Introduction to the Chicken, Stuffing and Bacon "Hobo"

I am going to be honest with you.  I am lazy.  I really like easy dinners that have not a ton of prep work.  Don't get me wrong, I am all for food labor as long as the result is something delicious.  But I really struggle with foods that have a long prep time listed in the recipe.  Unless it is something you can start and then walk away from.  Those get an immediate pass from me.

As I skim through recipes, the ones that have a short list of ingredients and that don't have a ton of steps usually end up at the top of my "to try" list.  Or on Pinterest....my "Likes".  I don't repin anything to my food board unless it is tried and true.  And any that don't pass the test are swiftly unliked.

Anywhooooo....have you ever heard of a Hobo?  In terms of food....not in terms of someone that lives on the streets?  I am new to this food term.  But maybe because I am not a die-hard camper where these make their origin?  At any rate, there was a recipe for this Chicken "hobo" and what drew me in like a moth to a flame were the following keywords: bacon, cheese, ranch and stuffing.  Ummmm yes I will be attempting this "Hobo".

Ingredients:

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into cubes

3 cups of broccoli florets

3 cups of chicken flavored Stovetop stuffing

3/4 cup of Cheddar cheese shredded

3 slices of bacon cookied and broken into little pieces

4 Tablespoons of ranch dressing

Salt/Pepper

Cooking spray

water

One of my favorite parts about this "hobo" is that you don't have to pre-prep the food at all, aside from mixing water in with the stuffing.  I will say that if you are going to use broccoli, don't waste your money on the bag of broccoli cuts.  Do you know what broccoli cuts are?  They are the leftovers from the bags of broccoli florets.  Usually I end up with 3/4 of a bag of the broccoli stalk and then some pretty sad looking "trees".  But you could also use a different veggie here.  Zucchini or squash maybe? Green beans? Cut out the veggie all together? I think it could probably work with anything.  Although I am not sure I would try a potato, something tells me it wouldn't cook all the way through and you would end up with weird undercooked crunchy pieces.  Mbbgguuuh.....that is the sound of me throwing up in my mouth a little.

First mix the stuffing with just enough water so it softens just a little and doesn't collect at the bottom of the bowl.  I started with 3/4 cup and slowly added more.  While that sits, preheat your oven to 400 degrees and cut 4 pieces of tin foil large enough to wrap your "hobo". I have been getting Reynolds wrap non-stick and it is a life changer.  It is thicker so it doesn't tear quite as easily.  And there is nothing worse than taking a bite of food and chomping down on a piece of foil.  Aaaacckkkkk I just got chills from the thought of it.  Anyhow, even though I buy the non-stick, I still spray it with cooking spray as a little insurance.  And butter flavored Pam is just the ticket!

Next divide the stuffing evenly on the 4 foil packets.  Then divide the chicken evenly on the stuffing.  Salt and pepper the chicken.....very important so to not have bland chicken.  Then divide the broccoli evenly on the chicken, follow suite with the cheese.  Then with the bacon, and then with the ranch. Ok I'll be honest, I didn't actually measure the ranch because we use the squirt bottle kind so I just drizzled the top with each.  I figured there was maybe 1 tablespoon on each?

Next wrap up the foil, but not too tight because you want the heat to circulate inside (apparently the oven doesn't circulate enough).  Place on cookie cheets and bake for 40 min. 

Remove from oven and let sit for 5 min.  ***Important note*** Take a knife and poke holes in the top of the foil to let steam escape.  Otherwise you could be faced with a pretty nasty steam burn.  And then that burn turns to a blister.  And then that blister pops.  And then you can get a scar.  Not to mention, it hurts like a S.O.a.B.!!!

Once you have opened this "hobo" you will see this:

I know this photo won't be winning any beauty awards, but once you start eating it you get the garlicy stuffing, juicy cheesy chicken and cheesy bacony ranch all over.  It was super good.  And the serving is much larger than in looks in this pic. Each packet was 437 calories according to my ingredients; I used reduced fat cheddar, and turkey bacon.  I REFUSE REFUSE REFUSE to buy light Ranch.  I can't stomach it. 

But this "hobo" will definitely be made again.  I give it a 5.5 out of 6 on the cheesewheel because it was easy, fiet friendly and clean-up consists of throwing away foil.  WIN!!

Dueling Dips 4-4-13

HUMMUS

I'm a hummus addict.  I love hummus.  All of it.  The kinds in packages, the kind you make at home, and especially the kind they made in the cafeteria of my old office.  And, did you know, hummus is GREAT with Fritos? 

This particular hummus recipe is like the recipe in The Naked Chef cookbook.  Except we changed the ingredients.  So...maybe not like that recipe at all.

You need the following ingredients:

2/3 cup dried chickpeas
4 tbl olive oil
1 1/2 tbl tahini
1/4 tsp cumin
1-2 cloves garlic
juice of one lemon
6 smoked sun dried tomato halves
salt
pepper

You have some thoughts about these ingredients.  Normally I would encourage free thinking.  But please, friends, do NOT use canned chickpeas.  They taste like...can.  I assure you it is very easy to cook the chickpeas, and I'll detail that below.  Also, if you're thinking you don't need tahini...you do.  And keep in mind that the olive oil is a large portion of the flavor, so if you have some fancy olive oil, use it.  As for the sun dried tomato...I use the NOT oil-soaking ones.  You could use any kind you want, or some other flavoring ingredient, like dried chilis as the original recipe specified.

For a long time, I used to soak the chickpeas overnight and then boil them.  This worked about 60% of the time.  The other 40%, I would wander away while they were cooking, forget, boil all the water off, and scorch the pan.  There was smoke.  There were shrieks.  There were replacement pans. Then I had a revelation.  The god of cooking (Alton Brown) spoke to me in a dream (meaning, on his TV show).   He revealed the truth: you can cook the chickpeas from their dried state, in your crock pot.  Place the chickpeas, and 7 cups of water (and 1/4 tsp of baking soda, if you want them soft, like we do for this recipe).  Cook in the crock pot for 8 hours.  Usually I do this a day or two before and then stash them in the fridge.

When it's time to make the hummus:  Chop up the sun dried tomatoes.  Squeeze the lemon. Put all the ingredients in the food processor. 

Process. 

DONE!  Serve with anything.  Yes, even vegetables. But my personal favorite is pita chips.  Or toasted pita.  Or Fritos.  Below I show a picture of it improving a whole grain cracker. Quite frankly it's not a good picture, but I couldn't lollygag around taking photos because there was hummus to be eaten.

I'd like to rank this dip 6 wedges out of 6 on the cheese wheel.  A rating of 6/6 normally means "I don't even share this with my loved ones."   However, since significant other actually is in charge of making the hummus, he always KNOWS it's there, so I can't hide it in the back of the fridge and eat it all when he's not home.   I would if I could.

SKINNY POOLSIDE DIP

Ummm....how can I follow a 6 out of 6 on the cheesewheel? Let's just call Hummus the winner instead of going through the painful process of running through a non-recommended dip?
Fine.

I will proceed.

But I do this for you my fellow snackees...

It has come to my attention that on more than one instance, Pinterest "Pinners" reuse pictures. Even if they are only somewhat close to what they are making. Not cool Pinners, Not cool. What this has done as confused me into thinking I was preparing the dip I really wanted.....cheesy mexicorn dip.  Just so you all know....this WILL be coming but this is unfortunately not what I made....sad.

As I was making my grocery list I started to question the ingredients, but thought...hey....there is a bag of Fritos IN THE PICTURE with the dip.  And there is corn so it must be it....WRONG.

Ingredients
2 packages of softened cream cheese
1 red pepper diced
2 jalapenos diced (remove seeds and veins if you are a heat wimp like me)
1 can of corn
1/2 can of diced green olives
1 packet of dry ranch dressing mix

First mix together the ranch seasoning and cream cheese, then dump everything else in and mix. 

That is it.  Oh how I wish this was the best dip ever because it would be so easy.  My first bite was....very olive-y.  I actually questioned whether I read the directions wrong and should have used black olives maybe?  Unfortunately no.  I still ate it, don't get me wrong.  But the longer the dip sits....the more olive-y it tastes. I love olives, but it was too much even for me.  Fritos helped it slightly, but I found myself eating the Fritos plain and then not eating the actual dip.  Dip Fail.

We were eating this at lunch and the comment I received was...."Do you know why they call it Skinny poolside dip?  Because nobody eats it, therefore they don't end up with the extra calories" Valid point my friend.  Plus we figured this made 8 servings (if you could stomach it) and each serving was 256 calories WITHOUT Fritos. Granted that was a really big serving, but how is that skinny again? Disappointing.  The recipe also stated to eat with chips or raw veggies. Was I reading this on April Fools Day? Was it opposite day and I just didn't get the memo? Do yourself a favor if you do make this.  Skip the veggies.  It is too much.  Did you see all the veggies that are already in the dip?  Why are you torturing yourself with using veggies to eat them too? If you love green olives this is maybe a dip for you, but if you prefer your green olives having been soaked in a large bloody mary like I do....take a pass on this. Scoring is a 2 out of 6 on the cheesewheel.

I wish I had Jane's hummus.....NOW.

Pizza's Long Lost Cousin....The Pepperoni Chicken

Pepperoni Chicken

Isn’t pizza one of the most perfect foods? I mean basically you are getting all of your food groups in one.  And I don’t know that I have ever had a BAD pizza.  Although I will state that I would never order a pizza that didn’t have a heaping amount of cheese, and I would never order a pizza with hearts of palm and anchovies. THOSE would be bad pizzas.  I should maybe rephrase and state that I have never ordered/purchased/ate a bad pizza.  Some have maybe been JV level pizzas and one or two maybe freshman team pizzas, but for the most part…..pizza is pizza and is still way better than vegetables.  If you live in MN/WI, I highly recommend trying “Brew Pub Pizza: Lottza Mottza”….it will change your life.

Hmmm….oh yes….pepperoni chicken!  When I was reading the ingredients and skimming the picture I thought this looked very similar to pizza so I thought I would give it the old college try.  And I have to say, it was one of the best experiments to date. It is right up with baked tacos.  Yes.  I said baked tacos so you know I am serious here. And it was totally fiet friendly which makes it that much better.

It starts with boring chicken breasts and then builds up to melty, gooey, cheesy perfection.

Ingredients:

·       1 lb of boneless skinless chicken breasts (although I haven’t tried it with precooked chicken I am sure this would be fine)

·       1 garlic clove minced

·       16 pieces of Turkey pepperoni

·       ¼ teaspoon dried oregano

·       2 teaspoons dried basil (or 2 Tablespoons fresh basil chopped in tiny pieces)

·       1 cup of shredded mozzarella (4 oz for those hand shredding the cheese)

·       1 ½ cups pasta sauce – I used roasted garlic flavor…is there such a thing as too much garlic? I think not.

·       Salt and Pepper

·       Garlic Salt

·       Italian seasoning

I know, I know….that doesn’t seem like many ingredients.  Less ingredients means easier in my book, and this was no exception.  I did shred the cheese by hand….did you know that myfitnesspal counts food preparation as cardiovascular exercise?  I did.  Hence shredding the cheese by hand.  I will take any calorie I can get.

Ok, first start by slicing into your chicken breast to make two equal sized portions.  Sort of like butterflying it, but cutting all the way through. Or I suppose you could use chicken cutlets.  But I will be honest that I don’t really know what these are….are those the raw chicken tenders?  Then make sure you have appropriately seasoned your chicken breasts.  Liberally salt and pepper both sides of each piece of chicken.  I also use garlic salt and a shake of Italian seasoning. There is nothing worse than bland chicken.  Do you know what it reminds me of? FIET FOOD.  Which is exactly what you don’t want it to taste like.  Fiet food should taste like real food with lower calories.  So please, I beg of you, for the love of everything holy, season your chicken.  Then cook your chicken all the way through in a pan just shy of medium heat. Oh…very important…make sure you either use a pan that is oven safe, or have an oven-safe dish ready that can go in the oven (I call these casserole dishes but whatevs).

While that is cooking, preheat your broiler. Then take 10 pieces of the pepperoni and chop them into little pieces.  Add to a small sauce pan with the garlic and sauté over medium low heat until the garlic starts to turn brown.  Then add the spaghetti sauce, oregano and basil (if you are using fresh basil maybe wait until the last minute so it doesn’t turn all brown and unappetizing).

When the chicken is fully cooked, spoon the spaghetti sauce mixture over each piece so that it is covered.  This should use about 1 cup of the sauce mixture.  Then top each piece with the shredded cheese.  Use all of the cheese.  There are starving children out there,  far be it from me to waste any. Oh and remember those 6 pieces of pepperoni that didn’t get used before?  Cut them in half, and place on each portion of chicken.  My 1 lb of chicken was 3 chicken breasts (or 6 after I cut them in half) so it ended up that each piece had two halves of pepperoni nestled on top.  But if you are all artsy and want to chop the pepperoni up and sprinkle on top, I will leave that up to you.

Now, place under the broiler but watch it very closely.  You just want the cheese to start turning brown.  Or the same color that you would prefer your pizza cheese. And don’t forget to use an oven mitt when you take the pan back out of the oven…or when you go to serve.  This is where I failed.  I totally remembered the oven mitt for retrieving from the oven.  But somewhere between seeing the glorious melted cheese and wanting it on my plate asap….I forgot that the pan was SUPER hot and I grabbed it.  I swore a few times and then remembered there were child ears nearby.  Parent fail.  Oh well, my parent of the year award will have to wait until next year.

Anyways, you could serve this over noodles if you want, just cook the noodles and then add to the remainder of the sauce.  I used a spaghetti squash so after I cooked the squash, (see the post on peanut sauce for directions), I scooped out the “noodles” and added to my ½ cup of leftover sauce.  This doesn’t seem like it would be enough sauce, but the star of the show is the pepperoni chicken.  We don’t need the bridesmaid trying to outshine the bride here…..

This recipe made 3 servings and each serving was 314 cals.  So I got two pieces of chicken smothered in cheese.   Then I added in the spaghetti squash at 42 cals.  And then Pepperidge farm garlic cheese toast at 150 cals a slice.  The entire meal was 506.  But if you don’t have as many calories left you could leave out the bread **sniffle**. 

Total fiet win!

Caramelized Onion and Bacon Dip vs Chili Cheese Dog Dip: Dueling Dip Thursday 3/28/2013

CARAMELIZED ONION AND BACON DIP

The name itself made my mouth water.  The title alone had me at hello.  And then I was reading the ingredients and saw three types of cheese.  I’m in.

I love how an onion in raw form can be not very tasty and smell like someone with really bad B.O., and then somehow in the cooking process they transform into delicious, sweet accompaniments for any meal.  Imagine taking a big bite out of a raw onion.  Now after you stop dry heaving, think of taking a big bite of caramelized onion.  Totally different. My point is, even if you don’t like onions, you probably will love caramelized onions…I feel I can eat them plain. 

Ingredients:

2 large yellow onions

10 slices of bacon

8 oz cream cheese

¾ cup of non-fat greek yogurt or sour cream

¼ cup grated parmesan cheese

¼ cup grated swiss cheese

2 garlic cloves minced

2 tablespoons of butter

2 tablespoons of olive oil

2 Tablespoons of red wine vinegar

1 tablespoon of chopped parsley

First caramelize the onions.  Slice the onions into really thin pieces, and add to a pan over low-medium heat.  Add butter, olive oil, red wine vinegar and garlic.  Cook a little over an hour until the onions are caramelized. I will shoot you straight here….the process of making caramelized onions is not fun.  It is a lengthy process and the entire time you can smell delicious onion cooking.  In fact, it is torture.  Every time I looked in the pan it seemed like there was no change. When did they turn the brown color of caramel?

Round 1.  Onion 1 – Shanon 0

After about 5 minutes I got impatient.  I cranked the heat a little. Foolish, FOOLISH I TELL YOU!!  The onions were all burny and crisp in a bad way.  Is it possible that I had been bested by an onion? For real? I have been shamed out of my own kitchen, and to make matters worse, NO DIP! After a few hours of pouting and blaming it on our stove (obviously it was the stove’s fault),  I surrendered and went to buy more onions. I refuse to let something that smells like B.O. win.  REFUSE.

Round 2. TRIUMPH!

I had no idea that caramelizing onions takes over an hour.  I mean I have sautéd onions plenty of times and none of those events took over an hour. Otherwise I would have given up and ordered takeout.  However, it was pointed out to me that sautéing and caramelizing are two VERY different things.  Touche. This time I was patient.  And by patient I mean I stalked the stove and did a drive-by every 2 minutes until they were FINALLY done. And then proceeded to eat some.  Ok many.

Note: For all of you future entrepreneurs looking for the next business venture….create a company that sells pre-packaged caramelized onions.  I will be first in line to buy your product and as long as they are delicious, I will endorse you when you apply to be on Shark Tank.  Don’t let Mr. Wonderful talk you down!

The color here is because of my phone...they really were caramelized...promise

While the onions are caramelizing, cook the bacon and then chop into little pieces. Once the onions are done, add the cream cheese, sour cream, parmesan and swiss to the pan and mix all together until the “pre-dip” is all melted together. 

Then add the bacon and parsley.

You may have noted that I called this pre-dip at this point.  Although you can eat this warm, I found that it is exponentially better when it is cold.  The warm dip is sort of like a junior high dance.  Everyone is there, but everyone ignores each other.  But then after a few hours suddenly everyone is dancing and the party has really started.  Same thing here.  The flavors all meld together and form a way better version of French onion dip.  WAY better.  I even brought some to our Field Snack Correspondent Nicole to sample.

We ate them with fritos and triscuits.  Even without the dip, any excuse to eat fritos and triscuits is a win.  I was all ready to score this as a 3 cheese wedge out of 6 when I tried it warm.  Then I tried it again cold and it skyrocketed to a 5. No dip that takes over an hour to make, and then 2 hours of cooling will ever be a 6.  I am sorry. But.....if you can con someone else into making it for you, I would say it is a 5.5.  

This recipe makes 8 servings and each serving was 183 calories based on the ingredients I used (turkey bacon, fat free cream cheese and non-fat greek yogurt) and the expertise of www.myfitnesspal.com.  Then add the calories of whatever you use as a dipping vehicle (a tear is rolling down my cheek for those of you that aren’t planning on using triscuits or fritos).

CHILI CHEESEDOG DIP

Shanon took pity on me this week, and gave me the easy Dip Assignment, because I've been working in the office instead of telecommuting.  Like a grownup, having to wear real pants.  And have shoes on ALL DAY. Clearly I wasn't up to the trials and tribulations of caramelizing onions or waiting for a dip to cool down to eat it.  THUS: Chili Cheesedog Dip.  Three ingredients and no bothersome "cooking." 

Ingedients:

16 oz Mexican Velveeta
4 hot dogs
1 can of chili






Yep, that's ALL the ingredients.  Chop the hot dogs...chop the Velveeta...open the can...dump everything in an oven safe dish.  Stir.

This was the whole process, and thank goodness, because we were having dip for dinner and I didn't get home until 7:30.  After you've half-heartedly stirred it, the dip needs to bake for about an hour.   Probably it should be stirred occasionally during this time, but I was really busy being a comatose lump on the couch and skipped that part.

Now:  It's dip!  Incredibly, incredibly salty dip.  I say that with love, of course.  I adore salt and believe that all dips should primarily taste of salt and cheese.  But this one, while not TOO salty for me, it was nudging the line.  For normal people not addicted to sodium, it might be over the edge.  Also, I served it with Fritos scoops (also known as "chips of the gods") so that added an additional layer of salt.  It's possible with a different dip vehicle, the salt level might not seem so aggressive.

It makes 4 servings.  They are large servings, big enough that one serving can be "dinner," but with 545 calories for the dip, without the fritos (or other dippers) you probably need to plan ahead...run some miles...eat only celery for lunch...something.  Based on the almost-too-salty flavor, and the high opportunity cost, I have to give chili cheesedog dip only 4 wedges out of 6.

Stuffed Peppers

As always,  vegetables are a challenge.  Green peppers are another dangerous-looking item which I avoid.  They have a strange aftertaste, and all that green color convinces me there are terrifyingly large amounts of nutrients in there.  But this recipe does an excellent job of hiding the vegetable taste, covering it with delicious flavor instead.  And there's cheese.  (Are there foods without cheese?  There shouldn't be.)

Ingredients
1 lb pork
1 packet "skillet sauce" Carnita or Fajita flavor.
1 onion, chopped
1/2 cup cheddar cheese
6 tablespoons light sour cream
brown rice - 2 cups cooked.  (if starting with bulk, this is 2/3 c dry + 2 c water)
4 green peppers

Start with pork.   You can use whatever solid pork you want...I happened to have some chunks of pork loin on hand but you could start with pork chops or pork "steak" or whatever...any pound of pork will do.  Put it in the crockpot with some cooking sauce.  Shanon uses the "Carnita" flavor which I cannot find where I live.  I use the "Fajita" flavor.  You'll usually find them in the grocery store right by the taco seasoning. In the case you can't find these sauce packets at all, just use some spices, about a tablespoon of southwest seasoning, a squeeze of lime and a cup or so of water.

Put these in the crock pot.  Add one chopped onion.  I have experimented with different onion choppings...small dice vs. large chop vs long strips of onion...all these experiments were probably a waste of time since it seems to taste exactly the same every way I've tried.  But it was science.  Yeah, I'm a scientist now.



 IF your crockpot has a tight lid, you probably don't need any other liquid.  MY Crockpot does NOT have a tight lid, so I need to add extra liquid or this will dry out.  Use some chicken stock, or just water.  Cook all day. 
At some point in the day, cook some brown rice. I do this in a rice cooker with chicken stock but any method is fine. It's not hard to cook, but it does take some time. If you use instant, I won't judge. Ok, I might judge a tiny bit. But I think we can all agree instant brown rice is clearly better than no brown rice at all.

  Return to your crockpot.  The pork has fallen apart and absorbed all the flavor of the sauce.  Time to shred the pork.  You can do this with two forks.  Due to my lack of manual dexterity, I prefer to pull the pork out of the sauce/onions and then add them back in after the shredding.  You could definitely shredd it IN the crockpot if you have the skills for that sort of thing.  Once the pork is shredded, add the onions.  If needed, add some of the cooking liquid to keep it from being dry, just a few tablespoons.  Now add the sour cream and cheese and rice.  (Note that 6 tablespoons of of sour cream is 3/8 cup.  I do not have a measuring cup that size, so I use the tablespoons.  Or, to be honest, heaping tablespoons because I really like sour cream and want to sneak more in.)  Stir. 

Time to address the peppers.  Cut each pepper in half.  You can see each has a chunk of seeds/innards by the stem that you can just rip out with your hand.  Once all the peppers are "empty" place them on a greased cookie sheet (open side up) in the oven at 425 degrees for 10 minutes.

When the peppers emerge, they are ready to be stuffed.  There may be some liquid in each pepper-cup.  Ignore it.  (At first I was concerned this liquid might make my stuffing taste pepper-like, and carefully soaked it up with a paper towel.  Then I became lazy, and left the liquid...no taste difference, and infinitely improved chances of avoiding severe burns.) Usually this stuffing will fill 4 peppers/8 halves, but it will vary based on the size of the peppers.  If you have extra, just heap it up on top.  It's pretty sticky and generally doesn't fall out.

Cook for an additional 10-15 minutes at 425.  Remove, and prepare to be amazed by the lack of vegetable taste.  The interior stuffing is gooey and delicious.  The exterior green pepper part in inoffensice AND makes it easier to stab with your fork.  You can serve with a little extra sour cream for dipping.  These are super fiet-friendly: each pepper-half only has about 200 calories, so you can eat two and still have ice cream for dessert. 
They reheat very well, so can be packed for lunch the next day.

 

Man Dip vs Pizza Dip: Dueling Dip Thursday - 3-21-2013

Man Dip vs Pizza Dip

This week's Duel about Meat and Cream Cheese!  Clearly you can tell from the start that this week is a HUGE WIN for everyone!  Really.  Both dips are AMAZING

MAN DIP

Man Dip is a secret family recipe which I was able to pry from the fingers of my friend Kristin.  Her family has guarded the secret of this delectable goo for centuries.  Or at least decades.

It contains this tricky list of ingredients:

1 can of Rotel tomatoes
1 block of cream cheese
1 lb of Jimmy Dean sausage

You COULD use the reduced fat sausage, but my grocery store didn't have it.  You can also use reduced fat cream cheese, which I did do.

Again, we begin the dip a high percentage of ingredients that I won't eat in stand-alone situations.  Yet somehow the outcome is something INCREDIBLY delicious.

The process is simple. 

Brown the sausage. (Drain.) 

Do you see it here, the previously mentioned Meat Smusher?  Well it turns out it is called the "Mix 'N Chop" and it is from Pampered Chef.  It's amazing what you learn from reader comments.



Mix the ingredients. 

Cook.   This could be done in the oven.  Or in a crockpot.  However, once you've had the dip, you won't be able to wait the excruciating amount of time required to cook something in a crockpot.  You CAN cook it in the oven and then place it in the crock pot to keep it warm.  Of course, I don't genuinely believe it will be sitting so long that you even need to keep it warm, but if you're SUPER SLOW or have a lot of restraint, it might be needed.

By law, it MUST be served with Tostito's Scoops chips, so I include one in the picture. This dip scores in at a 5.5 cheese wedge out of 6.

PIZZA Dip

With a name like Pizza Dip, how could it possibly be bad?  It can't.  Unless you eat pizza with crazy toppings like broccoli and spinach with no cheese.  In which case....you are on the wrong blog....

The picture alone of this dip is what sucked me in.  It was pepperoni slices on bubbly cheese and it was neatly displayed next to crusty bread slices.  There was nothing I didn't like about it so I added it quickly to my to do list.  And then checked daily to make sure it was still there!  That isn't sad at all, that is smart.  Can you imagine if I went to make it and suddenly the recipe had disappeared?  Have you ever heard of a stage 5 meltdown? Picture the temper tantrum of a 2 year old, with the drama of an actor and the pain of someone on a fiet.  So you see how this was a necessary step...

Ingredients

4 oz cream cheese

1/4 cup sour cream

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1 cup of shredded mozzarella

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

1 cup of pizza sauce

2 ounces of sliced pepperoni

2 Tablespoons of chopped green pepper (optional)

2 Tablespoons of sliced black olives (optional)

First mix the cream cheese, sour cream, mayo, 1/2 cup of the mozzarella and 1/4 cup of the parmesan cheese together and spread on the bottom of a pie plate.

Pour the pizza sauce over the top of the mixture and spread evenly.

Top with the remaining 1/2 cup of mozzarella and 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese and top with the pepperoni, green pepper and olives (and any other pizza topping....except broccoli...again, WRONG BLOG)

Bake until the cheese is all melty, gooey looking and slightly golden brown.  I personally like my pizza cheese to be on the darker side so use your judgement.

I served this with Garlic Triscuits and sliced crusty french bread.  I am not exagerating when I say the pie plate was scraped clean.  All that was left was a little grease which is to be expected with any melty cheese dip.  I would be lying if I hadn't considered sopping even that up with the bread.....but the bread was gone....and people were watching.

I love this dip.  I did substitute with light sour cream, turkey pepperoni and 1/3 reduced fat cream cheese. And due to a very firm demand, the olives were omitted.  But don't think I didn't but up a fight for them. Calorie-wise, 1/8 of the pie plate is 190 calories. And that is without the dipping vehicle. So for that reason ONLY I have to give this a score of 5 out of 6 cheese wedges.  If calories were not being weighed in here, it would be a 6.


Winner of Dueling Dip Thursday: MAN DIP!!

Puff Pastry Perfection Pockets

In a perfect world, cream cheese would be present in every meal.  Actually, sometimes I start with cream cheese and try to build a meal around it. Much like when I buy a pair of shoes and then desperately try to find an outfit to go with them….

Cream cheese is easily one of my favorite things.  It is so versatile.  It is present in almost every dip that I like. In melted form it makes sauces creamy and delicious, it is phenomenal slathered an inch thick on a fresh toasty bagel and need I remind you that it is a key player in cheesecake?

I have had cream cheese stuffed chicken breasts before, but these are a billion times better. They are little pillows of heaven stuffed with melty cream cheese and BACON! Not to mention…FIET FRIENDLY! I know they probably have another name, but when I was scanning the site I didn’t see it anywhere....in English.  So if you come across the name, you win the prize of knowing what these are called. Pinterest Link 

Besides, I made some tweaks to that recipe so I settled on it being fine to rename it: Puff Pastry Perfection Pockets.  I think it describes them perfectly.   

Ingredients:

1 sheet of Puff pastry

12 oz of thawed chicken breasts cut into 4 equal sizes

4 oz cream cheese softened*

2 Tablespoons of fresh parsley chopped

2 green onions chopped

2 pieces of cooked bacon chopped*

1 teaspoon of garlic salt

¼ teaspoon of black pepper

Before I get into the how-tos of these incredible delights, I need to go on a chicken breast rant…..

We buy the large quantities of frozen chicken breasts that happen to be individually wrapped, which is key.  This way you don’t get frostbite trying to break apart chicken breasts.  My issue is….the bag states that a serving size is 4 oz.  Great.  But the individually wrapped chicken is not 4 oz.  Some are 6, some are 8, some are 4. Now this took me a solid year to realize unfortunately.  Is it too much to ask that the chicken all be uniformly sized before they become “store ready” so that the breasts all be identically sized?  Or at very least, on each individually wrapped piece, stamp the actual weight of the chicken breast? Am I right? Or am I right?

Ok now on to the directions:

Very important: Thaw out the puff pastry on the counter for 40 minutes.  Otherwise you can’t work the dough because it is...well...frozen.  Once the dough is soft, take a rolling pin and roll it out a little thinner and make sure the creases are gone from where it was previously folded.  Tip: sprinkle some flour on the rolling pin and dough.  The dough can be pretty sticky and this flour will save you from having an epic meltdown if the dough rips (I know from experience). Cut the dough into 4 equal parts.

Next mix together the cream cheese, parsley, green onions and bacon and divide into 4 equal parts.

As far as the chicken goes….We had two 6 oz chicken breasts so I cut them in half first.  And then sliced into the side…I believe this may be called “butterflying” them.  But don’t quote me on this.

Add the cream cheese evenly to the middle of each piece of raw chicken and fold the chicken over as if it has swallowed the cream cheese mixture. 

Then place the chicken, seam side down on the puff pastry piece.  You could get all design-y here on how you wrap the chicken but I chose the standard envelope seal and then placed them seam side down on parchment paper. 

Take note my friends….YOU NEED FOIL OR PARCHMENT PAPER!! A little of the cream cheese will inevitable seep out on at least one.  It is just the circle of life. Make sure you serve that one to someone else. Don’t judge…trust me, you want ALL of the cream cheese filling.  The paper or foil will ensure that your delicate puff pastry doesn’t stick to the pan. 

I sprayed the top of each pocket with butter flavored Pam and sprinkled with Garlic Salt. Bake at 400 degrees for 35 min and you will be presented with this:

Ok I know….not exciting.  So I cut into it for a better visual.

Amazing.  Delicious. The dough is flaky and buttery, the chicken is surprisingly tender and juicy and the cream cheese mixture coats everything nicely…..I could have eaten a bowl of it plain in all honesty.  Plus, each pocket is 373 calories based on the ingredients I used, therefore, Fiet friendly!  You need to try this. You NEED to.  As soon as we were done eating I started rifling through the fridge and freezer to see if I had enough left to make these again….tomorrow. 

*I did use fat free cream cheese and turkey bacon.  The cream cheese was still delicious, but I am convinced that these would taste even better with reduced fat cream cheese or full fat.  I am a cream cheese snob and can hardly bare the taste of reduced fat or fat free normally, but there were enough other flavor bits to mask the weird aftertaste of fat free here. But totally up to you.