Monthly Archives: June 2012

Roasted Turnip and Sweet Potato Pizza

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Most of the recipes I come up with that are truly “my own” are straight out of my lack of want to go grocery shopping.  I hate, no loathe, the grocery store.  As a result of this…Roasted Turnip and Sweet Potato Pizza was born right from the contents of my pantry, fridge and deep freeze.

Ingredients:

  • store prepared or homemade hummus (I used Sabra, garlic flavor)
  • store prepared or homemade pizza dough (I used a ball of Trader Joe’s Whole Wheat dough from the freezer)
  • 1 large sweet potato, cut into thin discs (skin on or off, your choice)
  • 1 small red onion, sliced into rings
  • a handful of turnips, cut into thin discs (skin on or off, your choice)
  • goat cheese (unless you are vegan, then sub your fave non-diary cheese or go without)
  • extra virgin olive oil (about a glug’s worth from the bottle-we are very scientific here)
  • salt and pepper
  • flour for counter top to roll out your raw dough

Wash, cut up and roast veggies tossed with olive oil, either in a foil packet on the grill or in a 400 degree oven until they are tender.  In the photos, I took them out of their foil packet and put them right on the heat for the last minute or so to get a char.  They are high sugar content veggies, so do not leave them unattended [if you were to by chance do this…you just end up with potato chips, so win-win at least].  You could roast your veggies up to 3 days in advance and keep them in the fridge until you are ready to use.  I would do this if I were more organized…alas, I am not…so keep reading.

While your veggies roast away, roll out your dough blob to desired crust thickness and let rest until your veggies are off (I have a VERY small grill-large grill owners you can do both at the same time is space allows).  Brush crust on one side with some olive oil and put directly onto grill grate.  DO NOT MOVE the dough until you can see the grill lines developing on the underside, or you will tear your perfect crust-give it a peek after a minute or so to see where you are at.  This grated side is going to be your topping side.

Flip dough after it is firm yet not burned.  At this point you can apply your hummus to the first cooked side, scatter around your potatoes and onion then drop your goat cheese or cheese substitute on top, cover and allow for the cheese to melt.  When your cheese hits the melty stage, remove entire pizza.  Let cool a few minutes then slice it up.

I find hummus is an awesome base for pizza-I use it more than the traditional tomato-based sauces.  You can put just about any combination of toppings on this, sub what you like or what you have on hand, add fresh herbs to increase the wow value…if it were up to Mr. Wonderful we would make grilled pizzas every day.

Frosty Paws takes Pinterest

I opened Pinterest up last night to waste time of course, and this post showed up no fewer than 25 times on my homepage alone.  Instead of making you open Pinterest and losing two hours of your life you will never get back…just bookmark this page and there, I’ve basically purchased you two hours credit to your life and gave your best doggie friend a super yummy reward.  You can thank me later.

My dogs go batshit crazy over Frosty Paws.  Here is a way to make the portion size a little smaller if you have say a hefty dog like our Bosley, it’s flexible and fun.  I love the drop-in ideas of biscuits and baby food or processed veggies for variety.  I’m sure my dog Walter is judging me for giving him the same flavor time after time.  Enjoy!

Homemade Frosty Paws

  • 32 oz plain yogurt
  • 1 mashed ripe banana
  • 2 T peanut butter
  • 2 T honey

Mix all of the ingredients with a blender or mixer and freeze in ice cube trays. Small paper cups and disposable egg cartons also make good molds. When frozen, microwave for a few seconds, unmold, and place the treats in a plastic bag and store in the freezer. (Note: if using Styrofoam egg cartons or cups, rest the containers briefly in a partially filled pan of warm water to loosen contents. Unless the Styrofoam is labeled as microwave safe, it could melt.) If you want to be fancy, bone and paw shaped molds are available.

Variations

This is where the fun part begins! Using only the yogurt as a base, there are any number of ways to vary the original recipe. You’re only limited by your imagination. Because these treats are frozen, their consistency is less important than when experimenting with baked goods.

Use fruit and flavored yogurt instead of plain. Vanilla, blueberry, and strawberry/banana are all good options.

Mix the yogurt with a packet of low sodium powdered chicken bouillon (Herb Ox has sodium free chicken granules) and a cup of low sodium chicken broth.

One large jar of baby food is approximately equal to one banana. So instead of the banana, use the baby food of your choice.  Dogs LOVE meat flavored baby food. Unfortunately, this only seems to come in small jars. Use three or four jars of the meat of your choice in place of the banana, peanut butter and honey.

You get the idea … you truly ARE only limited by your imagination.

The above was cut and paste edited from this website:  http://brettwinn.hubpages.com/hub/Homemade-Frozen-Dog-Treats

Quick Grilled Bok Choy

I haven’t posted in two weeks!!!!!  Eek!  I have so many backlogged I must remedy this situation immediately.  I’ll start with one of my fave items from our first CSA jackpot from Blandford Nature Center.  Bok choy.

There are about a thousand ways to spell this little veggie wonder.  I’m going with ‘bok choy’ for purposes of this post.  High in vitamin C, antioxidants, folic acid, and potassium yet low in cals and carbs makes bok choy an eat-until-you-are-stuffed candidate for low guilt and high yum.

Ingredients:

  • 3 baby bok choy, cut in half length wise
  • 1 T roasted sesame oil (garlic oil, chili oil, walnut oil, anything would be great here)
  • 1 tsp hot pepper flakes
  • salt and pepper to taste

This is a no-brainer.  Heat grill to let’s say, hot…I just turned it all the way to high and waited like 5 minutes.  I know, scientific eh?

Drizzle bok choy halves with oil, sprinkle hot pepper flakes, salt and pepper on top.  Toss on HOT grill until charred.  Mr. Wonderful said, “if more people could experience charred greens, they would LOVE them.”  I would have to agree.

I served this next to brown rice, mandarin orange chick’n and a few crushed up cashew bits I had lying around.  Quick meal, as the rice was in the freezer just waiting for a chance to shine.

Baby Bok Choi Recipe

Recipe adapted from: Simply Recipes.

Here is another recipe that I’ve wanted to try for a while now too:  Sesame Coconut Bok Choy.  If you make it let me know how it turns out.

Happy Birthday to Me! Vegan Cupcake Recipe for YOU!

In honor of my birthday today (36 is the new 26), a vegan cupcake recipe for your nom nom pleasure.

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes

  • 3 C all purpose flour
  • 2 C white sugar
  • 6T cocoa powder
  • 2 tsp soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 3/4 C vegetable or canola oil
  • 2 T white distilled vinegar
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 C cold water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F).

Sift the dry ingredients together into a large mixing bowl.  Gently add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients until just combined.

Scoop out 1/4 C batter into cupcake wrappers.

Bake 350 x 12-16 minutes depending on your oven.  My batches all averaged about 15 minutes in a conventional gas oven.

Let cool and frost with your fave vegan frosting or Pillsbury chocolate frosting (both dark and milk chocolate varieties are accidentally vegan).

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Thank you to my friends Jon Dunn and Kolene Allen of VeganGR for sharing this recipe with me.

THANK YOU!

Thanks to all who took the time to brave the captcha nightmare and voted for me to be on the cover of West Michigan Woman Magazine’s debut issue (August).  I’ll let you know the results as soon as I am able.

What is on your Meatless Monday menu this week?  We’re gonna try a roasted sweet potato pizza.