed (or diced if pre-cooked)
3 c. bagged washed baby spinach
2 Tbsp. fresh basil, finely chopped
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper
1/2 (14.1-ounce) pkg. Pillsbury refrigerated pie dough (or homemade dough for 1 crust pie)
2 Tbsp. water
1 large egg white, lightly beaten
3 Tbsp. grated fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Heat a medium nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat the pan with cooking spray. Add potatoes, bell pepper, and onion to the pan; saute 4 minutes or until onion begins to brown, stirring frequently. Add sausage; cook 4 minutes or until browned, stirring to crumble if using the uncooked variety. Stir in spinach; cook 2 minutes or until spinach wilts. Stir in basil, salt, and crushed red pepper. Remove from the heat.

Cut dough into 4 equal portions. Roll each portion into a 5-inch circle. Spoon about 1/2 cup potato mixture on half of each circle, leaving a 1/2-inch boarder. Fold dough over potato mixture until edges almost meet. Bring bottom edge of dough over top edge; crimp edges of dough to form a rim with fingers or a fork. 

Place turnovers on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray if needed. Combine 2 tablespoons of water and egg white in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk; brush evenly over the dough. Sprinkle about 2 teaspoons cheese over each turnover. Bake at 400 degrees for 18 minutes or until golden brown. Let stand at least 5 minutes before serving.

Yield: 4 turnovers (4 servings)

I am linking this to Hunk of Meat Monday.

Black-Bean Smothered Sweet Potatoes

This is another one of the quick meals that I have been enjoying while the hubby is away. When I found this recipe here on Eatingwell.com, the ingredients immediately were added to my grocery store list. We used to make loaded baked potatoes for supper when I was growing up, and the substitution of a sweet potato for a normal one makes it that much better in my book.

This is a pretty quick meal as written, but I have this great microwave baked-potato bag that was given to us for our wedding that cuts the time down to under ten minutes. I don't know where the bag came from, but I can tell you that if you find one you MUST buy it. I can stick two potatoes the microwave and have them completely cooked in about 5 minutes! Perfect for those nights when I work until 9:00!

The recipe is written for 2 servings. I cut everything in half except for the tomato when I made it for myself, and it worked great. Enjoy!

(Printable Recipe)

Black Bean-Smothered Sweet Potatoes - adapted from eatingwell.com

2 medium sweet potatoes

1 (15oz) can black beans, rinsed

1 medium tomato

1 tsp. extra-virgin olive oil (at most)

1/2 tsp. ground cumin

1/2 tsp. ground coriander

1/4 tsp. salt (can leave out - salt with the canned beans!)

2 Tbsp. non-fat sour cream

2 Tbsp. chopped cilantro

Wash and dry potatoes. Put in the microwave bag, and microwave on high for 5-6 minutes depending on the size of the potatoes. Alternately, can bake at 425 degrees for about an hour or microwave without the bag for 12-15 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine beans, tomato, oil, cumin, coriander, and salt in a medium microwave-safe bowl; microwave on high until just heated through, about 2-3 minutes.

When cool enough to handle, slash each sweet potato lengthwise, press open to make a well in the center, and spoon the bean mixture into the well. Top each with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of cilantro.