Recipe: Philly Cheese Steak Pizza

Image by camerasutra via Flickr

I went grocery shopping Friday. While there I purchased some deli roast beef that had been sliced up and was put out at a greatly reduced price because it needed to be sold by Easter. Today I decided to use most of it by creating a Philly Cheese Steak Pizza. It was delicious!!

I should have taken a picture, but I didn't think about it before we ate it and most of it was gone by the time I decided to post about it so I only have my "tweaked" recipe for you. I say "tweaked" because I looked up a couple of different recipes online to get the general idea and then did my own. :-)

1 med onion - sliced
1 med green bell pepper - sliced
sliced mushrooms - use however many you like on your pizza
olive oil - 1 TBSP
Roast Beef - shaved, (or in my case it was thinly cut and I cut it in strips) - here again, I just used a handful, no measurements, just get what you want to put on your pizza.
ground black pepper
Pizza Crust (I had a tube of Pillsbury Refrigerated Pizza crust that I used)
olive oil
minced garlic, or garlic salt, or garlic powder
Shredded Parmesan Cheese, Provolone Cheese
I used Parmesan and Colby/Monterey Jack because that's what I had

Pour 1 TBSP olive oil in skillet and Saute vegetables until limp; add roast beef.
Cook for about 3-5 more minutes
Add pepper; stir and remove from heat.
Brush prepared pizza dough with olive oil and sprinkle with garlic salt or powder
Top with light layer of parmesan cheese, then meat/vegetable mixture
Top with the other cheese covering as much as you want.
Bake according to Pizza dough directions.

This was so yummy!!

Experiment turned GOOD

Dakota told me recently "Mom, do you know we eat the same stuff all the time?"

I responded (in a shocked voice) "Well no I didn't realize that since I feel like I am always trying to find NEW recipes....and by the way if you're not happy with my cooking, feel free to take over anytime!"

Of course THAT didn't happen! But I have been trying to change things up a bit more. My problem is I have two very picky people in the house so I am limited as to what they will eat. I have decided awhile back that I was just going to cook what I wanted to cook, within reason of course, and if they didn't like it they can fix themselves a sandwich.

Last night I had chicken I wanted to cook but very few other ingredients since I need to break down and go grocery shopping today - I couldn't find a recipe that I really liked. I decided to throw some things together. It turned out fantastic! Even Dakota loved it!
Here's what I threw together for this recipe -
2 chicken leg/thigh combos & 1 breast - cooked first then chopped up the meat
1 can of black beans - I drained the juice
1 can of stewed tomatoes - I didn't drain
1 box of Uncle Ben's mushroom & Herb wild rice - cooked this first and didn't drain the water that was left after cooking
2 boxes of Martha White corn muffin mix

Mixed everything together and poured the muffin mix on top. The muffin mix wasn't enough to cover the entire casserole but it was sufficient. I had to cook it longer than the box recommended for the cornbread - I think it was about 30-35 mins. As you can see, it made a lot! There are only 3 of us and we don't eat much so we will be eating on this for a few days! LOL

Recipe - Ham & Cheese Cornbread Supreme

I tried this recipe last night - super easy and super delicious...one of those dishes you just can't get enough of!! We loved it! I cooked it in a pie plate even though it called for cooking it in a cast iron skillet. Dakota spent the night off last night so it was just Greg and I - you can see there's not much left...lol
Ingredients:
3 slices bacon
4 large eggs
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
1 pkg (6 oz) cornbread mix - I used Jiffy
6 dashes hot pepper sauce (I didn't use because I didn't have any)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 (10 oz) pkg frozen spinach, thawed and well drained or
1 (10 oz) pkg frozen chopped broccoli, thawed and well drained (I used the spinach)
1 1/2 cups fully cooked cubed ham (1/2-inch cubes)
2 cups (8 oz) finely shredded sharp cheddar cheese, divided (I used the Walmart fiesta cheese)
chopped fresh parsley for garnish (didn't use this - didn't have any)

Directions:
Heat oven to 375 degrees
Beat eggs in large bowl.
Add milk, butter, cornbread mix, and hot pepper sauce, stirring until blended.
Stir in onion, spinach, ham and 1 1/2 cups cheese.
Pour batter into pie plate**(see alternate directions below)
Sprinkle remaining cheese over cornbread mixture.
Bake 30-30 mins or until set and golden brown.
While that's cooking, fry bacon until crisp, let cool and crumble.
After you remove from oven, sprinkle with bacon and parsley.

**Alternate directions (this is what recipe said to do - but I didn't follow recipe - I did what I typed above)
Cook bacon in cast iron skillet until crisp; cool and crumble
Reserve 1 Tbsp bacon drippings.
Drain off remaining drippings from skillet; wipe skillet clean with paper towel and return reserved drippings to skillet. Place in oven to heat.
Mix everything together (like directed above)
Carefully remove hot skillet from oven and pour batter into hot skillet.
Finish as directed above.

Makes 8 servings
Prep time 20 mins
Cook time 30 mins

Supercook - GREAT website!!

I have just discovered my newest favorite website for helping me prepare meals! (Thanks to Denise!)

At Supercook you can enter in the ingredients you have on hand (and it will ask you if you have this or that too....to help jog your memory) and then the more ingredients you enter in to your virtual kitchen the more recipes SuperCook will tell you that you can make right now with the ingredients you have.

I had a whole chicken I wanted to cook for dinner tonight and wanted to do something a little different. By the time I finished entering in just 29 ingredients from my kitchen (mostly staples like spices, milk, flour, oils, etc) I had 646 recipes to choose from. The neat thing is these recipes are pulled from other recipe sites. My chicken recipe I ended up going with actually came from Allrecipes - another favorite.

Make it Yourself Mondays

Angie at Thrifty Florida Mama is hosting "Make it Yourself Monday" to help our budgets by becoming less dependent on fast food drive-thrus and convenience items at the store. My contribution this week (yeah, I know it's Tuesday and not Monday --I forgot about it yesterday) but my recipe for the week is actually one I got from another blogger, Monica at The Full Table. I got her recipe for homemade pizza crust a while back and have made this several times - my family loves it!! I use different vegetables, chicken, bacon - whatever toppings I have on hand.

Crust:
1 cup of warm water
1 package of active dry yeast
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 2/12- 3 cups flour

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add all other ingredients. Stir 20 times to mix. Let rise 20 minutes.

Sauce:
8 oz can tomato sauce
1 Tbsp. minced garlic
2 tsp. Italian spice blend

Spread dough thinly on large cookie sheet. Top with sauce, 3 cups mozzarella cheese, and additional toppings as desired. Our favorite is mushrooms and sausage.

Bake at 450 on lowest rack for 15 minutes or until cheese has melted.

Breakfast Pizza

Yesterday morning I made a Breakfast Pizza. It was FABULOUS!! I got the recipe from a friend when we all went on the Marriage Retreat back in February. She made it for us when we were staying in the chalet together. Here's the recipe in case you want to try it yourself.
1 pkg McCormick sausage flavor country gravy mix
Jimmy Dean Regular Sausage - this is the roll of sausage (I didn't use JD - I bought what was on sale! LOL)
pizza crust - premade, non-refrigerated kind (I will probably make my own crust next time)
1 8-oz pkg fiesta style shredded cheese

For one pizza - Brown half of the tube of sausage and remove from pan. If you want to make two pizzas (which I do because it tastes great leftover!) use the whole tube of sausage.

Mix gravy together in pan with sausage drippings and following the directions on the back of package. Rub a little olive oil on pizza crust, then spread the gravy on the crust, spread the sausage over the gravy and top with cheese. Bake at 375 degrees until cheese is melted and crust is light brown.

Cooking Made Easy - 1 Bag = 5 Dinners

Do you like to cook? I used to like to cook when I had my own kitchen. Now it's just not the same...but in order to survive we either cook or eat out all the time and since it is neither healthy for our waistlines or our wallets I have to cook. I love this website: www.kraftfoods.com because they have delicious simple meals! You can also sign up to receive FREE monthly magazines from them with lots of yummy recipes and ideas. I just got the monthly email tip from them this morning and it had this shopping list in there to purchase 1 bag of food to make enough for 5 meals (4 servings each)! The meals are:
1. Crispy Baked Pesto Chicken
2. Cheesy Meatball Subs
3. Polynesian Glazed Meatballs w/ Rice
4. Chicken Alfredo Pesto Pasta
5. DiGiornio Frozen Pizza

What is your favorite website to get recipes, meal ideas from?