Chicken Pesto Pizza

This recipe came from my dear friend Kim. She's funny. She's kind. She's beautiful. She's in killer shape. She's obsessed with food almost as much as I am. She makes the BEST desserts and obviously has good taste in dinner food as well. I have great friends. 

Pizza is always good. However, this one isn't awful for you, but is jam packed with FLAVOR. Oh, I'll just tell you it's beautiful and colorful and smells like an italian heaven. 

You'll need a canned pizza crust, jarred pesto, 1/2 red onion, 1/2 red bell pepper, 2-3 roma tomatoes, grilled chicken breast, 2 cups mozzarella, and basil to top the pizza

Preheat your oven to 425F or whatever the package says. Spread the crust on your pizza stone and bake for 8 minutes to set the base.

While the crust is cooking, start chopping and sautéing your veggies. Kim grills them because she's a boss. I'm not as cool as she is, so I just used a regular pan.

Here's the red onion, red pepper, and red tomatoes. Wowza, I like red. It looks really pretty.

Veggies. They look good. They taste good. They are good for you.

Take the crust out of the oven.

Spread pesto on the top of the crust. We used about 1/2 cup. Kim uses lots more. It's fine! Use what you think is best.

Add your veggies and shredded chicken. Spread it evenly.

Top with all the cheese. Oh yeah. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I. Love. Cheese.

The cheese bakes down and doesn't look quite as ridiculous once it's cooked. Promise.

Add some sliced basil. It tastes good, but mostly it makes it look pretty. There's plenty of basil flavor in the pesto if you don't have any.

Bake for another 10 minutes or so until the crust is golden. (A little lighter than this will be good too. I was in a crunchy-pizza mood. Lies. I left the room and didn't hear the timer right away. Promise it was still delish!)

Stare at it from every angle because you're amazed at your creation.

Cut your pizza. Eat your pizza. Love your pizza. Accept that some of the pesto will leak out. That's the price we pay for love.

Pizza. It's what's for dinner.

Crescent Calzones

I love homemade food as much (if not more) than the next guy, but I have no self control when it comes to these bad boys.

I love crescent rolls. I love the buttery flavor. I love how flakey they are. I love that they only take a few minutes to put together. I love how they're shaped. I love that they feel so light. The only thing I don't love is the sound they make when you have to open the can. I will just admit now, I jump/squeal a bit every time I open them. (Is this just me? I'd like to think this is a widespread problem.)

I also love cheese. I once told the hubster "There's no such thing as too much cheese" and he will NEVER let me live it down. I wish I could say I don't believe that and that I'm a classy, self-controlled lady, but I'm not. I love cheese. And dessert.

So, imagine my delight when I came upon this genius idea! It's sheer perfection :)

This is all you need for  a de-lish lunch or quick dinner. Notice the Crescents are already opened. Being the teacher I am, I couldn't resist cutting the box top off that sucker A.S.A.P. If you know a teacher, a school, or a child somewhere - please cut off any box tops you see and give it to them. They raise tons of money for schools! There, done with my school plug.


Open the crescents (or have a loving friend do it for you) and separate them into individual triangles. 


I'm a doofus and forgot to take a picture. Create one in your mind. You can do it. Imagine the crescents...

Arrange five pepperoni on the large end of the crescent roll. I think staggering them like this is pretty.. but it also holds the cheese in place.

Put cheese piece on top. 

Roll baby roll. 

Once you're here, if you have extra on the end, pull it over the opening. If you don't, do not fear. No cheese will melt out - the string cheese just gets soft, not liquid-y melted.

Arrange and bake. Sit patiently. Wash the dishes. Do something to fill your 11 minutes of time. I promise, it goes by faster if your not just standing and staring.

Pull them out of the oven and stare in delight at the miracle pockets of joy that are in front of you. Pizza-Crescents-Cheese = Perfection.