Chicken, Pesto, Sun-dried Tomato and Goat Cheese Flatbread Pizza

Wow, I am really getting bad at this whole blogging thing. Not that it is really a big deal in the end because I am pretty sure that only 1 or 2 people read this blog. Life just gets away from you, and there have never been enough hours in the day or days in the week. Life has been busy for the both of us lately, so busy that we have been doing minimal wedding planning. About 6 short months until the big day (yikes) means that we should probably kick the planning in gear. My friend Tessa over at The Cookin' Chemist made flatbread pizzas one time long ago and I wanted to try them out for the longest time. Then, Adam and I went out to a restaurant in town called Kona Bistro. It is all organic and fresh foods and amazing, but a little pricey. They had this appetizer that was to die for. It was a flatbread with chicken and goat cheese that had an amazing pesto/sun-dried tomato creamy sauce on it. I really wanted to try my hand at making an easier at home version and thus this recipe was born. I combined Kona's appetizer ingredients with tessa's flatbread pizza idea to make an easy and delicious supper. Which Adam, my resident chef of a fiance, absolutely loved. I made this last year (long time, I know) and ended up making it 3-4 times in a little over a month. The pictures are not the best so my apologies. Obviously you can make this pizza with any toppings that you would like, but this was a great combination for us!

Chicken, Pesto, Sun-dried Tomato and Goat Cheese Flatbread Pizza

Ingredients:
Flatout flatbread Boneless, skinless chicken breast (about 3-4 ounces per pizza) Pesto (we use store bought)
Goat cheese
Sun-dried (dry not in liquid) tomatoes

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400. Cut chicken and cook until done. Lay flatbread on pizza stone or sheet, spread pesto over the entire flatbread. Add diced sun-dried tomatoes and chicken. Crumble goat cheese on top of the pizza. Bake at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes, or until cheese is melted and flatbread is crispy. Serve and enjoy!

Strawberry Balsamic Salad with Basil and Feta

I made this recipe months ago. In all honesty, I think it was before summer actually hit. Trust me when I say that we haven't completely stopped cooking, although lately we have not been adventurous by any means. Unfortunately, life gets in the way of the things that we all enjoy and for me those things are reading, cooking, and blogging (to name a few). Now that my last PhD exam is over with, hopefully I can start getting back into my life's routine.

I found this recipe on Two Peas and Their Pod, one of my two favorite food blogs. I will admit that I was a little skeptical at first. It just seems like a very odd combination to me. However, I pushed my mind open a little bit and decided to try it since Maria (and Josh) has yet to steer me wrong! I love everything that I have tried from her (their) blog.

This recipe was definitely interesting, but was also amazing at the same time. I love all of the individual ingredients alone, but together they made a wonderful, light, and healthy summer salad. The flavors come together well and I could easily eat this for breakfast, lunch, or supper. I did not change Maria's recipe at all. You can see her original post here. Enjoy!

On another note: Am I the only one that is addicted to all of the amazing dishes that would be great for food photography. I feel like every time I go to Kroger or Walmart I see one that I want to buy just one of in every color!


Strawberry Balsamic Salad with Basil and Feta

Ingredients:

2 cups sliced strawberries
2-3 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
5 basil leaves, chopped
1/4 cup feta cheese

*Place sliced strawberries in a medium bowl. Drizzle strawberries with balsamic vinegar and stir until well coated.

2. Sprinkle fresh basil and feta over the strawberries and stir.

3. Serve cold.

My attempt at returning to the blogging world...

I finally went to look and see when the last time that I blogged a recipe was. Imagine the loud *gasp* that came out of my mouth when I realized that it had been almost a year. The sad thing is that it doesn't seem like that is even a remote possibility. The last year has gone by so fast, it is hard to believe that it has been almost a year since we got engaged. This makes life even scarier since I really need to buckle down and begin actually planning a wedding...what a concept. My goal is to start blogging at least once every week or two. Maybe even just doing a few recipes at a time once or twice a month. We have been making so many good things over the past year. Thankfully, even though I have been failing at the blogging, I HAVE been keeping up with pictures of all the tasty things that we have been eating. In my attempt to seem less pathetic for "not finding time" I am going to list a few of the reasons that cause me to seem to never have the time or energy to blog...

1.) Addition to the family-#1
Gus Gus
Puggle
Born: August 1, 2010
Brought Home: Early October
Nicknames: Guster Buster Douglas, Buster Stevenson, Gus-a-Bus, Bubby-Do
2.) School and Work:
Finally my research life will be settling down just a tiny bit, not near enough for my liking
though. Just this past Friday my boss submitted our grant to the NIH. This would give us funding for the next 3-4 years, longer that I plan on being here. Therefore, it has been really been crunch-time since January. I also started the process of cumulative exams (written doctoral exams) in January. You must pass 4 out or 10. Thankfully, my hard work paid off and I was able to pass 4 for 4 and be done! One of only 2 students in my year to do this, the other being my Ohio BFF :) Now, with great sadness, I have to start working on my ORP (oral doctoral exam) where I have to write an original research proposal, bleh. There things plus the normal stress of work have left little time to do much else.


3.) Trips and Travels:
August brought an opportunity to travel to Milwaukee, WI for an EPR workshop for my area of research. It was a really good experience and a lot of good talks where there.

We met up with Mom and Grammy in St Louis back in September to spend a few days. We had a great time and got to see a lot of really neat places. We also had some AMAZING Italian food, saw the arch, Zoo, Botanical Gardens (Complete with a few Chihuly pieces), and Anheuser Busch Brewery (with complimentary beer), among other things



In November Adam and I made an emergency trip home to Nebraska to see my Great Grandfather (93) who was very sick. Thankfully he pulled through and is currently doing well. We drove there and took Mr. Gus Gus with us, he was really good on the ride and super cute!


Christmas meant another trip back to Nebraska for me, sadly this time without Adam and Gus. However, this gave us girl time to go wedding dress shopping.

March brought with it a trip to Baltimore, MD for the Annual Biophysical Society Conference. It was a really good time and a friend and I even got time off to see the aquarium and Dolphin Show!


On top of this we had visitors a few times, needless to say, it has been a very busy year for us!

4.) Addition #2 to the family:
Bella
Cairn Terrier
Born: October 28, 2010
Brought Home: beginning of February
Nicknames: Bellzer, Bella-Rella, Bells,

I am hoping that this gives everyone a little bit of insight into what we have been up to lately and also will cut me a little slack for not blogging ;) I have a busy summer planned with work and research, let along real life. In July we will be heading up to Michigan for three days with Adam's Step-Dad's family at their cabin and lake. We are looking forward to the three day reality break to say the least! I will try to post a new recipe as soon as I can! Lord knows we have lots to post!