Little Pizza Chef

Last night Andrew & Drew went to pick up Amy from the airport (Drew went because he LOVES to see airplanes) and Emma and I stayed home and made pizzas!
I actually let Emma make the pizzas. Not really sure what I was thinking there, but she absolutely loved it! She had a blast and then she was SO excited to eat it once it was done. She was also really excited for everyone else to eat her pizza. That reminds me, when they were just learning to talk, both of them would call pizza 'teetza'. Do you ever find yourself calling certain things by the name your toddlers have designated for those items? I'm sure child development professionals would strongly object to doing that, but it's hard not to! And some of the names they give things are so funny.... that it just sort of sticks. In our house, chicken nuggets are 'nuggies', donuts are 'donies', we all call my sister 'Chacha', bananas are 'nanas', M&Ms are 'yum-yums', Mac & Cheese is 'ronies cheese'... and the list goes on. They make up their own names for things.
So back to our Teetzas from last night.
I will admit, I did pretty much cheat because I bought the pre-made dough/crust. I usually try not to cheat when I cook, because things just taste better when they are really home made, but that wasn't my intention with this meal. I just thought it would be kinda fun to make the pizzas instead of ordering it.
So I gave Chef Emma the dough, dumped some sauce on it for her to spread around and then gave her the 2 different types of cheese that we were using. (I used one pizza cheese mix, and one 3 Italian cheese mixture)
And, she went to town! Each time we were ready to go to the next step in the process she would say "Mama, let's do it!!"

Spreading the Sauce around

Putting the Cheese on:

2 pizza's ready to pop in the oven:

 And... Here you have it folks! The finished product.

While I'm at it...I'll share 2 of Andrew's favorite chicken recipes that I make.

Parmesan Breaded Baked Chicken

I like to cook with the thin sliced chicken breasts... but it's obviously your preference. I just like that they cook quicker, more evenly, etc... And usually 2 thin sliced pieces are equivalent to 1 chicken breast.

I put breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese in a ziplock bag - with a little garlic salt and pepper and mix it up really good. Sometimes I use the regular breadcrumbs, but Panko breadcrumbs are good to use also.
Throw all of the chicken breasts into the ziplock bag with the parmesan cheese/bread crumbs mixture and toss is around for a bit to make sure all of the chicken is covered. You can leave it at that, OR, sometimes I will take them out, spray them with a little olive oil or butter spray and coat them with the parm/bread mixture again for a little bit of a thicker coating.

Before baking

Place the chicken in a baking dish or on a baking pan and bake until done - which will vary depending on how thick your chicken breast slices are, and your oven. Usually mine go about 30 minutes-ish on 375. But I always end up cutting one in the middle to make sure. I'm definitely not trying to kill my husband with raw chicken.

And that's it!! Easy, right?! And usually I make steamed veggies or something with it - in this case it was a veggie/pasta mix.

I've also mixed some of the ranch mix (packet of dry powder ranch mix) into the parmesan/bread crumb mix on occasion. That's pretty good and adds a little bit of a different flavor.

Lemon-Wine Chicken

I like to use thin sliced chicken breasts for this one too - but again, doesn't make that much of a difference aside from cooking time.
For this one, put about a cup of flour in a big ziplock bag and add garlic salt (or regular salt... I just tend to like to use garlic salt) and pepper. You can also add basil and or parsley.
Put the chicken breasts in the ziplock and shake it up a bit until the chicken is 'dusted' with the flour mixture.
In a skillet or a large stovetop pan (heated with some olive oil and a little bit of butter) - maybe 2 tablespoons of olive oil and a tblspn of butter? You can adjust depending on the amount of chicken you are cooking in it.
Cook the chicken until it is slightly browned on each side (At this point, you don't have to worry about it being completely cooked - but it should be almost there.)
Leaving the chicken in the pan, add white wine, lemon juice and a little bit of chicken broth. Start with about 1/3 of a cup of lemon juice and 1/3 cup of white wine - and 1/4 cup of chicken broth. You will simmer the chicken on a lower heat in this mixture, which will finish cooking the chicken and the sauce should thicken a little bit. If it starts to look dry or if you want more 'sauce', just add another splash of the lemon juice, wine or broth.

And I make a veggie to go with it.