Summer Pizza

It has rained the entire week last week and we have been cooped up in the house. On Friday it finally cleared up so we took in what sunshine there was left and played in some puddles.

Our dinner paired perfectly with the evening. This pizza tastes like summer and sunshine.  Its very light because it doesn't have a sauce or meat on it so it would probably be better as an appetizer. Maybe its a 'flatbread'. I've never really understood what those were anyway.

The best part of this pizza is the next day- heat it up and throw a fried egg on it. Overeasy of course.  It was so gooey and good I couldn't shut up about it.

Summer Pizza

Adapted from Shutterbean

Pizza is supposed to be customizable but this is what I used. Change it up or you're doing it wrong.

• Pizza dough
• 1/2 zucchini, thinly sliced
• 1 cup corn
• 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
• 2 jalapeno thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup feta, crumbled
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
• 1/2 bunch cilantro, roughly chopped
• couple squeezes of lime juice

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Stretch out/toss the pizza dough to fit your pan or pizza stone.  Add all the ingredients but the lime juice. 

Bake for 20 minutes. Let cool to a point where you don't burn your mouth off.  Slice and add a squeeze of a lime wedge to each slice. 

Buffalo Chicken Salad

I love wings but nothing pisses me off more than Buffalo Wild Wings.  The closest one near us has the worst service. We have waited 20 minutes for waters. If we weren't incredibly timid people we would have walked out. Or at least complained. I also have tried to make wings but nothing great has come out of that. It's on the to-do list. 

This salad by Well Fed is spicy enough to hit that buffalo wing craving but it's still healthy. Full of protein and vegetables.

Buffalo Chicken Salad

Serves 3 - 4

Adapted from Well Fed

Chicken:

• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
• 1 jalapeno, cut into rings
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
• 1/2 teaspoon whole mustard seeds
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 2 tablespoon butter or ghee
• 1/4 cup or more of hot sauce. I like Frank's buffalo sauce.

Salad:

• 1 small head iceberg lettuce, thinly sliced
• 1 cucumber, thinly sliced
• 3 ribs of celery, thinly sliced
• 2 carrots, thinly sliced
• 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup parsley leaves, coarsely chopped

For the chicken, place all the ingredients, except butter and hot sauce, in large saucepan. Bring to a boil, the cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes.  Turn off the heat but keep the pot covered for another 20-25 minutes.  Remove the chicken from water, shred with two forks.  Toss in a bowl with butter and hot sauce. If the chicken is not warm when you go to add the butter, melt the butter first.

For the salad, toss all the ingredients in a large bowl (really large), and top with chicken.  Serve with ranch or blue cheese dressing.

Spaghetti Squash with Bolognese Sauce

I grew up eating spaghetti with ground beef and Prego sauce from a jar. It was quick, cheap, easy and too good to worry about chopping and sauteing all of those vegetables for my busy parents. When I got into college my taste buds matured and coupled with a stint with vegetarianism, I would often make spaghetti and ...Paul Newman sauce from a jar.  

In my attempt to make meat sauce myself, my hypothesis has been confirmed. Homemade is better but harder. As is life. Fortunately more is more! I think this sauce will freeze well so I'm making a double batch next time and freezing the sauce for a quicker meal on a busier day.

I have lost negative one pound on my diet so I quit. I paired this sauce with spaghetti squash in hopes of breaking even.  Embrace your body 2015.

Spaghetti Squash with Bolognese Sauce

Adapted from Simply Whisked

Serves 4

• one large spaghetti squash
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• medium onion, diced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 celery stalk, diced
• 1 carrot, peeled and diced
• 1 pound ground beef or turkey
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 16 ounce can crushed tomatoes, NOT drained
• 1 16 ounce can diced tomatoes, NOT drained
• 2 tablespoons italian seasoning
• 1/4 cup grated pecorino romano or parmesan cheese (for a paleo version skip this)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut spaghetti squash in half lengthways, and scoop out seeds with spoon. Coat the inside with olive oil and place on a baking sheet insides down.  Bake for 45 minutes.

While the squash is baking, start the bolognese sauce.  In a medium or large skillet, heat olive oil to medium-high.  Add the onion, garlic, celery, and carrot. Stirring occasionally, saute the vegetables  for about 10 minutes until they are translucent and tender.   

Add the ground beef or turkey, salt, and pepper. Break up the meat while it cooks. Once the meat is browned, add in the canned tomatoes, and italian seasoning.

Simmer the sauce while the squash cooks. The sauce will reduce and get thicker the longer it simmers.  Remove from heat when desired consistency is reached. I like it thick (yeah I said it) so I let mine cook down for around thirty minutes on medium-low heat. Right before serving stir in the cheese.

Back to the squash! Once the squash is done cooking you should be able to push on the outside skin and the squash will sink down.  Remove from the oven and and hot baking pan onto a cutting board to let cool for around 10 minutes. These suckers are hot.

Take an oven mitt and lift the squash from the outside skin, squeezing it to get a good hold.  Use a fork to pull out the 'spaghetti' of the squash and separate onto plates. Top with the bolognese. Top with more cheese to live a little.

Next time: Double it as a favor for my future self.

Tuna, Kale, and Egg Salad

Sometimes I love eating healthy foods because I want big bites and huge portions without feeling guilty or getting odd looks from strangers. Salads are great because I try to get a little (or a lot) of each ingredient on my fork for the biggest best bite. You know exactly what I'm talking about.

A salad with 'best bites' needs lots of ingredients.  Making salads with lots of ingredients is a pain in the ass. This salad is no different. 

There is egg shelling, vegetable cleaning, chopping, slicing, and even grating.  But its good and kale is like a superfood or something so thats nice. I like kale, it bites back.

Tuna, Kale, and Egg Salad

Joy the Baker did it first

Serves 2 Adults 

• 4 cups chopped kale
• olive oil
• rice vinegar
• 2 5-ounce cans white tuna, drained
• 3 tablespoons green onion, thinly sliced
• 3 tablespoons parsley, chopped
• 2 hard boiled eggs, peeled and sliced
• 1/3 cup celery, sliced
• 1/4 cup roasted shelled sunflower seeds
• 1/4 grated parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons capers, drained

Toss kale in a large bowl with a splash of olive oil and rice vinegar. Easy on the rice vinegar, there is no going back if you put too much.  Massage the oil and vinegar in with your hands. Really get in there. The kale should get a darker green and lose a lot of its volume. Split the lettuce on two different plates or bowls.

In a separate medium bowl, combine tuna, half of the eggs, green onion, parsley, celery and another splash of olive oil with the back of a fork. Top the kale with tuna and egg mixture.

Sprinkle the salad with the rest of the eggs, sunflower seeds, parmesan cheese, and capers.

Next time: add lemon juice in with the tuna mixture

Buttermilk Pancakes

I'm on a diet.  Diets are the worse. Buttermilk pancakes are the best.  Scrambled eggs are okay, but geez, everyday? Diets are the worst. Serve these pancakes with fruit so you never have to diet.  Then take a nap because pancakes and naps are made for each other and well, frankly, you deserve it. 

Oh and I'm a cheater. Not on my diet. Well that too. But I don't use buttermilk because I can never finish the rest of it.  If you need one cup of buttermilk put one tablespoon of lemon juice in a one cup measuring cup, then fill the rest up with milk. I use whole milk. 

Buttermilk Pancakes

Downright stolen from Joy the Baker

Serves 3-4 adults

• 1 cup buttermilk (or 1 tablespoon lemon juice in a measuring cup and fill the rest up with milk)
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 stick of butter, melted
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 4 teaspoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt

Measure out all ingredients and preheat your griddle or skillet to a bit higher than medium heat.

Whisk together the first three ingredients in a medium bowl, then whisk in the butter. In another medium bowl whisk in the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, brown sugar, and salt). Whisk the wet mixture into the dry mixture.  May you be judged if you do it the other way around.

Spray the griddle or skillet with nonstick spray.  Pour 1/3 cup of mixture onto skillet - fit however many pancakes the skillet will hold.  Flip when the top of the batter has lots of bubbles (about 2 minutes). Cook the underside until golden (about 1 minute).  Respray the skillet between batches. Serve hot with syrup or fruit.

Stadium Beans

Lessons learned from our most recent BBQ and swim session. Number one- you can never have enough beans. Number two - never check the swim diaper for poop when the swim diaper is underwater. Number three - if your kid eats over a pint of blueberries in one day, he will literally poop blueberries. It smelled just like blueberries....and chlorine.

This recipe makes some fancy beans. So many colors. Throwing all the beans in a slow cooker takes one thing off my list early in the morning and allows for maximum swim time. You see - I'm always thinking.

My God, its hard to take good photos of food.  It is prettier than baked beans in real life. And tastes better too.

Stadium Beans
Serves: Well, at least 6 adults and 6 kids, with two sandwich bags left over.
Adapted from Everyday Slow Cooker

• 1/2 pound bacon
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cans 16 ounce baked beans, drained
• 16 ounce can kidney beans, drained
• 15 1/2 ounce can chili beans, drained
• 2 cans 14 1/2 ounce green beans, drained
• 2/3 cups ketchup
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

Cook bacon in a skillet over medium heat until crisp. Remove bacon to paper towel, keeping the bacon grease in the skillet. Crumble bacon. Add onion to skillet and saute until tender.

Combine all the beans, the bacon, onion, and any remaining grease from the skillet to the slow cooker.

Stir together ketchup, brown sugar, chili powder, and cumin in a small bowl.  Fold into the slow cooker.  Cover and cook on low setting for 3 to 6 hours.

Next time: I need to learn to cook dry beans instead of always cooking them from a can. Eventually.

Hamburger Tomato Pizza

We always plan when we are going out to eat but never what restaurant we are going to. The un-evolving conversation of "where do you want to go" "I don't care, where do you want to go" infuriates me to no end. To the point where it ruins the experience.  It would actually be quicker to cook something, we take so long deciding. That would certainly be cheaper. 

So now instead of going out X times a week or (X-1) as we have been trying to do. We are waiting until we really crave something before we treat ourselves.  I predict this will last one week. Ha.

This homemade pizza was perfect to mark the beginning of our weekend. And it was easy because I cheated and used frozen pizza dough and store bought pizza sauce.  This is real life.

The odd thing about this pizza is the use of raw ground beef. It makes the pizza deliciously greasy. But everything was cooked through and it saved having to clean a skillet.

Hamburger Tomato Pizza
Adapted from Shutterbean
Serves 2 to 3

• Non-stick spray
• Small handful of flour for your work surface
• frozen pizza dough, thawed
• marinara sauce, store-bought
• 1 package provolone cheese
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, sliced
• 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
• 1/4 pound ground beef, raw
• salt and pepper
• handful of basil, sliced

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Spray large baking sheet with non-stick spray.

Stretch out the dough to fit the baking sheet with either a rolling pin or your hands. Move to the baking sheet.

Spread sauce over dough. Top with provolone, tomatoes, onions, pinches of raw beef, salt, pepper, and basil.

Bake until crust is golden, beef is cooked, and cheese is melted. About 20 minutes.