Roasted Veggie Pizza

Roasted Veggie Pizza

    While this came out looking quite nice it seemed to be a failed experiment. mainly because the crust was not so good, and it lacked tomatoes. If i try this one again i will be making my own crust and using my homemade tomato sauce instead of the roast onion and garlic puree that was on the frozen one in the store. That is right my inspiration for this came when i was doing some grocery shopping. last night and saw a frozen version. And me in my infinite belief  in myself was like "I can make that!."
    I didn't post yesterday because i was doing my grocery shopping for the week.      And my husband had the computer room tied while he and his friend do their Bad Movie Night Pod Cast !. http://badmoviepodcast.com/.  He and Josh do this pod cast once a week and kick me out of the computer room so once a week i will not be posting unless i figure out a satisfactory solution.

This is the Grocery store version i saw.

    So anyway i digress. This recipe came into my head while shopping. I saw a vegan cheese-less pizza. so me wanting to fit that into our diet thought Hmm I can make that myself . Because the Grain Mill Of Wake Forest is closed on weekends. And I could get any good fresh ground whole wheat flour. I went to Trader Joe's and bought their whole wheat pizza dough.(no white flour no sugar and the salt is a minimal).  I had bought it before and didn't like it, but I thought it was something I did wrong. Now I know not! Because I followed the directions on the bag to the letter.
    The frozen pizza has roasted onion and garlic puree on the bottom for sauce. so I roasted a red onion and a whole head of garlic and pureed them in the Ninja. While it was yummy. It didn't replace my need for tomato sauce. So the next time I make it I will use my homemade tomato sauce. then i just roasted veggies that sounded good to me. I did eggplant, Zucchini, red pepper, and artichoke hearts. topped the pizza and baked it.
    the veggies were great and the onions on the bottom was even good. But i would prefer to add tomato next time and make my own crust.
  

Harvest Vegetable Soup

      I call this my Harvest Vegetable soup, because one of the bags of vegetables in the freezer i used was Trader Joe's Harvest Vegetable blend. It is October and all the fresh vegetables i had were in season vegetables, so the name seemed to fit.
    I try not to buy any vegetables that are over $1 a pound. This is an attempt to keep the grocery bill down.
    I love the farmers market, I go every weekend. It is the best place to get fresh Vegetables, and you can control where your food is coming from. With all the contamination we have had these last few years it is a good idea to keep track of where your food is coming from, and the best way to do that is to buy local and know your farmers. I don't like to keep fresh vegetables around for more than a week.So the simplest way to use up old vegetables is soup.

    Chop up carrots, celery, onion, cabbage, zucchini, summer squash, broccoli,  tomatoes,and use up any open bags of frozen vegetables you may have in your freezer like corn, peas, broccoli, or any mixed vegetables or stir fry blends.
    I like to add cans of black beans and diced tomatoes if i don't have fresh tomatoes to add. Acid from the tomatoes balances the flavors Makes it more of a balanced meal and the beans keep you full longer.
    For the broth i use better than bullion vegetable. one teaspoon per 8 oz of water. Mix well and add to all the fresh chopped and canned vegetables in the slow cooker. and set on low for 8 hours.
     About 2 or three hours before serving add the frozen ingredients and stir.

Spaghetti Squash

So tonight i Made Spaghetti Squash with Cannellini beans.This recipe is the result of cupboards are almost bare. Tomorrow is shopping day so lets use up what we have left. But it turned out to be so yummy. 


-One large or 2 small Spaghetti Squash
-one green pepper cut into thin strips
-one small onion diced small
-One can fire roasted tomatoes
-One can Cannellini beans 
-Mrs. Dash tomato basil and garlic seasoning
-2 TBSP Hemp Oil 


     Roast the Spaghetti Squash in the Oven for about an hour
until it is fork tender. Then shred it into spaghetti like strands with the fork. Put into a bowl and set aside.
     Put Hemp Oil into a hot skillet and sauté onions and green peppers until onions are translucent. Then add Mrs. Dash Seasoning and cook a min longer.  Then add the tomatoes and beans until hot. Now add the Spaghetti Squash and continue to cook until heated thru. Then serve.












            

Welcome to my insanity

   So my husband brought me home a book called            
    Eat To Live by Joel Fuhrman.

In the book he outlines a Six week diet to follow, eating fresh vegetables and cooked vegetables. 

It says to cut out all meat and Dairy, no oil, no sugar, and no caffeine. And how after the six weeks you can start adding in Meat and animal products as sides to your vegetables. However after eating like this for two weeks I am loving how much better i am feeling, and I'm not missing the meat at all. 

   

   So I am feeling that i may want to continue not eating the meat or dairy longer than the six weeks that is suggested by the book. all the research i am doing says you get more protein and iron from broccoli than you could even hope to get from any kind of meat anyway. And it is easier for the body to digest it and use the nutrients from the broccoli than the meat. Anyway their is a whole lot of health reasons to eat this way. The only thing I am having trouble with is cutting out the sugar because in the book it says no sugar substitutes either. Yea.... Um-mm no not going to happen. I have cut out all white flour by making my own bread with whole ground grains. but their is no substitute for the sugar in bread. it wont raise without it.

   So I cheat and if a recipe calls for sugar i use Agave. And if it calls for Oil i use Hemp Oil because it has no saturated fats and has a tone of benefits that makes it better for you than fish oil.(look it up it is amazing stuff)So I have cut out all meat, dairy, most oils,processed sugars, and anything that says it is Bleached, Enriched, or Fortified is right out. It is great that we found this place just down the road called The Grain Mill Of Wake Forest. http://thegrainmillwf.com/  They have almost every kind of wheat and grain you can thing of and if they don't have it they are willing to order it for you. I am going to attend a class on Baking bread with whole grains on the 21st of this month. I cant wait and i'm hoping to learn something i don't already know. And my husband is going to join me witch could be really fun thing to do together.

   My plan is to post a new dish everyday that i have come up with or of a recipe i found somewhere and decided to try. And i will post my random thoughts about what it is like to cook this way when both me and my husband come from a family of big meat eaters. we will see how long i will be able to keep up with the posts.