My love affair with pizza will never end.  Probably because everyone loves pizza, and everyone is excited when the answer to “what’s for dinner?” involves pizza-anything.  Pizza bread is a super easy snack or lunch, or even dinner alongside a big salad.

There really is no recipe for this so I will just tell you how to make it.  Roll bread or pizza dough into a large rectangle. Spread a thin layer of pizza sauce over it, cover with pepperoni (or whatever pizza topping you like-sausage, olives, etc), mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese, and a sprinkle of Italian seasoning.  Roll the dough up and pinch the seams closed.  Bake the loaf, seam side down, for about 30 minutes on 400°F.

Done. You are now the life of the party.

A few tips:  You can buy bread and pizza dough at the store either refrigerated or frozen.  If you buy frozen dough, let it thaw before trying to roll it out.  If you make your own dough, use about a 1 pound loaf.  Also, brush the top of the loaf all over with a beaten egg just before baking to make it glossy and brown.

We don’t eat a lot of casseroles, yet they always seem like comfort food to me.  And when the budget is tight, comfort food is on the menu.  Not only because it makes us feel better but because homey, comfort food consists of the odds and ends our moms always kept in the pantry.  We could all save big on our grocery bills if we just looked to the existing food in our pantries.  I needed to use up some frozen chicken and noodles and I had bookmarked this recipe one from Lisa’s blog.  It was exactly what I wanted, and the only thing I had to buy was the mushrooms!

This dish is a great contrast between creamy chicken and noodles and crunchy, cheesy topping.  It is a great meal to make ahead: you can prepare it through step 10 and then refrigerate until ready to cook.  When you are ready to eat, just sprinkle with the topping and then bake until hot and browned.  It definitely stands up to the true test for casseroles-the leftovers are just as great, and there are plenty of leftovers!

I used my crockpot to cook the chicken and make the stock simultaneously but you can certainly use leftover or rotisserie chicken and canned stock.

Chicken Noodle Casserole

• 8 oz egg noodles
• 6 tbsp butter
• 8 oz mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 1 small onion, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 cup flour
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 16 oz sour cream
• 4 cups cooked chicken meat, cubed (approximate yield from a 5lb whole chicken)
• 1 cup frozen peas
• chopped parsley
• salt and pepper
• 4 tbsp butter, melted
• 2 cups bread crumbs (about 4 slices sandwich bread)
• 1 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
• 1 tbsp parsley, minced

1. Cook egg noodles in boiling water, about 5 minutes or until still very firm. Drain in a colander.
2. In a deep sauce pan or dutch oven, melt 2 tbsp of butter over medium high.
3. Add mushrooms and saute until liquid evaporates and mushrooms are lightly browned.
4. Add onions and cook until soft.
5. Add garlic and the rest of the butter.  Sprinkle with flour and cook, stirring, until flour is golden brown, about two minutes.
6. Whisk in chicken broth, bring liquid to a simmer and cook, whisking, until thick.
7. Stir in sour cream.  Simmer, stirring, until sauce is smooth.
8. Remove from heat, stir in noodles, chicken, peas, and chopped parsley.
9. Taste and season with salt and pepper.
10. Pour chicken and noodles into a large casserole dish, such as a 13×9 inch dish.
11. Preheat oven to 350°F.
12. In a small bowl, combine butter, bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, and parsley.
13. Sprinkle over the top of the casserole until well covered.
14. Bake 30-40 minutes or until browned and bubbling.

We used to buy a lot of Jiffy Blueberry Muffin Mix.  It was mrChaos’s favorite and he and the kids would often make them on the weekends when I was at work.  At some point during my box-mixed rebellion I stopped buying the familiar blue and white box, rendering them muffin-less.  Perhaps that’s why we demolished a dozen muffins in 24 hours.

Soft, moist, full of fresh blueberries, and with a crunchy brown sugar streusel on top, these muffins were exactly what I was looking for.  I was a little worried, after the extreme loyalty to the Jiffy box, that the kids wouldn’t eat muffins made with fresh fruit, but they gobbled these up in no time.

Lisa at The Cutting Edge of Ordinary calls these “To Die for Blueberry Muffins” and she’s right, these are some of the best blueberry muffins I have ever had.  If you haven’t visited her blog, you should.  It is full of great recipes, in fact I made her Chicken Noodle Casserole the same day!

Blueberry Muffins with Brown Sugar Streusel

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/3 cup oil
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• approximately 1/2 cup milk (you need enough to make 1 cup liquid ingredients)
• 1 generous cup blueberries, fresh or frozen
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cup butter, cold, cut into small pieces

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.  Grease or line a muffin tin.
2. In a bowl, combine 1 1/2 cup flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt, and baking powder.  Stir together until combined.
3. In a glass measuring cup, measure 1/3 cup oil.  Then add the egg and vanilla and enough milk to fill the cup to the 1 cup mark. Stir until well combined.
4. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and gently fold them together until combined, its ok for the batter to be lumpy.
5. When it looks like you only need to stir a few more times, add the blueberries and gently fold them in until evenly distributed.
6. Scoop batter evenly into muffin cups, about to the top of each.
7. In a small bowl combine brown sugar, 1/3 cup flour, and cinnamon. Stir with a fork.
8. Use two forks or your fingers to work in butter until mixture has pea sized chunks.
9. Generously top each muffin with mixture.
10. Bake muffins approximately 20 minutes or until tester comes out clean from the center.

Feel free to use frozen blueberries when fresh blueberries are too expensive.  Just be sure not to let them thaw before baking or they will turn your muffins blue (but they will still be delicious).

Chocolate is great.  I mean, really great.  But it’s the lip puckering sweetness of sour citrus desserts that really gets me going.  Lemon meringue pie? Yes, please.  Lemon cream pie?  Absolutely.  Lemon cake? Get in my mouth.  So is it any wonder that Key Lime Pie would be a dessert of choice?

My mom made me this pie and it couldn’t be an easier dessert.  You can follow this recipe to make a graham cracker crust or you can purchase one.  If squeezing limes isn’t your thing you can buy bottled key lime juice, but if you really love citrusy desserts, like I do, invest in one of these hand held juicers.  It makes quick work of squeezing a bag of limes.

This pie is sweet and sour and creamy and cool and just perfect for summer.

Key Lime Pie

• 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 4 tbsp butter, melted
• 2 (14-ounce) cans sweetened condensed milk
• 1 cup key lime juice (about 2 lbs)
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sour cream
• 3-4 tbsp powdered sugar
• 1 tbsp lime zest

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F.
2. Mix graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and butter in a medium bowl.
3. Press the mixture firmly into a 9-inch pie pan, and bake until brown, about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature before filling.
4. Lower the oven temperature to 325°F.
5. In a separate bowl, combine the condensed milk, lime juice, and eggs. Whisk until well blended and pour the filling into the cooled pie shell.
6. Bake 15 minutes, then chill at least 2 hours.
7. Once chilled, combine the sour cream and powdered sugar and spread over the top of the pie using a spatula.
8. Sprinkle lime zest over the top of the pie and serve.

I would make this pie the day before you want to serve it to give it plenty of time to chill.  Just cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready.