Pizza Quesadillas

In my quest to constantly find food that will satisfy not only my ladybug, but also the rest of my family, I try to search for recipes that are really versatile - I am NOT big on cooking multiple meals for my family - no one gets catered to like that in our house!

But, if I can come up with or find a recipe that is versatile enough so that the end result is that everyone has a version of the same thing, everyone wins!

One of my favorite foods is pizza - I keep trying to make everyone else in the house love it as much as I do, but I fear I may have actually done the opposite. Every once in a while they want it, but most of the time they just tolerate it...

Quesadillas are a go to in my house - they are easy, don't really require much effort or prep, can be ready in no time, are inexpensive, and (my favorite word) versatile!

I've seen the idea around for awhile to make pizza quesadillas, and truth be told, I've made them before...but never made them sound as good as "pizza quesadillas". When I've made them, it's always been more like "well, I have some tortillas and cheese so we can have quesadillas...but we need protein...well, I have some pepperoni too, so....that'll do".

These are about as easy as anything - and like I said, each person can have whatever they want - like a personal pizza!

We made just pepperoni and cheese quesadillas, but you could add any pizza toppings your family likes. Bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, olives, sausage...the list goes on and on! It would even be fun to make a "fancy" version - like barbecue chicken, canadian bacon and pineapple, margherita, even breakfast pizza quesadillas!

What variation would your family like??

Ingredients for 4 servings:

8 flour tortillas

1 bag shredded cheese (we used colby jack)

about 20 pieces of pepperoni

any additional pizza toppings you like

1 cup pizza sauce

1. Spray a non-stick pan with cooking spray; turn on to medium heat.

2. I like to sprinkle the pan with a little salt and pepper and then lay the first tortilla down - you could use butter on the outside of the tortilla instead, but I like to cut just a little fat this way...

3. Sprinkle about a quarter cup of cheese onto the tortilla.

4. Place about 5 slices of pepperoni on top of the cheese (add any extra ingredients at this point too).

5. Sprinkle 1-2 Tbsp. of cheese on top (this allows the whole thing to melt and stick together).

6. Place second tortilla on top of cheese, spray with cooking spray, and sprinkle salt and pepper. 

7. After about 3 minutes, flip quesadilla over and allow bottom side to cook for 2-3 minutes, until lightly golden.

8. Remove quesadilla from pan and allow to cool.

9. While cooling, pour pizza sauce into a microwave safe bowl and heat about 30 seconds or so until warm. Or, place sauce in a small saucepan over low heat while quesadillas are cooking until heated through.

10. Slice quesadillas into quarters, dip in pizza sauce and enjoy! :)

NOTES - you could cut down the nutritional stats in this by using whole wheat or corn tortillas instead of flour, turkey pepperoni and reduced-fat cheese. Also, keep in mind that the more you bulk up the veggies you put in this, the less cheese you need - you can easily cut back and just add enough to make it all stick together.      *disclaimer - based on these notes, I'm adding the label "healthy" to this post. ;-)

Peanut Butter S'mores Mix

One of my kids new favorite treats is S'mores Mix - I found the idea HERE. Genius! SOOOO glad I found this recipe - and it literally could not be easier - in their lunch boxes, I just sprinkle some cereal in each container, then marshmallows, then chocolate and peanut butter chips! Voila!

In my family, everything tastes better with peanut butter, so while the original recipe is awesome as is, I threw some peanut butter chips in there too.

This is a new go-to for my kids. They've asked for it every week! And that's saying something folks!

1 batch of this really goes a LONG way - the list of ingredients is probably about $8 total, and it lasts for a good two weeks for my kids. VERY frugal!

What are your kids favorite lunch treats?

1 box cinnamon toast crunch cereal

1 bag mini marshmallows

1 bag chocolate chips

1 bag peanut butter chips

1. Toss all ingredients in a large bowl and gently mix with a large spoon.

2. There is no step 2 - THAT'S IT!!! :)

NOTES - I mixed all the ingredients together the first time I made this, but then I decided to just mix it up as I need it. I usually make a week's worth of lunch at one time, so I just make individual servings right in their lunch boxes for the week, and store the rest of the ingredients in the pantry.

oops-"your text here" doesn't belong...!

Game Day Snack #2 - Pan Seared Scallops & Caprese Salad

This past weekend, my husband was still in the induction phase of the South Beach diet, so I had to modify what I had originally chosen for his game day snack.

I found a recipe for pan-seared scallops with a butter sauce at userealbutter.com*, and made a pretty side caprese salad.

*you know any site called "use real butter" has GOT to be good...

These scallops were SO good! I purchased 4 large dry scallops (dry??? read the original post to learn what I did about dry scallops!) and had the rest of what I needed at home.

Since my husband had diet restrictions, white wine was not an option for the sauce, though I really wanted to try it (and will, next time).

When I got ready to make these on Sunday, I realized I don't own a regular skillet. How is that even possible?  I have 5, 926 non-stick skillets, and too many pots and pans in general, but not one plain ol' skillet. So...I decided to use a POT. Thought, it should work ok...so I happily started bustling around my kitchen, pulled out my pot, turned on the heat and got things started.

Then I realized I had heated up (very high heat, mind you) and oiled a NON-STICK pot. Sheesh. I could have used a non-stick pan after all!

Anyway, I decided to keep going. It took 10 minutes max to make these little treats, and they turned out fabulously! Husband gobbled them up in no time!

The caprese salad was a nice fresh bonus on the side - that couldn't have been easier either! I pulled this entire meal together in about 15 minutes.

Here's how they looked - you should give these recipes a try! If you, do let me know how they turn out!

Pan-Seared Scallops with Butter Sauce
4 large dry scallops
sea salt (just a pinch)
black pepper (just a pinch)
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. butter
1/2 cup liquid (white wine, chicken or veggie broth - I used chicken broth)
1 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley

1. Pour olive oil into pan (or pot!) and crank up the heat (pretty high, but not all the way up).
2. Pat the scallops dry with a paper towel and sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides.
3. Place scallops carefully in pan and let it do its own thing for 2-3 minutes (I let mine go a little longer because I wanted a tiny bit of crunch on the outside).
4. Gently turn scallops over in the pan and let it go for another 1-2 minutes.
5. Remove scallops from pan and place on a plate.
6. Add butter to pan and stir to melt. (let the butter/oil go for a minute if you want the sauce to be nice and browned).
7. Slowly add liquid and use a whisk to scrape up the bits from the bottom of the pan.
8. Let sauce simmer for a few minutes (it'll thicken just a bit).
9. Pour sauce over the top of the scallops and sprinkle with fresh chopped parsley. Enjoy!


Caprese Salad
1/4 cup cherry tomatoes
1/4 cup yellow tomatoes
1/4 cup fresh mozzarella mini balls (you could use any fresh mozzarella you want; you just need to be able to make it roughly the same size as the tomatoes when you chop it)
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. balsamic vinegar
2-3 fresh basil leaves
kosher salt/black pepper

1. Chop tomatoes in half (or quartered if you want smaller bites)
2. Chop mini mozzarella balls in half (or quartered if you want smaller bites)
3. Place tomatoes in a bowl (large enough to gently stir in a minute)
4. Drizzle olive oil and vinegar over the top of the tomatoes and mozzarella.
5. Stack basil leaves on top of each other and then roll into a small circular shape; chop into small pieces (this makes pretty strips for your salad; you could chop in any shape you like) and sprinkle over salad.
6. Sprinkle salt and pepper over the top. Enjoy!

Game Day Snack #1 - Antipasto Platter!

I am not a football fan. At all. Not even a little bit. BUT, my husband is a HUGE fan. So, one of the things I take pleasure in doing for him that allows me to share in something he loves, even if I don't love it too, is "game day snacks". For each game, he gets a special snack (or meal, depending on what time the game is). We've been married for over 9 years now, so I have a decent idea of what he likes, doesn't like, and really enjoy trying out new recipes for him - we are not an extravagant foodie family (who could be with a ladybug that won't eat much?!) so I get to take some liberties with these snacks and try out things that I wouldn't normally try out on a house where there are more children than adults. It also accomplishes two other things in my family:

1. It teaches Josh what kind of wife to look for - I want him to have a wife that will do these kinds of things for him. And not only do them, but enjoy doing them.

2. It teaches my girls what kind of wife to be. I want them to see me planning Mike's snacks, making them, giving them to him, having fun all along the way. I want them to delight in their husband, and in doing little things for him, like I do for their dad. 

In my head, I'm a WONDERFUL planner. On paper, not so much. This year, I decided to get really ahead of the game - I found the Dallas Cowboys (yup!) schedule online, put it into an excel spreadsheet, and picked something for every single game of the season based on what time the game is. 

We're only one game in so far, but I'm having fun already. I did get a wrinkle thrown into my very carefully thought out plan though and this one is not that exciting on the "adventurous cooking" scale  (ok, if I'm being honest, it doesn't even qualify because I didn't actually cook) - Mike decided to start the South Beach diet recently, which includes a 2-week induction phase at the beginning. For those of you that may not know, induction phase of South Beach = no carbs. So, I had to change up the plans, but still managed to throw together a great snack for him, and he was happy (and full). 

The very first game days snack of 2012 was... an Antipasto Platter!

These are so easy, and so fun - no cooking required, which was good because A) I had already planned something else and needed an alternative quickly; and B) I could cut it up and get it ready and then take the kids to bible study (so that it would be waiting for him when he got home later that night). 

I went to my local grocery store and headed to the deli - picked out the cheese and meat, then headed to the olive bar and picked a few that I knew he'd like. Then, I just put each selection into a small container, cut up the cheese/chorizo and voila! 

As it turned out, even a garlic freak like my husband couldn't each much straight garlic, so as an added bonus, I threw that into a tupperware and added it to another recipe that I'll be sharing soon.

Bon Apetit!