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Pizza My Heart!

Although I am on a health kick, I can’t tell you a time that I don’t crave PIZZA! There is something about the gooey cheese and delicious toppings stacked and bubbling together on top of a thin crispy crust. I usually go the delivery route or pop a frozen pizza into the oven, which are both tasty but I wanted to make my own pizza for this recipe. Something a little lighter, a bit healthier, and A LOT quicker.

The best part of this recipe is how incredibly quick and easy it is to make! PERFECT for a weeknight dinner or a quick lunch on the go, or if your like me it even makes for a good breakfast. After making this recipe that’s EXACTLY what i did. I had it for lunch a few days in a row and breakfast one of those days. it only cost about 15$ to get  all of the ingredients and I had days and days of  fresh leftovers, way better than the price for delivery.  It took about 10 minutes total from prepping my ingredients to the plate hot and ready to enjoy! 

First I added fresh garlic to the olive oil and brushed it over the flatbread. Popped it into the oven for about five minutes without the toppings (to ensure that it was extra crispy). Then I layered on the mozzarella cheese and cherry tomatoes. I chose to use cherry instead of regular tomatoes because I don’t like tomatoes very much, but I LOVE margherita pizza. The cherry tomatoes are much sweeter and can be sliced extra thin and small, also their bright red color gives the food an extra pop for presentation.

I then placed the flatbread with the toppings back into the oven for 5 minutes. When i pulled them out they were hot and bubbly! I chopped fresh basil and covered the top of the pizza (I prefer a lot of basil because of the delicious fresh flavor it adds to this dish). To top it off i drizzled some more olive oil and balsamic vinegar which combines all the flavors of the ingredients together beautifully. 

NOW TIME TO SLICE AND ENJOY! :)

This flatbread was made with such few ingredients and they all were fresh.The bold flavor of this pizza was unbelievable. I tend to like to dip my pizza in ranch but this pizza was SO TASTY, no ranch was needed. The rich flavor from so few fresh ingredients made this flatbread a healthier choice and absolutely  AMAZING. Don’t forget to sprinkle red pepper flakes on top to add a little kick, but this is only for the daring ;)

Ingredients:

1 naan

3 pieces of sliced to 1/3- 1/2 inch thickness fresh mozzarella cheese

1 tomato, sliced as thin as possible

5-6 leaves basil

3 cloves garlic, pressed;  or 1 tsp dry garlic powder

1.5 Tbsp Olive oil

1.5 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar

Salt & Pepper to taste

Instructions

Press fresh garlic and mix with oil.

Brush the flatbread with oil & garlic with half the mixture. Place in preheated to 350F oven for 5 minutes to crisp up.

Remove from oven and place 3 slices of cheese on top of the flatbread, sprinkle with salt & pepper, then place thinly sliced tomatoes on top and repeat with a sprinkling of salt & pepper. Place back in the oven for another 5 minutes, plus extra 2-3 minutes on broil. Watch the bread closely, if its too dark before 2-3 minutes remove it from the oven immediately.

Meanwhile mix the remaining oil & garlic with the balsamic vinegar, stirring until a smooth emulsion forms.

Chop the basil leaves.

Once flatbread pizza is baked and the edges are golden in color, remove from the oven, drizzle with however much of the balsamic vinegar mixture you would like, sprinkle with basil leaves, slice and serve and enjoy!

Shepherd's Pie

“Happy St. Patrick’s Day!” is what I was saying a little over a week ago as I purchased all of the fresh ingredients to make my very first shepherd’s pie, from scratch. I was so proud to come up with this idea for my second recipe and adventure in the kitchen. What a fun idea for St. Patrick’s day, and it was something I definitely have never tried to cook on my own before. This year instead of staying out late, decked in green from head to toe with giant light up shamrocks on my head, I chose to spend a quiet night in listening to music preparing a lovely meal.  

I have to admit I got a little caught up and a little busy this past week and haven't been able to post until now, but hey BETTER LATE THAN NEVER :)

I have only tried Shepherd’s Pie before a couple times in my life and each time it was only because someone I was with ordered it at a restaurant as their meal and I had a few bites. Or when I worked at a Preschool a few years back they served it there for lunch, pretty fancy lunch huh?  Although it was just instant mashed potatoes, teeny tiny frozen peas and carrots, and some mini meat balls mixed all together in a bowl with some shredded cheese on top. Either way,  whipped up in a restaurant or served buffet style in the preschool I always thought it was delicious, and I couldn't wait to try to make my own from scratch! 

Many recipes I found for Shepherd’s Pie called for ground beef, but I decided to go with chuck roast to make it more of a hearty stew to enjoy on this cold, windy, night in.  

I followed the recipe step by step, I started by browning the meat in batches just as it said but my favorite part was chopping up the delicious fresh veggies. Adding more veggies into my diet is definitely a must, and I was proud of myself for not going the easy route and buying them already chopped and frozen. :)

The celery was the easy part, I felt like I was on a roll! Then it was time to chop the carrots, and this ordeal set me back about 45 min. ;)

I’m not a big fan of cooked carrots mostly because of the texture, so my bright idea was to grate them instead. I love the taste and I didn’t want to leave anything out of the recipe (except the onions of course) ;) I still haven't been able to develop a liking for onions....just yet. Plus I did a little research and one of my favorite chefs Gordon Ramsay grates his carrots in his recipe. NICE!

Trying to budget my money a bit better I bought the most.....lets say inexpensive grater from the grocery store, that was my first mistake! It took me close to 10 minutes to grate ONE SINGLE CARROT. With an EXTREMELY sore arm and 5 more carrots to go I came up with another bright idea. Why don’t I put them in the blender! Quick, easy, and I should have nicely shredded carrots in just a couple pushes of a button. No...No...and NO! this did not work. All that happened was big chunks of carrots banging around the blades making a horrible noise. At the risk of breaking my roomates blender it was back to the grater because I was not giving up on those grated carrots. Over 30 minutes later I fully grated 6 LARGE carrots! I even alternated hands and got a killer arm workout in the process. Do you want to see what 40 minutes of hard work grating carrots looks like?

NOTHING SPECIAL!  And this is what took the most effort of this whole recipe. The important thing is I was DETERMINED and I did not give up! ;)

Next up was the chopping of the garlic, which I was looking forward to after the carrot fiasco. I set aside 6 cloves of Garlic and after trying to peel one of the cloves, that TOO was taking FOREVER. So at this point I turned to google for a quick trick to peel the skin off garlic. I found one. I was a little skeptical at first, it said to place the cloves of garlic into a hard container with a lid and SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE for a couple minutes. At this point I was glad I had the house to myself that night because i’m sure this looked absolutely ridiculous. After shaking that container as if there was no tomorrow, I was surprised to find this actually worked! WOW! All of the skin came right off.

Google was again my best friend because I needed a substitute for the cup of red wine. I used beef stock, but other choices included: vinegar, ginger ale, grape juice, apple juice, cranberry juice, pomegranate juice, lemon juice, liquid from canned mushrooms, tomato juice, or even just water.

I followed the recipe and combined all of the ingredients and allowed them to simmer, and let me just tell you my house smelled ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! As all of the flavors combined together I couldn't help but taste test this, over and over again. SO incredibly flavorful I could have just stopped there and eaten it just like that! But I moved on to the mashed potatoes. And for the record I have not made mashed potatoes from scratch many times in my life, if at all and they are so SIMPLE and WAY better than instant potatoes. I could have eaten a giant bowl of those alone too!

Now it was time to transfer the ingredients to a casserole dish and bake!

I really wanted to pipe the potatoes on with a pastry bag to make it look pretty, but the one problem I had with this recipe is there was not enough mashed potatoes AT ALL. Or else I just went a little overboard with the taste testing ;)  There is supposed to be a thick layer covering the top of the stew and I barley could spread them into a thin layer to cover it. OH WELL, into the oven it went. I knew it would still be delicious! 

I’m KICKING myself now, but I did not take an after photo :( 

While trying to plate this for a perfect after photo it came out UGLY UGLY UGLY! I did not want anyone to see it. But let me tell you it was one of the most DELICIOUS things I have EVER tasted. It was full of flavor and came out tasting perfect!

I’m bummed I was so worried about what people might think of my after photo. This was a dish I was truly proud of, and worked hard on (lets not forget the carrots)  Even though it didn’t look perfect on the outside doesn’t mean it wasn’t absolutely amazing!

SUCH IS LIFE, things may not always be perfect but life sure can be amazing when you take the time to enjoy the things you love to do. It’s as simple as PIE ;)

Ingredients

2 pound beef chuck roast

6 tablespoons all-purpose flour, divided

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

4 ribs celery, sliced

6 carrots, sliced

6 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup high-quality red wine

1 1/2 cups beef stock

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

2 bay leaves

3 sprigs fresh thyme

1 1/2 cups frozen green peas

Salt and pepper

2 pounds gold Yukon potatoes, peeled and cut into 3/4 inch cubes

4 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup half and half

Chopped chives (for garnish)

Instructions

1. Cut chuck roast into 3/4 inch cubes and place in a medium bowl. Sprinkle with 3 tablespoons of the flour and toss to coat each piece.

2. Heat olive oil in a large non-stick or iron skillet. Brown meat in batches. Do not overcrowd skillet and add oil as needed. Remove from skillet and set aside.

3. Add onion, celery, carrots and garlic to skillet and saute for six or seven minutes. Add three tablespoons of flour, mix well, and cook for two to three more minutes. Deglaze skillet with wine and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Add beef stock, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, bay leaves, thyme, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Return beef to skillet and stir to combine.

4. Bring to boil, reduce heat, cover skillet, and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes, or until vegetables and meat are tender. Add frozen peas and mix to combine. Adjust salt and pepper to taste and remove from heat.

5. While stew is cooking, place potatoes in a medium large pot and cover with cold water. Add two tablespoons salt to water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover pot, and cook for 15 to 20 minutes or until a knife pierces potato.

6. Drain potatoes in a colander. Mash potatoes with a potato masher or push them through a ricer. Add butter, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Stir until butter is melted. Add half and half and stir to combine.

7. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

8. Transfer beef filling to a casserole dish or finish the pie in the skillet as long as it is oven safe. Spread potatoes evenly over beef mixture with a icing spatula or large knife. Or, pipe the potatoes with a pastry bag.

9. Bake the pie for 30 to 40 minutes until bubbling and potato topping is slightly browning. Garnish with chives and serve immediately.

Eggplant Parmesan

Now, how mouthwatering delicious does THAT look? 

HOMEMADE Eggplant Parmesan!

When trying to figure out what recipe I wanted to try cooking for my first blog post, I could not think of anything. I was WAY overthinking it. I didn’t want anything too boring or too simple, but the fact that my cooking has been on a little hiatus I wasn’t feeling overly daring in the kitchen quite yet either. I kept putting it off and putting it off. The idea came to me when I was flipping through my mail and came across some coupons. Me wanting to live a more balanced and full life, being better with my money is definitely at the top of the list. So I decided to actually take a look instead of just throwing them into a drawer, never to see the light of day again. I saw some coupons for fresh produce and saw that eggplant was on sale for JUST 98 cents! Now i’m not sure how good of a “deal” that is, being that I have never bought an eggplant before but 98 cents sounded pretty good to me. Then I realized, I had all of the ingredients at home needed for eggplant parmesan, except for the star of the show….THE EGGPLANT. So I snipped my very first coupon and headed to the store.

This was PERFECT to make for my first recipe because I was being frugal with my money (Great Feeling!!) and I would be cooking something that I have never made before. Although picking out the eggplant was a little intimidating (there were all different shades of purple going on) I bit the bullet and just chose one. I mean hey if something went wrong, anything smothered in cheese and delicious marinara sauce cant be too bad right?

Now, it was time to get cookin’

My adventure in the kitchen with the eggplant parmesan has now begun :)

First step on the list was to slice the eggplant into slices and salt both sides. Ok, I can do that, CHECK!  As I read on, the recipe said to let the slices sit in a colander for an hour for all of the liquid to drain out. BUMMER! I have to be honest, my first thought was to just skip this step and move on. I can be a little inpatient and hey I was ready to move on to the fun and messy part, dunking those slices into the egg wash and breadcrumbs. But I wanted this eggplant parmesan to come out perfect so I did as it said and I waited…and waited…and waited. Man those slices were SWEATING! I had no idea how much liquid there was in an eggplant. Glad I didn’t skip this step, it seemed important ;)

Now the FUN part! As I went to whisk the eggs and milk together for the eggwash I realized I did not have any milk. Again my mind went straight to “Its just a half a cup, lets just SKIP the milk i’m sure eggs will be fine. But I wanted this to come out perfect so off to the store I went for a second time. It was a bummer having to run back out but I found a way to see the positive in it. My supermarket is having that monopoly sweepstakes giveaway game going on and I am only one more ticket away from winning a million dollars. This milk could be my winning  ticket!! Everything happens for a reason right?

Sadly, still not a millionaire. But back to the eggplant parmesan, now with the milk to make this a truly winning dish at least  ;) 

Now, I know I said earlier that this was the fun part, but honestly this was more intimidating than picking out the eggplant. I have never really fried anything either but I survived!  My eggplant slices came out fried to a perfect golden brown. Except for the first one…the burnt one that is strategically not shown in this picture. These fry up fast, so be sure to keep an eye on them not to make the same mistake I did with that stubborn first one ;)

I carefully constructed the layers of marinara sauce, eggplant slices and cheese in the baking dish. Maybe a little too careful, this step took me 3 times as long as it probably should. But like I said earlier I wanted this dish to come out perfect.  I even got a little daring by adding spicy Italian sausage and crushed red pepper flakes to my marinara sauce. Popped it into the oven and I can honestly say to my SURPRISE….

THIS DISH CAME OUT PERFECT! 

Following the recipe step by step and deciding not to skip anything really paid off! ;) This is definitely a dish I would make again and I can now check off  eggplant as something I have conquered successfully in the kitchen. Absolutely delicious.

INGREDIENTS

1 large eggplant, sliced into ½" thick slices

2 tbsp kosher salt

1 ½ cup Italian seasoned breadcrumbs

3 eggs

½ cup milk

4 tbsp vegetable oil, for lightly pan-frying

3 cups marinara sauce

2 cups shredded mozzarella 

1 cup shredded parmesan cheese 

Handful of fresh basil leaves, chopped

INSTRUCTIONS

Salt both sides of your eggplant slices and place them in a large colander in the sink. Let the liquid drain for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

When your eggplant slices have finished draining liquid, brush off the excess salt.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In 2 bowls, add breadcrumbs to one and whisk eggs and milk in the other. Dip both sides of eggplant slice into milk/egg mixture then cover with breadcrumbs, shaking off the excess. Place on plate or large baking sheet.

Heat a skillet over medium high heat and add 1 tbsp. of vegetable oil into the skillet. Once the skillet is hot, add two eggplant slices at a time to the skillet and cook on both sides until golden brown, remove and set on a large plate lined with paper towels. Repeat with 1 tbsp. of vegetable oil for every 2 eggplant slices.

In a large baking dish, add 1 cup of marinara sauce to the bottom of the dish. Add a layer of eggplant slices then use about ¼ cup of marinara sauce to top each of the eggplant slices. On top of the eggplant slices, sprinkle a generous amount of mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese. Repeat the layers until you run out of eggplants slices. Top the casserole with more cheese before you place in the oven

Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbly and brown on top.  Use the broiler for 5 minutes to get the cheese nice and brown (keep a close eye on it not to burn)

Serve hot and top with chopped basil

An Abundance of Lemons!

It’s no secret that the hustle and bustle of todays world is enough to wear anyone down. Facing the daily challenges we all encounter is not necessarily the easiest thing to do. It is very easy to fall into a funk and lose the motivation and passion for things we all love to do. The things that make us HAPPY.

Good News!!  You are definitely not alone in this. 

Take it from someone who has had their fair share of insecurities, challenges, and struggles. I have allowed these things to bring me down and shift my outlook on life for a very long time. It was hard to find the beauty in anything. I was ready to throw in the towel and just give up on being happy and living to my full potential.

Today, I choose to live my life by the cheesy quote we all have heard a million times. “When life gives you lemons, MAKE LEMONADE!” 

Now, having had an ABUNDACE, and I mean ABUNDANCE of lemons thrown my way. I am choosing to well, make some Out-of-this-world LEMONADE!!!

Cooking has always been a passion of mine, but has definitely been put on the back burner. No matter how mouth watering delicious or how....interesting...the final product came out, I always found a sense of relaxation and accomplishment  after spending some time in the kitchen. Follow me on this journey of making life FUN again!

Its time to boost our health, calm our minds, and brighten our souls. Its time to make life SWEET AGAIN.

Lets get Cookin!