Scrounge around Pizza

 We just got back from a family vacation and came home to a sparse fridge. And I mean sparse. But the lazy part of me didn't want to make a trip to the grocery store. Why? Cause I don't like grocery shopping. 

So I scrounged around and found a couple of different things that I thought could work on a pizza.

This is what I found:

flour

oil

yeast

oregano

basil

garlic powder

thyme

I pinterested an easy pizza crust, of which I used the above for.

Then I found:

Spinach

a frozen red pepper

garlic

parmesan cheese

olive oil

can of artichoke hearts

goats cheese

cheddar cheese

a mixture of parmesan and Romano cheeses

I made the crust and added some of the spices, and rolled it out onto the cookie sheet. I put a little bit of cornmeal under the dough just so it didn't stick to the cookie sheet.

Then in the blender I put some spinach, a quarter of the red pepper, 2 cloves of garlic, some oil and a bit of parmesan cheese. This made my sauce.

I proceeded to put the cheese and artichoke hearts on the top.

I baked the pizza for 15 minutes at 450, but you can bake it for as long as your crust requires.

The pizza was soooo tasty! It will probably go into the meal plans for the future!

Not too bad for scrounging!

Sarah

Easy peasy curry chicken

Recently I've been trying to make more dinners at home. Andy and I are terrible at just going out to eat, which doesn't really help the pocketbook or the waistline. I've made it 4 days in a row making dinner...which is a world record I think. Don't laugh this is serious business!

My most recent dinner was something we grew up eating. Our parents would make a version of this and it was always one of my favorites. I could probably eat curry every day and feel okay about it...and in my opinion curry powder makes almost every dish better. My dad would even make this dish for the entire girls swim team every year in college. SO GOOD!

Now, this is how I make it. My mom and dad probably make it differently, but not that much:)

Here's what you're gonna need:

Curry powder--stuff from the grocery store

1 Onion

1-3 cloves of garlic

1 can of cream of mushroom soup--condensed

2 chicken breasts

Rice

What you'll do is cut up the onion and garlic and make them sweat...get em cooking!

Once they've gotten sort of translucent add your curry powder. I like my curry spicier so I add more curry. I put about 1 Tablespoon in at least....I never measure, just dump!

Let the onions/garlic/curry mixture cook for awhile--about 3-4 minutes.

Add the soup and about half a can of water. Mix it well and keep it at about medium heat.

While I'm doing the curry part, I cook and cube up the chicken. Of if I'm really lazy I open up a can of chicken. It works.

After the soup is mixed into the onion mixture really well. Add the chicken. Let it cook for about another 5 minutes on medium.

Oh did I mention you should have put your rice on earlier...yeah do that too. Or pop some instant rice in the microwave. Once again, it works....don't judge.

The fun part about this type of curry is that you can put all kinds of toppings on it. Toppings? Yes, toppings. Toppings to this curry can and should include at least three of the following:

bananas

mandarin oranges

raisins

peanuts

coconut

tomatoes

avacado

green onion

cucumber

mushrooms

the kitchen sink

whatever you have in your fridge or pantry

Don't like to mix your food? I've known plenty of people who love to keep their food groups separate, but once convinced...never eat this curry without toppings.

Now eating...spoon curry over rice, put on toppings and eat this deliciousness of a meal. 

Let me know what you think!

Sarah

Poppy Seed Bread

I've always thought baked goods are great as a gift, and for Christmas this year I gave some colleagues and neighbors some delicious poppy seed bread.  My mother-in-law had given me this recipe years ago, but I had never gotten around to trying it. I have had her bread before--and it's delish--so I thought it would make a great holiday gift. Oh and did I mention how easy it is to make? Super easy, so its great for last minute gifts or if you just are craving some yummy bread.

Here is the recipe:

1 package of yellow cake mix--any brand

1 package of vanilla pudding mix--smaller box

1 cup of hot water

1/2 cup of oil

4 eggs

1/4 cup of poppy seeds

1 Tbsp of lemon extract--optional

Mix and fill two smaller greased loaf pans half way up.

Bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes

My MILs original recipe doesn't have lemon in it, but I thought it would be fun to make some with lemon and some without. So to add the lemon flavor I added 1 Tbsp of lemon extract, and it was great! My husband likes it without the lemon...so do whichever you prefer!

Food Glorious Food! Challenge #9

Admittedly, I'm falling behind on these challenges. Spring Break and a wonderful dumping of snow are to blame. Nonetheless, I will try to continue to post. Here is last weeks challenge this week...

9. Food, Glorious, Food! This is for the Food Network Junky who loves "Chopped" Wait until you have to go to the grocery store...and then challenge yourself to make a new and creative dish from the pantry/freezer. Incorporate the leftovers that need to be eaten and create a new meal. You are not allowed to go to the store for this challenge.

This is actually a weekly challenge here at my house, only for the main reason that I hate going to the grocery store. Don't ask me why, cause there isn't just one reason, but it is just not my favorite task.

I looked in my cupboard and fridge on Saturday afternoon, and was struck by how many veggies needed to be used before they were bad, so those were definitely going to be in my creation.

I also found some sausage that would be tasty in my dish so out that came as well.

My ingredients were the following:

1 orange pepper

some spinach

can of diced tomatoes

2 cloves of garlic

quarter of a white onion

about 10 baby carrots

a package of reindeer sausage

some left over rice/quinoa

parsley

Cajun seasoning

garlic salt

red pepper flakes

bay leaf

water

I began by putting the pepper, spinach, onion, and carrots into the food processor and chopped them up really fine. I also chopped up the garlic. I put all the chopped veggies and the can of diced tomatoes into a large sautee pan...which should have been a large pot, but whatever...I added some water and let them cook down. After they had cooked down a bit I added the spices. I didn't measure the spices, but added them to taste. I also added a bit more water and let it cook down again.

While it was cooking I cut up the sausage and added it, along with the rice/quinoa--which was already cooked--and let those stew for a bit.

And I came up with a very healthy and hearty stew.

What kind of concoction did you make up?


Linked to:frugallysustainable.com

Monday Munchies: pizza with pizazz!!!

For thanksgiving this year I decided that turkey was not going to be on the menu, and that instead we were going to have pizza.... but with pizazz. Andy was game for it and we had some people from church over who liked the idea as they were having their big thanksgiving meal on Friday. Some weeks ago I had a fig, prosciutto, and goat cheese pizza at a restaurant and decided I was going to try making my own. I looked online to find a recipe that had all the ingredients that the one at the restaurant did...but couldn't find what I was looking for so I made it up:)
You'll need the following:
Pizza dough
Prosciutto about a 3rd of a pound
Mozzarella
Dried figs sliced up-- about 5 figs
Arugula
Lemon juice
Goat cheese
Thyme

Roll out the dough, and preheat the oven to 450. Put the mozzarella and dried figs on the pizza and put in the oven for about 10 minutes or until the crust is done. While the pizza is cooking tear the prosciutto up into smaller pieces and take about 2 handfuls of arugula and toss it Ina some lemon juice and about a 1/2 teaspoon of thyme. When the pizza is cooked, take out and put the prosciutto on top and then the arugula. After the meat and arugula have been added, crumble some goat cheese on top. Let cool and you have a great pizza!

The other pizza we tried was mother copy from a restaurant, but not the same one! This one was a spicy chicken Thai pizza. You'll need the following:
Pizza dough
Peanut sauce-- bought from the grocery store
Cooked chicken-- canned or rotisserie
Shredded carrot--1 big one
Bean sprouts
Cilantro
Green onion

Roll out the dough thin and put the peanut sauce and the chicken on top. Cook few to ten minutes at 450 , or until the crust is cooked. Meanwhile chop up three stalks of green onions and toss with the carrots and sprouts. Add fresh cilantro as well. Once the pizza is done, top it with the sprout mixture and enjoy! The spice is in the peanut sauce.

It was fun making gourmet pizzas! Both were relatively easy and super tasty:) we'll be making them again for sure. Nathania also has a great salmon pizza we tried that she will add later!
Are there any fun pizzas you've tried lately?

Happy cooking!!!!
Sarah

Monday Munchies: Enchiladas

 

I participate in Foodie PenPals with the Lean Green Bean. My penpal, Michelle, sent me some green salsa and suggested making some green enchiladas with a suggested recipe. I’ve never really used green salsa, so I went for it.

Heres what I did:

I used cooked ground beef that I had on hand, about cup and a half.

I added a generous handful of spinach, chopped up

I put in some goat cheese—about a ¼ of a cup

Chedder cheese, as much as you want

I chopped up a little bit of orange pepper— ¼ of the pepper

 

Mix this all up in a bowl. Michelle uses pepperjack and ricotta, as well as some Mexican seasoning. I used what was in my cupboards.

I put the mixture in some flour tortillas and then put in a casserole dish. I pour the jar of salsa over the rolled tortillas and then added some chees on top. Michelle gets fancy with some jalapeños…but I didn’t have any!

Put the casserole dish in the oven at about 350, until the cheese is bubbly and browned slightly.

This was soooo good.  Michelle had sent me the salsa from Trader Joes, which is not a place I can go to…we don’t have one in the state…boo! So I will have to find an alternative here in Anchorage. Andy said the only thing he would change is to add some chopped onions( he would eat an onion like an apple…that’s how much he loves onion!).

Try it and let me know how you like it!

Happy Cooking!

Sarah

Monday Munchies: cheese spinach roll-ups

Friends of ours have recently gone onto the adventure of becoming vegans...without oil. I'm not sure I could do it! Anyways, they had a whole bunch of food that they didn't want to go to waste, so they asked if we wanted it. Do we say no to free food? NO WAY JOSE! We received a bunch of cheese--like a whole box full, some other random ingredients, salad dressing, oh and did I mention cheese?

Now, being a good dutch girl, cheese is one of my food groups. I love me some good cheese!

So we had a group at church to go to with a potluck, and I looked at some of the things they had given us to come up with a dish to bring.

I had a roll of crescent rolls...so I decided to go out to my garden and grab some spinach.

I cut each crescent roll into three pieces, so I would have more:) I added some Havarti cheese, some spinach and rolled them up!

I baked them according to the package on the crescent rolls....but watch them because they are smaller portions...therefore cooking faster. 

I added some Parmesan cheese on the top just to add a little more flavor. They were delicious little bites!

Happy cooking!

Sarah

Tutorial Tuesday: smash recipe book

Ready for another gift idea? Here we go:

Recipe Smash Book

You will need:

Smash Book...Micheal's, use a coupon!

recipes that have been put on cards, cut from magazines, printed...and are making a mess!

You'll need some washi tape and some glue. 

And some way to label your sections. I used the card dividers from a recipe box.

Glue the recipe dividers on the different pages to divide each of the sections...desserts, main dishes, etc.

Then use the washi tape to put the recipes into the book. If you have cards that have more writing on the back...just attach it on the top so you can flip the card up to read the back.

You can also hand write some new recipes into the book to make it even more personal. With the magazine recipes I cut out the picture too so I still have the perty visual to go with the recipe. The smash book is about the same size as a lot of cook books and is a great way to organize the recipes and get rid of clutter. It also would be a great present for those who are just starting out...leaving some extra room for them to add their own recipes.

Happy Smashing!

Sarah

Monday Munchies: Smoothie Time

What does one do when one has over-ripe peaches, frozen blueberries and a mango that needs to be eaten?

Put them in the food processor of course!

I would put them into a blender, but we don't have one...wah wah wah...

But let me tell you...it was still tasty.

Homemade Super Easy Smoothie

a handful of frozen blueberries

1 ripe peach chopped up

1 mango chopped up

put into the food processor

add a dash of OJ to make it a bit more liquidy

put into a cup with a straw...it goes down faster and you'll think you paid 8 bucks for it.

I would recommend using a blender, if ya have one!

Happy Monday!

Sarah

Monday Munchies: Zucchini Bread!

My garden has done quite well this year, well...save for the slug infestation...but nevertheless I have yielded quite the crop the year.

These are my second and third zucchini I have harvested. I have about 10 more growing so I'm hoping this nice weather sticks around so they can get bigger!

Of course one of the favorite ways to eat this lovely veggie is to make it into a bread. You still get the nutrients, right?

I shredded both of the zucchini to put into the bread.

I found a recipe online but changed it to make my own...mostly because I realized at this point I didn't have enough eggs or flour.

It got a little runny...I was a bit worried when I put it in the oven, but then it came out like...

...this. Perfect right? Did I mention we only have one loaf left after a day? Super tasty as well. So without further ado I give you...

Sarah's Fantastical Garden Zucchini Bread

(da da duh da!!!)

2 good sized zucchinis shredded

1 cup olive oil...could use veggie oil

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

(probably could have used less...)

2 cups flour

1 cup oats

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

3 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup water

1. Cream oil, eggs, vanilla, sugar together. Add water and mix well.

2. Add dry ingredients and beat well

3. Stir in zucchini until well combined

4. Pour batter into greased and floured pans (2 8x4 loaf pans)

5. Bake at 325 F or 165 C for about 50 minutes. Test the center until the tester comes out clean.

6. Cool bread in pans for about 20 minutes, remove from pans and cool bread completely before

Hope you enjoy it!

Sarah

a little story about some pumpkin seeds

The scene is set in a lime green bowl on my kitchen island

Enter the raw pumkin seeds.  They're the star of the show.

Whats that? Oh no!!! The dark villian....maple syrup!!!

The cinnamon and a pinch of salt arrive to spice up the scene.

Mix it all up---oh the plot thickens!!! and spread it all out...it's quite delectable show...

Roast them all together at 250 for about 20 minutes and you'll have a grand finale.

A pretty tastey one too!

Hope you enjoyed the show!

Sarah

salsa....yummo!

Today I had a hankering for some fresh salsa. In Andy's hometown there is a place that his parents go to frequently to buy fresh pico. I wanted me some of that...but a trip to Michigan was too far out of the way, so I went to Freddy's instead.

I got peppers, cilantro, garlic, tomatoes--in the can and out--they are expensive here!, and onion.

Because I have an itty-bitty food processor I could only do one veggie at a time.

I chopped them all up  and mixed them together. It tastes exactly like the stuff in Michigan.

I used:

1 1/2 onion

4 cloves of garlic

3rd of a red pepper

1 jalepeno...I took most of the seeds out, if you leave them in be prepared for fire mouth

half a tomato and some cherry tomatoes that needed to go

half a can of drained diced tomatoes

handful of cilantro

It's perty too!

Hope you can enjoy some tastey goodness too!

Sarah

salmon...cakes!

Salmon is a fantastic fish that graces the waters of Alaska. Last summer Andy and I had the opportunity to go down to the village Storman grew up in, and while we were there the Reds (sockeye) were running.  We helped can some of the fish and they gave us some to take home.

Now, whats a girl who grew up the Midwest to do with all the fish?

Well...use some of it for fantastic salmon dip....and then let it sit in her pantry.

Great use of good fish right?

not.

Well the other day I saw a recipe for salmon cakes....light bulb!

That's right, we've made salmon cakes twice in the last week and I think it is one of our favorite ways to eat canned salmon!

What did I put in them?

I put:

two jars of canned salmon

some minced onion

some minced garlic

Tbsp lemon or lime juice

Tbsp lite soy sauce

2 Tbsp grainy mustard

1 cup of Italian bread crumbs

2 eggs

Mix, and make into patties. Fry for 2-3 minutes a side.

Pair with homemade tarter sauce:

Mayo with chopped up dill pickles

Let it sit while you make your patties...it tastes better after you let it sit.

Serve with a salad...super healthy and tasty!

Enjoy!

Sarah

stuffed...

Mushrooms that is...

I got a large container of mushrooms the other day at Costco...and in the very large container was very large mushrooms. Perfect for stuffing right? Andy's aunt had made some stuffed mushrooms a few years ago and I am positive that at some point we had the recipe. But could I find the recipe? NOPE....so whats a girl to do? Make it up.

You'll need the following to make these delicious goodies.

1. Mushrooms...ginormatron mushrooms work best

2. Parmesan cheese(1/2 cup)

3. Olive Oil(3/4ish cup)

4.Bread Crumbs (1/4ish cup)

5. Garlic (3 cloves...or less, whatever you want)

6.Dried Parsley (1tspish)

As you can see I really measured well....but you'll understand why in a sec...

Step one: take all the stems off the mushrooms. They should just pop out. DON'T throw the stems away.

Step 2: Chop up the stems. I didn't use all the stems...some of the big ones were a little woody.

They should be chopped up nice and fine-ish. Chop up the garlic the same way. Put stems and garlic in a bowl.

Step three: add the breadcrumbs, parsley and Parmesan cheese

oh, and the olive oil...but start with about a half cup...or less

This is the consistency you want the mixture. Add more olive oil to get it to a wet but not overly wet consistency.

Step 4: Stuff the mushrooms on a baking sheet. Drizzle with oil.

Step Five: Bake at 375 for about 10 minutes.

Don't they look yummy?

I was going to try and add some bacon...everything is better with bacon...or so I've been told. I don't care too much for bacon and wasn't sure how it would taste...so I chickened out and didn't add it. I think crab would taste fantastic in there, but I didn't have any. If you try any variations on it, let me know!

hope you feel stuffed!

Sarah