Garlic Ranch Chicken Pizza

We've had a few really good new recipes lately and I'm dying to get caught up over here to share them with you, but we've been in crazy-house-fixing-up mode as we try to get our house on the market.

I couldn't wait to share this one with you though, real quick, because it was really such a hit!
We have dinner weekly with our small group from church -eight adults and nine kids- and this is what I made up for last week... everyone absolutely raved about it and wanted the recipe. All the kids even wolfed it down... all except my kids of course.
Oh well, this will definitely be on a regular rotation at our house from here on out and my kiddos had just better learn to like it. I really don't know why they objected... it's one of the most kid friendly pizza's I've seen!
(recipe lifted almost directly from this blog)


Garlic Ranch Chicken Pizza
(for one pizza)

• 1 pizza crust
• 1 tsp. olive oil for crust
  
• 1/2 cup ranch dressing
  
• 1 tomato,sliced and diced
• 1/4 cup green onion, chopped
  
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/4 Parmesan cheese
  
• 8 ounces boneless skinless chicken breast halves, diced
• 1 Tbsp. Olive Oil
  
• garlic (to taste)
• bacon bits (optional)
  
• 1 teaspoon salt (to taste)
• 1 teaspoon pepper (to taste)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Prepare pizza crust according to directions. (I used pre-made Mama Mary's pizza crust from Walmart)

Saute chicken in skillet with olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper (for reference, I diced six big chicken breasts for 4 pizzas)(also when the chicken was finished I sauted some sliced mushrooms to go on one pizza).

Spread Ranch dressing over crust. (about 1/2 cup per pizza)

Sprinkle with cooked chicken, cheeses, tomatoes, green onions and bacon bits. (I made 4 pizzas; 2 with toppings listed above, one with just chicken, mushrooms and cheese and one with just chicken and cheese for the kids)


sorry, it'll be much more fun to take pictures of dinner again when it's not dark outside!

















more cheese added after this!!









Place in oven for 20 minutes or until cheese is melted. Let rest for several minutes, then cut and serve.

I didn't take any pictures of the pizzas in the end, but they turned out beautiful and delicious!
I was so pleased with this pizza. I'm not a huge ranch fan so I wasn't sure about it but I thought the kids would like it. Turned out I loved it! The flavors just melted together perfectly!
Super easy and so super yummy!!

No-Cook Pizza

I found this recipe after looking high and low for another no-cook main dish that wasn't all veggies and wraps hoping maybe my kids would eat it.


Cold Ham Sandwich Pizza

• 1/2 cup cream cheese with chives, softened
  
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 2 Tbsp. horseradish sauce
• 1 prepared Boboli® pizza crust
• 1-1/2 cups chopped cooked ham
• 1-1/2 cups chopped plum tomatoes
• 1/2 cup shredded lettuce
• 1/4 cup creamy Italian salad dressing

In small bowl, combine cream cheese, mayonnaise, and horseradish sauce and blend well. Spread over the pizza crust. Top with ham, plum tomatoes, and lettuce and drizzle with salad dressing. Cut into wedges and serve immediately. (6 servings)

I tweaked it a just a tad to fit what we had in our kitchen:
I used regular cream cheese and mixed it with the mayo and a little shot of dijon mustard since we're not a horseradish family.
I chopped up the deli ham I had, rather than cubed cooked ham, and made up my own pizza crust; I already had the oven on in the early morning making some quick breakfast bars, so I mixed up a Jiffy pizza crust (adding some garlic parmesan seasoning to the dough since I was going to be working with plain cream cheese) and popped it in the oven while it was on. Then I just left it out on the counter to cool and rest until we topped it cold at dinnertime.

Sawyer helped me spread the cheese mixture and sprinkle on the lettuce, tomatoes and ham. We threw some corn on the cob on the stove for a few minutes (so it wasn't a completely no-cook meal) and dinner was served.






























I had hoped Sawyer would be more likely to try it since he helped me make it; but notsomuch. He basically picked off a little ham off of his piece and called it good. Savannah did better, but didn't finish it. Ryan said he liked it but didn't seem blown away by it or anything. He did eat two pieces though...

I, on the other hand, loved this pizza! I was so nice and cool and refreshing. The cream cheese "sauce" was perfect and the fresh toppings were nice and light. I will definitely be coming back to this idea throughout the summer. I may pick up a Boboli or two to have on hand... or it would be really good on some focaccia bread or something similar.
Yum!!

Barbecue Chicken Pizza

I've been wanting to make this up for awhile now. My sister-in-law had a great recipe for a barbecue chicken pizza and even though I'm not a fan of barbecue, I don't love chicken, and I usually avoid "gourmet" pizzas and prefer plain old tomato sauce, cheese and pepperoni... she made us this pizza often and we really liked it.
I've searched online for her recipe, knowing basically what was in it, but I never found THE one. I'm hesitant to try any other one for fear that I just won't like it as much. And you know how when you have a craving for just the right thing?
Last time I checked, she couldn't find her recipe, but she did rattle off the ingredients to me. So I decided to finally give it a go. It turned out pretty decent and it's soooo easy, I had to share it here.

Here's what I did:
We grilled chicken breasts the other night, so I had Ryan grill up a couple of extra to save for the pizza. Two big breasts were plenty for us.
I shredded the chicken and stirred it into about 1 cup of barbecue sauce. You can obviously use whatever kind is your favorite; I used Sweet Baby Ray's Honey Barbecue Sauce.
Then I mixed up the pizza crust (I have a really good pizza crust recipe I should post here sometime, but last night I was lazy and just used two boxes of Jiffy), baked just the crust for a few minutes, and then spread a thin layer of more bbq sauce over the crust as you would the tomato sauce.Next over the bbq sauce, I sprinkled just a bit of mozzarella cheese. Then I spread out the bbq chicken, sprinkled with red onions, covered with more cheese and topped with some chopped parsley and basil.That's it.
My SIL's recipe also called for cilantro and peppercinis, but I didn't have those on hand so I winged it. You can really, as with any pizza, put on whatever you think sounds good.
I baked (according to the pizza crust directions) for 18 minutes at 425* and our yummy pizza was ready to slice up and eat.

Ryan and I really liked it (though it's not quite as yummy as I remember yours Holly!), Sawyer had a few bites (and I think actually liked it, if it weren't for wanting to get down and follow his big sister), and as usual Savannah turned up her nose at it.
It's so easy, and yummy, I'm sure I'll be serving this up more often!