Pinspiration-FOOD!

MOST of what I pin on Pinterest is NOT helping my diet.  Pinterest does not disappoint when it comes to food and creative (and quick) recipes.  I have found many recipes from Pinterest that I have wanted to try and have even tried a few since the beginning of 2012.  Lately I've been trying even more since we have been getting bored with our normal rotation of tacos, chicken, salads, and pizza.  If you can recall one of my goals for this year was to make something from Pinterest once a week.  I don't know if I've held up to that bargain but I have been using Pinterest as my go to for new recipes lately trying 3 new ones just this week!  Here are some reviews and adaptations-sometimes you just gotta add your own twist-of what I have made recently. 

My favorite so far is Bubble Up Pizza so this one is first on the list and just happens to be what I've made most recently (as in last night).  YUM!  I was surprised how much I liked it because I wasn't sure about it at first. Sometimes recipes like this are good in theory but never really work out or are just so-so.  It was GOOD!  Better than good it was AWESOME.  I had to control myself not to eat the whole thing.  It even got rave reviews from my husband and Lilly-my husband can be picky so I knew this was a winner when he said:  "This is GOOOOD". 

My adaptations (which I think make it WAY better):

Go with French Bread (the kind in a can). 

The original recipe called for 2 cans of Pillsbury GRANDS biscuits.  For some reason buttermilk biscuits or the flaky GRANDS just didn't seem like something I would want to have as a base for my pizza.  The recipe did suggest using other kinds of rolls and since I had all of the other ingredients on the list I figured I would check out what was at Wegmans and if I didn't see anything appetizing I would just scrap the idea and go for regular pizza instead.  I got the Pillsbury French Bread because French Bread Pizza = YUM!  Since the recipe called for the rolls to be cut into quarters I figured they really didn't need to be rolls.  I think this was a good decision and HIGHLY recommend using the french instead of the biscuits-although I cannot really say the biscuits would be bad because really I don't know-it just doesn't seem as good in my head if that makes any sense at all.   I popped the bread out of the can (anyone else LOVE doing this!)  and cut it in sections:

I then cut each section into quarters and tossed them in a medium size bowl. 

I continued following the directions and I added pepperoni as my topping.  Next time we are going to try onions and mushrooms-you really can toss in anything! 

I baked it about 27 minutes and was super excited when I pulled it out of the oven-it looked yummy.  I was hoping it tasted even better than it looked and believe me it did! 



A final adaptation was that we warmed up some extra sauce for dipping.  A lot of the sauce has been absorbed by the bread and dipping it was an added-yum!  I recommend using Don Pepino's sauce.  It comes in a can and it's amazing!!!  It's sweet and tangy-the perfect marinara!  Lilly even got in on the dipping action!

Please make this tonight-you won't be disappointed!  This is a recipe that is going into the regular rotation for us along with our good old regular crust pizza standby.  It will be a great change up from the norm every now and then.  Warning:  it seemed to make Lilly thirsty-like sip my sippy so hard that I get crazy eyes thirsty.  Ha!

The next recipe I made on Saturday after I found myself with a larger than usual supply of blueberries. It's also going in the Smith recipe book.  It was the perfect summer treat:  Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Bars.  This pin actually came from me-I pinned it from one of the food blogs I follow-Pip and Ebby.  This was good and I really wouldn't make any changes although the hubby thinks I should add less blueberry.  There were a lot in there but I loved it.  The crust was my favorite part-YUM! 

The final recipe was probably my husbands favorite and the title says it all:  "Man Pleasing Chicken".  Tommy doesn't really like the name so we are now going to call it Rosemary Dijon Chicken (it was the best we could come up with so far).  I made this on Sunday and served it with baked potatoes and corn.  It was delicious.  The recipe didn't lie when it said how well the rosemary went with the Dijon sauce.  It was actually my first time using rosemary.  We've only worked with cilantro and parsley and oregano.  I definitely want to find more ways to use it now.  The only adaptations we are thinking of are possibly using this with boneless breasts instead of thighs (we used bone- in thighs) and we even think it may be good to marinate chicken wings and cook them on the grill!  We're excited to try those variations. 

So there you have it-my Pinterest inspired food from this week.  So far most of the recipes I have tried from Pinterest have been great-only one has been so-so (the chocolate peanut butter tart I made in January).  I have a few more recipes I plan on making so stay tuned for more Pinterest inspired meals and reviews!