Easy BBQ Chicken Pizza

As Superbowl Sunday approaches there really cant be too many good game day foods floating around on the internets, right?

 

 

This is one of those foods. The hubs devours it, I love it and even the two year old asks for more. Oh, yeah, its easy too.

 

Ingredients:

1 ball of dough

1/4-1/2 pound shredded chicken breast

3 strips of ready bacon

2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese

BBQ sauce of your choice

 

First- I had to defrost my dough. I used a brand called Rhodes that comes in a bag of three frozen loaves.  To defrost I simply pulled it out of the freezer, wrapped it in plastic wrapped sprayed with some PAM and let it do its thing. It took maybe three hours.  If you don't want to use frozen go to a local pizza shop and pick up a ball of dough, or make your own in a bread machine.

 

 

Next- I sprinkled the countertop with corn meal and rolled my dough out to the size of the pan. I actually rolled it over and then let it sit for 10 minutes on the pan before I par-baked the crust, so that it had all of its shrinking up out of its system. I used the extra edges I cut off to twist into some breadsticks for the toddler.  Before shoving it into a 400 degree oven I made sure to poke holes in the dough with a fork to keep it from getting large air bubbles all over the crust.

 

 

Let it par bake for 10 minutes. This is the secret to get the crust nice and crispy.  Once it comes out, I spread on my sauce which was a layer of Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce.

 

 

Then it was time to get the chicken out of the liquid it was poaching in (takes about 10 minutes) and shred it up.  I just used a chefs knife and sort of diced/crushed/chopped it all up. If you have chicken strips, those work too or a rotisserie chicken that you shred would also work just fine. Once it was in nice bite sized pieces, I tossed it all in a healthy dose of BBQ sauce.

 

Before putting on the chicken I cut up three strips of ready bacon and sprinkled them over the crust.

 

 

Because bacon makes it better, duh.  Then add on your layer of chicken, making sure to spread it evenly over the crust.

 

 

Then cover the whole thing in a healthy dose of cheddar cheese and pop back into the oven for another 10 minutes until its melted and bubbly.

 

 

 The thing I love the most about this is you can make it as easy or as gourmet at you would like. You can use pre-made dough, sauce, and a rotisserie chicken and you have very little prep involved. Or you can make your own BBQ sauce, dough and cook the chicken from raw. Whichever you prefer! Either way, its tasty and the perfect football food.

 

Tell me, what's your go to game day meal?

 



Five on Friday!

Linking up with Darci for Five on Friday!

1. I bought my first expensive pair of running shoes yesterday. Holy crap was that painful. I've never spent that much on a pair of shoes in my life. Clearance rack shopper for life, yo.

I was teasing the hubs that I have no choice but to run a marathon in these suckers to get my money's worth- I think he may still be laughing at my reasoning.

2. Midterms start next week and so I will be spending this weekend writing two midterms and cursing the fact that I didn't get it done sooner. I always have the best intentions to get them written and together early, but it never works out. Plus, if you are a teacher or know a teacher you know how crazy the end of any grading period can be. Throw in writing and double/triple/quadruple checking not one but two 200 point exams and it seriously makes me hate life for a few days.

3. Today it was 43 degrees. I'm pretty sure that the last time it was 43 I was bundled in my old lady parka with a scarf and my hood up.  The thing is, it was down to -30 with the wind chill on Monday. Today I wore a dress to work and you know what, it felt kind of balmy.  Mother nature gave us a bit of cold weather perspective, I suppose. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy the little break with school being closed on Tuesday AND a two hour delay on Wednesday due to extreame cold. However, I am over being cold so spring can hurry its sweet self along at any time now. 


4. Speaking of our impromptu "cold" day, Grayson and I certainly made the most of it.  We stayed in our jammies and watched cartoons, ate breakfast in bed, opened some new toys that I had stashed away from Christmas and had a living room dance party.  The older that kid gets the harder he makes it to leave him to go to work in the mornings, because staying home is just a heck of a lot of fun. 

5. Its been 10 days and I haven't missed a day yet of drinking a smoothie for breakfast. Usually I eat a waffle and wash it down with a Coke, so this is by far a vast improvement.  I start with a banana and some spinach, toss in some berries and greek yogurt and blend away.  I'm not a big veggie eater, so sneaking in some this way seems like a pretty legit idea.  A friend at work told me you can blend in some broccoli and kale and not taste a thing. I don't know if I'm brave enough to try that yet, but if anyone has any good smoothie recipes I'm willing to give them a shot (just be honest, don't tell me they taste great and they really taste like dirt!).

 

2014 Goals

Thanks to the ridiculous cold air I've been given a day off today- woo! That means its jammies, blankies, cartoons and cuddles for this Momma and her bean.  The wind chill is something like -40 out there, so you will not catch me leaving this house for any reason until that breaks or I have to go to work. Whichever comes first...which will probably be work, because its only January. So I've got laundry going in the washer, a yummy dinner in the crockpot and hopefully when Grayson takes a nap I can sneak in a shower. Life is pretty good today, I must admit.

 

While Grayson is engrossed in Calliou, the most annoying show on the planet, I just wanted to pop in to talk goals for 2014. I saw a thing floating on the interwebs about picking a word for the year and so I've decided this year my word will be determined. I usually set forth some goals and drop them by the third week of January, but I am determined this year to do better.  So here there are, in no particular order.

 

 

1. Eat better.  This girl isn't a fan of the veggies, so I need to change that.  Already I've been on the green smoothie wagon and blending in some spinach, broccoli and kale.  Thank GOD bananas cover the taste of almost anything, because you couldn't get me to eat those things otherwise. But I'm eating them all blended up with berries, Greek yogurt and bananas. If you have any delish smoothie recipies, please feel free to send them my way!

 

2. Actually get my butt in shape. I looked in the mirror one day and I found myself wishing my body wasn't the shape that it was, a usual battle. Then I realized, unless I did something about it, it would NEVER change. I wasn't going to wake up one morning a size six. I needed to get myself eating better and actually exercising. So I started running and working out, and I bought myself a fitbit. Its amazing how seeing the numbers move on that thing (or not move) motivates me to get my butt in gear. Last night I was 1000 steps away from my goal, so I jumped on the treadmill and Grayson and I walked until I hit my goal (walking has to be more effective when you are carrying a 30 pound weight around, right?!).  I've set a weight loss goal, and Ill update that here on the blog shortly.  I've done the measurements, taken the pictures the whole nine yards.  I don't want to be a stick, but I want to be comfortable in my skin and healthy.

 

3. I want to be more patient with my son.  Two years old is ROUGH, ya'll.  The toddler mood swings are nothing short of epic and sometimes I feel myself getting short with Grayson. I want to do better.

 

4. I want to blog more and get more involved in this beautiful community. Post more consistently, comment more, follow more on social media and really get to enjoy  all of the wonderfulness that can come from putting our lives out here on the web. I would really love to attend a blog conference, so hopefully I can find one over the summer that I can sign up for.

 

5. Organize one space a month.  The junk drawer, the closet, the hole that is the TV stand and anywhere else I find.  I'm setting a small goal of one per month, but if I can do more Id love to be able to say in December that my house is actually organized instead of just organized chaos.

 

So that's all- I'm only setting five goals. I figure there's a lot more I would LIKE to accomplish, but I don't want to stress myself out and not get the things I really want done.

 

What are your goals for 2014?

 

 

 



Mother's Therapy Organics Review and Giveaway!!

Its that time of year- time for colds, flus, viruses and all of those other nasty little germs that people pass from person to person.
Yippie!

Not.

 

I'm not kidding when I tell you, I buy my weight in hand sanitizer (currently on my third gallon sized jug from Costco) each season because I don't want to bring home a nasty germ to my little guy or the hubs. Well that, and I don't want it myself. Those kids come to school SICK, and I have been known to Lysol a desk or two in my day...sometimes even when the kid is still in it. Some say I'm paranoid, I say I'm not sneezing and coughing so I'm okay with it.

 

As a biology teacher, I teach the kids about chemicals and their effects on people- and it never fails that one of them always asks if hand sanitizer is good or bad for us because of all of the chemicals in it. Knowing that I teach them well, I do try to look for natural organic sanitizers- but in reality the ones I've found all left a greasy feeling on my hands and smelled, well, bad.  Either that or they dry my skin out so bad I'm itchy for days. Not good at all.

 

So when Mothers Therapy Organics contacted me and asked if I would be interested in trying out their organic and natural line of sanitizers and baby lotions, I was very interested, but still skeptical. 

 

 

The box arrived and the first thing I noticed was that this stuff smelled GOOD. Like cucumbers with a hint of lemon, good. It didn't burn my nose with the overwhelming smell of alcohol or perfume. It just had a nice clean scent. The baby lotion also had a very faint cucumber smell, but I could also smell lavender which I loved. 

 

When I tried out the sanitizer, I noticed that it didn't take any longer to "dry" or absorb than normal hand sanitizer, and it didn't feel greasy at all.  Once it was all in, my hands didn't burn or feel gross- so I was pretty excited. Maybe this would be different. I checked out the ingredients next, and there was only one ingredient that a didn't know what it was. A quick Google, and I was thrilled to realize it was an ingredient in cosmetics that had no risk of cancer and it wasn't classified as expected to be toxic or harmful.

 

Score another one for the sanitizer.

 

 

 

Well, that was the claim- but after a few days of use I was sure that I would find out that it wasn't the case.  Now let me explain, I have ridiculous dry skin. Like need a prescription lotion if I want to shave in the winter, dry.  So usually my hands are all red and chapped most of the winter from sanitizing/washing.  However, after using the sanitizer and the sanitizing lotion for about a week continuously I realized- my hands were not red, not chapped, and were actually SOFT.

 

It was official, I loved it.

 

Now would be the real test. I passed my super sensitive/dry skin on to the toddler. So I was really curious to see if the Mothers Therapy Organics Baby Lotion would keep his skin soft and rash free. We have to religiously lather him up with lotion twice a day to keep him from getting dry and itchy, and I was so glad that this lotion seemed much less greasy than our regular lotion. Since his skin is so crazy sensitive we usually buy non scented stuff, and after one application Grayson was sniffing it saying "Mmmm!". I think he liked the scent as much as we did! So what were the results?  After about a week, my kid was asking for the lotion to rub on himself.  He puts it on his little hands and tells us "Ahhh", which I can only take as a resounding 'I love this stuff'. His skin seems less dry, and after rubbing it all in his jammies go on a lot easier because it actually absorbs into his skin unlike other lotions. 

If that's not enough to convince you, there's also the fact that my husband claims we will not be using any other baby lotion in this house. He hates the lotion stage of the bedtime routine, and always has to wash it off of his hands.  Since we switched, he hasn't wanted to wash the "gunk" off once- which is huge.

 

The wonderful ladies at Mothers Therapy Organics have a pledge to provide parents with healthy options for their children, and this women-run company certainly hit the mark with these products. Not only do they happily donate product to non-profit organizations to bring their products to everyone who wants to try them, but they have also graciously allowed me to give away a Family Pack of Hand Sanitizers- which has a $30 value!

 

 

 

All you have to do is use the Rafflecopter to enter, and give these awesome products a try!

Disclaimer- I was gifted a product to review, but as always all opinions are my own!!

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

 



2013- A Year in Review!

How the heck is 2013 over? Doesn't it seem like just yesterday it was 2012?!

 

In all seriousness, these are some of my favorite posts to write even if they always make me cry.  If you're new here, sit back and get to know me a bit. If you've been around awhile, laugh with me as I look back on the highs and lows- which lets face it are always funnier- of 2013!

 

January- Ringing in the new year allowed me to share the toys a 1.5 year old loved for Christmas, as well as some of my many Mom Fails.  I received many words of encouragement for that post, and it let me know that I am not alone in feeling like the worst parent in the world from time to time.  January was also the month I received the most overwhelming amount of support when a nasty anonymous commenter left a heinous comment about Grayson. I responded with Dear anonymous, because no one should ever attack someone else's child behind the veil of anonymity. Overall though, January kicked butt. I did a few DIY projects, spent time with the two loves of my life and I told Emmitt Smith to stop whining on the Anderson Cooper show. Life=complete.

 

February- Superbowl Sunday calls for awesome snacks, which is why I made these BBQ Chicken Crescent Rolls, which are still a quick dinner night favorite. I also shared one of my personal favorite DIY tricks to get rid of the bathroom nasties. You know what I'm talking about, that crud that forms in the grout around the tub no matter how hard you scrub. Who knew that getting rid of it would be so easy, or cheap. I also kept up the Mom Fails by talking about the things I never imagined I would have to say, although now I know that these were only the beginning.  Keeping the food coma up, I shared my favorite sloppy joe recipe and some adorable pictures of a kid in a desk chair.  Another February high? A friend got married and I got to party with these beautiful ladies!

 

 

March- In March I officially had a one and a half year old. I chronicled the day with a Day in the Life of Grayson where I followed him around and took pictures of what his life was really like on the day he turned 18 months old.  To help beat the winter blahs and prepare for summer fun, I shared a list of fun things to do with kiddos in Pittsburgh.  I had a few more tips and ticks to share, and I posted the recipe for the only fried rice my picky husband will eat.  Easter was also in March this year, making for a SUPER LONG stretch between Christmas and Spring Break for this teacher momma.

 

April- They say April showers bring May flowers, but all I know is that it brings out the crazy we cant be in the house no more feelings around here.  It even made the hubs crazy enough to blog, when he shared secrets about his wife.  I shared the way I DIY'ed the superhero cutouts for Grayson's first birthday...only six months after the party, so that's not too bad, right? I also took some pictures of the crazy toddler playing with the non-toys that he considers more fun that the real ones.

 

May- HELLO SPRING! Once again, the hubs ran the half marathon (and once again, I ate doughnuts). Only this year Grayson decided to get a stomach bug as I was trapped downtown until Patrick and his Mom were done running. Yeah, that was fun. I think next year I'd rather run the race than go through that again.  After learning such a life lesson, it was only natural to share what motherhood has taught me so far the only way I know how, with humor and sarcasm. We touched some trucks, celebrated Mothers Day, and taught Grayson that he has the most awesome parents in the world because we went to see and ride on Thomas the Train.  Trust me if you're two, this is a much bigger deal.

 

 

 

June- Mommy was officially on summer vacation and that meant it was time for the list of things to accomplish this summer. Im glad to say we made it through most of these things, which makes me feel better for letting some things just fall off the wagon. I opened up and admitted my child needed some help in the speech department when I shared A Child of Few Words, and so many of you came forth with similar stories and successes.  I don't know if you all will ever know how much those stories meant to me, as I was sitting here in the lowest of parenting lows.  Thank each and every one of you for those sweet words. We also hit up Idlewild, which was on our bucket list for like the past five years, so it was really about time.  We also built an awesome swingset, which I realized I never blogged about. Woops.

 

Don't freak out- the Grandfather just jumped out of the picture, Grayson wasn't up there by himself. My Dad is a bit camera shy!

 

July- I started the month with sharing my beach essentials for a toddler, because I love to see what is in someone else's bag. I made lazy spaghetti meatballs, which are fantastic and I want to make them again right now. Then I took you on a room by room tour and shared the house bucket list. I'm glad to say that since then we've taken a few ticks off of the list, and added some more. Crap. I wrote some amazingly sarcastic Friday Letters, linked up with a few amazing ladies, and we hit the road for our first big family beach vacation.  (I didn't get the post up on the trip until August, but humor me on this one!)

 

 

August- That meant it was almost time to go back to school. After seeing countless people on facebook/twitter that I will refer to as jerk faces complain how easy teachers have it I decided to share what my life really is like as a teacher. I also talked the insane-ness that are toddler mood swings. Yikes. Not wanting to only think my child was a three headed monster which lets face it, they can be when those mood swings strike, I wrote about toddler moments I want to remember. So that I could remember his sweet face when he gives snuggles, rather than the crazy toddler wildabeast who ripped curtains off of my front door while I was on the phone. True story!  We were also in full fledged birthday party prep around here, Thomas the Train Style, prepping for a certain guy to turn Two.

 

September- Mommy was back to work but birthday plans were still in full swing. We celebrated our boy turning two without the need for sedative meds (HOWWW do I have a TWO year old?!!), and had a blast. I shared what it looks like to be a Mom (sans the Mom jeans, of course), and three books that I actually thought were worth reading. I let you in on how we manage to not eat out five plus times a week by meal planning, and answered some of the best random questions out there.

 

 

 

October- The month of two of my favorite things, our third wedding anniversary and Halloween! I participated in my first #TBT with a little gem from high school. We hit up the pumpkin patch, got our 32 pound pumkin and even picked some of the most delish apples ever. Then we had to go see the Duck, because when a 40 foot rubber duck comes to town you cant NOT go see it. I had a few confessions after hearing an Usher song on the radio that made me laugh out loud.

 

November- the sugar high wore off and I got my Halloween recap up, as well as the pumpkin carving pictures. I shared how I make parmesan crusted chicken fingers, a favorite meal around here. I got the birthday party recap up for the big Thomas the Train Party, and shared some details on the DIY elements.

 

 

December- Well I sucked at blogging this month. I got the tree hunt post up, then showed the tree all decorated. I shared ideas on what a toddler would love to receive for Christmas, and the Christmas Recap.  I had every intention to post a favorite Christmas cookie recipe and some cool Christmas crafts that we did, but I just didn't get around to it!

 

Oh well, there's always next year, right?!

 

Hope your 2013 was amazing, and if you do a year in review post it in the comments so I can check it out!

 

Happy New Year, Lovelies!

 

 

 



Christmas 2013

Christmas this year was officially fun.  We saw Ho Ho (that's the big guy's name around here), we were excited, we opened presents and now I can not seem to find my house under the virtual toys r us we have going on around here. Seriously, as he opened presents I stuck most of them right into the closet for a cold bored day in February- and I still have no room.  Today is officially build a toy storage system day around these parts- hope the hubs is ready, because I can not go back to work with the house looking like this.

 

Christmas around here is usually a marathon, and not a sprint. We spend Christmas Eve with my MIL's family, then wake up Christmas morning at our house, then hit my Moms, then my Dads, then My Grandmas, followed by my FIL's family.  This year, we broke it up a bit to allow more time at each house and it was glorious.

 

Christmas Eve Day we went to see my Dad and my Grandma, and it was so much nicer being able to spend a few hours playing (rather than 1 hour tops!).

 

This picture makes me so happy, Grandma does NOT like her picture being taken so you usually get the hand.

Later on we headed over to see the MIL's family, and the Elves delivered our early present there. 

Yep, just toss those perfectly chosen personalized jammies to the side to get to the book. I see how it is, kid.

 



 

Then it was home to set out cookies and milk for Ho Ho.

Trying out the adorable Pumpkin Butter Kids Jams after our Christmas bath (complete with red water and baking soda "snow balls" for the water, because I am insane).



 

A reading of the Night Before Christmas.

I would like to point out that we took maybe 20 pictures while I was reading, most of them were of Grayson using Mommy as a jungle gym. Grayson climbing over my back, standing on my butt and falling over, running around like a crazy person, jumping back on Mommy was the reality.  

But when it was time to read a book with Pap? Laid perfectly still.

 

Once the bean was asleep, it was time to play Santa!

 



Ho Ho footprints :)

 



 

All ready and waiting for Grayson to wake up!

 

Taking his first look at the presents.

Coming down the stairs saying "Ho Ho!"

 



A little Mommy bedhead as we open stockings.

 



 

Realizing Ho Ho had eaten the cookies and milk and left footprints.

 

Now, let me at those toys!

 

 

Daddy Mooches.

Grandma Gong has a whole table devoted to choo choos. He was enamored.

 



 

Seriously, he barely left this chair all night. And Pap in the back there was more than happy to play conductor, making the trains go fast at every request. 

 

Merry Christmas, lovelies! Hope your day was as full of fun as ours! Now seriously, who's coming to help me figure out where to put all of these toys?!



That is one big tree!

This may be the biggest tree we have ever purchased.

 

An easy 10 feet tall with a circumference at the bottom of a whopping 22 feet, I give you the 2014 K Family Christmas Tree.  Or as it is affectionately called around here, Shamu 4.0.

 

 

We always get a big tree, but this guy is by far our biggest.

He also has about 1400 lights on him, which give off the prettiest glow in the foyer.

 

 

Not only is this our biggest tree, but it is also by far the most annoying. We had to re-string the lights three times (first there was not enough lights, then we bought more and one burned out so we had to replace it because of course it was the one in the middle) and the branches are incredibly soft and don't really hold onto ornaments all that well. But he sure does look nice!

 

 

Why yes, that is a drunk Irishman dancer nestled next to Dorothy's Ruby Slipper.

That's how we roll in this house :)

 

 

2010, 2011, 2012

They just keep getting bigger!

 

So tell me lovelies, how big is your tree? I need someone out there to let me know we're not the only Christmas Crazies!