Pepperoni & Mozzarella Pull Aparts

Thanks for WebChef Ari for finding this one!
Ingredients
1/3 cup favorite flavored dipping oil
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 (16 ounce) pkgs pre-made pizza dough or homemade pizza dough
1 (7 oz) pkg sliced pepperoni
1 (8 oz) pkg shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F
2. Separate pizza dough into small bite sized pieces.
3. In a bowl add your favorite flavored dipping oil. Toss dough pieces in dipping oil to lightly coat.
4. Layer dough pieces in bottom of bundt or fluted tube pan, next layer sliced pepperoni, shredded cheese and sprinkle with garlic powder. Repeat all three layers again in the same order, and then end with final layer of dough pieces.

5. Bake in the preheated oven until the bread is browned and cooked through in the center, 30-40 min
6. Remove from oven, and invert the pan on a cutting board; the bread will fall out of the pan in one piece.

7. Serve by pulling the bread apart into individual servings with optional marinara dipping sauce on the side.
I usually layer until about 2/3 of the pan is full. When I make this bread I definitely plan for it to feed a hungry crowd. You can scale down the ingredients if you choose to feed a smaller crowd. You can serve it hot or room temperature, which makes it a great option if you are tailgating at the game or heading ove to a friend’s house. And if you do decide to make the larger version, don’t worry. It’s pretty tasty leftover too, so you can be sure it won’t be around for long.

Flatout Multi-Grain with Flax Flatbread Thin Crust Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Thin Crust Buffalo Chicken Pizza

 

This is a fantastic lunch or lite dinner meal.  Quick to throw together and a wonderful use of left over roasted chicken (also works great with shrimp). 

1 Flatout Multi-Grain with Flax Flatbread 

½ cup cooked and shredded chicken breast
1/2 wedge Laughing Cow Queso Fresco & Chipotle

2 tbsp. hot sauce
1 tbsp. blue cheese dressing
thin slices of red onion
black olives
½ cup shredded Mozzarella cheese
fresh spinach and arugula blend

Oven Method: Place Flatout Flatbread on a cookie sheet or pizza sheet. Bake at 350 for two minutes. 

Remove from oven. Spread on the laughing cow cheese.  Add onion, black olives, and chicken. Drizzle with blue cheese dressing. Top with mozzarella cheese. Return to oven and bake 4 more minutes.

Pull from oven and top with spinach and arugula.  Dash with the hot sauce.  

Eat standing up right from the pan because you are too hungry to waste time finding a chair! 

The best iced coffee mocha banana drink you can make at home!

Just so you know - Dunkin Donuts is my favorite coffee.  It was close to 90 degrees yesterday and I was trying to get some of my gardening done.  Lunch time rolled around and while I was hungry, I didn't want anything hot or heavy.  And I really needed some coffee.  I had brewed some DD french vanilla coffee that I had in the fridge and was nice and cold.  And I had some frozen banana so I decided to experiment.  Let me tell you - this frozen coffee drink is AWESOME!   

This drink does take some prep work.  Make your coffee and put in in the fridge to cool. 

Slice up a banana (hint, sprinkle the slices with a packet of Splenda -  not only is this the sweetner you will use, but it helps keep the slices separated so you don't end up with a frozen blob of banana slices.) Now put those slices in the freezer. 

I used my reusable DD cup for this.  I put crushed ice up the the bottom pink line on the cup.  Then I added about 2 Tbls. of Hersheys Lite Chocolate Syrup.  Then I added my cold coffee and frozen banana slices. 

I then poured in unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze milk to fill and using my stick blender, turned the whole thing into a smoothie-like coffee dream!  

Of course I had to add one more swirl of chocolate syrup!  This was the perfect lite lunch and probably the BEST frozen coffee drink I have ever had.  This could easily be sugar free by using sugar free chocolate syrup.  A wonderful summer drink.  I am already prepping another for tomorrow's lunch!

Neither Rain, nor snow, nor cheap metal numbers...

The postal service left us a note in our mailbox saying that we needed to mark our mailbox with our house number.  No problem, I understand that.  But a trip to Lowes and Home Depot showed me that the house numbers were A. BORING and B. UNATTRACTIVE.

Yes, I know - it's only a mailbox.  I get that.  But still, I left thinking there had to be something better.  Later that day during a walk with my husband we strolled past a neighbors yard and I notice he was throwing out some old fence posts.  Which got me thinking of a project I wanted to do - making signs with the mileage to both my kids' states.  So I scooped up the pieces he was throwing out.  They were weathered and wonderful!

And I also noticed that they might also work for our house numbers.  So I printed out our address.  Painted the wood with white paint (after cutting it to length).  .  I used transfer paper to copy the address onto the wood  and then using some left over paint from our front door and filled in the address, outlining it in black.  I sanded and distressed that a bit, and waxed over the whole thing.  I used double stick tape to attach it to the mailbox (and this way I can switch it out when I want to do something else for the holidays, etc.)  What do you think?

I can't resist odd and unusual items.  I found this "thing" at an estate sale.  They were basically giving it away.  It was just plywood type wood.  But it had such neat lines.  And it reminded me of something I may have seen in the past - a chick carrier - for baby chicks.

So, of course, I went to my favorite spot for graphics http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/ .  So many inspirational graphics at her site that you can't go wrong.  I found a nice selection of graphics there.

I white washed the wood first.  Then printed the mirror image of the graphics on my printer.  I have been reading many tutorials using water to dampen the paper (print side down) and burnishing the image to wood.  But I started thinking about what actually "loosens" ink.   And I decided to try spraying the paper till just dampened with hair spray!  This worked like a dream.  I was so pleased.  Just make sure to let it completely dry before touching it (yep - I did that).  

After the ink had dried, I sanded the edges and mixed some clear wax and mahogany wood stain.   Using an old sock I just wiped on the stain and wax mixture to lightly stain the wood.  Still not sure what this item is, but I love it on my deck!!

One Minute Chocolate Chip Cinnamon Flax Muffin - Low Carb

1 T melted butter
1 packet Splenda sweetner
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 T flax seed meal
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract.
a sprinkling of sugar-free chocolate chips
Directions:

1.  Mix butter, splenda, and cinnamon. Add flax, vanilla and egg.  Sprinkle top with chips.
2.  Microwave for one minute twenty seconds on high.
3.  Smooth on sugar free Cool Whip 
4.  And enjoy!

You know how it is when you are trying to follow a low carb, low sugar diet.  Sometimes you just need something that tastes rich and chocolatey.  Not only does this little treat taste crazy good, you get the health benefits of flax.
ENJOY!

Coconut Flour (Gluten Free/Sugar Free) Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Number of Servings: 8

Ingredients

2-3 ripe, mashed bananas

1/3 c butter, melted
5 eggs
3 tbsp Splenda Brown Sugar Blend
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp orange extract
1/2 c coconut flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/3 c sugar free chocolate chips.



Directions

Combine mashed bananas and melted butter. Mix well. Add eggs, brown sugar, vanilla and orange extracts and whisk until eggs are combined.

In separate bowl stir together dry ingredients. Add to wet ingredients. Add chocolate chips at the end and stir in.

Transfer batter to greased loaf pan and bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.

Serving Size: makes 1 loaf

Number of Servings: 8