Bowling For Pizza

You know what the best thing about this recipe is? (Besides the fact that it’s yet another pizza recipe) It’s that it’s so cleverly named that I almost didn’t get it! HA! (ok, maybe it’s not the best thing about it, but it made me smile!) Seriously though, I read the title and ingredient list and still just didn’t get it! Why are we bowling for pizza? What does this have to do with pizza? What does this have to do with bowling?  I think it took me about 5 minutes to “get” it! Pizza (ingredients) in a bowl……………

Get it?

THE RECIPE:

Bowling For Pizza

PER SERVING (entire bowl):284 calories, 7g fat, 1025mg sodium, 28.5g carbs, 9.25g fiber, 11g sugar, 30.5g protein

INGREDIENTS:

1/3 cup canned crushed tomatoes

1 stick light string cheese

1 cup sliced mushrooms

1 cup sliced green bell peppers (or a little red and yellow like I did)

1/2 cup sliced onion

1 Boca Original Meatless Burger, vegan, thawed and chopped

1/2 cup diced tomatoes (wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be canned diced or fresh diced, I went with grape tomatoes, diced)

1 tsp. reduce-fat parmesan-style grated topping

8 slices turkey pepperoni, chopped

1 tbls. sliced black olives (I totally could have used more than just 1 tbls…………….)

Optional: salt, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, crushed red pepper

DIRECTIONS:

If you like, season crushed tomatoes to taste with option ingredients. Set aside. Tear string cheese into shreds, roughly chop and set aside.

In a skillet sprayed with nonstick spray, cook mushrooms, bell pepper and onion over medium heat until softened, about 3 to 5 minutes. (I sliced my veggies pretty chunky so I cooked them for about 8-10 minutes to make sure they were done!)

The veggies! (Just downloaded a photoshop tool for my camera, doesn't this picture look amazing!)

Add chopped Boca patty, diced tomatoes and crushed tomatoes, and continue cooking until heated through, about 3 minutes.

It's a little red! Yum, tomatoes!

Transfer to a microwave-safe (or oven safe since I don’t have a microwave) bowl and immediately sprinkle with string cheese, grated topping, turkey pepperoni, and olives.

About to emerge into the oven! (or microwave, whatever!)

Microwave for about 30 seconds (or about 10 minutes in a 225 degree oven, I wish I would have preheated the oven to a higher temperature, this took forever with no microwave! ) Just long enough to heat and soften the cheese! Enjoy!

All stirred up, and ready to eat!

THE REVIEW:

My first bite review: Wow, it somehow tastes like a pizza! I’ve never put hamburger (or meatless hamburger) on a pizza before! This is amazing! (yeah, it was a long thought, I am capable of these things!)

Mike’s first bite review: I like it! (What a spazz!)

Taste: I didn’t miss the crust. I really felt like I was eating a pizza with a fork and in a bowl! It was a bit tomato-y but I love love love tomatoes! So this didn’t bother me in the slightest! Mike doesn’t love tomatoes like I do, so I was worried he wouldn’t love it, he said it was perfect! Not too many tomatoes, not too acidic, just like a pizza! Hells to the yes! (yeah, I just typed/said that! I’m sorry!)

Satisfaction: Its 5 weight watcher points! It had a lot of veggies, protein, cheese and tomatoes! I mistakenly served it with some steamed broccoli (because it’s just not dinner without something green!) and was STUFFED after eating all of this! In fact it’s been 3 hours since eating this, and I’m still full! This is an amazing thing! I’m always hungry! A+, gold star and 5 out of 5 rating for satisfaction!

Creativity: Genius! First, a hamburger on/in a pizza! Would have never thought of this! Loved it! Out of all the pizza recipes this cookbook has delivered so far, this is my favorite and the most creative! It didn’t miss a beat, and made me happy!

Texture: When it comes to pizza, the crust is my favorite part! Yes I like the toppings, but I could care less about them at the same time! And I’m not really a bread person either, so I don’t think its a “carb thing” I really just like pizza crust! (When Mike is eating pizza, he eats all the way to the crust and I eat it,  normally he would throw it away! ) I was worried! But this “pizza” has sold me on crustless pizza! The meaty-ness of the Boca burger and the thick tomato-y sauce all over the “toppings” was a perfect match for my teeth! Not too much crunch, not mushy (like I expected) and just all around great!

Would Mike make this himself: eh, probably not he said! Would he eat it again if I made it? Yea, for sure!

What’s your favorite part of a pizza?

Pizza-fied Chicken

Protein lovers rejoice, chicken replaces doughy carbohydrate loaded pizza dough/crust!

I love that 3 of these Hungry-Girl recipes now have revolved around pizza! Seriously, what more could a fat girl want than a pizza? Today’s recipe is a bit of stretch for being called a pizza, but it’s pizza-ish and completely de-lish. ( I apologize for the rhyming, I couldn’t help myself!)

THE RECIPE:

Pizza-fied Chicken

PER SERVING (entire recipe): 282 caloreis, 5.75g fat, 868 mg sodium, 10g carbs, 2g fiber, 4.5g sugar, 44g protein

INGREDIENTS:

!/4 cup canned crushed tomatoes

1 stick light string cheese

5 ounces boneless skinless lean chicken breast

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

1/4 tsp. onion powder

1/8 tsp. salt, or more to taste (I went with more, haha)

1/8 tsp. black pepper, or more to taste

1/4 cup diced green bell pepper (I say: No more green peppers! I used a little yellow, it was what I already had!)

1/4 cup sliced mushrooms (super thin is my suggestion)

2 tbls. diced onion

4 slices turkey pepperoni, chopped

1 tsp. reduced-fat parmesan-style grated topping (oops! I was so excited to eat this, I actually forgot to add the parmesan!)

Optional seasonings and toppings: crushed red pepper, oregano, basil

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat broiler.

If you like, season crushed tomatoes to taste with salt, black pepper, and optional seasonings. Set aside.  (I chose not to do this step, for one I really like the taste of these tomatoes and two, I didn’t have any of the optional seasonings besides the salt and pepper. ha) Tear string cheese into shreds, roughly chop and set aside.

Chopped up pizza toppings.

Place chicken in a large sealable plastic bag and, removing as much air as possible, seal the bag. Carefully pound chicken through the bag with a meat mallet or a heavy can, (I chose a big can of soup, it seemed like the heaviest can I had) until it is uniformly about 1/2-inch thick. (one word of advice: don’t pound too hard! You will pound your chicken piece in half and have to start over. Not that I know this from experience, ha!) Evenly sprinkle both sides of the chicken with the garlic powder, onion powder, salt and black pepper. Set aside.

The chicken in front has not been pounded yet. This picture is to help you to see the difference.

Bring an oven-safe skillet sprayed with nonstick spray to medium heat on the stove. Add bell pepper, mushrooms and onion and cook until softened, about 4 to 6 minutes. Remove veggies and set aside.

Remove skillet from heat, re-spray, and return to medium heat. Add chicken and cook for about 3 minutes per side, until cooked through. (My skillet is not oven safe, so I chose to just use a preheated foil lined baking sheet to assemble my “pizzas” on and then broil)

The chicken in front especially, kind of actually looks like a mini pizza crust.

Top chicken with crushed tomatoes, string cheese, veggies and turkey pepperoni.

How cute! It really looks like a pizza right now!

Place skillet under the broiler for 2 to 3 minutes, until cheese softens and pepperoni becomes crisp. (I wish I would have put the pepperoni on the top, unfortunately it was under my veggies and didn’t get too crispy!)

I can imagine this picture being much more appealing to the eye if I would have stuck with the recipe and used green peppers. Regardless, how stinkin' adorable is this?

Plate your pizza-fied chicken and sprinkle with grated topping. If  you like, sprinkle with optional toppings. Enjoy!

A close up!

THE REVIEW:

My first bite reaction: Pizza, no, new fun way to eat chicken, heck yes!

Mike’s first bite reaction: I like it! (Seriously, why do I even bother asking anymore?)

Difficulty: Probably one of the more labor intensive recipes so far. Lots of prep to be done before actually doing any cooking. Pounding out the chicken uses slightly more skill than usual. 5 being the hardest and 1 the easiest, I would have to give this a 3.5. Not quite super easy but not actually difficult. I’m really good at being in the middle. (I am a middle child after all, lol!)

Taste: The pepperoni got lost in there and I could have done without it. (could’ve been my own fault though for not putting it on top) Did it taste like pizza, not at all! Did I absolutely love it though? You bet! Mike said it reminded him of an ungreasy lower carb version of chicken parmesan. It sure beats doing the “same old same old” with chicken!

Texture: Chicken with some toppings. Nothing too much to report here.

Satisfaction: I served this with just a small serving of green beans, and I was full afterwards. I guess it did have almost a full serving of veggies sitting on top of it so, 5 stars for satisfaction. 🙂

Creativity: I get calling this pizza-fied, but honestly I was expecting more of a pizza taste and not just a pizza look! Thought this was so super-duper cute though! Tricked my brain that’s for sure! I would love to try this with pizza sauce or maybe some of those optional herbs I didn’t have!

What are your favorite pizza toppings? Think they’d be good on a chicken “crust”?

Smothered Pepperoni Pizza Breakfast Burrito

Pizza, for breakfast? Sounds like a “winner, winner chicken dinner” if you ask me! Pizza should never be limited to just dinner time, I say eat pizza for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. Guilt free of course!

THE RECIPE:

Smothered Pepperoni Pizza Breakfast Burrito

PER SERVING (entire burrito) 284 calories, 6.5g fat, 1078mg sodium, 31g carbs, 7.5g fiber, 4.5g sugars, 30g protein

5 weight watcher points, with almost all my favorite foods in one delicious place, yeah, I’m so ready to try this one!

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup fat-free liquid egg substitute

2 tbls. choppped green bell pepper (I use to eat green bell peppers all the time, I think I over did it and kind of got sick of them, I went with a little bit of a red bell pepper and a little bit of a yellow one)

1 tbls. chopped onion

1 burrito-size flour tortilla with about 110 calories (check these guys out if you’ve never had ’em, they’re kind of amazing)

2 tbls. diced tomatoes

Dash garlic powder, or more to taste

Dash black pepper

6 slices turkey pepperoni, halved (I’m honestly not 100% sure why they needed to be halved, but I did it anyways)

1 stick light string cheese

3 tbls. canned crushed tomatoes

1 tsp. reduced-fat Parmesan-style grated topping

Optional: Salt

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Spray a large microwave-safe mug with nonstick spray. Add egg substitute, bell pepper and onion, and microwave for 1 minute. (duh, no microwave means I have to cook these the old fashioned way, no big deal though eh?) Stir gently, and then microwave for another 45 to 60 seconds, until scramble is just set.

My chopped veggies and my favorite "chopping" tool.

eggs and veggies (minus the chopped tomatoes) cooking away. I thought it looked cooler when it was cooking than I realize it does now in this picture, but regardless I'll post it anyhow!

Warm tortilla for about 10 seconds in the microwave (or a dry skillet). Spread diced tomatoes down the center of the tortilla, and sprinkle with garlic powder and black pepper. Top with turkey pepperoni, followed by egg scramble.

Tear string cheese into shreds and place on top of the eggs.

Pizza burrito before it became an offical burrito (aka before I wrapped it all up)

Wrap tortilla up like a burrito, folding the sides in first, and then rolling it up from the bottom. (sometimes easier said then done, may the force be with you on this adventure)

Place burrito seam-side down on a baking sheet sprayed with nonstick spray, and bake in the oven for 8 to 10 minutes, until crispy. Meanwhile, place crushed tomatoes in a microwave-safe bowl and heat in the microwave. If you like, season to taste with garlic powder and salt.

Plate your burrito and top with crushed tomatoes and grated topping. Enjoy!

Look how big this is! That's one hearty breakfast!

I thought it was gonna be one of those burritos where you needed a fork and knife to eat, so I sliced it open so you could see the insides. Then I saw Mike pick it up and eat it with no problems. It stayed together quite nicely!

Look at how pretty that is! So, it was my day off and I was kind of bored, so I decided to make this for dinner instead of breakfast. Plenty of eggs and cheese for protein (served with a large side of steamed broccoli) it made for a pretty well rounded dinner!

THE REVIEW:

My first bite reaction: That is the bomb dot com! (I truely hate when people use that phrase, it’s sounds so moronic, but those were literally the words that popped into my head, I’m sorry, I will try to refrain from ever saying it again!)

Mike’s first bite reaction: Oh, that’s good!

Texture: Pretty much perfect! The soft fluffy eggs mingled with finely chopped veggies, cheese and pepperoni made it super easy to tear into without biting off too much tortilla or too much filling. (does that make sense?) Everything stayed put just like it was suppose to!

Taste: Maybe I was slightly biased by this (having eggs, tomatoes, cheese and tortillas (aka my faves)) but I thought this was awesome! Calling it a “smothered pizza” might be a bit deceiving, it really doesn’t resemble one, but delicious: you betcha! The main flavor was the egg (which is just fine by me) and the pepperoni did get a little lost, but I think that’s because of the way it was layered on the tortilla instead of kind of mixed all around (which is what I’ll be trying next time). I loved the combination of all these “pizza” type ingredients turning into a breakfast!

Satisfaction: 5 weight watcher points I will gladly surrender to this burrito over and over again! I’m not sure if it was because of the ginormous side of broccoli I served with it, but I was so out of control full after eating this! (Which to me, is a good thing! I tend to be a bit on the “I’m always hungry” type of person) My brain, taste buds and tummy were 100% satisfied!

Creativity: It was a good attempt calling it a “pizza breakfast burrito” but was it anything close to a pizza, uh………no! Do I care though, eh………….not really!

Would Mike make it himself? Maybe (it was kind of a hesitant maybe, so I’m assuming it was more of a no then a yes) Would he eat again though if I made it? Yeah, but only if I served it as breakfast instead of dinner.

This was so far, my favorite recipe! I’m pretty sure I’m gonna make it again soon and not just because I leftover pepperoni but because I thought it was that great!

How do you feel about eating a “pizza” for breakfast? Is it ever too early?

Pizza Luau

Yay! A pizza! I like pizza! Mike loves pizza! This recipe is gonna be awesome!

Honestly, it’s not that creative, it’s not that sophisticated or complicated, but for pizza fanatics like “us” it was pretty damn impressive!

THE RECIPE:

Pizza Luau

PER SERVING: (entire recipe) 230 calories, 4.5g fat, 808mg sodium, 34g carbs, 6.5g fiber, 9.5g sugar, 17.5g protein

4 WW points for a snack? OK!

INGREDIENTS:

2 tbls. low-fat marinara sauce (I used a pizza sauce I already had on hand, its stats were good, zero fat and 30 calories, works for me)

1 light English muffin, split into halves

1 stick light string cheese

2 slices of shaved deli ham (honey or regular) chopped

1 pineapple ring packed in juice, drained and chopped

1 tbls. chopped red onion (I used a sweet yellow one, that’s what I had, it worked)

DIRECTIONS:

So, before I even describe the directions, I’m pretty sure you can figure it out. But I’ll continue anyhow 🙂

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Spread 1 tablespoon sauce onto each muffin half.

 

This was the sauce I used

 

Tear string cheese into shreds and roughly chop. (I decided I wanted the “shreds” to be more uniform so I used the shred blade on my magic bullet and shredded the cheese that way)

 

The "pizzas" with cheese (so you can see the "shred") and sauce only.

 

Distribute cheese evenly over muffin halves. Top each half with ham, pineapple and onion.

 

The final product before emerging into the oven. Yum, eh?

 

Place muffin halves on a baking sheet sprayed lightly with nonstick spray. Bake in the oven for 8 to 10 minutes. YUM!!

I went with 8 minutes at first, then a few minutes more because they weren’t quite “crunchy” enough for me. So, about 10 minutes I would say.

 

Besides being on a plate instead of a cookie sheet, they really don't look that different do they? Ha!

 

My first bite reaction: Wow, this actually tastes like a pizza. (I wasn’t expecting that, seriously)

Mike’s first bite reaction: Mmmm….tasty! (Such profound words)

For creativity I give this a 1. I think you know why! Been there done that type of thing but it was actually something I enjoyed!

Texture: You know how english muffins always have a larger side and a smaller side? I liked the smaller side better, it had a bit more of a pizza crust feel then the larger half which was more like pizza topping on an english muffin. Overall, texture gets a 2.5. Would’ve been a 4 if both halves were like the smaller side. 🙂

Taste: Loved it! I got my pizza fix without wasting any unwanted calories! No more to say, yay pizza!

Satisfaction: It was a snack, not a meal. For 4 weight watchers points my taste buds were satisfied but my tummy was only half happy! I was still craving more food, but not still hungry!

Would I make it again, maybe. If I was craving pizza but not if I was super hungry!

Would Mike make it himself, he said maybe. On a football watching day if he wanted a pizza and didn’t want to go over board on the real deal. Would he eat it again (if I made it) most definitely!

So, whatcha think? Football, pizza and a diet soda?