courtney rebecca

I have been wanting to learn how to make pizza at home for a long time, but I was intimidated by making the dough and I had no idea what would go into the sauce. I finally just went for it last Friday, and it turned out great! I shouldn't have been so apprehensive, it was really pretty easy once I found a couple of recipes that had good reviews. I had great intentions of taking pictures when I made the pizza again last night... And then it finished baking and we ate over half of it before I remembered. Ooops! I promise... it was delicious. I made whole wheat crust  and exquisite pizza sauce , then topped it with two cups of mozzarella and two links of italian sausage, crumbled. I also did one quarter of it with turkey pepperoni, just for some variety. I think we have a new Friday evening tradition! Anyone have great ideas for pizza toppings??

I've had a lot of success recently with a few basic recipes and things I've found on Pinterest. This first one, I feel like it changed my LIFE. In a silly cooking kind of way. Shredding Chicken in a Stand Mixer Guys. You can throw chicken in your mixer and use the paddle and it will shred it. In like 20 seconds! What?! I cannot believe this works, but it does. I will never shred chicken again! I used this when I made my chicken tortilla soup last week, and it saved so much time. Baked Tortilla Chips I made these the same night as the shredded chicken. I actually cut my corn tortillas into strips instead of triangles and they were great. So much healthier than bagged chips and they taste great! Mini Taco Cups Mini Taco Cups! These were fantastic! They're made with wonton wrappers, taco meat (I used my Alton Brown taco seasoning recipes as usual), and cheese. Super simple but they tasted great, and ended up only being 37 calories for each cup. Wow, it appear...

For every great recipe or idea I've found on Pinterest, there are at least twice as many attempts that have completely flopped. Here are a couple of the things that have been complete fails. Blackened Chicken with Cilantro Lime Quinoa and Avocado Cream Sauce Looks delicious, right? I pinned this a long time ago and I tried to make it last week. Oh man. First of all, I'd never had quinoa before, so I was pleasantly surprised when I tasted it after it finished cooking, and I liked it! Unfortunately, the quinoa got ruined pretty fast when I put in the lime juice and cilantro. Sick! It was way too much lime and it totally ruined it. Also, and this is my own fault, but I overcooked the chicken to the point that it was inedible. I was following the directions though! This is a problem I have. I don't like to deviate from recipes, so I guess this was just a terrible recipe. Oatmeal Cupcakes I thought this would be a great way to have oatmeal on the go. Unfortunatel...

I've been looking for a good recipe for homemade granola bars for a long time. I finally found a great recipe and I can't stop making them! And these are even better than store bought granola bars because there are only 5 ingredients and they're super easy to make. Recipe adapted from Whole Foods : Ingredients 2 cups of quick cooking oats 1/6 cup (8 teaspoons) canola oil 1/3 cup honey 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I don't measure, I just pour it in!) 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips Preheat oven to 350°F. Spread oats on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. Allow oats to cool to room temperature. Combine remaining ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Add cooled oats. Spread mixture into a 8x8-inch baking dish that has been sprayed or oiled, pressing down hard to compact it. I use a smaller pyrex on top of wax paper to make it all flat. (I have tried this in a larger 13x9 dish, and it did not turn out as well.) ...

This is one of my go-to recipes. We celebrated Easter with Jarrod & Rachel on Sunday, and I made these scones for our brunch to go with the amazing quiche and creme brulee that Rachel made. I love these scones because they are pretty easy to make, and they always turn out fantastic. I know they look a bit like biscuits in the picture, which is why I usually cut them into more of a triangle shape. I was lazy this time and just used a biscuit cutter! This time I made them with dried cherries, but I've also made them with fresh or frozen blueberries, dried cranberries, and fresh raspberries. I'd also like to try them with some dark chocolate chunks in with the fruit. The recipe is available on the Food Network website here !

Every Friday morning at work, someone brings in treats. Cleverly, we call it Friday treats. It was our turn (my aide and me) last week, so we decided to bring in Easter treats! Originally I was going to make cupcakes and put my cake decorating skills to work. Gotta make that class count for something... but then I realized that by Thursday night, I wouldn't feel like putting in that much effort. And when I saw this recipe on The Alchemist 's blog, I knew I had to try it. I could not resist these! The ones in my picture are not exactly following the recipe... but they still turned out okay. I actually made two different batches with slightly different recipes so that I could use up the whole box of Fruity Pebbles. The original recipe is here ! Enjoy!