Barbecued Asparagus – BBQ Sauce on Asparagus??? Yes!!!

Tags

Asparagus, barbecue sauce, bbq, grill, Grilling, vegan, vegetarian

Last weekend we did an all BBQ dinner for 4th of July.  Our favorite, and probably easiest entry, was the Barbecued Asparagus. Now you’ve probably grilled asparagus before, but have you doused it in BBQ sauce??? It not, you HAVE to try this! It is so very delicious!!! It was the easiest thing in the world and it could easily be done stovetop or in the oven too, if you don’t have a grill handy. I think our family has found our new favorite way to eat asparagus!

Barbecued Asparagus

Serves 4-5

1 bunch Asparagus (I like to buy the thinner spears as they are not as woody as the thick ones)

1/3 cup BBQ Sauce (I usually like my asparagus a little spicy, so I used the Kinders Sweet Sriracha variety)

Trim about an inch off the cut ends of your asparagus and discard. Cut the asparagus into bite size pieces, about 1 inch and place in a medium mixing bowl. Pour barbecue sauce over asparagus and toss gently. We used a grill basket to cook the asparagus in. I like it with the holes and not a solid bottom, so the veggies get the smoky flavor of the grill. Spray your basket with non-stick spray and then add your veggies. Put on a hot grill and cook for 5-7 minutes stirring occasionally. We like our asparagus to still have some crunch to it, but if you like yours softer you can cook it longer.

Enjoy! I hope you’re having a fantastic summer!!!

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Homemade Pizza – Make the Crust in Your Bread Maker

Tags

barbecue sauce, basil, bread maker, Cooking, Food, homemade, pesto, Pizza, recipe, sausage

  
Pizza is my kryptonite! Once I start eating it I have a hard time stopping, so I don’t have it very often. Because of the depravation, I had been craving the stuff. I figured if I make my own pizza, I can control what goes into it, so it must be a little healthier, right?!?  I don’t now how healthy it was, but it sure was good! I made my crust dough in my bread maker, which made that portion easy peasy and it turns out a great crust!

From the pictures you’ll notice we made two different types of pizzas. I made one for my husband and me and my daughter made one for her and her friend. The crust dough recipe below makes enough for two crusts in a single bread maker batch. My obsession with ranch salad dressing mix continues! I decided to add a tablespoon to my dough and it added a nice extra bit of flavor and you could see the seasonings in the dough.

So here is what we did…

Bread Maker Pizza Crust

1 1/2 cups water, 80 degrees (I microwave it for about 30 seconds)

4 tbsp vegetable or canola oil

4 cups bread flour

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp ranch salad dressing mix

3 tsp fast rise yeast

Put ingredients in bread maker pan in this order. Before adding yeast, create a well in the center by pushing flour out to the edges. Pour yeast in the center of well. Set bread make to dough cycle and turn on. You don’t want this to bake in your bread maker!

When cycle completes, place dough on a floured surface and knead for 15 minutes. Cut dough ball in half. Place dough on greased pizza pan or stone and roll or press into place. This makes two 12-14 inch pizzas. I have one round pizza stone, so we made one on there and then I made the other on my rectangular stone baking pan. After rolling out dough, let dough rise in a warm place for 20 minutes. Top as desired and bake in a 425 degree oven, one pizza at a time, for 20 minutes.

So what did we top our pizzas with, you ask?

Pizza #1

• Sauce: I used jarred sauce and mixed some Sundried tomato pesto into a marinara sauce
• 1st layer motzarella cheese
• Turkey Pepperoni
• Lowfat Jimmy Dean Sausage (I browned this in a skillet first and crumbled over pizza)
• Fresh basil leaves
• Sundried tomatoes
• Mushrooms
• Green onions
• Sliced black olives
• 2nd layer of motzarella cheese

Pizza #2

• Sauce: Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ Sauce
• 1st layer motzarella cheese
• Grilled Chicken – I was feeling lazy and bought pre-cooked chicken
• Pineapple chunks
• Onion
• 2nd layer motzarella cheese

Both pizzas were great! The second pizza was similar to a version that our local pizza joint, Mountain Mike’s Pizza, offers. Their version also has bacon on it, but one of our girls doesn’t eat bacon, so they left it off. It was still delicious though!!!

We had plenty of pizza left over. This could have easily fed 6-7 people. We also had salad with our pizza.