Homemade Pizza

A month or so ago, I was watching one of the cooking channels at the gym. I saw a recipe for a crust that wasn't originally intended for pizza, but figured I'd try to make it work. The key is a lack of yeast and sugar. A tall order, right?

I have used the crust from THIS RECIPE twice. It cooks OK, but doesn't really crisp up. The first time, I baked it at 350 or so. The next time, 425-450. Still not really CRISP .... any tips/tricks, guys?

SO, to make my pizza, I used my Red Sauce — Recipe HERE. Then used the toppings of my choice.

Before:


After:

The crust wasn't really crisp/crispy and it needed to be eaten w/ a fork ... how can I improve this?

Recipe: Bacon-and-Egg Muffins

Ooooh, goodness.

I'm going on year 3 of my 'no sugar' existence. I'll confess: The last year I've been more lax. I may or may not eat some breakfast cereal containing sugar (note: the only one I've found sans sugar = shredded wheat, which gets OLD. Fast.).

Overall, though, I don't consume nearly the quantity that the 'average' American does. I do try to keep my consumption down. I just feel SO much better.

Awhile ago, a friend was asking if it's rough to find recipes/things to eat. Honestly, no. I'm not sure if the recipes were always this way, but it seems since I've been looking, in my home decor/cooking magazines, there have been a LOT of recipes I can eat. Or ones with 1-2 Tbsp of sugar, which I don't mind or just eliminate.

Just yesterday, I found another recipe I cannot wait to try! Bacon-and-Egg Muffins! It's essentially a corn muffin w/ eggs in it and topped with a piece of bacon. Sounds great! And I've found a bacon that is not cured in sugar, so this recipe will work perfectly. :)

I can think of SO many ways/reasons this would be a great breakfast: quickly getting kids out the door to school, leaving early and grabbing something on the go, a good before-skiing breakfast. Seriously - I think I'm going to love this one!

(I would have made this yesterday morning, except we were out of milk!)

Easter Eats - Ham-Asparagus Strata

Last year, we hosted Easter. It was chaos. Mostly b/c I had to lead song at Mass at the same time I needed to be cooking. I left a list of notes for our moms and let them go to it. They did a smash-bang job.

This year, we're not hosting. In fact, we'll probably go to Mass, come home, put our PJs back on, and take a nap. :)

If I were hosting, however, let me tell you about what I'd serve. I'd serve Ham-Asparagus Strata - Recipe HERE. Yum, yum, YUMMIE!!!!!

Let me tell you what I love about it: It's really easy to make.

The one potential down side is that you have to refrigerate it for a minimum of 2 hours, but you can assemble it the night before, stick it in the fridge, then put it in the oven when you're ready. So on that side, it's a plus.

I've made it with asparagus and with broccoli. Erik says he prefers it w/ broccoli. I think it's great either way!

I made a few substitutions.

• Instead of sour cream, I used Greek Yogurt.

• On the cheese, I generally use whatever I have around. Often it's colby-jack.

• In place of the English muffins, I used my homemade Irish Soda Bread. TIP: I've taken to making 2-3 batches of bread at a time (yielding 4-6 loaves). Some with raisins, some plain. Then I cut it and put it in big bags in the freezer. When a recipe calls for bread/bread crumbs, I'll pull out what I need and let it warm on the counter prior to cooking/baking. It's worked extremely well for me!

Salad, revised

Erik loves to eat salad. His idea of a good dinner is a big salad.

I don't dislike salad, but after eating a 'salad for a meal' I am generally not full. Or, if I feel satisfied, I'm hungry an hour later. They just don't stick with me.

Recently, however, I decided to give it another try. I came across THIS recipe for chicken/squash/chickpea salad w/ tahini dressing and figured I'd give it a try. Go check out the recipe, but let me tell you what I did differently.

• Instead of squash, I used a sweet potato.

• I forgot to add the chickpeas (didn't have any on hand).

• Instead of pita chips, I took plain flour tortillas, cut them up and thew them in the oven after the chicken was done roasting. I let them stay there until they were crisp. Then added them to the salad.

• I added slivers of a red pepper. And also very thin onion slivers.

• For the dressing, I added extra lemon juice.

How was it? Smashing success! I was honestly surprised how much the salad filled me up. Even without the chickpeas. I bet with chickpeas, it would have been even MORE filling!

One of my favorite parts was the dressing ... oh how good it is! I am often scared of recipes with ingredients (like tahini) that I'm like 'what am I going to do with the rest of the jar?' .... but don't be. If you get tahini to make this dressing, you can also make hummus using tahini.

Seriously - give it a try!

Mini Pizzas!

Oooooh, how good this is! I don't have a photo to share, but GO HERE to check out this awesome recipe for mini pizzas. It's SO super-easy.

I took it to a social gathering last night as a snack and it was a HUGE hit!

For me, the best part of this recipe was its use of tortillas for the crust. Genius! I used my red sauce recipe (I added some diced tomatoes to it, though) .... and omitted some of the spices from the top recipe b/c of food reactions. But the red sauce itself was perfectly good!

For the mini pizzas, you put them in a muffin tin to bake. If you wanted to make these for kids, use a smaller cookie cutter in mini-muffin tins. Seriously, perfect size!

(I found this recipe on Pinterest .... and lately a lot of people have been asking in general 'do you do ANYTHING you see/like from Pinterest?' .... for me, some of it is just dreaming big. But this recipe is a great example of something I found, tried, love and will absolutely add to my hand bag of culinary tricks). :)

Organizing meal plans?

One of my blog friends, Michelle, mentioned in a blog post that she plans her meals for an entire month at a time. Seriously. I thought she was nuts. Off her rocker. Who on the planet is that organized? Not me. That's for SURE!

Yet I continued to struggle with making things last-minute for dinner.

At one point, I'd tried doing it one week at a time, but it just didn't seem to work. *frustrating*

I *think* I've been able to find a happy-medium. I will sit down and go through the recipes we like and ask Erik what he wants to eat over the next 2 weeks. If he has a special request, I'll make it happen. A little direction is helpful. Then I'll fill in.

Oh, and when Erik is off, he takes care of dinner. And I don't plan for Saturday nights either. So I usually only have to come up w/ about 4 meals/week. Or 3 if I want to make something big and plan for leftovers. :)


(no, the colors don't mean anything, it's just me going through post-its).

Here's the MAJOR up side to things: It has VASTLY simplified grocery shopping.

I'll put meals with fresh ingredients, or ones that will wilt/expire more quickly in week 1. If I have a partial ingredient left over from the first week, I'll find a recipe to use the rest of it in week 2. AND it means we have 2 "big" grocery trips/month. Ahhh, bliss! We will usually have to go for milk on the 'other' week, but it's a quick in-and-out dash and it's over. :)

Previously, we'd go for groceries about every 10 days or so, and would just sort of dawdle. No real plans. With a list of what we're eating, I can be sure I have the specific ingredients which is WAY nice.


Now, here's a question for the peanut gallery. I put the main dish on a little sticky note tab thing and stick it on the day. I do this so I can move it around if I need to. If I write it on the actual calendar, I'd end up moving things around and erasing and using arrows ... it'd get confusing.

Because we have a few favorites/staples, I re-use some of the stickies. But they're starting to lose their stick. Or peel or whatever ... I'm looking for a solution to this. Help? I'd like to be able to put on/take off the tag. I really only need to write on it once, but I'd like to be able to move it around as much as possible. On paper.

Anyone have a good idea/solution for me?

Smoothie Talkin' :)

Previously, I talked about making smoothies HERE.

How much I enjoy a good smoothie. :)


Here is my latest version:
1.5 c. frozen* strawberries (might want to let them thaw a little; sometimes hard to process if totally rock-hard solid)
1/2 c. frozen* blueberries
1/4 - 1/2 c. plain greek yogurt
dash of honey (optional)

*Notice how I don't add ice in my smoothie? It's b/c I get the frozen component from frozen fruit.

Lately, I've been adding some SURPRISE ingredients:
1/2 c. cooked sweet potato (usually left over from dinner)
-OR-
handfull of baby carrots

The sweet potato gives lots of extra nutrients w/o adding flavor. The carrot, you can taste it a bit more. There is virtually no color change b/c of the strawberries/blueberries.

Put into food processor, blend until smooth. This makes about 3-4 servings, depending on size.

Favorite toppings/sides/mix-ins:
walnuts
graham cracker squares (dip + eat)
granola
crushed almonds
Teddy Grahams (for kids)
The crumbles in the bottom of your bag of cereal.

Some of my friends have more adventuresome tastes.


Yes, that smoothie is GREEN.

I've heard these are good combos:
Frozen mango/pineapple/tropical fruit mix
about 1 c. fresh spinach
orange juice

The word on the street is that you taste the tropical part and not the spinach. I might even add some mint into mine. Just b/c it's green :)

Some other fun smoothie add-ins: mangos, papayas, cherries and peaches. You will notice I omitted bananas. It's not because I'm a hater; it's because my body doesn't process them well. :( They're a great add-in for smoothies, too, though.

I'm curious how other veggies might go in. I'd probably stick with ones that wouldn't add too much flavor/taste, wuch as: cooked sweet potato or cooked cauliflower .... any other suggestions for veggies I could add in here?

Merry Christmas!

The recycling bin is filled with shreds of wrapping paper and there was a mountain of dishes on the counter. It must be Christmas morning!

My family came to chill with us yesterday. It's the fourth year we've hosted, and I like doing it. We keep tweaking and working to find the best timing for everyone and everything. I think we're getting closer.

Menu*:

Salad
Pot roast. Easy and always tasty.
Mashed Potatoes with Broccoli as our side. It's one of our faves and my mom seems to like it lots.
Tuscan Polenta Bread. I couldn't find the right tomatoes, so I used dried ones. I'd cut the amount in half. I also forgot to make the bacon ahead, so we went without. Still good.
Cherry Dark Chocolate Bread Pudding for dessert. This is one of my all-time faves. And there's *some* sugar, but not TONS .... and I use my Irish Soda Bread for the bread cubes.

*This is more so I'll remember what I did. What worked; what didn't.

My friend Kristine stopped by and grabbed a full family photo, but I don't really want to download it now; I'll share later.

Corn Bread Dressing

Oh.My.Goodness.

I'm in love with this recipe. It's been a long time since I've had dressing or stuffing of any sort. Mainly b/c there's bread in it, and there is usually yeast + sugar in bread. But I came across THIS recipe for Corn Bread Dressing and wanted to try it. There was no sugar in the corn bread and none in the rest of the ingredient list. (I actually added about 1/2 c. dried cranberries to it, to give it a little sweetness, but it would be good w/o that).

Wow. That's it. Wow.

I think StoveTop Stuffing must use corn bread in their dressing. It was really good. I suggest giving it a try. It's really good with chicken, too.

****Be sure to scroll down for his cornbread recipe ... it's AMAZING! It's so moist + sponge-like. Really tasty. Unbelievable. I suspect it has to do w/ using buttermilk.

Roasted veggies w/ chickpeas

Thanks to my friend, Sarah, I've been trying to branch out and use items I wouldn't ordinarily use in recipes.


Case in point: I came across THIS recipe for roasted veggies + chickpeas and decided to give it a spin.

Not only did it smell wonderful when cooking, but it was really tasty! Absolutely worth a try!

Tasty Broccoli! :)

I don't often get creative with side dishes/veggies, but I saw THIS recipe which uses bacon in with broccoli and couldn't resist. It is SO GOOD. Seriously.

We didn't have tomatoes, so I didn't add those in, but I think it was just fine.

Also, on bacon stuff. I take it and if you look at the long slabs, I cut perpendicular to them, so I get a lot of little pieces from each long one. I cut a few of these instead of cooking a few pieces of bacon, then cutting/crumbling them. Did that make sense at all?

It's also how I make bacon for my feta-stuffed chicken and lentil soup. Sometimes I have a hard time using up all of the bacon in a package. Is it just me?

Peach pancakes :) :) :)

OOOOh, let's talk about this.


Use your favorite pancake recipe. Cut a peach into rings (pretty thin ones). Push it down into the batter, cook as you normally would.

Tasty, tasty, tasty!!!

I did this quite a bit in Aug/Sept when we had a lot of fresh peaches. :)

Chocolate

I recently found THIS incredibly tasty recipe for bread pudding w/ dark chocolate and cherries. It's heaven on a plate. And not with too, too, too much sugar.


This is before, but the after is so, so, so good!

Oh, how I'm glad it's cooled down so I can turn my oven on to bake!

Easy, tasty chicken (ready in 30 min!)

I don't generally watch commercials on TV (THANK YOU, DVR!), but over the holiday, I caught a few. I saw THIS recipe and thought "wow, that looks good!"

On Tuesday night, I gave it a whirl. Sort of. I did some changing and subbing on the recipe, so it's more my own than Hellman's. Yet Erik says I can't claim it's mine. Whatever.


Here's my take on their recipe.

Ingredients:
boneless/skinless chicken
1/3 c. sour cream (or however much looks right)
1/4 c. parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
bread crumbs (1 c?) from Irish Soda Bread
dried parsley

Preheat over to 425
Mix sour cream/cheese/garlic salt/parsley.
place chix on cooking sheet (I covered mine w/ parchment paper)
slather mixture on chix (mine was about 1/4 in. thick)
mix dried parsley with bread crumbs
sprinkle liberally on top of chix, making sure it's all covered (there will be none on the bottom, this is OK

Cook @ 425 for 15-20 min. (I used chix tenders, so they were really thin ... might need to cook longer w/ breasts or thicker cuts)

ENJOY.

Yogurt update

I've had several questions about my yogurt-making, so I updated the original post HERE about it. Shout if you have any questions.

Thanks!

Minty Ice :)

Awhile ago, I read about putting items into your ice cubes.


When we made mint sun tea with mint from our garden, I wanted to give these cubes a try!


They're not too difficult to make. Just put your leaves into the tray and go for it! I did try to put the leaves and a little water, then freeze that. Then add more water and freeze per normal. My intention was that the mint leaf would be at the round part of the cube ... but when I added water, it made some of them float up. So it's not really worth that effort.


I thought it'd be more pretty if the mint leaf were in the middle of the cube, but actually it's nice with it near the edge. It melts and gives a little minty burst to a glass of water. :)

Apricot-Sage Cookies

As I said yesterday, I have been organizing my recipes.

Originally when I was pulling recipes, I grabbed things that looked good to me. Now, with my limited allowance of sugar and trying to stay away from yeast, I look a little more closely at things before I pull them.

I pulled THIS is the yummie recipe a few years ago .... and rediscovered it this week. I'd never made it before, but with only 1/3 c. sugar, I figured I'd give it a try.


Y-U-M-M-I-E!!!!!!

Boy are these tasty. I might use a little less dried sage than is called for. It gives an amazing flavor, but is a touch strong for my taste. Still, they're amazing.

I haven't actually added jam between the cookies yet ... just eaten them plain. I actually sprinkled a little more sugar on them before baking. :)

One thing I wonder about ... as I listen to a book relating to cooking, I'm wondering if you could refrigerate the dough for a bit ... then roll it into a log, chill more ... then slice these, as opposed to rolling them out and cutting out the cookies, if that makes sense? Maybe I'll try it next time and report back.

Getting it together

Last night, I was picking through my recipe book. The one where I tear out recipes I like from magazines or online sources.

I realized I have TWO such books, so I've been combining and streamlining!

And with today's amazing cool temps ... I just might be willing to turn on the oven and try something! I have some killer bread and casserole recipes, but when it's north of 90 degress, let's be honest: I have no interest in turning on the oven.

If some of these new recipes are winners, I'll be sure to share 'em here. :)

Shout out to Sarah!

OOOOH, my oldest friend, Sarah, has started a sort-of blog (I say sort of because I'm not young and hip enough to exactly know how to define tumblr).

Anyhow, she has taken to posting weekly menus + recipes. I pay her homage for being disciplined enough to do that (because I am not so disciplined).

Even though I've never before eaten Tabouli or a Falafel, I intend to give her recipes a try :)

Sarah, keep posting so I can ride your coattails!

Grilled Tilapia

Erik has made THIS recipe a few times .... and it's INSANELY good!!!! He grills it instead of cooking it in the oven, though.

It's a party in your mouth. I promise.