BBQ Chicken Pizza Muffins

Omg, these were sooooooooooooooooooooo good! When thinking about dinners for the coming week, I thought....bbq chicken pita pizzas? But I'm kinda over "pita pizzas", we got burnt out a few months ago... So instead: bbq chicken pizza muffins.

They're "delicious". Or so I've been told! :-)

The recipe below makes 24 muffins, so you can half it if you need to. That's actually what I did. I have the other half of the dough wrapped in wax paper, in a plastic baggie in the fridge to use on Wed.....and half the chicken mix in a plastic container, lol.

Ingredients:
8 chicken breast tenders, or 4 chicken breasts
1 package pizza crust dough (you can find this near the biscuits in the grocery store)
2 cups diced red onion
3 tbsp light bbq sauce
3 tbsp honey bbq sauce (I like the combo of the two - a little sweet, with part low cal)
2 cups chopped frozen spinach
2 cups finely shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup flour

Instructions:

1) Boil the chicken, let it cool, and then shred it. (Can I just say that there are few things I hate more than shredding chicken? Haha, if you have kids, make them do it. It's not hard, just time consuming, ugh.)

2) Sautee onion and spinach in some water, add to the shredded chicken in a large bowl. Pour in the bbq sauce, and mix WELL. It won't look like there's a lot of bbq sauce, but it's enough to give it great flavor. If you want to add more, you can, but the cal count will vary from mine. :^)

3) Preheat oven to 425.

4) Lay out a large sheet of wax paper, sprinkle with the flour. Cut pizza dough into 24 equal pieces. (Cut in half, then in half again, and again, and again until you have 24.)

5) Spray two muffin tins with cooking spray.

6) Push a piece of the dough into a well of the muffin tin, making it flat along the bottom, and then pulling up along the sides a bit. Fill with about 1/5 cup of the chicken mix. Do this for all the muffin spaces.

Yes, I realize my muffin pan LOOKS dirty, but it's not. I just use it a lot, haha.

7) Top each muffin with a sprinkle of cheese, distributing the cheese evenly among all 24 muffins.

8) Bake for 15 mins. Remove from oven, and let cool for 3-4 mins so they'll hold their shape. Then enjoy!

Each pizza muffin:

Calories - 96
Protein - 8
Carbs - 10

Three of these with a side salad is perfect! :^)

Zucchini Bites

So I found this recipe on Pinterest and decided to give it a shot, but I made it way simpler and it still worked great. :^) Hubby said, "wow, these are really good". I love telling you guys what he says, because I'm always concerned he's gonna hate new recipes. He's pretty dang picky sometimes, lol.

Ingredients:
2 medium zucchini
2 eggs
1/2 c Italian breadcrumbs
1/8 c water
salt
pepper

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 425.

2) Slice zuchinni pretty thin (no more than 1/4" thick pieces)

3) Scramble two eggs with a splash of water, salt, and pepper in a small bowl.

4) Put breadcrumbs in another small bowl.

5) Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with cooking spray.

6) Dip each zucchini bite in the egg, then coat in the bread crumbs, and place on the baking sheet.

7) Bake for 15 minutes, flip the bites, and bake for another 15 minutes until golden brown.

8) Enjoy with dipping sauce of your choice. :^)

We split the whole batch in half, and the calorie count for half the batch is:

Calories - 126
Protein - 8
Carbs - 18

Please note: for the calorie count, I only counted 1 egg and 1/4 cup of breadcrumbs, because about half the eggs and breadcrumbs were left in the bowls after breading.

Stuffed Zucchini Boats

I'm really bad about getting on a "kick" of something and then wanting to have it every week, lol.  Mike has gotten used to having the same stuff over and over, bless his heart...

So about 3 weeks ago, I had zucchini at a japanese restaurant and remembered how much I liked it. But Mike doesn't like it plain, so I came up with these. They're a great compromise! :)

Ingredients:
4 medium zucchini
about 3 oz mushrooms, chopped (a third of a package)
1/2 cup diced onion
.5 tsp minced garlic
1/2 cup italian bread crumbs
2/6 package Kraft Parmesan Blend Tuscan Herb flavor
1/2 c shredded cheese (I used cheddar/jack)

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2) Cut the ends off the zucchini, cut in half lengthwise, and using a spoon or knife, remove the insides, while still leaving a pretty thick exterior.

3) Dice the insides that you removed, and sautee them with the mushrooms, onion, and garlic until the onions are transperant.

4) Add the bread crumbs to the pan and continue sautee'ing, another 2 mins, or until crumbs are golden brown.

5) Remove from heat, move mixture to a bowl, and then stir in the cheddar cheese so it can melt.

Click here for a larger view of the yummi-ness!

6) Let the mixture cool, and then "stuff" into the zucchini. Make sure they have pretty even amounts in all the 8 halved zucchini.

Click here for a larger view of the yummi-ness!

7) Sprinkle each with the parmesan cheese.

8) Bake for 30 mins.

Click here for a larger view of the yummi-ness!

Each serving is two halves:

Calories - 169
Protein - 11
Carbs - 22

Twice Baked Cauliflower

I made this bc I didn't want to have potatoes over and over and over. And no, it's not twice "baked", but it's twice "cooked", and that didn't have the same ring, lol.

My hubby took one bite and said it was awesome.

Yeah.

Awesome. :-)

Ingredients:
one large head of cauliflower, broken down into pieces
1/2 cup light sour cream
1/2 cup light cream cheese (neufchatel cheese)
7 slices of bacon
1 cup shredded cheese (I used cheddar/jack)
1/2 cup sliced green onion
salt
pepper
Mrs. Dash (whatever you like - I used garlic and herb)

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2) Take cream cheese out of refrigerator so it can come to room temp.

3) Boil cauliflower until it's soft, then drain, and mash it in a big bowl.

4) Add to the bowl: cream cheese, sour cream, most of the bacon, most of the green onion, salt, pepper, and Mrs. Dash. Add the seasonings to your taste.

5) Mix all together until WELL incorporated. (it will look like cottage cheese, haha)

Click here for a larger view of the yummi-ness!

6) Top with the cheese, the rest of the bacon, and the rest of the green onion.

7) Bake for 30 mins, until cheese is bubbly.

Click here for a larger view of the yummi-ness!

This recipe made 5 cups, and for each cup serving:
Calories - 228
Protein - 13
Carbs - 13

A one-cup serving of the roasted potatoes that I make has 38 g of carbs. That's the huge appeal of this recipe! Plus, it's totally yummy...