Star Wars Party: Princess Leia Pizza Roll Buns

When I think of Star Wars food perhaps the most iconic image is Princess Leia's "cinnamon roll" hair buns. I definitely wanted to incorporate them into the menu for my daughter's Star Wars birthday party. However, since we were already having birthday cake and brownies, I needed a lunch option. Instead of a sweet cinnamon roll, we decided to make pizza roll hair buns.

I kept the recipe simple by using a refrigerated Pillsbury Pizza Crust and jarred pizza sauce.

I started by spreading the crust out on a cookie sheet.

I then added sauce and my toppings. When adding the sauce leave 1/4-1/2" sauce-free section at one of the narrow ends to allow you to secure the end of the roll. For our toppings, we chose onions, peppers, and diced pepperoni. You can add whatever toppings you prefer. Diced toppings do work better than strips or large chunks.

Add your cheese and then start at the narrow end and roll your pizza up. Wrap the roll in plastic wrap and place in the freezer.

When you are ready to bake them, preheat the oven to 375F. If the rolls are frozen solid, allow them to warm up for 10-15 minutes before trying to cut them. Slice them in 1/2" thick sections and place on a non-stick mat (I used a Silpat Non-Stick Baking Mat) or parchment paper. Bake for 13-15 minutes or until the dough is golden and the cheese is melted.

The pictures above are from the test round that I made. For her actual birthday party, we made 4 varieties:

• Cheese
• Cheese & Pepperoni
• Cheese, Pepperoni, Onions, & Peppers
• BBQ Chicken (using BBQ sauce instead of tomato sauce) with onions and peppers

I was really happy with how they turned out. They were a nice way to incorporate the idea of Princess Leia's hair buns into an entree. Beyond the party, my daughter loved them, so I think we will make pizza rolls again even for a non-Star Wars theme party.

Power Out Smashed Potatoes

Yesterday evening we had a power outage right before dinner. Normally, that would result in us eating out. However, last night we were cooking cedar plank chicken on the grill with smashed potatoes and green beans. The chicken was already on they grill and the potatoes were cut when we lost power.

My husband asked what we were going to do about dinner, and I said no problem. The chicken's on the grill and I can manually light the stove for the potatoes and the green beans. Of course, I forgot about mixing the potatoes. I usually use my Kitchen-Aid mixer and don't have a potato masher, so I had to improvise.

I don't have a potato masher I rummaged through my kitchen tools and found a few things to experiment with. I found a dough blender which I also use to break up fruit for jelly. I vetoed my wire whisk since it would not be sturdy enough to whisk the potatoes. However, my Calphalon Teflon whisk was stronger. I used a dough blender to mash the potatoes and a Calphalon Teflon whip to fluff them up. 

To make my smashed potatoes, I used Klondike Rose potatoes and left the skin on, but cut them into 1/2" pieces to boil in salted water. I cooked the potatoes a little more than I usually do so that they would mash easily. I added butter, low-fat ranch dressing, and milk as I mashed them. By using the ranch dressing, I am able to use less butter.  We typically add garlic and rosemary, but since we were working in the dark/no power we took a few shortcuts. First I used the dough blender to mash the potatoes and start incorporating the liquids. Then I used the whisk to fluff and fully incorporate all of the liquids. Fortunately, I was making smashed potatoes so I wasn't aiming for a whipped consistency.

I had resigned myself to an inconsistent texture, but was really happy with how they came out.

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Shredded Mexican Chicken Recipe - Quick Freezer Meal

With Back to School around the corner, I am already starting to get the schedule for my daughter's activities. Very often our schedule means that we need meal options that can either be prepared in a hurry, or that we can clean up quickly after dinner.

One way that I manage our need for quick meals is with Shredded Mexican Chicken, a staple in our family's freezer. I make a large batch in the slow cooker and freeze the extras. Then, when we are short on time I can pull a container out and have quick quesadillas, wraps, tacos, nachos, etc. My daughter has also requested chicken quesadillas for lunch. I make the quesadilla in the morning and leave it in a Thermos.

I don't really use a recipe for the Mexican Shredded Chicken. I use the same basic ingredients each time, but sometimes make adjustments.

Today, I used:

Ingredients & Finished Product

• a family pack of boneless, skinless chicken breasts (~4 lbs) - frozen or thawed
• 2 cans of diced tomatoes (14.5 oz) - undrained
• 1 can of whole corn (15.25 oz) - drained
• 1 can of diced green chiles (4oz)
• ~3/4 c diced Vidalia onion
• 4 heaping tablespoons of McCormick taco seasoning - roughly 2 packets 
• ~2 cups Minute Rice Brown Rice - uncooked

In a slow cooker, combine all ingredients except for the rice and cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 4-5 hours. Today, I forgot to prepare the dish until lunch time, so I cooked it for ~4.5 hours on high. When the chicken is done, it will shred easily with a wooden spoon. After shredding the chicken, I allowed it to cook for about another 30 minutes on low to allow the shredded chicken to absorb some of the excess liquid and seasoning (sometimes I skip this additional cooking step). Finally, I added about the rice and cooked on high for 30 minutes. The rice will absorb most of the remaining liquid.

Shredded Mexican Chicken -
Ready to Use

My family is not a fan of beans, so I did not add any beans. However, it would be easy to add beans to the recipe. You can also adjust the spice level for your family's preference.

Tonight we are using it to make quesadillas, my daughter's favorite. However, it is so versatile. We also eat it on soft tacos, nachos, or on a salad - sometimes we each eat it a different way.

Building a Quesadilla

Clean up from subsequent meals is relatively minimal - a pan used to heat the tortillas or quesadillas or a cookie sheet for nachos (actually I usually use a baking mat, or you could use foil).

From today's batch, we had dinner, I filled 6 plastic freezer containers (3c each), and put enough for another dinner into the refrigerator.

Leftovers Cooling Before
Freezing