Pizza Casserole

Thank you Brooke from ...and a cookie for dessert! This was a huge hit in my house and my awesome stepdaughter Emma even got to help me make it. That's how easy. Here's the original recipe but with some substitutions I made. This one is definitely going into the weeknight rotation.

1 lb of extra lean ground turkey

1 shallot, diced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 jar of your favorite tomato sauce - we used chunky tomato and mushroom

Spray of Pam

1 10 oz can refrigerated pizza dough

6 oz of part skim mozzarella cheese, divided- we used 3 oz. of cheddar and 3 oz. of mozz

Preheat oven to 425. In a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, cook onion, garlic until softened, add ground turkey stirring until it's browned. Drain and return to skillet. Add tomato sauce and cook until heated through. While meat cooks, coat a 13 x 9 inch baking dish with cooking spray. Unroll pizza crust dough, and press into bottom and halfway up sides of the baking dish. Pre-bake in the oven for 5 minutes.Remove from oven, then add a layer of cheese, then a layer of the meat mixture, then top with a layer of cheese. Bake, uncovered, at 425° for 12 minutes or until crust is browned and cheese melts. Cool 5 minutes before serving.

Sundried Tomato and Cheese Chicken

I really was getting sick of grilled or baked chicken and wanted to do something different but also not completely time consuming. After a long spin class and not getting home until almost 7, I definitely wanted something fairly quick and healthy. We did make a salad along with the chicken which I drizzled the juice of one lemon over and I don't know why I didn't do that before... yum! Anyway, here's my simple chicken recipe.

3 boneless chicken breasts, about 3 oz each, pounded flat
5 sundried tomatoes (not packed in oil), chopped
1/4 container of low fat cream cheese
1/3 cup part skim shredded mozzarella
1 TBSP dried oregano/basil mix
1 TBSP olive oil

Combine the sundried tomatoes and cheeses well in a bowl. Pound the chicken so that it is about a 1/4 inch thick. Spread the cheese mixture lengthwise on the chicken but don't go to the edges. Roll the chicken and secure with a toothpick. Brush the olive oil on the chicken and sprinkle the oregano/basil mixture over. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. The cream cheese really tasted so good in this one, I'm glad I was out of ricotta in the house. It melted beautifully and gave it that creaminess that I really wanted. Picture to come (it's still on my camera!)

Turkey burgers and sweet potato fries

Nothing too special and no picture but it really is a favorite summertime meal for us. For the turkey burgers I use 1 egg, a palmful of bread crumbs, about 1/4 cup of parm cheese and some sort of seasoning, tonight it was rosemary & garlic. I cook them on my grill pan, top it with cheese and yum!

For the sweet potato fries, I just cut 1 large sweet potato into strips, mix it in a bag with olive oil (1-2 TBSP), salt, pepper, and a little parm cheese. Then I broil them for about 7 minutes and voila, yummy, crispy sweet potato fries without the frying!

Happy Birthday to Me!

I am now officially in my 30s and can no longer claim I am right around 30. Oh well... the good definitely outweighs the bad!