Entirely "Scratch-Made" Pizza!

Happy Sunday!
As the keto and gluten free diets have been so popular of late, people on the internet have been getting creative about making pizza low-carb/gluten-free. I had seen a cauliflower pizza crust mentioned a few times on Pinterest and different blogs, so Will and I decided to give it a shot! Since we were going to make the crust from scratch, we decided "why not make the entire pizza at home?"! (Yes, we're those kind of people. Haha!) The cheese making kit I bought Will for Christmas has really come in handy - while I was making the crust and sauce, he was making up a batch of fresh mozzarella (Click HERE for my cheese-making post!). Yum!

To start, we gathered all the ingredients we would need. 1 gallon of milk for the cheese, tomatoes for the sauce, cauliflower and eggs for the crust, and veggie toppings!

For the crust, I used this recipe from the blog, Eating Bird Food. I just pulsed the raw cauliflower a few times with a food processor until it was chopped into rice sized pieces. After you have a cup chopped up, you just cook it uncovered in the microwave for 8 minutes to soften and remove some of the excess moisture from the cauliflower. 

Mix the cooked cauliflower "rice" with 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, 1 egg, and spices. Pat into a 9" round circle on a greased cookie sheet. Pop in the oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 25 minutes, or until the edges begin to brown and the middle starts to set.  

Top the crust with sauce (I used a Mark Bittman recipe for this), more cheese, and your favorite pizza toppings! We added mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, red bell pepper, and red onion. Broil the pizza for just a few minutes until the cheese on top begins to melt.

We served ours with a salad. It was delicious! The crust is definitely different from a normal bread crust and still has a bit of a cauliflower taste, but I would definitely make it again. We thought we might try spreading the cauliflower into a thinner circle to see if we could get it a little crisper. The browned pizza "crust" around the edges was the tastiest!

Playing With My Food

In the midst of searching for a new apartment (from hundreds of miles away!), resume revising, and becoming a profession online application filler... I have been continuing to experiment in the kitchen. (Of course!). New recipes and my new love for the gym have been great stress-relievers in this scary, life-being-turned-upside-down time! I have also been working playing with my camera to try and improve the quality of my food pictures. Will bought me a great little light tent and spot lights for Christmas, which have made my amateur efforts at food photography so much more fun! I have a lot to research and a lot to learn... but I am finding that I enjoy it more and more! (Even if it does mean that my meals are never piping hot. Ha!) Here are a few images from the weekend - a blessedly long one thanks to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. I really needed that!

Spicy curry with seitan and mixed veggies!

Curry is such an easy and versatile dish! It makes an easy, low-carb vegetarian meal - something both Will and I can both appreciate it! I've been meaning to write an instruction post on how to make it. In this batch, we picked seitan as our vegetarian protein and added eggplant, bell pepper, and mushrooms for the veggies.

Braised monk fish with salad and roasted cauliflower. Yum!

This fish turned out great!! Monk fish is one of the more "meaty" fish like tuna and salmon, but with a bit more mild flavor. For this one, Will started by sauteing it with oil on the stove-top then adding broth and tossing it in the oven, pan and all. The broth cooks down and infuses it with delicious flavor. Yum.

Mmm... Look at those layers...

Served up with some delicata squash.

I saw this on Kath's blog and knew I had to make it immediately! It's a lasagna layered with pumpkin, kale, goat cheese, and mozzarella. Mmm... Loved it! I am so glad it made about 4 servings so I have plenty to munch on all week. :-)
Hope you are all staying warm and eating well!!!

On Being Productive

     April showers may bring in May flowers, but Fall's chill brings in warm casseroles! At least, that is certainly what I have been craving... I was happy to have the day off yesterday since I worked last weekend. Originally, I had planned to take Friday off but had to switch. It was actually kind of fun to randomly take a day off mid-week! Instead of just lounging around like I do most weekends, I decided to try to make the most of my day and be productive. So, I did a bunch of cleaning, cooking and yoga!

Source: kaliyogi.tumblr.com via Heidi on Pinterest

    First off, can I just say, I'll never be that flexible! I went to the noon Vinyasa class at Midtown Yoga since it was a cross-training day on my marathon training plan and I never get to go to mid-day classes on a normal basis! All this marathon training has really given me some tight leg muscles. (Surprise, surprise. Ha.) This class was just what I needed to get a good stretch! There were many poses where I think the instructor could have just said, "Fold your limbs up until you resemble a pretzel and breathe". Yeah, no problem. Lol. Despite leaving the class feeling like I just had a good stretch, I am very sore today! Guess I must have worked more muscles than I realized. :-)

     That afternoon I was really craving this roasted root vegetable casserole that Charis and I used to make all the time in Cleveland. Before we experimented with that dish, I don't think I had ever cooked or eaten parsnips or rutabaga! I didn't realize how badly I was missing out. They are delish! I found a recipe similar to the one we had been using (which was on a WIC calendar - haha!). I must say, this Harvest Vegetable Bake recipe from About.com turned out just as well! I followed the original recipe pretty closely, except that I omitted the nutmeg and breadcrumbs and added some poblano pepper and sage to the cheese sauce. Yum!

Just as tasty as I remembered!

I also baked these Trail Mix Cookies! I realized I had all these bags and containers of about 1/2 cup of random nuts and dried fruits hiding out in my cabinets. So, I combined them all into a cookie! I feel like these will be a handy little snack. They are chock full of oats, craisins, currants, sesame seeds and finely shredded coconut. Pairs well with coffee or tea!

Hope you are all having a fabulous week! The weekend is almost here!!! :-)

Pumpkin Macaroni and Cheese

Mmmm...

           Last week I had the worst craving for macaroni and cheese! I had seen some great mac-n-cheese recipes around the internet. However, the one that really caught my eye had pumpkin in the cheese sauce. What, what?!? That's right. I put pumpkin in my macaroni and cheese... and I liked it! Haha. Because, let's face it, when fall comes round I get just a bit obsessed with pumpkin!
           To say the least, I was pleasantly surprised by this dish! The pumpkin was very subtle and contributed to the creaminess of the sauce. Plus with the addition of the pumpkin, you can cut back a little on the cheese - saving some calories! It also adds a bit of fiber (there are 7 grams of fiber in a cup of pumpkin!) and loads of vitamin A (763% of the daily value to be exact!).
            Now I can say that I will definitely be making this dish again in the future. One word of warning though... it makes a huge batch! I had to put several containers of it in my freezer for meals later, not that I'm complaining! I used this recipe from the blog Gimme Some Oven (click for recipe!) which I found via Pinterest and I am really glad I did! The food photography is fantastic! I start drooling just scrolling through the posts. When I prepared mine, I did the quicker option and didn't bake it with breadcrumbs - I just ate it once done cooking on the stove top (I was too hungry to wait!). I think it turned out just dandy. When I served mine up, I topped it with just a little sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. Yum! Next time around I might try making it with whole wheat noodles for even more fiber!

Loving this breakfast!

           Speaking of pumpkin, I was excited to break out the pumpkin oatmeal this week! For this bowl, I threw in currants, honey, cinnamon, and chopped pecans as my mix-ins. Delish. :-) Oatmeal is seriously such a versatile food. I love it! If only I could convince more of my cardiac patients to eat it. Sigh...

Love Me Some Lentils!

To kick off fall, I was inspired to finally cook up some of the green lentils I bought ages ago living in one of my kitchen cabinets. I also had picked up a big butternut squash at Whole Foods last week, so I thought I might try to combine the two! It turned out really well - I packed it in my lunch for the rest of the week. You can serve this both warmed or cold! YUM.

 Curried Butternut Squash Lentils
Ingredients:
- 1 cup lentils
- 2 cups vegetable stock
- 2 cups water
- 1/4 tbsp curry powder
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 large butternut squash
- Olive oil
Directions;
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Skin and chop butternut squash into uniform 1/2 inch pieces. Lay out cubed squash on a cookie sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and toss to coat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
2. Bake squash for 25-30 minutes or until soft with browned edges.
3. In the meantime, to cook lentils... Heat up water and stock in a saucepan on the stove. Add lentils and bring to a simmer. Sprinkle with curry and S+P. Cover and cook until the liquid has been absorbed.
4. Combine squash and lentils. Add more salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!