The Most Unusual "Pizza"

I know when I told Munchkie's Daddy that I wasn't going to be eating wheat he was incredibly resistant.  I think he thought we'd be eating plain chicken breast and steamed broccoli.  I say we because if I'm cooking dinner, it will be for everyone.  He won't read "Wheat Belly" and so thinks I'm off my rocker, as probably most of you do.  I just wanted to show you what kinds of things I am eating while being gluten free.  I'm also trying to stay away from other replacement carbs such as rice and potatoes for the most part.

This year Munchkie has had several issues that have surprised both of us.  First she had some respiratory stuff that requires inhalers at times, we're not sure if it's allergies or maybe asthma.  Then she started having skin stuff going on.  We're assuming it's eczema but it only goes away for a few hours to a day before it's back in full swing.  I personally think it's something food related, since it began once she started daycare and eating more meals (non-organic) outside of our home.  Munchkie's Daddy and I disagree on this one.  So I'm trying to edge her towards a wheat free and organic diet.  We'll see.

So here is what I ate today.

 For breakfast I had hot coconut flaxseed "cereal" which was so filling that I could hardly eat half of it.  It's unsweetened shredded coconut with ground flaxseed and milk (I used almond milk) and microwave for a minute.  Then add some walnuts and I added more milk after because it was kind of dry for me.

I found this recipe for gluten free goldfish, so I looked for one without cornstarch then Munchkie and I made them together.  They were a huge hit.  I doubled the recipe, hoping to have them for a while.  They were gone by dinner.  All of them.  As you can see, tip toes were just enough.  While I did not think they were like goldfish crackers, they were definitely delicious.

 Since the oven was already on, and I had kale from the farmer's market, so I made some kale chips to munch on.  While I was pulling out the kale I set some golden cherry tomatoes on the counter.  Munchkie instantly wanted to have some "toe-manoes" and we started popping tomatoes in our mouths.  Next thing I knew, the whole pint was gone and I had to distract Munchkie from that fact with the cooled cheese crackers.

 I also bought stone ground pure cacao chocolate at the farmer's market.  It is unlike any chocolate I've ever had before.  I actually am starting to prefer dark chocolate, eating 85% dark chocolate by itself, so this 70% was quite sweet to me.

 And for dinner, pizza.  This took quite a while to make and I don't know that I would say that it was "just like pizza."  It was good though.  I enjoyed it and Munchkie's Daddy had three pieces.

So how did I make pizza staying away from wheat?  Or any grain?  Well, it is definitely not something I would ever think of.

Wheat Free Pizza ~ from Wheat Belly by Dr. William Davis M.D.

• 1 head of cauliflower cut into 1 to 2 inch pieces (the head I got at the farmer's market was bigger than my head, it was way too much)
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 large eggs
• 3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (this was not enough cheese for me, I needed more)
• 12 ounces pizza sauce
• Basil
• Oregano
• Garlic powder
• choice of meat and veggies for toppings

1. Cook the cauliflower by boiling for 20 minutes or steaming.
2. Mash the cooked cauliflower until it looks like mashed potatoes.
3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and lightly coat pizza pan with olive oil.
4. Add the olive oil, eggs, 1 cup mozzarella cheese and I added basil, oregano and garlic powder at this time.
5. Pour the cauliflower mixture onto the pizza pan and press out into a flat pizza-like shape that is no more than 1/2 inch thick with "crusts" around the edge.
6. Bake for 20 minutes.  I wish that I had put mine back in for a could more minutes.
7. Remove the crust (leaving the oven on) and spread the pizza sauce, sprinkle the remaining cheese and add toppings.  His recipe calls for the oregano, basil and pepper at this time as well as an additional 1/2 cup of olive oil and 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese over top.  We left this out.
8. Bake until cheese is melted, 10 to 15 minutes.
9. Cut the pizza and use a spatula to get out, you will have to eat with a fork, you can't really pick it up.

Fried Green Tomatoes

 While I am trying to avoid wheat and other carbohydrates I have to find creative ways to made dinner.  The other day I saw a post about making salsa and decided to use the abundance of tomatoes we have to made some salsa.  The Zesty Salsa turned out pretty well, I didn't have enough jalepenos so it wasn't quite as zesty as we would have liked.  I ended up with ten jars of salsa, nine of which I canned so we can enjoy it for many more months.  While I was making the salsa I had a moment of panic when I thought I wouldn't have enough tomatoes so I went running down the three flights of stairs to my first floor neighbor's door to ask for more tomatoes.  He had told me that he was tired of tomatoes and would be throwing the plants out once I took all the tomatoes I wanted.  So I grabbed every tomato that was even remotely reddish and then quite a few green ones in case I needed more.  Turns out that I was a little overzealous and had way more tomatoes than room in my pot. So I was left with quite a few green tomatoes.

When my parents came to help us move in my mom wanted to make fried green tomatoes for us with some farmer's market tomatoes.  The tomatoes she had were a green variety and were too ripe to really make a fried tomato.  I decided to try again last night with the left over salsa tomatoes.  The no carb thing posed a little bit of a challenge and so I went looking in my pantry.  I found almonds and ground flax seed.  Both of which are very healthy and will coat the outside of a tomato.  They turned out pretty good and this meal was so filling that I could not eat much more than half of what is on my plate.  I had used this recipe for Sesame Crusted Salmon and coated our albacore since I didn't have any salmon. 

Wheat Free Fried Green Tomatoes
Several Green Tomatoes
Egg Whites
1/2 cup sliced almonds crunched up into fine crumbs
1/3 cup ground flax seed
Seasings- I used oregano, basil and a small pinch of salt

Slice the tomatoes, put the egg white in a bowl and the almond/flax mixture onto a plate.  Dip the tomatoes in the egg white and then coat in crumb mixture.  Place into hot skillet with a small amount of olive oil and cook until golden brown on each side, flipping as needed.

The Pasta of Summer

Last fall this Tomato Basil Pasta Salad was my favorite pasta dish to make because I love tomatoes, basil and garlic. After a recent walk we looked through our cabinets and fridge to find something to fix for dinner.  We worked together in the kitchen to quickly made some food before we all had breakdowns.  While the water was boiling, Munchkie's Daddy chopped basil from our herbs and walnuts mixing them with olive oil, garlic powder, salt and pepper.  While he was doing that I chopped tomatoes.  Once the cheese tortellini was finished boiling he drained it and I added shredded mozzarella mixing to let it melt on the hot pasta.  Then we mixed in the basil mixture and tomatoes.  It was so delicious that Munchkie asked for seconds and probably would have eaten thirds if it wasn't already past her bedtime.

Do You Cook in Cast Iron?

Do you own a cast iron skillet?  If so, do you use it?  Like good newlyweds we registered for a Lodge Logic cast iron skillet and didn't know what to do with it.  I made cornbread occasionally and that was the extent of my cast iron usage.  On the way back from my aunt's in North Carolina a few times we stopped at the Lodge Logic outlet and picked up a few more things, including a small skillet that needed to be seasoned.  Now, five years later, we don't even put the skillets away because they are used the most.

Farmer's Market sugar snap peas with a drizzle of olive oil, scoop of sesame tahini, salt, pepper, teriyaki and sesame seeds.

Lately, I've been reading about the health benefits of cast iron, especially for women.  Women are especially prone to anemia, as well as not taking care of ourselves.  If there's something we can do for ourselves that's simple, we should do it.  Everything that we cook from scrambled eggs to vegetables to chicken breast is cooked in the cast iron skillet and the extra iron gives us a little boost.  It also makes a mean corn bread in the oven.  The clean up is ridiculously easy, we just take pour a little drizzle of olive oil in the pan and wipe out.  No water, no soap and no scrubbing.  No matter what we cook in it, all we have to do is wipe it out, the seasoning makes it almost no stick.

Here are several links to articles about cast iron skillets that I found in a two second Google search. 

Anemia and Nutrition: The Importance of Iron
Anemia- Dietary Factors
Anemia and Pregnancy
Ever So Humble, Cast Iron Outshines the Fancy Pans
The Benefits of Cast Iron Cooking

If you have a cast iron skillet you should use it. Not only does it cook your food quickly and evenly, it gives you a little extra iron that you may not be getting from your diet.

Sometimes Kitchen Disaster Strikes

I have not had very good luck in the kitchen lately.  Everything I make turns out very poorly from yogurt to birthday cake and I am getting pretty discouraged.  When practicing for Munchkie's bday cake the initial trial run was horrible.  The outside was crispy and close to burnt while the inside was a formed uncooked dough.  Then when it came time to make the actual cakes for her party they all got burnt and I had to cut them all up to get the burnt pieces off.

Last night my inlaws were here and when everyone had gone to bed I realized that we had literally nothing for breakfast.  I had two overly ripe bananas and so decided to make banana bread for breakfast.  First I took it out once the toothpick came clean and when I went to get it out of the pan liquid batter came out.  Neat.  So I put it back in the pan and cooked it for another half an hour.  By this point in time everyone had been asleep for hours before me.  When we woke up, I put Munchkie in her high chair.  Got her all psyched up for bo-non-a bread.  Cut into the bread.  Solidified dough.  Literally dough.  

So then I cut off a couple pieces and put them in the toaster oven at 350 degrees for 10 minutes in the hopes that it would cook.  Nope.  Basically just firmer dough with burnt edges.  Still not edible.  So then I had to go wake Chris up and send him to go get bagels for breakfast, which is what I was trying to avoid by staying up making banana bread.

So my lesson learned.  When baking, don't mess with the chemistry because I almost failed chemistry in both high school and college.  I was so tired that I made some mistakes and tried to mess with the chemistry of baking.  I only had two bananas and the recipe called for 3 1/2 so I added two chopped pears.  I then added an extra 1/3 cup flour because it was easier to put 2 cups in instead of 1 2/3 cups.  Then I dumped in baking powder when it was supposed to be baking soda.  Bad decisions.  It was supposed to be amazing banana bread.  If someone wants to make Flour's Famous Banana Bread and let me know how it goes when the recipe is followed I would appreciate it.

I finally was able to make something successfully tonight and it gave me hope that maybe I am not a kitchen failure.  We had bought a pound of ground buffalo a while back and defrosted it yesterday so I tried to think of something to make with it.  Much to Munchkie's Daddy's chagrin I decided to make meatloaf.  I don't know that I've ever had meatloaf and I've definitely not had buffalo so I did a quick search to find a recipe.  I looked at it, then decided to do my own thing.  I hate ketchup and that was definitely not going in or on anything I was going to be eating.  This is my recipe and it turned out delicious.  We both really liked it.

Hidden Veggie Buffalo Meatloaf

1 pound ground buffalo
1 bell pepper (not green, too strong of a flavor)
1 cup chopped carrots
1/4 onion
2 egg whites
1/3 cup bread crumbs (I crunched up 8 crackers)
1 teaspoon dried basil
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
3 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 cup shredded chedder cheese
1/3 cup marinara sauce

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Put bell pepper, carrots, and onion in a food processor.  Puree if you're like us and don't like chunks of veggies or just chop up if you don't care.
3. Once chopped add basil, garlic, onion powder and Worcestershire sauce and food process until mixed.
4. In a large bowl mix together puree mix, ground buffalo, egg whites, bread crumbs and cheese.
5. Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray/oil.
6. Press mixture into loaf pan and then pour marinara sauce over the top.
7. Cook for 1 hour or until center of meat is 160 degrees.
8. Let sit for 10 minutes before cutting.

And here comes my favorite part of recipes.  The nutrition information if there are 6 servings.
Calories- 178
Fat 4.9g
Cholesterol- 56mg
Sodium- 188mg
Carbohydrates 7.4g
Fiber 1.2g
Protein 24.9g

Meatless Meals That Taste Great (Ultimate Recipe Swap)

I read this post a while ago and decided to go ahead and post it now.  With the Lenten season underway and no meat Fridays along with the rising cost of groceries, especially meat, I thought this might be helpful.  I haven't actually tried any of the recipes, but I am willing to try them if it means healthy for less!

Meatless Meals That Taste Great (Ultimate Recipe Swap)

Came across this

www.vitalicious.com

The other day I took Munchkie to Target to get her picture taken and forgot to grab anything to eat on our rush out the door.  When we got to Target I wanted to find something to eat that I wouldn't have to feel guilty about (and there wasn't a Starbucks inside, what Target doesn't have a Starbucks these days???).  Walking past the frozen foods to get to the portrait studio I saw these muffin tops that I had glanced at before when buying things from the frozen natural food section before.  I thought I would give them a try and see how they were.  I have to say that I was pretty impressed.  

I grabbed the CranBran and when I flipped the box over I could read, understand and even pronounce every single ingredient (Water, whole wheat flour, organic sugar, egg whites, whole wheat flakes, cranberries, molasses powder, soy bran, oat fiber, wheat protein isolate, oat bran, inulin, leavening (potassium bicarbonate, sodium acid pyrophosphate, monocalcium phosphate), wheat gluten, fruitrim (grapejuice, brown rice), acacia gum, natural flavor, sea salt, cinnamon, xanthan gum, lecithin, vitamin A, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin E, folic acid, iron, biotin, zinc) .  Amazing.  That is really hard to find on the backside of a box these days, which is why I usually tend to stay away from boxed foods.  The nutrition facts weren't that bad either.

They really filled me up and tasted pretty good too.  I can remember my mom bringing home foods from the health food store in town when I was little and it was disgusting flavored cardboard.  Things have come a long way.  I might actually keep some of these in my freezer for the day I run out of Homemade Granola Bars and don't have time to make more.  There are also a lot of different options if you look at their website at www.vitalicious.com.  When you look at their website on the side is a little walking man and it says that it only takes 13 minutes of walking to walk off one of their 100 calorie vitatop muffins.  That definitely eliminates any guilt you might have.  Thirteen minutes is nothing!

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

Good food Good friends

When you have kids, sometimes Ikea is a huge adventure.

This weekend we had some college friends come and visit with their dog and one-year-old son. I was reminded again of how great it is to have life long friends. There are some friends that you know no matter how far apart, no matter how life turns out or how long you go in between calls, you will always be friends. It's good for me to have these kinds of friends because I'm not so great at keeping in regular touch with people, even if I am living a town over.

While our friends were here we wanted to give them the full east coast experience (as we do with all first time visitors), however with two kids sleeping/napping schedules, we didn't really get to go out and see much. So we mostly just had food that is more available on the east coast. Isn't that what people enjoy the most? I know I do!

We made lobster rolls on fresh bread, pulled some soup from the freezer and threw together a salad. I happened to think it was delicious.

Our friends appeared to have enjoyed it as well.

Lobster Rolls

1-2 pounds fresh/defrosted frozen lobster (can use smaller amount of lobster and add shrimp or scallops as well)

4 cloves fresh garlic

1/2 tablespoon butter

2-3 tablespoons melted butter

1. First I sauteed the garlic in the pan with the 1/2 tablespoon of butter on medium heat.
2. Then I added the lobster, don't put too much in the pan, only enough to cover the bottom.
3. The lobster only takes a couple minutes to cook.  You do NOT  want to overcook it!  You'll know when the lobster is done because instead of being "squishy slimy" it will feel firm when cooking utensil is pressed on it.
4. When the lobster was finished cooking there was quite a bit of water in the pan that came from the lobster.  I dumped this out and then melted the additional butter in the pan.  Then I poured the butter over the top of the lobster in a bowl.
5. We were pulling the rolls from the oven just as the butter was melting, talk about perfect timing. The rolls are cut like a hotdog bun (which can be used as well) and the lobster placed inside.  You can also slice the buns and "toast" them, cut side down, in a pan with a teaspoon or so of melted butter if you want.

 Rolls

2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
7/8 cup water

1. Put all ingredients in a breadmaker and put on dough setting, or take out before it starts to bake if you don't have a dough setting.
2. If you don't have a breadmaker, mix together until forms a dough.  Let rise for 45 minutes.  Knead.
3. At this point form the dough into the shape you want and place on the pan you will be cooking it on.
4. Let rise for 30 minutes.
5. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
6. Bake for 12-15 minutes.

Good friends and good food are just what we needed to take our mind off of the anxiety of waiting for answers to the uncertainty of our future.  A little break to enjoy being in the moment and not to worry about the future was much appreciated.

When things go wrong, start cooking

I had a very specific schedule planned out for this morning.  When Munchkie woke up I was going to get her, do my 20 minute exercise DVD with her "assistance," shower and make it to church for Sunday School.  Due to my schedule and our traveling I have not been able to go to our church since the beginning of December.  Isn't that crazy?  We really wanted to start participating more at church and we haven't been able to because I've been working.  When I woke up, went downstairs and started to brush my teeth, the water just stopped.  I turned the faucet off and on and nothing.  Nothing from the kitchen sink either.  Oh boy.  There went all of my perfectly scheduled plans.  No water= not good.  You don't realize how much you use rely on water.  I can't shower, I can't brush my teeth, I can't wash my scrubs (which are all dirty and I have to work tonight), and I feel amazingly dehydrated since I have limited water to drink. 

So when I get frustrated or stressed, I like to cook/bake.  Even though it meant that I would end up with dishes that couldn't be washed I decided to make something for breakfast.  It ended up being tasty.

I chopped up a couple tomatoes, sweet peppers and 4 cloves of garlic.

I sauteed the garlic in 1 teaspoon of olive oil and then added the peppers.  After they got slightly soft I added the tomatoes and about 1/4 cup black beans.  I know this may be weird, but I push the veggies around the outside of the pan and then pour the eggs in the middle to cook for a little bit.  I used 2 whole eggs and 2 egg whites that were scrambled with a dash of milk, chili powder, paprika, cumin and freeze dried cilantro (bad choice, wish I had fresh).

Then I added just a little bit of shredded cheese once everything was cooked.

Munchkie's Daddy had his in a wrap with hot sauce to spice it up more.

I just put mine in a bowl with some more cilantro.  Munchkie and I were supposed to share, but she decided that she didn't want any once we sat down to eat it. 

And so she ended up with a more toddler friendly breakfast.

This ended up being so filling neither one of us could finish it!  Quite yummy I would have to say.  I think it made our lack of water just a little more bearable.  Now the water can decide to start running at any time.  That would be nice.

MLK Jr. GIVEAWAY!

The cool thing to do when you have a blog is to have giveaways.  I have entered countless giveaways on the blogs I follow and have, sadly, never won anything. Since holidays are for great deals, and I am close to having 2,000 hits on my blog (wow!) I thought I would try out a giveaway on my blog, even though it's not a cool new product.

I had talked earlier about how we made our Christmas presents this year and how much work it had been.  We had made extras because we didn't want to run out after all of the work we had put into them.

I bet you're wondering what exactly are these presents? A cookbook, pure homemade vanilla, a small utensil set (our favorite, we have about 4 sets of these), and all of this is wrapped in a dish towel.

We compiled our favorite recipes from all different sources into a cookbook for our friends and families.  The recipes came from scribbles on scrap papers in a folder, cookbooks, internet searches and our families.  We enjoy cooking and wanted to pass along some tasty recipes to others.

 The recipes are divided into nine different sections including Breakfast, Breadmaker Breads, Soup, Starters and Snacks, Sauces, Sides, Entree, Dessert and Beyond Food.  There are also occasional color photos of the items taken by us.  The recipes range from an amazing blueberry muffin to stinky shoe solution. 

 We also made homemade vanilla.  Many kinds of vanilla have additives, including the dreaded high fructose corn syrup, and aren't really pure vanilla.  Don't worry I opened, scraped and sliced the vanilla beans myself.  This is pure vanilla.  I actually haven't baked since it was finished brewing in my cabinet, but I hear it is very good.

So, I am going to offer two of these to two people who read my blog.  I don't have any neat computer program that will randomly select a winner, so I will have to do it the old-fashioned-pick-a-name-out-of-a-hat way.  In order to enter this giveaway leave a comment here on my blog with your email address. To have a second entry, become a follower of this blog and leave a comment saying that you are a follower. I will put all of the email addresses into a hat and draw from there. 

This giveaway will end Wednesday January 19th at 8:00am.  (Mostly because that's when I'll get home from work to see who entered.)  If you are a winner, I will email you and ask for your mailing address.

Good luck!

Full Freezer = Happy Munchkie's Mama!

I said before that I would talk about those processed-convient-chemical-ladden-frozen meals.  I think you can catch my thoughts from my description.  I am not saying anything about the people who make and eat them, I'm saying that the people who create them are to blame.  Let me give a quick synopsis of our food eating married lives.

First we got married six days after graduating from college and were thrown into grown up living, married life, first time real jobs and keeping up a home.   At first we were basically just surviving, eating fast food, take out, with an occasional frozen meal thrown in.  We both enjoyed cooking, however it was time consuming, we both hated dishes and expensive to decide to make a recipe and then buy everything that you needed for that recipe.  When we discovered that you could buy frozen fulled prepped meals (both of our moms are mostly homemade from scratch) in the store.  This our bridge to homemade cooking.  We were able to get into the routine of figuring out what to eat and then have the patience to cook it ourselves.  We found ourselves cooking at home more often because it was zero prep, quick, not very many dishes to clean (however we still felt sluggish and uck a lot).  Once we started doing this, we began branching out and making more meals from home.  This slow progression from fast food to homemade brings us to today (we find when we are eating a lot of organic food, fruits and vegetables and eliminating preservatives and chemicals we have so much more energy and overall feel better).

There is nothing more convenient than pulling out a frozen meal that is prepped and cook it up in minutes.  However most frozen meals are so full of chemicals, preservatives, and other not so good for you things.  The other night at work another nurse was showing me a Lean Cuisine frozen meal that said it was preservative free.  When I asked what was in it, on the ingredient list, she couldn't pronounce most of the huge list of ingredients.  For this reason I was so excited when I saw a friend's blog about freezer dinners  that I had to get the book right away.  When you make it yourself, you know what the ingredients actually are.  Due to my recent purchase of many pounds of meat and a weekend off, I have spent my entire weekend creating freezer meals and now I have about 70 options for frozen meals in my freezer.  That will last us a long time!

Now this is how a working mom has homemade meals for her family without relying on chemicals and preservatives.  I may not be able to provide a fresh homemade meal every night for my family, but I can make sure we have healthy options in the freezer.

Look at all I have made this weekend!  I had to create an inventory document because I don't know how else to know what we have buried in that bottomless hole of a deep freezer.  If anyone has an organization system for their deep freeze please let me know!

 It took a lot of pots to make all of the soups, which is why it took so many days.

 Munchkie's Daddy had made this tomato sauce a little while back, but I took inventory of it this weekend.

Spaghetti squash to go with the tomato sauce.  I have no idea how well this freezes, I guess we'll find out.

Chicken with Peanut Sauce frozen in rolls with a ziploc bag of peanut sauce in the middle.  I have plans to make a stir fry with some frozen peppers and onions and serve over rice with that peanut sauce.

Dijon Pork Loin Roast, we had to cut it up into portions for our family.  I think this will be served with some mashed cauliflower and salad.

Orange Teriyaki Chicken.  Going to be another stir fry.

Lentil Soup, a family recipe that took me a long time to try, but is now a winter staple.

Sausage, Kale and Bean Soup which is very yummy!

Chicken and Rice Soup, hopefully this is good, I didn't have a recipe, just kind of threw stuff into a pot.

Creamy (Creamless) Zucchini and Potato Soup which I haven't tried yet, but hopefully is good!

My full freezers make me very happy!