Pizza night

Mr. Man has started a second job and is now working way longer days, leaving me to feed just M & myself most of the time. The thing is, at the best of times I'm all about convenience rather than health, and when I'm alone it's even worse. For example, yesterday I bought Kraft Dinner.

WHAT?

Yeah, it's this silly thing that I can't shake. Now, when I make the KD, I'm going to have broccoli and meat and other veggies too, all mixed together in a casserole, but that doesn't take away from the fact that it's KD.

The problem I run into is that I don't want my kid eating KD. So now my efforts to be lazy have doubled my workload because I have to make something healthy for him. In an attempt to avoid this backlash, I'm making an effort to think of delicious things that are both easy and healthy.

Like pizza!

So tonight I'm trying a thin crust veggie chicken pizza. I have a red pepper that I'm going to roast, and some bone-in chicken breast that I'm going to bake then shred. Of course, it wouldn't be The Cookery if I didn't use my mixer, so the pizza dough will be made in the mixer.

Now to figure out how to make thin crust. Off to google!

_______________________

So it turns out that I've broken off a bit of my flat beater attachment when making banana bread today! FLIP! I was going to use the weareneverfull recipe for thin crust dough, but it says to use the flat beater instead of the dough hook. Instead I just used my regular bread dough recipe, but I added a bit more oil than normal, and adjusted the amounts.

For toppings I used roasted red pepper, avocado and some shredded chicken. Roasting peppers is dead easy and so worth it for the taste.

Take your pepper and cut it into large pieces. Drizzle with olive oil (plenty now, don't be shy) then broil until they look burnt.





Take them out of the oven, or toaster oven, and let cool for a minute or so until transferring them into a freezer bag (like Ziploc). They'll steam nicely in there, loosening the skins. When you're ready for them, simply peel off the black skin and slice!



Pizza Dough

Ingredients:

1 c. warm water
1/2 tbsp. quickrise yeast
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. olive oil

Flour

Directions:

Mix yeast, sugar, and salt with oil and water. Let sit for a minute or so until foamy. Pour into your mixer bowl. Add 2 c. flour to start then continue adding until your dough is smooth and elastic and no longer sticky.

Rub with oil or flour and let rise for an hour or so, until doubled in size.

Preheat your oven to 450F, and put in your stoneware to heat up. I have one of those huge (and heavy) Pampered Chef bar pans, so that's what I'm using.

Punch down and begin to roll it out until it's almost translucent. Add your sauce and toppings, then bake for 7-9 minutes or until golden and cheese is melted. I baked my second pizza for more like 15 minutes and I liked the crust a lot better. The first one was okay, but became a bit too soft after cooling. I like it when the crust remains crunchy.









Voila! Pizza on a Wednesday. Tons of leftovers too, for which Mr. Man will be very grateful.

And it turns out that everyone was a fan! Yay for healthy options!

Avocado Bread French Toast

It seemed to me that this would be a good combination, and I was right! I used a half cup of milk and three eggs with a bit of cinnamon and nutmeg. I added a 1/4 tsp of ground cloves too, because I love the taste.







It's not exactly the breakfast of champions, but my husband and I enjoyed it on a lazy Saturday morning. I think that since avocados are good for you (read: have healthy fats in them) that the breakfast isn't a total write-off health-wise. Not to mention that one loaf was whole wheat! I was doing myself a FAVOUR by eating this breakfast. That's how I justify things. Go ahead, give it a try.



Enjoy!

P.S. That's homemade Chokecherry syrup courtesy of my husband this September. See why I cook what I do? He makes it so easy!

Avocado Bread

I'm kinda cheating because I baked this bread the other day, but I have photos and it was delicious, so I'm keeping it anyway!

I'm a compulsive avocado buyer. Not sure what it is about these little fruits that makes me think we'll need 6 a week, but I almost always buy the whole bag. Then within a few days they're all perfect and ready to be eaten, but I can never think of anything to make with them other than guacamole. And there's only so much guacamole a girl can eat, you know?

So I took to Google to figure out what the heck I was going to do with them. Voila! One of the first things I see: Avocado bread. Brainwave! Why have I never thought of doing this before? I love avocados, I love bread, it follows that I would love avocado bread. (Okay, it doesn't really logically follow, but stay with me here.)

I used this recipe.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1/2 cup mashed avocado (1 medium avocado)
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup chopped pecans
Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Generously grease a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan.

Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Whisk to blend thoroughly.

In a separate bowl, beat together the egg and avocado. Stir in the buttermilk. Add to the dry ingredients and blend well. Stir in the pecans.

Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Yield: 1 loaf

From: Judy Gorman's Vegetable Cookbook

I made a couple changes though.

1. I used two avocados. I needed to get rid of them and it seemed to be a better balance with the amount of flour. The bread was super moist.
2. I used only about 2/3 c. of sugar. Since the bread was still quite sweet, I think next time I'll only use 1/2 c.
3. I just plain ole 1% milk since I didn't have any buttermilk.

The bread batter was really thick, smack dab in between a proper dough and banana bread.



Once baked, it was a gorgeous crispy golden brown on the outside and a creamy mild green on the inside. If it's possible, it tasted better than it looked. A balance between moist and heavy, creamy and sugary, it rose well and the crumb itself was nice and even. Still a bit too sweet for my taste, this would be a good breakfast bread or even a dessert bread.




I'm going to leave it overnight tonight and try it with cinnamon & nutmeg in french toast for breakfast tomorrow.