Arugula Pesto Pizza

Yes, you saw correctly.... another pizza recipe.  This one is from me and not Tom.

I love the peppery taste of Arugula, and use it whenever I can.  Besides tasting good it gets an "A" in the nutrition books.

• An excellent source of B vitamins (folate in particular), Antioxidants (Vitamins A & C). 
• Arugula is also an excellent source of Vitamin K which helps the body absorb calcium, helps maintain cardiovascular and bone health,  and has been shown to protect against Alzheimer's Disease.
• Arugula is right along side of other cruciferous veggies like broccoli, cabbage and brussel sprouts when it comes to protecting you against cancer.  Research has shown that cruciferous veggies are especially helpful in the prevention of prostate, breast, cervical, ovarian and colon cancers
• Last but not least we can't forget that it is high in chlorophyll.  Chlorophyll extracts toxins and helps  nourish the liver. Our liver is such a hard working organ and vital to so many processes that take place in our body. It can use all the help it can get. Chlorophyll also cleanses, oxygenates and helps build the blood.

Arugula Pesto Pizza

5 cups baby arugula

1/2 cup chopped green onions

2 - 4 tbsp EVOO

2 - 4 tsp white wine vinegar

1/4 cup pine nuts

2 cloves garlic, minced

salt and pepper to taste

Fresh grated Parmesan cheese

Feta cheese

Mozzarella cheese

Goat cheese

6 slices hot Genoa salami

2 boneless skinless chicken thighs, roasted

2 large tortillas

Preheat Oven to 400

Combine Arugula, green onions, white vinegar, EVOO, pine nuts, garlic, salt and pepper in food processor and blend till smooth.

In a small skillet cook salami till just crisp, remove from pan to paper towel and break into smaller pieces when cool.  I roasted my chicken thighs in the oven with salt, pepper and a sprinkle of granulated garlic.  You could easily cook them in a skillet as well.

Spread pesto over tortilla.  Grate fresh Parmesan on top. Add remaining toppings and cheese. (I used Feta and Parm on one, and Mozza and Parm on the other.  I fogot about the goat cheese till I had them in the oven).

Cook till cheese is melted and tortilla is crispy.

Here's another interesting tidbit of information... it seems Ancient Romans and Egyptians believed Arugula to be an aphrodisiac... go figure.  

Have a great week!!

~Jackie

Gourmet Pizza

Today's recipe comes to you courtesy of the man of the house.   As I mentioned before he's on a quest to find the perfect pizza.  The story behind it is a little long so I won't bore you with all the details but the end result is there is lots of pizza eating happening in my house and I don't have to cook. The bad thing is I've been doing my best to avoid gluten, and I avoid dairy as much as possible, so this isn't helping in the least. Another drawback is he won't eat veggies so the majority of the pizzas have been meat and cheese. Given the fact that he's trying to perfect this for the general public I can't complain.
You can imagine my excitement when I came home to a pizza just for me. He makes the dough from scratch in the KitchenAid and was shocked the first time how easy it was, and he thought I was crazy for wanting to spend that much money on a mixer.  I was just softening the blow for when the Vitamix arrived..lol

The recipe was messily scribbled on a tiny piece of paper so I don't have measurements but it's pizza so I figured it really doesn't matter.

Sweet Onion Ricotta Pizza

Preheat oven to 425- 450

Pizza dough of your choice
Olive oil
Mozzarella cheese
Sweet onion (Vidalia or Spanish), sliced thin
Ricotta
Parsley, finely chopped
Tomatoes, finely chopped
1/2 Lemon

Spread olive oil over dough.  Sprinkle with mozzarella, thinly sliced onion and ricotta.  Bake till crust is cooked to desired doneness. Remove from oven and sprinkle with parsley, chopped tomatoes, and a squeeze of lemon juice.  Return to the oven to warm the tomatoes.

It turned out really well and was quite tasty.  The next time we make it I think I'll add some roasted garlic to the base and maybe some feta.  It's a great recipe to play with and make it your own.

Jackie

Cauliflower Pizza

Morning all! Hope your having a weekend filled with fun and sun.  


We've been having another gorgeous  weekend here.  Here's hoping this is what the weather will be like all summer.  It feels like the last couple of years the weather has been great through the week and then we get rain on the weekends so this trend of hot sunny weekends has been great.


Some of you may have heard of this little website called Pinterest... Now, when I first heard about it last year I thought what a waste of time, why would I want to have picture boards of things, what purpose would that serve.  Well, one day I ventured in and well lets just say I was hooked.  I don't venture in as often as I used to simply for the fact once you're there you can't get out (at least for me anyway), then before you know HOURS have gone by and the dished haven't gotten done, the laundry's still piled up and studying what's that.


One thing I kept seeing on there was this Cauliflower Pizza crust.  My first thought was Ewwww.. that would be gross. Everyone was pinning it so of course I followed suite and put it on one of my boards, and there is sat. I'd look at it every now and then but still kinda thought, there is no way that's 1. going to be a crust and 2. it's certainly not going to taste good.


Then the day came, I broke down and gave it a try.  I was pleasantly surprised and shocked.  The taste was really good. The texture well, a little disappointing. I'm a thin crunchy crust kinda girl and did have some hope since this is definitely a thin crust, but crunchy it's not (at least for me it wasn't). 

Cauliflower Pizza - from Damy Health


I followed the recipe with one exception.  I added my own fresh herbs to the mix, oregano and thyme instead of dried so I increased the amounts.


Ingredients:

• 2 Cups Grated Cauliflower 
• 1/4 Cup Egg Whites
• 1 Cup Cheese (Mozza, Feta or for a low-fat/higher protein pizza use 1% Cottage Cheese – drain your cottage cheese of any extra water first) ** I used Feta**
• 1- 2 Tbsp Chopped fresh Oregano
• 1 Tbsp Thyme (or Parsley)

Directions

- Preheat oven to 450

- Put your cauliflower in the food processor and pulse till it reaches the consistency of rice.  You can also grate it with a grater.

- Place the cauliflower "rice" in a frying pan over medium heat and cook till translucent. This took about 12 mins for me.

- Place other ingredients in food processor and process till smooth.

- Combine with cauliflower in a bowl and mix well.

- Spread the dough on a parchment covered pizza pan/cookie sheet till it is fairly thin.

- Bake 25-35 mins, or until golden brown all over.

 Before going into the oven for the first time

All browned up

*The other pizza crusts were for hubby.  I knew there was no way I would ever get him to try it*

My Toppings

 - Sliced black olives

 - Roasted chicken

 - Feta 

 - Fresh grated Parm

 - Onion

 - Marina 

 - and a sprinkle of bacon (cause everything is better with bacon)

Bake till the cheese is melty and enjoy.

This is a knife and fork pizza, and I will be making it again.  I'm going to try to come up with something to make the crust a little crunchier.  I was thinking changing up some of the feta to mozza or fresh grated parm.  Something that wouldn't have as much liquid in it...We'll see.

This is the Marina I've been using White Linen by Victoria, you can find it a Costco.  The ingredient list is short with mostly real ingredients.I don't have a bottle to look at but I believe the last item on the list is "spices" which can be a way of hiding MSG in food. Regardless, it tastes good and if you don't have time to make you're own it's a good option

Not sure what's on the agenda today, studying and hopefully getting the rest of my veggies planted ...oh and exercise can't forget that.

Have a good one!

~~Jackie

The Quest For The Perfect Pizza

No you're not seeing things this really is the fourth blog post in a row.  I don't know what's gotten into me.


Hubby has been on a quest to make the perfect pizza. His plan is to open some kind of Pizza place that also has some other foods in there as well.  I keep trying to talk him into having healthy food, and he is on board with the healthier side of Greek/Mediterranean/Lebanese food which just happen to be some of my favorites. He also plans on building a pizza oven outside for us at the house.  Unfortunately it's been a few years in the planning stage.  He just can't get enough time to actually build the thing.


Needless to say there's been a lot of pizza going on over here.  On the menu tonight.... yup you guess it Pizza.

Not the best picture.  It's been so long since I've used my camera I keep using the wrong settings.

Toppings  - Spicy Sausage from Pete's

              - Bacon

              - Prosciutto

              - Ground Beef

              - Buffalo Mozz

              - Basic sauce made with San Marzano tomatoes.  I use them as much as possible when I'm cooking.  They really are the best!!

No veggies on this pizza, they are taboo for hubby. 

Once assembled, to the BBQ it went.  Pizza on the BBQ is about 1000 times better than pizza in the oven in my opinion.  In the quest for the perfect pizza he had a little something up his sleeve.  

He picked up some cherry wood to add some extra heat so it would cook faster and give some added flavour. He let it burn to coals then put the pizza in on the other side of the grill.  The pizza wasn't directly on the grill we have one of the pizza pans with all the holes in it so the air circulates around it.

A few turns so it wouldn't burn then 10-12 mins later the finished product in all it's cheesy bubbly goodness.

I think the quest just might be over, he may have made the perfect pizza.  It was delish!!

Don't forget next time you make pizza give it a try on the BBQ, you won't regret it I promise.  

Have a good night everyone.

~~ Jackie