What's For Dinner? BBQ Chicken Pita Pizzas

Ommomnom... Who could say no to such yumminess?

Everyone ends up with leftover chicken. I don't care if your household has two people or a dozen, eventually you're going to end up with leftover chicken, whether it's from a formal Sunday dinner or from that rotisserie birdie you picked up at Costco because it smelled so good when you went by.

FYI? This is particularly excellent for that second scenario!

Leftovers can be boring, but this particular use for leftover chicken is never, ever boring. My husband loves it, and will request it even when there are no leftovers in the offing. (In that case, those frozen bags of grilled chicken breast strips can be a great substitute, or even the occasional can of cooked chicken!)  What's most important is to use a sauce that you really love, because it plays a big part in this dish.  I'd recommend more of a hickory type sauce rather than the sweeter barbecues, as it plays off of the pizza angle of the dish a bit better.

Ingredients:

Cooking spray
Whole wheat pitas
Your favourite BBQ sauce
Shredded, cooked chicken
Red or purple onions
Zucchini
Shredded mozzarella cheese
Dried parsley
Dried chives
Salt and pepper


Preheat your oven to 425.

Line a cookie sheet with foil and spray with non-stick spray.  Or just spray the cookie sheet, but be aware that non-stick spray can create a nasty residue on your cookware.  It's safer with foil.

Lay out your pitas and drizzle with BBQ sauce.  Use the back of a spoon to spread the sauce evenly across each pita.

Quarter and thinly slice the zucchini, and thinly slice the onion before separating into rings. These don't spend a long time in the oven, so very thin slicing is essential to create tender-crisp veggies in your pita pizzas.

Top your pitas with zucchini and onion.  Be generous.  Add other veggies if you like, but this is a perfect combination as far as I'm concerned.

 Follow up with chicken, and shredded cheese.  It doesn't get any easier than that!

 Sprinkle each pita with a teaspoon each of dried chives and dried parsley.  Use about twice the volume if you're using fresh herbs instead of dried.

Add salt and pepper to taste.  Depending on your BBQ sauce, you likely don't need very much!

 MMMMmmmmm.... ready for the oven.

Bake for 15 - 20 minutes.  The cheese will turn everything into a delicious, melty and creamy goodness and the pita will crisp nicely on the bottom.

The whole dish can be completed in under 30 minutes, which makes it excellent for weeknights or even lunchtime!

What's For Dinner? Lime Herb Shrimp

I love quick to make meals, especially if they're healthy.  Stir frys are great for that, and this is sort of along the lines of a stir fry.  After all, I do make it in a wok.  My Jamie Oliver wok, actually, which is non-stick and not particularly traditional, but I have great love for it nonetheless.

This dinner takes about ten minutes of prep time and ten minutes of cook time, except for the brown rice I serve with it.  That I have to start early.  But if you use the bring-to-a-boil-turn-it-off method, (wherein, you bring your rice, water and salt to a boil, stick a lid on it, and turn it off until it becomes magically done), you don't have to spend much time in the kitchen fussing over that part either.

All that goes on here, is that you thinly slice some onion and toss it in your wok with some olive oil (about a tablespoon).  Let it get slightly translucent, then toss in some frozen shrimp.  You don't even have to defrost them!  Then squeeze in a lime.  Right over the wok.  Add some salt and pepper and thinly sliced red and green pepper, along with 2 tbs each of dill weed, parsley, and chives, and a tiny pinch of splenda.

By the time your shrimp are warmed through, everything else is ready to be tossed on top of that rice you have sitting on the other burner.  Yum!  And totally man-approved, which is important in this house, let me tell you.  The lime and herbs are unexpected in a dish that looks like a stir-fry, and create a fresh, tangy dish that is fast to fix on any weeknight.

You can scale this easily for added people, as I've done many times.  I throw in a quarter onion, quarter green pepper, half a red pepper, a tbs of each herb, half a lime and half a cup or so of shrimp for each person sharing the meal.  If you have extra limes left over, slice them thinly and twist them in a half turn to create a pretty plate garnish for your guests.  If you want to get really frilly with it, twist them around a chive stem or two for added punch.

This also goes amazingly well with citrus poppy seed cheesecake for dessert!  If you sub splenda for the sugar, opt for low-fat cream cheese and trans-fat free margarine, it doesn't add much in the way of calories, but ups the protein intake. And poppy seeds are good for you!

You can find the cheesecake recipe here on the Kraft recipes site. Honestly, you really can't tell that it's sugar free and low fat, unless you're used to super-rich desserts all the time.  This one is light, fluffy, and delicious.  And thankfully, not as guilt-inducing.