A return for a reluctant domestic

Lydia here.

I know I have been absent for some time. But Sarah has been baking up a storm.

I have lots of excuses for not posting. I am pregnant and the smell of cooking meat made me run for the garbage can. My long work hours left little time for cooking. But really I just didn't feel like it. But now I am forcing myself back in to the kitchen.

A few nights ago I made this one skillet chicken parmesan. Single skillet meals are, by far, the greatest.

What you will need:
2 chicken breasts (flattened by a skillet)
One jar of really good pasta sauce. - I recommend Bertolli.
A small onion
Flour
One egg
Olive oil if you have a specialty store with Kalamata Olive oil that is even better.
Parmesan cheese
Angel hair pasta

In a skillet warm up your olive oil and chop that onion. Toss the onion in the skillet to brown.
Give the chicken an egg bath and run it through the flour then place it in the skillet with the cooked onion and oil. Brown on both sides until cooked all the way through. Then pour your sauce over the chicken and sprinkle on the cheese and throw in some angel hair pasta and then let simmer for about 10 minutes.

Enjoy! Next time taco skillet

Whole wheat roasted pepper and cream cheese pizza

Ok, so I am now counting anything/everything that comes out of my oven as baking. No, it doesn't have a tub of butter or a bucket of sugar, but homemade pizza must technically be baked - let's just say I use the term "baking" loosely. This was my second attempt at mile high pizza dough, and this recipe was much lighter and airier than the last. It's a keeper for sure. This pizza was divine. Let's face it, anytime you put cream cheese on a pizza, it is incredible. Thank you Big Pie in the Sky and Lydia for introducing me to this experience I was missing out on. Just trust me on this one, go to your kitchen, get out these ingredients and make this pizza.

15-minute fajitas. Yeah, you heard me

I forced myself back in to the kitchen after a three-week hiatus. And turns out my stove and I had missed each other.

I think I have made my distain for fast food dinners clear. And it isn't that I am a snob, although I am, it is just so impersonal and it gets expensive. I am a broke newspaper journalist and my husband makes maps for a living, let's face it, these are dying careers and we can't be throwing out money though a drive through window.

So, two chicken breasts, two small onions and two bell peppers and you have 15-minute fajitas and they are relatively inexpensive.

Heat olive oil in pan over a medium heat. Chop two small onions and two medium belled peppers. Chop the thawed chicken to bite sized. I have been growing some oregano on my porch so I chopped some up to flavor the oil. But you can use any of your favorite dried spices.

Put the onions in the oil first so that they are not overly crunchy. Then put the pepper and chicken in to the pan and turn up the heat. If you have some cajun seasoning sprinkle it over the chicken. If not, no biggie.

As a bonus I made a simple salsa. It was just one can of diced tomatoes with lime and chilies. I diced one small onion and threw in a little garlic salt.

Set out some tortillas or for a high fiber option Flat-Out wraps, sour cream, avacado, salsa and cheese and voila.

Gimme 4! Ingredients that is.

I don't bake. No, no, no. So we will leave all the baking up to Miz Sarah. No, I cook. Unless you want a burnt cookie of a cake that has crumbled apart, then I am happy to whip you up a disaster.

This weekend a friend and I threw a wedding shower for our dear friend Krystin. I wracked my brain about what to bring. Since I don't handle sweets I needed to supply our hungry party goers with some savory fares. So I made, among other things, a four-ingredient pizza.

This is simple and cheating and maybe I should breakout something more complicated for my first recipe here. But I won't.

So, this is what you will need friends:
1 canned pizza crust
1 jar premade pesto
about 2 cups julienned sun dried tomatoes
2 cups mozzarella, shredded or fresh

Preheat that oven to 375

Whomp that biscuit can open and spread it out in a Pam covered baking pan, place in the oven for about 10 minutes. After your crust is all set and ready cover it in a jar of pesto sauce, sprinkle with cheese and julienned tomatoes. Then stick it back in that hot oven for about 15 minutes.
So there you go.