Momma Goose and Gaggle: Mellow Monday: Take & Bake Pizza

After a fun, jam packed weekend with my siblings and parents, it is nice to be mellow at home today. In the last two days we enjoyed two days at the lake, a beautiful wedding and a big breakfast outing with the whole fam! Today, we are washing sheets, vacuuming and catching up with naps. The treat of our day will come later when our favorite team, the Denver Broncos play Monday Night Football!

To celebrate and keep with a football tradition, our dinner today will be a little different than the usual slow cooker meal...we're having a take and bake pizza. I bought the pizzas on my usual grocery shopping trip on Friday in anticipation of my brother's visit with us over the weekend. However, we didn't end up using them, so as a bonus for today, I'll cook them up as an easy dinner so we can enjoy the game tonight. Is there much better than football, pizza and beer?

I will use my slow cooker this week to make a recipe I've made a couple of times from SkinnyTaste.com I've highlighted her recipes before and everything I've ever made always turns out super yummy.

Ingredients:

For the chicken:

24 oz boneless skinless chicken breast
1 celery stalk
1/2 onion, diced
1 clove garlic
16 oz fat free low sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup hot cayenne pepper sauce (I used Frank's)

For the wraps:

6 large lettuce leaves, Bibb or Iceberg
1 1/2 cups shredded carrots
2 large celery stalks, cut into 2 inch matchsticks

Directions:

In a crock pot, combine chicken, onions, celery stalk, garlic and broth (enough to cover your chicken, use water if the can of broth isn't enough). Cover and cook on high 4 hours. Remove the chicken from pot, reserve 1/2 cup broth and discard the rest. Shred the chicken with two forks, return to the slow cooker with the 1/2 cup broth and the hot sauce and set to on high for an additional 30 minutes. Makes 3 cups chicken. To prepare lettuce cups, place 1/2 cup buffalo chicken in each leaf, top with 1/4 cup shredded carrots, celery and dressing of your choice. Wrap up and start eating!

Check out my meal plan for the rest of the week below.

Monday: Take & Bake Pizza
Tuesday: Slow cooker Buffalo Chicken Lettuce Wraps with watermelon
Wednesday: Buffalo Chicken Grilled Cheese with carrots and celery (Using my leftovers from Tuesday)
Thursday: "Pigs" in a Blanket with pears and frozen corn (Using turkey hot dogs)
Friday: Brother Goose's pick (Chicken "nuggets," or hot dogs with mac-n-cheese and fruit)
Saturday: BBQ Hot Dogs with BBQ Beans and watermelon and grapes
Sunday: Last Lake Day :( - Quick take out

Do you like to menu plan? It helps me to stay on budget, stay on track with food choices and frankly, just makes life easier. If you'd like to see more menu plans, head over to OrgJunkie.com.

Happy Mellow Monday and GOOOOO Broncos!