Herbed Roasted Chicken

I use my Pampered chef Bundt Pan to bake this. You simply sit the whole chicken "butt" over the center of the bundt pan. (See photos below. ) the chicken will be sitting upright.

Then Rub the chicken with lemon juice either from a lemon or just the lemon juice you buy in a jar. Just rub a little over the whole chicken. Then sprinkle with your choice of seasonings. I used Lemon pepper seasoning, Chopped and minced a clove of garlic and rubbed it on, Salt, Pepper.
You might have to lift up the wings of the chicken and rub some seasoning underneath.
Bake at 350 for at least an hour. I think I had mine in for 1-1/2 hours. Whenever it looks golden brown and poke it with a fork and see if the meat is done.
Really yummy. I then used the bones of the chicken and cooked it for a while in water and used it to make chicken soup.

Low Carb

Well DH and I started a Low carb diet and for the first 2 weeks we cant have any carbs or sugar or fruit. SO there isnt much interesting cooking going on right now. Ill probably be absent for another week. I just finished my first week and DH just started his first week. So far I have lost 3 pounds and DH has lost 2. So until were back to cooking here is a recipe that I am going to try sometime as soon as we are allowed a few carbs again.


Pumpkin Pie Dip

--1 cup canned pumpkin pie mix
--4 oz cream cheese
--1/4 cup sour cream
--chopped walnuts, optional

I use my Little Dipper crock pot---these measurements are perfect for a little dipper. If you don't have one, you can put an oven-safe dish inside of your large crockpot.
Add the cream cheese to the Little Dipper. Top with sour cream, then pour in the pumpkin pie filling.Cover and cook for about an hour, then stir well. If the cream cheese isn't fully melted, cook a bit longer. The Little Dipper doesn't have temperature settings, you just plug it in. If you are going to use a big crockpot with an oven-safe dish inside, cook on high for about an hour, or 2 on low.
Garnish with chopped walnuts, if desired

My favorite Chicken Salad

This is my favorite Chicken Salad to make for sandwiches. I was recently diagnosed with PCOS and with that diagnosis comes Low carb diet to try to level it out. So For the first 2 weeks on this diet I am not allowed any grains, breads, pasta, crackers, chips, etc. . . or fruit. So i am relying alot on meats and veggies.
I didnt take a picture of it since I cant eat it on bread so it looks pretty gross just sitting on my plate. . But trust me , its yummy!

2 Chicken Breast, Cooked and shredded
2 medium sized Dill pickles, shredded
1 Celery Stick, Shredded
4 T. Mayo
1 T. Lemon Juice
1 T. Parsley Flakes
1 T. Mustard
I used a little chopped to chop my chicken, pickles and celery. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir. Serve cold.
There is alot of variations of this recipe. I never make it the same way. Like today I didnt have any celery so I used a slice of onion and diced it instead and added vinegar instead of lemon juice. Sometimes I chop Carrots up and stick in it too instead of celery.

Soft Pretzels

Friday night Chadd and I got the wild urge to make soft pretzels. Well, I used a recipe I had here and lets just say they didnt work out so hot. So Saturday we decided to try again. I got online and found a recipe that says its supposed to taste just like Auntie Ann's pretzels. I have never had one so I dont know for sure if these taste just like it but they were pretty good pretzels!
(No the photo of the pretzel is not mine, its a Auntie Ann pretzel. Mine were a little funny looking so you dont get a photo of mine :-)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup warm water
1 1/8 teaspoon active dry yeast
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup bread flour
3 cups regular flour
2 cups Warm water
2 tablespoons baking soda
to taste coarse salt
4 tablespoons butter (melted)

Directions:
Sprinkle yeast on lukewarm water in mixing bowl; stir to dissolve. Add sugar, salt and stir to dissolve; add flour and knead dough until smooth and elastic. Let rise at least 1/2 hour.

While dough is rising, prepare a baking soda water bath with 2 cups warm water and 2 Tbsp baking soda. Be certain to stir often. After dough has risen, pinch off bits of dough and roll into a long rope* (about 1/2 inch or less thick) and shape. Dip pretzel in soda solution and place on greased baking sheet. Allow pretzels to rise again. Bake in 450 oven for about 10 minutes or until golden. Brush with melted butter and enjoy!

Toppings: after you brush with butter try sprinkling with coarse salt. or for Auntie Anne's famous Cinnamon Sugar, try melting a stick of butter in a shallow bowl (big enough to fit the entire pretzel) and in another shallow bowl make a mixture of cinnamon and sugar. Dip the pretzel into the butter, coating both sides generously. Then dip again into the cinnamon mixture. Enjoy!

* The longer and thinner you can make the dough rope, the more like Auntie Anne's they will be.

This made about 6 pretzels but I didnt roll my dough ropes really thin so you could probably get 8 or more if you tried. I also melted butter and dipped all the pretzels in it right after they came out of the oven and 1/2 of them I sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon and the other 1/2 I sprinkled with salt. They were both good.

BBQ Chicken Pizza

Sorry but I didnt take any pictures of it! I made it last night and we had to be at church early so I didnt have that much time to snap pictures. It was really good and Chadd said it was better than pizza hut!!
I used the same crust recipe that I posted in the last post and I have to say I really love the way it turns out. I've made it twice now and it has turned out amazing both times!

Make pizza dough according to the recipe in the previous post or use refrigerated pizza dough. Roll out on a 15 inch round pizza pan. Meanwhile cook 2 chicken breast on the stove. Let cool then cut into small pieces. Toss Chicken pieces with BBQ sauce I use Sweet Baby Rays. Its my favorite
Cut 1/4 of a smaller size onion into small pieces. You can leave these in bigger chunks if you like onions but we both suffer from Heartburn so onions are not so much our friend.
Spread about 1/4 cup BBQ sauce on the pizza dough. Spread the chicken mix on next and sprinkle the onion pieces on. Sprinkle the pizza with 2 cups Shredded Mozzarella cheese.
Bake at 400 for 12-15 minutes.

**FYI** If you have never made brownie mix in a pampered chef stone pan I dare you to try it. They are the best brownies I ever had and I used a STORE MIX!!

Fajita Pizza

Today for lunch I made some Fajita pizza. I didnt have any refridgerated pizza dough so I Googled pizza dough recipe. The one I used claims to be Pizza Huts recipe. I dont know if it really is but it was really good. We both liked it. .

Pizza Dough
1-1/3 Cup Water
1/4 Cup dry milk
1/2 teas. Salt
4 Cups flour
1 T. Sugar
1 Pkg. Yeast (or 2 teas.)
2 T. Vegetable oil
Combine yeast, sugar, salt and dry milk in a bowl. Add water and mix well. Let sit for 2 minutes. Add oil and stir. Then Add flour and stir. Turn onto a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes.
Roll out dough and place on pizza pan. Let rise 3o minutes.
I made half of this recipe and it was plenty for my 15'' pizza stone round pan. I would say if you make a full recipe it would make about a 9X13 or larger.

Fajita Pizza
2 Chicken Breast
1/2 pkg. Frozen Fajita veggies (green,yellow, red peppers and onions) OR 1 Green, 1 Red and 1 Yellow pepper and 1/2 a onion sliced.
Couple dashes of Fajita seasoning (my recipe says you can substitute a little chili powder and some cumin powder for fajita seasoning)
1/4 Cup Salsa
2 Cups Mozzarella Cheese,Shredded
Saute the chicken breast in a little oil and sprinkle some fajita seasoning on the chicken. Once its cooked through remove chicken from pan and cut into bite sized pieces. Meanwhile in the same pan saute the Fajita veggies with more fajita seasoning. Stiring every few minutes. Add Chicken back into the skillet with the veggies and add the salsa.
On Pizza dough sprinkle 1 cup Cheese. Spread the chicken and veggies mixture on next. Top with rest of the cheese. Bake at 400 for 15-20 minutes.

COMING UP NEXT. . . . . . .BBQ Chicken Pizza