OH how I love pizza!

Every Sunday hubby and I go to church then Central Market to grab a bite on the patio with the live band, and pick up some fresh produce after lunch. I love to explore all the specialty food items at Central market, and today I found a great foodie find! After raiding their beautiful produce section we headed over to the bakery where we found fresh baked pizza crust! They looked delicious, and they were only $1.50! I knew what we were making for dinner tonight. Lets get cooking!




Recipe: Quick and easy pizza

What you need:

Any vegetable your heart desires! We used red onion, green bell pepper, basil, garlic, and tomatoes.

3 TBSP Extra virgin olive oil

Sea salt

Pepper

Pre made pizza crust: Make sure to avoid processed pizza crust. There are a lot of frozen specialty crusts out there that are non-processed, but they are kind of pricey... $5 a crust just is not for me. Just get the CM brand made fresh for $1.50.

Pizza sauce: Of course you could always make your own, but that is not in the spirit of quick and easy. Cento has a pizza sauce that doesn’t have preservatives, taste great, low sodium, and only $1.50! Cento also uses San Marzano tomatoes from Italy that taste wonderful. I highly recommend any San Marzano tomato product. Their products are available a most stores, but just incase they aren’t… http://www.cento.com/ Then click shop online, and go to the sauce section. They actually have them cheaper there than they do at the grocery store!

Grated mozzarella (fresh mozzarella taste the best, but I know not all stores have it so just get what you can)

Pepperoni (smoked, not cured)

1. Preheat oven to 350

2. Finely chop garlic and mix with olive oil

3. Spread oil garlic mixture on pizza crust reserving 1 tsp

4. Bake crust for about 5 minutes.

5. Spread pizza sauce over crust.

6. Cover pizza with cheese. (amount is up to you)

7. Put pepperoni on pizza (important you put this on before the other toppings so crust won’t get soggy)

8. Season the tomatoes with the oil garlic mixture and a pinch of sea salt and pepper.

9. Put on all other toppings.

10. Bake in the oven till cheese is melted and bubbling. (no more than 15 minutes)



I would highly recommend baking this on a pizza stone of some sort. I do not have a pizza stone, but I do have a stone bar pan from Pampered Chef that worked out perfectly. The stone won’t burn the bottom, and it conducts heat evenly. Hubby and I wanted our pizza topped differently so he was in charge of one side and I was in charge of the other. We both got what we wanted, and we were happy!

Can you tell which side is hubby's? Yes it is the one that looks like there are no veggies on it, but I promise there are tons of veggies underneath all the cheese and pepperoni. I looked in to healthier options for pepperoni, but I only found soy versions. We do not eat soy since it is a high natural estrogen, but that is a different topic for another post. The best thing I found for us was smoked pepperoni instead of cured. All in all this was the BEST pizza I have had in a long time! 

Please feel free to get creative with this recipe. You could use pesto instead of pizza sauce. You could add olives, artichokes, jalapeños, goat cheese, feta cheese, pineapple, eggplant, and the list could go on forever.

A note about some of these ingredients: Pesto is made from pine nuts which is a tree nut, so of course do not use if you have a nut allergy. Cured meats and cheeses like feta and goat cheese, that are usually unpasteurized, contain a bacterium called Listeria. Pregnant women are much more susceptible to this bacterium which can cause several pregnancy complications, so please take EXTREME caution when eating these products. Make sure you heat up cured products to 160 degrees prior to eating in order to kill the bacteria. Most doctors recommend avoiding unpasteurized products all together during pregnancy.

http://www.americanpregnancy.org/pregnancycomplications/listeria.html

Chili on a cold rainy night.

 It's rather nasty out tonight so I decided to have some chili and relax on the couch. I researched a few recipes, and I saw most called for canned beans that are rinsed. The issue with rinsing canned beans is that it doesn't take away all the preservatives and sodium. I opted to just create my own recipe and see how it turned out.


Recipe: Three bean turkey chili with some veggies!!!!

Ingredients:

2 TBSP of olive oil

Crushed red pepper to your liking

Sea salt to your liking

3 cloves of garlic

2 carrots

1 bell pepper

1 Onion

1 Jalapeño (or more if you like it extra hot)

1 TBSP Cumin

1TBSP chili powder

1 TBSP Mexican oregano

1lb of ground turkey (or beef if your prefer)

1 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes (I like the central market one)

2 home made beef stock (I like to save the stock that I have left over from roasting beef)

1 cup of red beans

1 cup of black beans

1 cup of pinto beans

Since I'm not using canned beans I boiled these a head of time.

Of course you can always adapt this recipe to make it as hot or mild as you like.



1. Chop up all your veggies

2. Heat up oil in a large pot

3. Once hot add all the veggies and crushed red pepper and cook for about 5 minutes then ass turkey and brown till no longer pink.

4. Add all of your seasonings. Stir to combine, and let cook for 1 more minute.

5. Add the tomatoes and beef stock cover and let simmer for 20 minutes.

7. Add in your beans and continue to simmer for 10 more minutes.

At this point I would taste it to see if it needs some sea salt (which it will since this virtually has no sodium in it). Season it to taste and voila yummy chili!!! I served mine over rice, and of course feel free to top with some grated cheese.

Verdict: I loved it, hubby loved it, and I haven't felt so cozy and warm after a delicious bowl of chili in a long time! I plan on freezing the left overs, and hubby may see this reappear in a future lunch.

Buying organic food

I admit I don't buy everything organic, but who can afford that? I like to follow the "dirty dozen" list of produce that contain more pesticides. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13737389/page/2/#storyContinued
Stick with just buying organics from the dirty dozen list, and you will keep your grocery bill down!

A quick lunch for hubby

Hubby and I have been looking into reinventing the lunch after eliminating most processed foods from our diets. After taking a good hard look at the things we put into our lunches I almost had a heart attack. TONS of sodium and preservatives not to mention an unbalanced meal. Sorry folks but a well balanced lunch does not include a sandwich, chips, cookies, and apple sauce. I would like to challenge you to really read the labels of the items you are putting in your families lunches, and I bet you would find your selves shocked.


Now that we are over the shock lets look at how to reinvent your lunches. After much reading I personally loved the Japanese Bento lunch system. The theory behind the Bento lunches is to provide a midday meal that is filled with colorful healthy foods. You can buy a bento system such a this http://www.laptoplunches.com/ but I personally made my own "bento system" with BPA free containers from The Container Store. Using reusable containers won't create waste, and keeps plastic out of our landfills. You want to make sure your containers are BPA free though... VERY IMPORTANT!! Lets get to the lunch now!

Meal contents: Oven "fried" wings in buffalo sauce, carrot sticks, veggie dip, organic strawberries (on the "dirty dozen" please buy organic), and bulk central market animal crackers.

Method: To oven fry my wings I preheated the oven to 425 and tossed the wings in olive oil and laid them out on my stoneware bar pan. I cooked them for about 10 min then took them out and flipped them over and continued to cook them on the other side till done and crispy. You can toss them in a store bought sauce or make your own. I would recommend making you own because I found that the store bought ones have way to much sodium in it. You could even just toss them in a hot sauce like Tabasco, or Louisiana Hot Sauce. Then I just cut up the carrots and fruit.

Packing: I separated the carrots and strawberries with the container of dipping sauce, and the wings are on the other compartment of the container. I put the whole container in a lead free lunch box, and to keep it chilled I put in a non toxic ice pack.

And the verdict is: Hubby loved it. Says the wings were crispy and delish!

Introducing ME!

First and foremost welcome to my new blog, and thank you for stopping by! My mission in doing this blog is to take you on my journey to make ECO friendly, healthy, well balanced meals, and on a budget. Hopefully while you follow me on my journey you will find your self inspired to try new things, or to give me new ideas! I originally decided to set sail on this endeavour while trying to find healthy lunch ideas for my husband, but to my disappointment all I found were things like sushi and tofu burger. Um... I don't know about your family, but my husband isn't eating tofu burgers. Here you will find great fresh food that I make everyday to share with you! Please feel free to share any questions, comments, or ideas with me.