Our dog is weird.  We buy him stuffed animals at garage sales.  We try to buy toys that have squeaks in them or make a noise.  He loves his new toys and carries it around where ever he goes.  Until they stop making a noise, and then he rips the shit out of them – eye balls and all!  They don’t last very long.

However, this one has lasted for weeks!

Tony and I went to a different restaurant for breakfast yesterday.  Our go to is Mama Rini’s in Crystal Lake.  That bar is set very high.  We went here:

I got turkey sausage, eggs and hashbrowns.

The hash browns were greasy to me, and I felt like shit for a couple hours after I ate this – and I probably only ate half.  I think if I eat shit . . . I, um. . .have a colon cleanse shortly after!

We returned some shoes that didn’t fit for Tony at DSW, which just happened to be next to one of my favorite grocery stores – Fresh Market 😀  I bought two new cheeses:

OMG, I love both!  Although I cut a piece of the raw milk cheese for Tony and he literally almost puked immediately.  I think it is sour like goat cheese, which I love!  And the spicy cheese is amazing.

I had some broccoli I needed to use so I decided to make broccoli mac n cheese with the raw milk cheddar.

Biz’s Buttermilk Ranch Brocccoli Mac N Cheese

Makes 6 servings (361 calories, 14.4 fat, 40.9 carbs, 1.5 fiber and 16.5 protein)

Ingredients

8 ounces whole wheat elbow macaroni
6 ounces cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons butter
1/8 cup flour
16 ounces skim milk
1/2 cup fat free sour cream
1 packet buttermilk ranch dressing
1 pinch of salt
1 pinch of pepper
1/4 cup Italian bread crumbs

Directions

  1. Cook elbow macaroni according to package directions.
  2. Cook broccoli in microwave. Once cool, cut into bite size pieces.
  3. Melt butter – add flour and cook for 1 minute. Add milk slowly to make a white sauce. Remove from heat, add cheese and stir until melted.
  4. Mix ranch dressing package with sour cream. Add to cheese sauce. Add macaroni and broccoli and mix well.
  5. Pour into casserole dish, sprinkle with bread crumbs and bake at 350 for 20 minutes.
I can’t tell you how long I’ve had this packet in my cupboard – the recipe that I originally went off of  (on the bag of the macaroni) and the only seasoning was salt and pepper.  It was so bland, so I decided to add the ranch dressing – it turned out amazing!

I also decided to make Artisan Bread in 5 minutes – although for one dough, I decided to make a loaf of olive bread – Tony loves it!

I actually mix the dough with my hands – one time I didn’t mix it all the way and after it was in the fridge for a few days, the last loaf was all unmixed flour. Just spray your hands with Pam and mix.
I used really good black olives – pits removed 😀
I took a grapefruit size ball of dough, then added the chopped olives, rosemary and then sea salt on the top.

Yum!!

Holy cow, was this delicious!  I was nervous about the salt level because of the olives, but it was perfect 😀  And Tony loved it!

I hadn’t gone grocery shopping and I asked Tony what he felt like for dinner.  He printed out a recipe for Pizza Hut Pizza!

Copy Cat Pizza Hut Pan Pizza Dough

  • 1 1/3 cup warm water
  • 1/4 cup dry milk
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 4 cups flour
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1 package of yeast
  • 2 tablespoons of oil
  • 9 ounces of oil (3 oz. of oil per pan)(yes, you read that right!)

Put the yeast, sugar, salt and dry milk in a large bowl.  Add water and mix well.  Let it sit for a couple minutes.  Add oil and mix.  Add flour and stir until dough forms and flour is absorbed.  Pour on your counter and knead for 10 minutes.  I actually love to knead bread!  This is enough dough for 3, 10″ pizzas.  Each dough ball came in at 9 ounces.

Pour 3 ounces of oil into a cake pan.  Roll out dough and put in oiled pan.  Let rise for an hour and a half.  Add toppings and bake for 20 minutes at 450.

it didn’t rise as much as I though – look at all that oil!
Tony wanted sausage, mushroom, green olive and marinated artichoke hearts

we are closer

It just didn’t have a crisp enough crust, so I ended up putting it back on the lowest rack of my oven for about 3 additional minutes and that helped – it could have been longer, but I didn’t want to overcook the pizza.  So next time, I think 10 minutes in the pan, and then remove the pizza and finish it off on the oven rack.

I had heated up leftover pizza from the night before, with baby spinach and Tabasco 😀

I still need to make my pumpkins scones and do my grocery shopping.  Hannah and I are going bowling this afternoon when she gets off of work – she’s been working and going to school I haven’t seen much of her lately – should be fun!

Enjoy your Sunday!