Have you ever had a recipe bookmarked, waiting for an occasion to make it? Then, when you make it it is so easy to make and tastes so good you wonder why you were saving it? Well, don’t do that with these! I made these for my daughter’s birthday party, looking for something that everyone of all ages would love. I was even curious to see if my daughter would eat them since they contained no marinara sauce. Nope, the word pizza stuck with her and she refused to try it. Honestly, what kid doesn’t like pizza? So, anyways. These were so so so easy to whip up. I’ve made them since and know they will become a go to weekend snack and a must have once football season starts back up. They are also slightly addictive since it’s easier to grab a few at a time than say, another slice of pizza! No more buying those freezer appetizers, once you pull apart that warm, fluffy bread you’ll never be the same. My favorite part? Hearing them sizzle sweet nothings to you as you take the dish out of the oven! I’ve suggested serving them with marinara sauce since I have a recipe, but you could also serve them with a melted butter and garlic sauce, like Papa John’s and that would be really good as well!

Pull-Apart Pizza Bites

Ingredients

• 1/2 batch pizza dough *recipe below* or enough to make 1 pizza
• 4 oz. mozzarella cheese, cubed (about 24 pieces)
• sliced pepperoni

For Topping:

• Olive oil
• Italian seasoning or Pizza spices
• Grated Parmesan cheese

Serve with Marinara Sauce

Pre-heat oven to 400 F. Lightly grease a 9-inch pie plate.

Divide the dough into 24 equal sized pieces. Mine end up weighing just over 1 oz. each. Place one mozzarella cube and one to two pieces of pepperoni slices on each piece of dough.

Push the cheese and pepperoni down into the dough and pull the sides of the dough up around it. Pinch to seal and place the dough, seam side down in the pie plate. Repeat with the remaining dough and place the pieces of dough in a circular pattern around the pie plate.

Lightly brush olive oil over the top of the dough balls. Lightly sprinkle the Italian seasoning or pizza spices and Parmesan cheese over the top of the dough balls.

Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm.

Pizza Dough

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup warm water, 110 F.
• 1 envelope instant yeast
• 1 1/4 cups water, room temperature
• 2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 4 cups bread flour
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• olive oil or cooking spray for greasing the bowl

Measure the warm water in a 2-cup liquid measuring cup. Sprinkle in the yeast and allow it to stand for 5 minutes, until the yeast dissolves and becomes foamy. Add the room temperature water and olive oil and stir to combine.

Place the flour and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Stir the dry ingredients until combined. Slowly add the liquid ingredients and continue to mix at low speed until a cohesive mass forms. Stop the mixer and replace the paddle with the dough hook. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Form the dough into a bowl and put it in a large greased bowl. Cover with plastic and allow it to rise until it has doubled in size, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Press the dough to deflate it.

Yields enough for 2 pizzas.

Source: Annie’s Eats, Inspired by Chaos in the Kitchen, Baker’s Illustrated

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of The Home Depot. As always, all of the opinions expressed here are my own.

Now that the snow has melted and hopefully Mother Nature is going to start being kind to us, my mind turns to the garden. I have a couple of raised garden beds already along the side of my house, but I wanted to set up something on my deck. Last summer, I had a few pots with some herbs growing that way they were steps away from my kitchen. I like having some things handy while I am cooking, whether it be in the kitchen or on the grill. It makes cooking that much more simpler and when you have little ones you don’t want to be running out the garden for another bunch of cilantro! I wanted to do something a bit more attractive this year and buying some nice planters that I could plan around my decor was just the way to do it!

Edible container gardens are great to have because the maintenance is easy, you aren’t hunched over weeding, and you can have everything right outside your door. Whether it be herbs or a few ingredients to make a great salad, it’s something easy that everyone can do regardless of how much land you have.

Before we headed out to The Home Depot, I did some browsing online. Granted we can walk to aisles for some time and find what we need, I get mommy brain sometimes and going in with a plan is the best thing to do with a toddler in tow. While she loves going to The Home Depot, really she does, her time has a limit on it. I found a few tips on the Garden Club site that they offer and then took some of that advice and went to find some products online, just so I would have an idea of product names and types.

I decided that I wanted a few planters, but I wasn’t sure what size and style I wanted. Those decisions are best left to seeing the product in person. I wanted to do at least one planter with all herbs. While I have a big tomato garden I grow in my raised garden bed, I thought having some grape tomatoes handy out the back door would be something nice to snack on. Then, to mix things up and make things fun for my daughter I was considering some type of berry plant if I could find one that would be suitable for a container.

So, I wrote down my list for the primary things like planters, soil, weed block (I hadn’t thought of this until I saw it mentioned on The Home Depot site), and some veggies. I figured this would get us started. We loaded up the truck and hit the big orange store!

 It’s home improvement time, and The Home Depot has everything you need to #DigIn for Spring. No matter what projects you want to tackle, they have great values on all you need. They’re ready to help you with renovation ideas and expert advice, too.

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This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of The Home Depot.

I often find myself with an abundance of cilantro in my kitchen. I cook with it often, but for some reason I never find enough recipes to use it all before it goes bad. I found this recipe in the depths of my large stack of recipes to try and headed right for the kitchen one day for lunch. I haven’t eaten lunch that fast in a while. This was more delicious than I thought it would be! What is great is this butter can be used for other seafood, think shrimp, scallops, and of course all of the other mild white fishes. Plus, you could use it with pork, chicken, or even a lovely butter melted over a steak. Yeah, that will be happening soon here soon since I think my husband will love that combo!

So, use up some more cilantro, have lunch ready in less than 10 minutes, and it’s healthy. Woohoo! Now, hand me a cookie because I’m so happy!

Tilapia with Cilantro Butter

Ingredients

   Fish

• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground cumin
• 1/8 tsp ground red pepper
• 4 6oz. tilapia filets
• Cooking Spray
• 1 lemon, quartered

   Cilantro Butter

• 2 Tbsp butter, softened
• 2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh cilantro
• 1/2 tsp grated lemon rind
• 1/4 tsp paprika
• 1/8 tsp salt

In a small bowl, combine the salt, cumin, and red pepper. Sprinkle over both sides of the fish.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Coat both sides of the fish with cooking spray and place in the pan. Cook for 3 minutes on each side or until the fish flakes easily when tested with a fork. Place the fish on a serving platter and squeeze the lemon quarters over the fish.

Place butter and remaining ingredients in a small bowl, stir until well blended. Serve with fish.

Nutritional Information

Serving size is 1 filet and 2 teaspoons of butter

Calories 194, Fat 6.9g, Saturated Fat 3.1g, Protein 30.5g, Carbohydrate 1.2g, Fiber 0.2g, Cholesterol 88mg, Sodium 354mg

Source: Cooking Light January 2006

Oddly enough, I don’t cook with a crock pot. I have one, but it is too large and overcooks things in a hurry so I just stopped. Also, I love bringing out my Dutch ovens and seeing my beauties out on the range. The only problem with this is you can’t leave the house and it can burn gas in a hurry! So, I decided to give the crock pot another chance, this time borrowing a smaller crock pot. I’ve done a couple of things with it so far and I plan on trying out something every couple of weeks now. So, hopefully I’ll have a nice full crock pot tab that everyone can check out son enough. I know a lot of you want quick food and besides the prep, the crock pot is a great tool for those that work.

This was the second recipe I tried out in the crock pot and we enjoyed it a lot. It was a bit too sweet with the ketchup as the original recipe called for, so I played around with it and made some substitutions instead. Grab a couple of bags of minute rice and you have a nice meal in a matter of minutes. Well, prep minutes that is!

Crock Pot Honey Sesame Chicken

Ingredients

• 4 boneless chicken breasts
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup diced onion
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup honey
• 2 Tbsp tomato paste
• 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp vegetable or canola oil
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
• 4 tsp cornstarch
• 1/3 cup cold water
• 1/2 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds
• 1 green onion, sliced for optional garnish

Place chicken in crock pot and season with salt and pepper.

In a medium bowl, mix the onion, garlic, honey, tomato paste, vinegar, soy sauce, oil, and red pepper flakes thoroughly. Pour over the chicken and cover the crock pot. Cook on low for 3 to 4 hours or on high for 2 hours.

In a small bowl, mix the cold water and cornstarch to make a slurry, set aside.

Remove the chicken from the crock pot and place on a cutting board, leaving the sauce in the crock pot. Add the cornstarch mixture to the crock pot and stir to combine. Turn heat on to high and allow to cook until thickened, about 10 minutes.

While the sauce is thickening, shred the chicken into bite sized pieces.  Once the sauce has thickened, plate your chicken and pour sauce over it.

Serve with rice.

Adapted from The Comfort of Cooking