Cheesy Pizza Roll

This stromboli has loads of cheese with pepperoni and salami inside and is topped with garlic herb butter.

I fall prey to the Facebook cooking videos, but thankfully, I've had pretty good luck with them. This one was from Tasty and it's basically a stromboli and that's what they refer to it as in the directions. I personally think my favorite part of this recipe and one that makes it stand out from similar recipes is the garlic butter that has herbs in it. I've gotten into using mini pepperonis instead of chopping larger ones or having whole pepperonis fall out when you're trying to get a bite :)

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Subwhales

Even if you haven't seen the movie, these Subwhales are an epicly cute way to make a sub sandwich!

During my husband's third deployment, I tried to make the time pass more quickly for my kids with a lot of activities. Our favorite thing to do was go to the movies and we had a blast seeing Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, as the first one was one of our favorites to watch at home. The food creatures aka the foodimals were truly hilarious and even now that the kids are much older (how has it already been 5 years?!), we still adore the movie. We have made these Subwhales a number of times because they are an easy sub sandwich with some fun whale elements to them.

Even if you have a child who isn't familiar with the foodimals in the movie, this is such an adorable way to make a sub sandwich! I included a picture of the movie subwhales so you can see what we were going for!

via Google images

Hasselback Pizza Chicken

No boring chicken for dinner when you can stuff it with pizza fixings!

I am always looking for new ways to fix chicken because lately I've had a bit of chicken aversion. All three times I was pregnant, I had a chicken aversion and sometimes it comes back and rears its ugly head even though I'm not pregnant. I saw the video featuring this hasselback chicken on Buzzfeed Food and knew I had to try it out. Their directions were for one serving, so I modified it to fit my needs and left it open-ended down below. I find that I didn't put a teaspoon of sauce in each slit and I definitely think the mozzarella slices was a little too vague.

So with the modified recipe, I ended up with a fairly easy chicken dinner. I loved the addition of all the pizza fixings plus the cheddar cheese on top. It tastes like a pizza and that was exactly what I needed that particular day!

The Ultimate Stuffed Crust Pizza

One of our favorite parts about going back home is the local Papa Murphy's. We almost always enjoy a pizza night with our family when Nick gets block leave and since my husband's family is not teeny tiny, the 5-meat stuffed pizza is usually the one we get. It's this beast of a pizza and it's incredibly filling. This pizza reminds me of that one except that the crust is stuffed instead of the pizza being stuffed. I am a sucker for stuffed crust pizzas and this one is definitely the best one I've had to date.

The salami was a welcome surprise too. I have only made two things with salami in my lifetime. One was a stromboli and, obviously, the other is this pizza. There is something so perfect about the saltiness of the salami. I think the only thing that could make this pizza better is bacon and pineapple. Maybe jalapenos. Or at least, I know bacon and jalapenos would be on the top of Nick's list of things to add.

Stromboli

As a child, my only experience with salami was in a cold cut sandwich. It was definitely not my favorite thing. As an adult, I'm finding the more I try new foods and foods I once disliked, the more new foods I'm finding I love. I now have no qualms with salami and I don't shy away from eating it or making a recipe with it.

This stromboli was so yummy. The saltiness from the meat mixed with the cheese and the sweetness of the tomato sauce perfectly. All the textures worked together perfectly. We ate the whole thing within 15 minutes. Next time it is made, it will be a double batch for sure!