Chicken, broccoli, and whole wheat penne pasta in garlic alfredo sauce

Whats for dinner, thats right its chicken again. I got another package this time it was tender strips. I started out by grilling it on my george foreman, I seasoned it with garlic and onion powder. At the same time I boiled my noodles. I got my pan out and preheated the oven, I believe pan is a 13 x 9". I emptied two jars of the garlic sauce I got in the pan, poured a little milk in the jar closed the lid up and shook it a bit and then poured it in the next jar and did the same thing. Here is the jar of stuff I used.

I then poured the milk mixture into the pan with the rest and put a few teaspoons of minced garlic in it too and stirred it around. By now my chicken and pasta was done. I drain the pasta and put it in the pan and stirred it in the sauce, I cut the chicken up into small peices and added it too. Then I added a 16 ounce bag of frozen broccoli florets and stirred it in. I topped it off with shredded mozerella cheese and baked it at 350 for about 25 to 30 minutes. Here is before the oven

Here is after.

I had leftover chicken too, I just froze it for later use. This makes a lot, I served four people and still a little less than half left over for tomorrow. If you have ever had pizza huts pasta dishes its kinda like that. I served mine with garlic bread. What have you made lately?

Whole Wheat Bread

After looking around for a while to find the best wheat bread recipe, I decided to use the one in the book, Artisan bread in five minutes a day. Mostly I decided this because I found the right flour it says to use. I found it at walmart, I used Hodgson mills white wheat flour, its not a graham flour but made out of hard white wheat.

Here is the recipe:
Whole Wheat Bread
1 1/2 cups luke warm water
1 1/2 cups luke warm milk (I used canned milk)
1 1/2 tbsp yeast (2 packets)
1 tbsp plus 1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup honey
5 tbsp neutral tasting oil (I used olive oil)
6 2/3 cups whole wheat flour, not graham flour
In a large bowl or lidded container, mix the yeast, salt, honey, oil, milk and water. Stir it a bit, it will look like this.


 Add flour a little at a time until incorporated well. Cover with plastic wrap and a towel and let rise at room temperature until the dough rises and collapes or flattens on top.

 This takes about 2-3 hours. You can use it right away or store it covered in fridge for 5 days. When your ready to bake, grease your pan and using wet hands scoop out a cantaloupe size 1 1/2 pound portion of dough. Keep your hands wet and quickly shape in into a ball and elongate into an oval. Put it in the pan, it should fill it slightly more than half full. Let it rest for 1 hour and 40 minutes, flour the top and slash it with a serated knife. Preheat oven to 350 and put a pan on the bottom rack. When preheated put loaf in oven and 1 cup of hot water in the pan, quickly closing the door. Bake for 50 or 60 minutes until deeply browned and firm, allow to cool completely before slicing. Sorry I didnt get a picture of the finished product, we tore into it too fast, lol.

Homemade pizza

My family loves pizza, I dont know many kids that dont. Instead of spending all that money on delivery pizza and wasting my time waiting on it, we make this. I usually have the boys put on the tomato sauce and spices and toppings. We have had some occasions where there are blobs of seasonings that kinda make your eyes water, but we make great memories when we make this pizza. It tastes awesome, and again the recipe is off the back of a package. I always check the back for recipes now. This is off Hodgson mill whole wheat flour. I make this two times in seperate bowls because we love pizza. It makes a cookie sheet sized pizza each time. You can also divide it up to make smaller pizzas.

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough
1 pkg dry active yeast
1 cup warm water
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Dissolve yeast in water and let sit for about 5 min. Mix all other ingredients in a large bowl, then stir in yeast water mix. Stir well, it gets a little dry and you have to knead in the last bit of flour. Let the dough rest for 15 min in a greased bowl be sure and flip it so its coated. Spray your pan and press dough in it. If you get tears in it its easy to fix them just press the dough back together.
Now I finish the dough by poking lots of little holes in it with a fork so it doesnt get bubbles and push your toppings out of the pan while its cooking. Then I spoon on and spread around tomato sauce. Then we sprinkle on garlic powder, onion powder, and italian seasoning. (which is just herbs) Then we sprinkle on cheese, however much you want, and add assorted toppings. You cook this at about 400 to 425 until the edges of the crust is just browning and it starts to seperate from the pan.