Healthy Veggie Pizza

For diner last night, after walking 5 miles with Katie, I decided to make some pizza. I had some leftover sauteed veggies and a whole grain crust I bought from Trader Joe’s and wanted to try.

I mixed the veggies with some freezer “Hide the lentils” tomato sauce from the Eat, Drink and Be Vegan cookbook that I love! It ended up being delicious! I can’t wait to buy the crust again, even Brady gave it two thumbs up!

  

Leftover Lentil sauce from the freezer

Before the oven – notice the piece of just cheese for Brady to sample.

Done and served with salad

I will be buying this crust again and I highly recommend it for anyone who has tried wheat crusts and found them to be too chewy or not crunchy enough. Plus this is super easy and mess-free!

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Pizza on the Grill

Guest Post

Tom, my cousin’s husband (who I refer to as my cousin, but they like me to clarify that they are not cousins who got married) 🙂 made the most delicious pizza on the grill. It was quite simple, here are the steps he followed:

1. We went the the Giant Eagle bakery and bought 1 lb of Italian bread dough.
2. Cut dough in 2 equal balls. Knead dough out into discs with fingers leaving edges a little thicker and both sides well floured.  
3. Heat grill to 500 degrees then cut flame to 1/2-3/4 flame (to prevent flame burn) right when dough goes on.  
4. Put dough on grate for 20 seconds…then rotate 90 degrees for another 20 seconds…then flip over for 30 seconds and pull off.  
5. We put the toppings on the crosshatched side…we put olive oil over whole crust, then Mid’s Homestyle pizza sauce topped with pre-sauted onions, thin sliced red, orange, and yellow peppers, mozzarella, and fresh basil…one I also put thin sliced chicken breast on top.  
6. We then put it back on the grill (@ 500 degrees) for about 4-5 min.
7. It was delicious! I got the tips on grill temp and time from an article in last month’s Men’s Health.  
8. Enjoy…

The process…

The final product…

Not quite big enough for pizza yet…

Thanks Tom!!

🙂

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Pizza Pizza!

Last night our good friends John and Ashley came over for dinner! It was pouring rain and gross outside so we decided against the cookout and opted for make your own pizzas! John and Ash brought a delicious bottle of Riesling, that tasted like summer!

While we sipped, we made two great pizzas – a his and a hers. Then we started on the sides while the pizzas were cooking!

Classic Tomato Basil

Jen and Kate’s Famous Strawberry Salad:

Boy’s Pizza

White crust with black olives, pepperoni, avocado and mozzarella.

Girl’s Pizza

Wheat crust with zucchini, squash, broccoli and goat cheese.

John and Ash brought dessert too – angel food cake with fresh berries and whipped cream!

It was a great, relaxing night of catching up with two of our favorite friends!!

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What didn’t go on our pizza?

9 miles down today. It’s getting closer and closer to our 1/2 marathon – the Country Music 1/2 in Nashville on April 25! The run today was actually much easier than I expected. We did 8 one day last week and it wasn’t too bad, but this seemed easier. Who knows why, but I am not complaining.

So when we make pizza, anything in the fridge is fair game for a topping. As you can see this was a veggie lovers dream and I felt like we were missing a few key toppings (mushrooms/onions).

To our pizza we added:

• tomato sauce
• fat free feta
• broccoli
• avocado
• peppers
• black olives
• strawberries (that was Brady’s doing, and they were pretty good!!)
• TONS of lettuce, when it came out of the oven.

Covering my pizza with lettuce is my favorite way to eat it. I used to be ashamed of my weird habit, but now I embrace it. I will post an action shot next time we have pizza!!

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Asian Pizza (rewind to Friday)

Friday was a busy day! It started with a morning workout and then a long/quick flying day at school.

Breakfast: Fruit and Oatmeal

Lunch: Leftover chickpea/blackbean burger over spinach with a BIG bag of microwave 94%ff Kettle corn!

Snacks: hmm.. there was an apple at school, some chips and salsa before dinner and I don’t remember what else!

I was really happy we had no plans at all for the evening, so when Brady’s brother, Tyler, called to see what we were doing for dinner we were excited to have him! Here is what we whipped up!

Asian Pizza

• 1 loaf of whole wheat bread dough
• mix of Asian sauces (hoisin, soy, ginger, teriyaki, szcheuan)
• 1 cooked chicken breast
• 1 can of mixed vegetables
• a little cheese
• 1 can of diced water chesnuts
• 1/2 c. chopped black olives (yuck!)
• a little leftover avocado

1. Roll out thawed bread dough.
2. Simmer water chesnuts and vegetables in Asian sauce until warm and coated in sauce.
3. Cover the pizza with Asian sauces, cooked chicken, veggies, avocado, olives and cheese.
4. Bake at 425 for about 35 min. or until crust is done to your liking!
5. ENJOY!

*Brady requested with this pizza we go with white dough next time. The tomato/veggie pizzas go better with whole wheat. I didn’t mind it, but I thought it should be noted!

  

Today has been painting day! I will have before and after pics for later!!

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Make your own pizza night!

Yesterday we did a lot of cleaning around my parents house.  I got rid of things from middle school and we took care of our Christmas stuff that was lying around. We cleaned up to get ready for the cleaning lady, and then she canceled – bummer!!

After a 5 mile run with Brady, I had a bowl of oatmeal.  It was warm and filling with a huge scoop of almond butter!

Around 5 pm, my mom and I went to the club to take a step aerobics class that I used to do all the time in high school.  It was a great workout and between running 10 miles and step class, my legs are feeling it!  I am so glad to get back into it!  While we worked out, Brady, my dad, Kevin and my cousin’s husband Tom played paddle.

When they got home, we had a huge dinner of make your own pizza.  Our toppings included:

• artichokes
• spinach
• olives
• chicken
• shrimp
• mozzarella
• feta
• pepperoni
• pesto sauce
• tomato sauce
• tomatoes
• mushrooms
• onions

Here are some pics!

Salad with avacado, tomato, peppers, romaine and spinach.

Whole wheat crust with veggies, feta and parm!

Pepperoni, chicken, black olives, mozzarella and tomato sauce.

White pizza with tomatoes, mushrooms, and onions.

BBQ chicken with shrimp and mozzarella

Pepperoni with veggies and mozzarella

This dinner was so delicious!  I would not recommend it with lots of company because the presentation of the pizza is a little messy when it is all cut!

HAPPY NEW YEAR’S EVE!!

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Portabella Pizza

So I can’t remember where I left off! The days are flying by and I can’t believe we only have 9 more days of school until Christmas break!

This pizza was great! Very filling and very veggie! You could add meat to it or just make it veggie- you can’t go wrong either way!

Portabella Pizzas

• 2 portobella mushrooms
• organic tomato sauce
• artichoke hearts
• Morningstar Vegan Griller (or any veggie burger)
• parm.

1. Wash and clean the portabellas

2. Layer on artichokes, sauce, veggie burger and salt and pepper

3. Bake until bubbly at 400. Add parm and enjoy!

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A First….Cheesy Polenta

Today was a productive/lazy Sunday. We did some chores, went for a run (3 miles) watched the Columbus Crew (Pro Soccer) win the MLS Championship. Good weekend for Columbus sports! Brady’s parents and brother came over to watch the game, and we had dinner before they left.

For dinner, I gave them the option of risotto or polenta, two unfamiliar things. They chose polenta and I was excited to make it for the first time. I used the Cooking Light recipe of Two Cheese Polenta, but made some modifications.

Two Cheese Polenta

modified from Cooking Light.

• 4 c. skim milk (it called for 1% but we only had skim)
• 1 c. water
• 1 1/4 c. corn grits (polenta, I used Bob’s)
• salt and pepper
• 3 pieces of light Cabot cheddar cheese- cut up (I didn’t have mascarpone)
• M1/4 c. parmesan cheese

Boil milk and water together and then slowly add polenta. Cook, while stirring, for 2 min. and then add cheeses and serve!

Plus… we had BBQ chicken pizza that was going to be an appetizer, but never made it.

And a salad with pepitas, apples and feta.Also, some acorn squash baked with a little maple syrup.

We had pork tenderloin too, but no pic. Sorry. I actually did not try it, but the marinate we used (lemon pepper) smelled really strong!

I am up for an early morning workout then a two day week ahead! Yay for Thanksgiving week!!

🙂

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Crabby Cakes and Rainbow Pizza

The past few days have been crazy with meetings for school, open house and company!  It has been fun and busy but also exhausting.  I am not going to recap much except for our dinner last night and tonight.  Then I am going to hit it, so I am ready for the kids to come to school tomorrow!  The first day of school never gets any less exciting, nerve-wrecking, or sleepless, no matter how old you get!

Wednesday’s Rainbow Pizza

• frozen bread dough (cheap, easy, low-fat)
• BBQ sauce – Caribbean Jerk sauce from BW3
• sweet peppers
• green peppers
• grilled chicken
• tomatoes
• fresh mozzarella
• fresh basil
• bacon bits
• turkey (deli

Thaw out the pizza dough and roll onto a cookie sheet.  Cover with BBQ and CJ sauce.  Toss on all ingredients and bake at 375 until brown and bubbly.  Enjoy 🙂  We did!

With this we enjoyed these wonderful mixed and grilled veggies:

Thursday’s Crab Cakes

(A modified recipe from Cooking Light)

• 2 cans of fancy crab meat
• 3 tbs. light miracle whip
• 2 tbs. dijon mustard
• 1 tbs. worchester
• 1 tbs. lemon juice
• 1 c. bread crumbs
• 1/3 c. diced roasted red pepper
• 1/3 c. diced green pepper
• 1 tsp. old bay seasoning
• salt and pepper

Mix all ingredients together.  Shape into portion sized cakes.  Spray a frying pan with Pam and pan fry the cake until golden brown on each side.  Bake at 350 for 10 min until warm and crispy(ish)  🙂  It won’t be too crispy unless you fry them in oil.  To make them a little more “real”, fry in a few tablespoons EVOO.

Tomorrow I will be more on top of things and will get back to normal!

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Pizza Plus

For dinner (last night, I will get better with posting in a timely manner) we made pizza on the grill.

One (Brady’s) had:

– leftover grilled chicken

– real bacon bits

– basil

– finely shredded chedder

– Panera’s tomato dipping sauce ( I didn’t realize we were out of sauce…)

The other (mine) had tons of veggies.  So many, in fact, that I cooked the veggies separately and was going to put them on the pizza after it came off the grill.  I didn’t want to risk perfectly good veggies falling through the grill.  There were mushrooms, broccoli, basil, arugula, tomatoes and feta.  Instead of putting the veggies on, I ripped some of the bread and added it to my bowl.

The green sauce all over my dough is a dip gone bad.  I was making a fat free spinach and artichoke dip the other night and food processed it into a cream or puree instead of chopping it.  It worked great as a sauce though!  I would use it again on pizza but I need to keep working on the dip part of it!

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