Cheesy Garlic Chicken Flat Bread

Do you have some left over rotisserie chicken lying around and are in desperate need a quick but delicious mid-week meal idea?  Well look no further than this cheesy, garlic chicken flat bread recipe I threw together a few nights back.  It's buttery, it's creamy, it's chicken-y, it's garlic-y... whats not to love?!  The kids will think "pizza" but the adults will taste gourmet yumminess!

Garlic Chicken Flat Bread - Come n' get it!

I seriously made this recipe up one night with just a small handful of left over roasted chicken and a hankerin' for something cheesy.  Here's what I came up with (you will need):

Cooked leftover chicken, cut into small pieces
Butter
Minced Garlic
Flat bread (comes in a pack of 2 in the bakery section at my store)
Alfredo sauce of your choosing
Parmesan cheese
Shredded mozzarella with Philadelphia cream cheese 
Salt and pepper to taste 

Roasted, rotisserie chicken is already pretty flavorful, but I wanted to add a punch of buttery garlic-y goodness.  So put a pat of butter in a frying pan.

Add a bit of minced garlic (to taste) and saute the garlic on medium for a minute.  At the same time, preheat your oven to 400º.

Add in the left over rotisserie chicken and stir it around.  This was great because the chicken was cold coming right from the fridge.  This way it was gently heating up in a warm, garlic butter bath.

This smells divine by the way

 
Next you want to prepare the flat bread.  Mine came in a 2-pack in the bakery section of Walmart.  Some of these come with added flavors.  I chose garlic for hubby and me, and original (plain naan) for the girls

Take a bit of your favorite Alfredo sauce and spread it over the flat bread

The start of flat bread greatness starts with great flat bread

Now you want to add on your warmed garlic butter chicken.  Feel free to add any veggies here you might like.  We kept ours easy and simple.  You can also add a crank of fresh cracked pepper here or a sprinkling of sea salt if desired.

By the way, when I did this for the girls, I used plain roasted chicken (no garlic butter) and plain flat bread.

Kid friendly "plain roasted chicken flat bread"

Now shake a bit of Parmesan cheese over the top of your flat bread creation, before adding the shredded mozzarella as a finishing touch.

Now you are ready to bake!  Make sure your oven is at 400º, and bake these flat bread babies right on the rack inside the oven.  You can also place them on a pizza pan or pizza stone, I was hoping the "straight on the rack" idea would crisp up the bottoms more.

Bake for about 10 minutes and then start to check and see if they are bubbly and golden brown.  Pull them out or give them a few more minutes as needed, then turn them out on a cutting board and stand back and admire your handiwork.

Flat bread garlic chicken pizza - hot from the oven

Be sure to lean in and get a whiff of that garlic butter heaven.

Cheesy Garlic Chicken Flat Bread

Crack out your favorite pizza cutter and slice this delight up into square-ish pieces.

One for you, two for me

Don't rob yourself of the pleasure of slowly pulling away the first piece to enjoy that oozy goozy cheesy thing that goes on.

Mmmm-mmm a little slice of heaven and I believe this whole thing only took under 30 minutes to make!

Serve with some veggies, side salad and/or fruit and you have got yourself a stellar mid-week meal that will have everyone begging for more.

This made for great lunch left overs the next day as well for both hubby and myself.  I am going to add this to my 31 nights of different dinners category.  Plus I should totally start a new category of "things to make with left over rotisserie chicken".  Enjoy!

Deep Cleaning the Microwave (Vents and Filters)

I have to confess, we just had ourselves another "chain reaction weekend".  What, pray tell, is that you wonder? A "chain reaction weekend" is one in which a seemingly simple solitary home improvement project snowballs into an endless link of other closely related projects, until you look up at 8:00pm on Saturday night and wonder where the entire day went.  Our story begins early Saturday morning, when we decided after 11 years in our house, it was time for a new kitchen faucet. That meant cleaning out under the sink to get to the hot and cold water pipes, which meant we had to clean and organize everything under the sink after the fact.   Once the faucet was installed, I realized the white sink looked dingy next to its silver shiny faucet-y surface, which then led me to clean the sink until it shone like the top of the Chrysler building.  You know what a shiny sink with a spanking new faucet will do?  That's right, make your counters and cupboards look dirty.  Deep cleaning the counters led me to the glass stove top, that led me to clean the oven... that led me finally to the microwave... which made me stop dead in my tracks. 

We have a white kitchen with white appliances.  Our white microwave is right over our white stove... though I realized right at that very moment, the grill had not been cleaned in a really long time. The following post and pictures are going to be shocking... but rest easy though, I'm going to tell you how to clean your decade old microwave to look almost brand new!

My eleven-year-old microwave grill after some "rescue" cleaning

Okay so if you are reading this on your lunch break, or having a late night snack while perusing the interwebs, I must beseech you, these next few pictures of my pre-rescued pre-cleaned microwave are down right gross. Put your food down before preceding. Shield the eyes of the young ones.  Those that are pregnant or may be pregnant and/or victims of a weak gag reflex feel free to brace yourselves now.  In our defense, we always clean the glass, the handles, the buttons, and the inside of the microwave all the time.  What we rarely (if ever) have cleaned was the grill/vent ABOVE the microwave.  At times I would remember trying to wipe the surface down during regular kitchen cleaning, but it was like baked on oil fuzz that stuck like glue.  In my busy life it was just one of those battles I did not have time to conquer in the middle of getting dinner on the table. 

Ain't nobody got time for that!

Okay, brace yourselves, we are going in for a close up....

I am so ashamed. 

Ug.  So so SO gross. I went on the interwebs and the youtubes (I personally like saying them better with "s's") and found there are about 1 billion ways to clean these puppies.  What I wanted was the most efficient, and easiest way to make this look like new again.  First of all, did you know for example, that you can REMOVE this grill?  Say wha?  That's right, on top of most microwave grills are a few screws you can remove with a Phillips head screwdriver.

screws along the top of your microwave... who knew??

Obviously I am not 7 feet tall and never had a clue in the world that there were screws on top of my microwave (nor a thick layer of dirt grease).  So I had my hubby remove all the screws and with a quick slide to the left, the whole thing popped off!  (Note: once unscrewed, it is easier to pop this grill of with the microwave door still open).

Never before seen footage of the inside, behind the grill portion of my microwave

What was I going to find behind that grill?  Narnia? A bird nest?  A pile of hidden $100 bills from the builder?  Nope, just a dark opening... oh but guess what else?  Not only did we get the grill off, but we did so, we were COMPLETELY surprised to find out that there is a FILTER inside the microwave slot that also needs cleaning.  Say what wha??

Nasty inner microwave filter that has never seen the light of day

This is right up there with my zero gag tolerance for mold and hair... the sight of this filter here almost did me in.  If you are feeling "the vapors" by looking at this pic, hold on to something steady because I promise you are going to freak out at how clean and shiny we are going to make this thing!!  

Okay so back to the grill I placed half of it in my sink and thought, this is stuck on grease, I need a de-greaser.  The interwebs had a number of home remedies but I thought I would start with the easiest.  My Lysol antibacterial kitchen spray cleaner, which is also a de-greaser would be my first attempt. I figured if it didn't work out I would move on to the "bigger guns". I sprayed half that grill down good and let it "soak" in the juices for a few minutes.  Wouldn't you know it, but I started to see the stuck on grease start sliding off the grill into the sink. On my first try? Sa-weet! 

I got out our trusty, older, just for cleaning toothbrush and scrubbed half of it and rinsed it off with hot water.  You also have to flip it over and scrub the other side, which also has many nooks and crannies of grossness. 

After more Lysol, hot water, a toothbrush, and even some Q-tips in the tight spaces, I could not believe how awesome half of the grill looked.  I was actually giddy about this astounding change.

half in light, half in "darkness"

Talk about a life-altering improvement!  We went to work on the other half of the grill and it went from zero to hero in about 30 minutes flat.  We let it sit out in the sun to dry off but WOW, what an amazing difference.

It looks brand-stinkin' NEW!  

By the way, those nasty filters?  Well did you know that there are two more of them UNDER the microwave for a total of three?  They catch quite a bit of grease from your stove top and were also in desperate need of a deep cleaning.  We popped all of them out and went a Googlin' to see what could be done.  There were vinegar dip methods and steam methods, but the easiest suggestion was to pop them in your dishwasher and BAM... a miracle would happen.

Holy cow... now that is CLEAN!

It's like a heavenly light is shining down, and the microwave angels start to sing hallelujah kind of clean.  It was amazing!!  From sickening to spectacular after one buzz through the dishwasher.  It was fabulous.

Still pretty shocked actually

The two filters below the microwave also came out spanking clean as well.

Like new I tell ya!

We popped all the filters back into the places and snapped the grill back into place.  The whole microwave was gleaming with clean pride.

Of course, you can't clean the outside, and the deep dark never before seen before inside filters, and not clean the regular inside of the microwave where the food goes.  For this we put 1 cup of water and 1/2 cup of vinegar in a large glass bowl and microwaved for 3-5 minutes, which will boil the water and create steam.  Once the timer dings, you let it sit and let it steam in there for another few minutes.  When the water is a little cooler, open the microwave door, wipe down everything with a cloth or paper towel.

Not too shabby.  Clean and disinfected too!  I decided to blog about this because I was completely unaware of those filters in and under the microwave.  How I missed this little tip in home ec class I will never know.  Obviously grease and fuzz building up over time could possibly lead to a fire hazard and I wanted to pass these tips on to anyone else who might not even realize they were there and could be easily cleaned.  Also, I am so please with how my grill looks now.  I so wish I would have figured this out years ago, but so glad we could at least make it happen now and get such wonderful results.

From shabby to chic on a Saturday afternoon

Seriously I can't stop staring at my super clean microwave every time I saunter by it in the kitchen.  It's like NEW!! I keep exclaiming to my hubby.

And to think... I have a leaky sink and a new faucet to thank for all of this.  God bless the chain reaction weekend!!

Crochet Swim Suit for 18-inch Journey Girl Doll

When you have a name like clever, crafty, cookin' mama... you really should live up to your name.  I realized the other day that I had been posting a little bit of "clever", a little bit of "cookin", but not a lot whole of "crafty".  This is not to say that I haven't been crafty, I've actually been cranking out a ton of crafts, I've just had not a ton of time to post about them.  I thought I would give you a sneak peek of something I whipped up two days ago.  Two out of my three girls now have Journey Dolls (from Toys-R-Us), which is the thrifty, economical (and might I add pretty adorable) solution to the much more over pricey American Girl Dolls.  With a full week of blue sky and sunshine around here, my daughter's thoughts have suddenly turned to darting through sprinklers and plummeting down slip n' slides.  Of course their dolls need some swimwear as well, to watch all the festivities in, right?

Journey Girl crochet swimsuit

So I went looking for some free swim suit patterns, only most of them were for the 18-inch American Girl doll size.  The only trouble with that was, the America Girl's are built like defensive linebackers in the neck and shoulder area.  The Journey girls, on the other hand, are pretty slender throughout their frame.  I decided to create a pattern specifically for this type of doll.  That's right. No pattern, just flying by the seat of my pants.  This aqua blue suit above was my first attempt!  Not too shabby, eh?  Last night I went ahead and tried to recreate the same pattern for my second daughter, who thought her doll needed a green suit.

Swimsuits for Journey Girl dolls

I was able to tweak a couple elements of where the center ruffle was, and smoothed out some of the between the leg area.  I think this turned out rather nice.  I didn't really see the need to add straps to the shoulder area, as this would make it a lot harder for the girls to put the suits on their dolls.  I am busy testing this pattern for a third time tonight, then I am thinking about sharing it or selling a pdf file of it for any of those of you who are interested.  Just thought I'd give you a little sneak peak.  

Super cute doll suit!

No worries, more crafts are coming soon!  Stay tuned...

Teriyaki Beef Skewers (Meat on Sticks)

One of my favorite cuts of meat to eat is London Broil (flank steak).  Especially if it is marinated in a delicious sauce first, cut nice and thin, and served up sweet and tender.  Matter of fact that is typically my go to requested meal for special occasions like Mother's day or my birthday.  Now that BBQ season is upon us, I was looking up ways to jazz up things on the grill.  My hubby Mr. D is a big fan of skewers.  Meat on Sticks.  He can't get enough of them.  When I saw this little recipe float by on Pinterest, I knew we were going to have to try it.  Feast your eyes on: Teriyaki Meat Skewers!

Teriyaki Beef Skewers

Okay.  I'm gonna pause for a second in case you want to smell or lick your screen...

Seriously though, doesn't that look delicious?  And just like my London Broil recipe, it is only two ingredients.  That's right, all you need to make these wonderful meat on sticks is: meat/flank steak (obviously)... and a really good Teriyaki sauce.  Namely, Yoshida's Gourmet Teriyaki sauce.  We happen to get ours in a vat/jug at Costco and it tastes great on anything!  In the original recipe they made their own sauce, but seriously, if you have the best tasting sauce in the land ready to go, why not make your life easy? Simply place your slab of flank steak in a seal-able zip lock bag, and pour some of that magic Yoshida's sauce in.

Let it marinate a while in the fridge.  I tend to flip it a couple of times while it's in there, just so both sides of the meat get evenly coated.  When you are ready, place it on a cutting board (discard marinade sauce), and get a sharp knife.  Thinly slice the meat into 1/4 inch strips.

Next you take some bamboo skewers that have been soaking in water for a few hours and gently "weave" the meat onto the sticks.  My flank steak was short, so I ended up putting two strips per bamboo stick.

I'm almost sure that this is the most beautiful picture of raw meat on sticks that has even been taken in the history of mankind.  Look at that lighting folks... just lovely.  Next you want to heat up your grill to medium high.  Grill them on one side for about 3 minutes while brushing on some extra sauce as it is cooking.

Can you smell them grilling yet?

Flip them all over to the other side and cook for 3 more minutes.  Keep brushing on extra Teriyaki sauce for added flavor.

Sizzling deliciousness right there!

You want to make sure that the meat is cooked to about a medium rare, though I like to head into more of the medium zone personally.  It's up to you.  Also all I care about is that delectable sauce!

Teriyaki beef skewers - the close up

After that, just pile them high on a plate and watch people run from everywhere just to get close to you.  I think we had two neighbors peering between fence posts after these babies came off the grill.

Run, don't walk to your nearest plate of skewered meat

These were so good by the way!  Here's a "meat-cam" close up

We ended up serving ours with a bit of teriyaki rice... yummy!!

Heat up a little extra sauce and pour it over the skewers for an extra pop of flavor.  These were so fun and easy to make.  You could make mini ones and serve them at a party, not to mention I'm sure this would work for chicken as well.  Mr. D just called me after I put up this post to tell me we should make these again.  Like tonight!  Enjoy!

Bunny Cakes

Over the last few years, the girls have really enjoyed making Rice Krispie bird nests for Easter and begged for us to do them again this year.  However, a good friend posted the most adorable bunny-shaped cakes on Facebook, and I knew we should try something brand new this year.  They turned out pretty cute, and a couple of people asked me to make a tutorial on how to make them.

They are cute... they are bunnies... what's not to LOVE?!

So the best part about these little guys is that you do not need a special pan, just a regular round pan.  We ended up using store bought cake mix, store bought frosting, and strawberry jelly from the fridge for a filling.  First cook two round cakes.  It is easiest if you remove them from the pan while they are still warm.

The best thing to do now is let them cool completely, wrap in plastic wrap, then put in the freezer for a few hours, or even over night.  The next day pull them out of the freezer and place the first cake "round" side down, flat side up.  Spread a glob of jelly and spread around to almost the edges

Spread a glob of jelly and spread around to almost the edges.

 
Take the other cake and place it flat side down on top of this cake.  The two flat sides will be together for this.  Normally a regular double round cake you would not do this, because it would make the top and bottom of the cake curve.  However, we are standing each half of this up on it's end, so rounded bunny haunches will be just fine.  At this point, the cake is still pretty frozen.  You can take a large knife and cut right through both layers of cake

Each half of this cake can make one bunny cake

Now we want to turn this cake up on it's end.  I put a strip of wax paper under our first attempt, which turned out pretty tricky to pull out later on.  I would recommend putting this half circle right on whatever you are going to serve it on and frost it from there.  Now that the cake is up on it's side, we need to "carve" the bunny shape out.  Starting a little past center, and with a sharp knife, carve down into the cake right where bunny ears might go.  Leaving a section at the bottom to become the "face" of the bunny.

Don't throw away the piece you cut away, flip it upside-down and place it at the back end of the bunny to create the "tail" area.  Now comes the frosting.  We were in a rush and just decided to use the store bought frosting from the can.  This can be a bit messy as there really isn't a way to do an efficient "crumb coat".  Because the cake is semi/frozen, frosting is a tiny bit easier.  It's still akward though, just because the shape of the cake is so odd.

After you have a good layer of frosting on, take a knife and smooth it over.  Another option is to immediately press sweetened coconut over the whole thing to mimic bunny fur.  The girls are not big fans of coconut, so frosting it is.  We repeated the steps because we wanted both a brown bunny and a white bunny

Here's a good shot of the round parts of the cake on the outside, with the flat parts of both cakes on the inside.  Reminds me of big giant hamburger.

We got smart on the second one, and place the cut half right where we were going to serve it.  I put small strips of wax paper underneath so we could frost without making a mess on the serving tray, and the small strips are easier to pull out after you are done frosting.

Cut the same shape out and frost the same way.  While those are sitting, you can make bunny ears.  We just used construction paper and cut an ear shape the same colors as our bunnies, then glued a slightly smaller ear shape in pink for the center of the ears

Next we took the ears and taped them to the ends of toothpicks.  We did this so paper would not be resting on frosting and soaking up moisture.  This way the ears would last over night and survive travel time the next day to grandmas without getting mushy near the frosting.

My daughter was the one that wanted to make a bunny face.  She thought toothpicks would make great whiskers.

The brown and white bunny were for Easter, the blue bunny the girls made for our dessert that night

We placed the ears above the head line, and they worked perfectly.  We used two regular sized chocolate chips (with the tips pointing in) to make round bunny eyes, and we used a large candy corn flavored MnM (left over from Halloween) but any round candy will work for a nose.  You could also use a pink jelly bean.  After that we pulled out the wax paper from the bottom so our little blue bunny was sitting proudly on our cake plate.

We then gave the brown bunny her face

And the white bunny her face

You can't see it, but we put rainbow sprinkles on the white bunny's tail, and we put chocolate jimmy sprinkles on the brown bunnies tail.  All in all these were a big hit at the family Easter dinner the next day!

These are so cute for Easter, but would be equally adorable at a bunny themed birthday party or ladies spring tea function.  I also realized with just a few tweaks here and there, these could easily be converted into car or VW bug shaped cakes.  Have fun cake carving, remember, if the cake is frozen, it will be a lot easier to cut and frost!