Lisa's Garlic Chicken Pizza

A number of years ago, on a Christmas Eve when both of our teenage daughters wanted a little extra time with friends, we ordered a take-and-bake garlic chicken pizza rather than making our own dinner. It's been a favorite of our family's ever since and remains a Christmas Eve tradition.

But that doesn't mean we restrict our orders to the holiday season. And as of last night, nor does it mean we have to order a garlic chicken pizza in order to enjoy eating one. That's because I set out to recreate the signature garlic cream sauce in my kitchen. We quickly proclaimed the experiment a close approximation to the original we had grown to love.

Before I made the cream sauce, I removed a pizza crust from the freezer, diced some cooked chicken, minced several green onions and sliced a handful of cherry tomatoes moments after I plucked them from our front garden. Then I mashed cloves from half of a garlic bulb through my garlic press and began to make a basic white sauce.

I looked at a coupon from the pizza store and discovered they use three cheeses on their garlic chicken pizza - although there was no mention of which cheeses. I pulled out some lowfat cream cheese and grated Parmesan to add flavor and depth to my sauce. It worked beautifully. Enjoy:

Lisa's Garlic Chicken Pizza

Serves 2-3

1 pre-made pizza crust

cloves from half a bulb of garlic

4 green onions, minced

1 1/2 cups cooked chicken, diced

6-8 cherry tomatoes, diced

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons flour

1 cup of lowfat milk

2 tablespoons lowfat cream cheese

1/4 cup Parmesan

salt to taste

additional Parmesan for topping

Over medium high heat, melt butter. Stir in flour until smooth. Raise heat to high and add milk, stirring constantly until it becomes thick like gravy. Return to medium high heat and stir in cream cheese so it is fully incorporated. Add garlic, Parmesan cheese and salt to taste. Allow to cool and thicken further, for about 20 minutes.

Spread sauce across pizza crust. Top with chicken, green onions, and tomatoes. Sprinkle more Parmesan over the top and then bake according to crust instructions. Right before removing from oven, set under broiler until top is golden brown.

VOE - We're try to go easy on dietary fats, but feel free to add several handfuls of grated mozzarella to the top if you want. We suspect that may be the 'third cheese' used by our favorite pizza chain.

Not Exactly Cupcakes - Homemade Pizza

It has been awhile since I offered a new cupcake recipe to the blog. Baking is more difficult with a broken bone chip in my left arm from falling two weeks ago, but I hope to return to baking mode soon. In the meantime, I thought you might enjoy seeing the dynamite vegetarian pizza that my husband, Mark, and I created last evening.

With our basil plant growing out of control, I had every intention of slathering some fresh pesto across the ready-made crust we purchased on Saturday. I never seem to lose interest in this luscious sauce that we've made for 25 years - especially when the basil just came from the garden - but Mark thought otherwise. So I rummaged through the cupboard and found a large can of crushed tomatoes in heavy puree, which could serve as sauce if I added seasonings.

Then I had him open the cans of tomato and artichoke hearts because I can't use a manual can-opener at the moment (this is the first time in my life I've ever thought about buying an electric opener, but only in passing!). Mark diced a small zucchini, and the artichoke hearts into bite-sized pieces. He minced some onion and garlic and sauteed them lightly as I headed to the garden for some fresh basil leaves to use as garnish.

I covered the crust with tomatoes and sprinkled oregano generously across the sauce. Zucchini and artichoke heart slices came next, followed by the garlic and onion. I nearly covered everything with a large handful of fresh basil leaves and, finally, we laid strips of sliced mozzarella across the top. Seven minutes on bake and 3 more on broil yielded a healthy and satisfying dinner. Thank heaven Mark was there to transport the pan from oven to counter and cut our large slices!

VOE - We like red onion on our pizza because it seems to add some extra sweetness. Another nice topping for homemade pizza is black olives. Shrimp is a nice add-on too, especially with pesto :)