Gourmet White Pizza

Pizza is a menu regular at our house, and this week I wanted to change things up a little so we tried a white pizza and it was a big hit, even with the kiddos.

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder (you can do more...we're not garlic fans at our house though)
• 2 tablespoons sun-dried tomato pesto (optional-we didn't add this-I can't find it in our country town!)
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• Kraft Italian 5 cheese mix
• 1 cup Classico® Creamy Alfredo Sauce (gluten free baby!)
• 1 (12 inch) pre-baked pizza crust
• 1 medium tomato, sliced
• 1 (4 ounce) package feta cheese
• chopped fresh basil leaves
• chopped cooked chicken (optional-we didn't add this)

 Directions:

1. Make a pizza crust. I think we all have our favorites so I won't put up directions for that:)! Ours is gluten free (obviously) and so, so good (possibly dare I say better than the wheat version?).
2. While the crust is baking, mix butter, garlic powder, olive oil, pesto, basil, oregano and alfredo sauce together.
3. When the crust is done, pull out and spread the alfredo mixture evenly. Sprinkle the cheese over the top and add feta, tomatoes and fresh basil leaves to your liking.

Done! Enjoy your yummy pizza! (Even Jeff liked this which surprised me...he's not a white pizza fan.) The alfredo mixture is good for 2 pizzas. We served this pizza with fruit salad (bananas, grapes and strawberries). Delicious. Can I say that one more time? Delicious!

Asian-style Pasta Salad

I made this last night and it was a big hit. It's a perfect meal for summer time (where anything cold to eat is delicious:) and was very easy. I kind of made this up, so I don't have exact measurements, but you'll get the idea.

• 1/2 box of whole wheat rotini, cooked and cooled
• 1 can of mandarin oranges, drained
• 1 head of broccoli, chopped
• 1/3-1/2 cup chopped almonds, toasted
• 4 chicken tenderloins, cooked, chopped, cooled (I always fry ours up on the stove with s/p and a little bit of olive oil...so not healthy but very delicious)
• Light Asian with Sesame and Ginger Vinaigrette (Wishbone brand that Katherine introduced us to)

And just mix it all up! Oh man, it's so good and pretty healthy. Little bit of everything.

*Whenever I feed my kids broccoli, Tinker always says, "Oh! We are having trees for dinner?!"

easy beef stroganoff

1 lb. lean ground beef or ground turkey

2 Tbsp. dried onion

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 small can mushrooms, drained (optional)

1/2 cup light sour cream

1/2 cup milk

Brown ground beef in skillet with onion and drain. Return to skillet and add soup, mushrooms, and sour cream. Stir until smooth and warm. Add milk gradually, stirring constantly until incorporated. Heat until warm, but not so hot that it bubbles. Serve over warm rice.

We made this on Sunday and the kids ate it up. There were no left-overs at all, which is shocking for my children. I didn't even get seconds. It's so easy and definitely on the affordable side. I'm going to add it to my rotation.

Memory: I loved this growing up. I think I loved anything with rice and sauce. In fact, I still do. I remember making sure there was at least half a pot of rice left for Libbi to eat plain and arguing about how to properly pronounce "stroganoff". It's a short o sound, by the way.