Our Best Pizza Ever-Chicken and Artichoke Hearts with Pesto Sauce and Fresh Mozzarella

We have made a lot of pizza at home over the years and with the current pandemic we have been make it about every other week lately.  We do a lot of pepperoni by itself or with a variety of toppings. But we do tend to make two pizzas at a time and we also go for some variety.  We had some chicken in the freezer that I pulled out for the meat on the second pizza.  For a crust, I made our extremely reliable and easy recipe from Tyler Florence.

For a sauce on the pizza we used the Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto.  

Here is the crust with the pesto on it:

I add some Artichoke Hearts from Costco.

After adding the chicken the pizza is starting to look pretty good!

Finally, I add the Belgioioso Fresh Mozzarella and it goes in the oven with its companion pepperoni based pizza.

Bake it until it is golden brown and delicious and you end up with this magnificent pizza.

The pesto sauce gives a very different cheesy, herbal flavor versus the more typical marinara sauce.  Chicken as a meat is a good match for the other major topping of the artichoke hearts.  Finally, the fresh mozzarella completes the profile of brighter, less heavy flavors.

As I said, we tend to make a lot of pizza.  We always have enjoyed what we have made but this one really stands out as the best pizza we have ever made.  And with all the quality ingredients we get from Costco at a great price it is really easy and affordable to make.

I absolutely recommend getting some pesto, cheese and artichoke hearts from Costco and making your own killer pizza like this.

I am really confident you will love it.

Enjoy!

June 2 Is National Rotisserie Chicken Day And Here Are Some Of My Favorite Posts

Rotisserie Chicken is one of the best food inventions ever and it is fitting that there is a day to celebrate this glorious food!  I thought this was a good time to go over some of our best posts about the fine birds we get at Costco.

One of our favorite things to do with Rotisserie Chicken is to remove the the meat and put it in recipe sized containers and make stock from the carcasses.

Two Birds in the Hand is Worth Five Packages of Chicken and Four Quarts of Stock in the Freezer.

Using the chicken and stock we have in the freezer I made some wonderful Chicken Soup with a couple of twists to it.

Chicken Quinoa Soup with Vegetables.


It is getting warmer and summer salads make a great meal.  They can also be lighting fast.  Here is one that came together at warp speed.

Caprese Con Pollo Salad.

Here is another salad idea but this one has beans in it for a totally different but tasty character.

Chicken Salad With Cannellini Beans, Sun Dried Tomatoes, Green Pepper and Sweet Onion.

Sometimes I like to take a recipe from someone else, make a a bunch changes and then have some with similar flavors but essentially a brand new dish.

Chicken with Artichoke Hearts in a Piccata Style Sauce Over Rice.

I can say with complete confidence I will have more posts using this versatile, flavorful and affordable food.

Be well and good eating to you all.

Chicken Quinoa Soup With Onions, Carrots And Celery

The New Year started out a bit cold so I thought I would warm us up with some chicken soup. I pulled some chicken and a quart of homemade chicken stock out of the freezer. While the stock was thawing, I cooked up some Christopher Ranch Chopped garlic and some onion in EVOO. After that was cooked up a bit, I added chopped carrots and then onions.

Once all the veggies were properly cooked, I added the stock, quinoa and chopped chicken.  Seasoning the soup was pretty easy, I just added a nice amount of freshly ground black pepper (from Costco) and some Herbs de Provence.  A few minutes of simmering and I was done.

Adding the quinoa instead of noodles made this more nutritious and higher in fiber than adding noodles. (It also made it gluten free).  But this was still good old-fashioned comfort food that fit in perfectly for a cold winter's night in Michigan.

Delicious, easy, quick and nutritious, it was a great Sunday night supper and it will be wonderful leftovers this week for lunch.

Breakfast, Lunch And Dinner With La Brea Bakery Torta Sandwich Rolls-On Sale this Month

We have enjoyed the La Brea Torta Rolls before and with them on sale this month, we had to buy a package. They are versatile and we had no problem going through the whole package. We had breakfast, lunch and dinner using them and all of the meals were  tasty, easy and affordable.

For breakfast, I scrambled some eggs from Costco, put the eggs on one half of the roll and topped the eggs with Jarlsberg cheese. After a few moments in the toaster oven, I topped it with the second half of the torta roll. The cost of two rolls was $1 and I used four eggs.  Even with the price of the cheese, the total cost for both sandwiches was less than $2 and it took less time then running out to a fast food restaurant. Plus, the flavor was simply excellent.

It has been a while since I have had sloppy joes, so I thought that would be a fun idea. We had ground beef in the freezer from Costco ready to go, so I was part of the way through the dish already. I sauteed some onions with some Christopher Ranch garlic and then I added some chopped tomatoes and a small can of tomato sauce. My wife seasoned it with some dry horseradish and some other spices and we were good to go.

These were pretty darn good sloppy joes.  Using fresh tomatoes certainly made this a fresher, healthier and tastier dish than anything you will get out of a can.  Also, my wife's ideas on seasoning it worked well too.  Plus, we had some leftovers for dinner. 

Speaking of fresh tomatoes, we love them with the Belgioiso Fresh Mozzarella.  So why not make a sandwich with them?  First, we started with a torta roll and put some Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto and some fresh mozzeralla on it.

Then we added some freshly cut meat from a rotisserie chicken.

Next came the tomato.

Then we assembled it and we were ready to go.

Again, another home run of a sandwich that came together in moments and was absolutely delicious. Plus, it was pretty also.

We weren't done with the idea for these rolls though. My wife made a chicken salad sandwich using many of the same ingredients as above, plus some onion.

As you can see, we got some great use out of these torta rolls and they made making  a total of five different meals ( since we got two out of the sloppy joes) easy, affordable and delicious.

Rotisserie Chicken Salad With Raspberry Chipotle Sauce-Served Two Ways

We are big fans of having rotisserie chicken in chunks in the freezer ready to go but we also appreciate fresh vegetables.  I suggested we do some sort of chicken salad with Fischer & Wieser Original Roasted Raspberry Chipotle Sauce  and my wife was instantly thrilled with the idea.

To make a total chicken salad out of it she added some beans and herbs to make it more rounded and varied.  She then served them on top of those wonderful miniature peppers you get at Costco.

Aside from being a tasty combination with a variety of textures, it was also a very pretty dish.

After eating this with total relish I suggested we do something similar but instead stuff some tomatoes.  She also thought that was a great idea and here is the finished dish.

Aside from being delicious and pretty, this was also very portable and made a fabulous lunch for the next day. In fact, my wife took some of these over to my mother and she liked them too.

As I said, having the cooked chicken ready to go is a winning strategy, but combining it with fresh vegetables during the summer is an absolute home run.  We will continue to enjoy fresh veggies for a while and I am sure some more chicken from the freezer will make its way into our meals to compliment the summer bounty of fresh produce.