Bread Machine Pizza Dough / Pizza Bites

When we purchased our bread machine I thought it was just going to be an easy way to have homemade bread. Instead, it has proven to be a way to quickly mix up a variety of things. I like to keep a supply of pizza dough in the fridge for when we need something that doesn't take too long to make for dinner, but making homemade pizza dough can be a fairly tedious process. You have to mix the ingredients, knead the dough, and wait for the dough to rise. Using the bread machine streamlines the process nicely. You just add the ingredients and enter the correct settings.

I love these pizza bites because they are quick and simple. My niece loves them, and if you can get her to eat something I think any picky eater will approve. I like to change up the filling in these. Sometimes I do pepperoni and cheese, sometimes just cheese, and sometimes I like to put some chourico and cheese.

Azorean Fried Beans / Acoreano Feijao Frito

I guess you could say that I'm a Portuguese mutt: half my relatives are from the Azores and the other half are from the continental part of Portugal.  The Azores and the continent are both part of Portugal, but they definitely have unique cultures. My mother is from the continent, but she took the fairly common Azorean dish of fried beans and adapted it. The result is this delicious recipe, the best of both Portuguese worlds. The best part is that these beans are very versatile. They are great served by themselves with a side of rice, or made into a sandwich (in a papo seco of course).

Cubed Steak Sandwiches

These sandwiches were adapted from The Pioneer Woman's recipe Marlboro Man's Favorite Sandwich. The great thing about these sandwiches is that you can add thing or remove things to make the sandwich as you would prefer it. I found the recipe in her book The Pioneer Woman Cooks where she lists the ingredients without measurements so the recipe here is approximately how I make it. I like to serve the sandwich on toasted French rolls, but you can use whatever sandwich roll you prefer.

Crispy Chicken Tenders

This recipe actually was inspired by my favorite fish and chip recipe (Found here). I noticed that the fish had a very crispy coating that reminded me of the chicken tenders that you can find at just about any restaurant (particularly on the kids menu). I've been looking for a good crispy chicken tender recipe for a while so I decided to try making some chicken using a similar technique. This is definitely a kid-friendly recipe.