Happy New Year!

We hope everyone's 2011 was fantastic, and you're all enjoying the first week in 2012. We rang in the New Year with our families at dinner, celebrated and watched the ball drop with friends, and held a nice lunch at our house New Year's Day. We promised a review of Pioneer Woman's pizza crust; the pictures didn't turn out so well, since the Kitchen-Aid was shaking during dough production. (Good thing Corey had a screwdriver and the manual)! Once the mixer was fixed, and not bucking like a bronco, the dough magically turned into a nice ball just like PW said. After being covered in a little EVOO, the dough was left to do its magic in the fridge overnight. The dough is supposed to make two thin crust pizzas; since we were using a cookie sheet and not a pizza stone like we had planned (not enough time to rinse, dry, and season), we used the whole dough ball for one, deliciously thick pizza. After some jarred sauce, shredded mozzarella, and turkey pepperoni, in to the oven the pizza went. OMG friends, this pizza was delish! Next time we make it, I'll be sure to snap a few pics; one dough ball that we used for one pizza was enough for lunch for 8. Now this would feed more for sure if you had two stones, and made thin crust pizzas.

So with a great start to the New Year, we are doing better with meal planning; I have all the meals planned until Saturday (Miss America night), and we'll be eating healthier, too. Tomorrow is Crock Pot Italian Chicken (found on Pinterest), with chicken, Italian dressing mix, light cream cheese, and a can of 98% fat free cream of chicken soup. Also on the menu for this week are homemade chicken nuggets from Paula Deen (pictures to come for sure) - and the crust on them is crushed Baked Lays. I know, right? Yum!

On TV right now is a show called The Big Waste. Food Network chefs have 48 hours to find ingredients for a dinner for 100 guests. The catch is that the food has to come from grocery stores, distributors, or farms that are going to throw out the food. Some farms have 40% waste because people are so concerned about what the food looks like on the outside. 50 lbs of chicken was going to be wasted at a poultry distributor because if one leg is broken, the whole chicken is deemed "no good" by a supermarket. We're sitting here in awe; and are definitely thinking of ways we can not waste our own food, and also thinking twice about what we pick out of the grocery store and public market. If you happen to catch a rerun of this special, I would definitely check it out.

Have a great week, we can't wait to share the chicken nugget recipe with you, and whatever else we've got going on this week!

C&C