Pizzadilla

This week Jay and I have the fun task of finishing off all our perishable food before our month long honeymoon (try not to be to jealous). Last week Jay bought a large pack of soft taco shells for one of our meals. As soon as I saw them I knew lots of tacos were in our future! With the need to eat them, I quickly came up with a quick fix. Pizzadillas!

Ingredients:

• Pizza sauce or your favorite marinara sauce
• Plain hummus
• Mozzarella Cheese
• Your favorite pizza toppings (we used mushrooms, peppers, pepperoni and tomatoes)
• Soft Taco Shells
• Spray Olive Oil

Directions:

1. Warm your pan on medium-high and sauté your vegetables in oil. As a general rule, I sauté all my veggie pizza toppings except tomatoes.

2. Prepare your pizzadillas. Start by spreading a thin coat of hummus on your soft taco shells, add about 1 tablespoons of sauce (if any) and then top with 1/8 cup of cheese. We learned the hard way that less is definitely more when it comes to pizzadillas.

3. Top with pizza toppings and then add little more cheese. Just enough to form a good seal between the top soft shell taco and your toppings.

4. Spray pan with oil and lay your first pizzadilla on your pan, top with second soft taco shell and cook for about 2-5 minutes on medium heat (depending on how hot your pan is).

5. Spray the top shell with oil and flip your pizzadilla and let cook another 2-5 minutes.

6. Repeat until all your pizzadillas are cooked. The more pizzadillas you cook, the shorter the time will be for cooking, depending on your pans hotness.

7. Let cool about 2 minutes, slice (with a pizza cutter of course!) and enjoy by dipping in the left over pizza sauce.

We made four Pizzadillas: Pepperoni, Mushroom, Pepper and Tomato. They were delicious but the more sauce the more messy they are to eat. As I mentioned above, less is definitely more for this recipe. Jay went a little topping heavy on our Tomato Pizzadilla and it was slipping all over the place.

What is your favorite hybrid recipe?

He’s Back Pizza

Jay moved back to DC on Friday, which meant that this little blog went empty while I enjoyed having my man back. But don't fret too much, before he stepped in the door, I did manage to photograph our welcome home dinner.

Jay loves Italian food, so I figured the best way to welcome him home was with some Summer Veggie Pizza. This could also be called a ‘everything but the kitchen sink’ pizza as I literally concocted it based on the veggies I had left in my fridge from last week. 

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup chopped Red Onion
• 1 tablespoon of Olive Oil
• 1/4 cup chopped Green Pepper
• 1/2 cup of Corn
• 1/2 a Zucchini (chopped)
• 1/2 cup of your favorite Marinara Sauce (I used Trader Joe’s Garlic Marinara)
• 1 cup Italian Blend Shredded Cheese (3/4 cup and then 1/4 cup)
• Cooking Spray
• Whole Wheat Pizza Crust
• 1 Roma Tomato

Directions:

1. Preheat oven per the pizza crusts instructions. The crust I used called for 450 degrees Fahrenheit. If using a pizza stone, don’t forget to put the stone in the oven to heat up while preheating.

2. Chop all veggies. Sauté the red onion in olive oil for about 5 minutes until the onion appears translucent. Add the corn, green pepper and zucchini. I used frozen corn, and if you use frozen veggies, add them about 3 minutes prior to adding fresh veggies.

3. Pull pizza stone out of the oven and spray with cooking spray. Place crust on top and spread 1/2 cup of Marinara sauce on the crust.

4. Sprinkle 3/4 cup of Cheese over sauce.

5. Add sautéed veggies. Yum!

6. Top with sliced Roma Tomato.

7. Sprinkle the last 1/4 cup of Cheese on top. 

8. Bring the oven heat down to 425 degrees Fahrenheit and bake pizza for 10 minutes (or as detailed on crusts package).

9. Once the Cheese is melted and the crust has browned, pull the pizza out of the oven and let cool for 5 minutes.

10. Cut and enjoy!

We enjoyed our Summer Veggie Pizza with a bottle of Spumante from our Bar Shower. This meal was the perfect ending to our time apart! :-)

The rest of the weekend was packed with pool time, board games and packing. Only 10 days left until we jet off to California! I hope to post about our packing process. We will be gone 25 days, so packing has been a bit tricky. Thankfully we had Sunday to evaluate what we had, go on (hopefully) one last shopping trip and start the process.

Our shopping trip composed mostly of toiletries. I also picked up 2 pairs of underwear that I can easily wash and hang dry at the campsite. Our original plan was to bring underwear that we wanted to throw away. As I started sorting my underwear, I was sad to see that I had less old underwear than I originally anticipated.

 

How far out do you pack for a trip? What are your packing suggestions for a long trip?

Salsa Saturday

Besides playing lots of games in the apartment all weekend, Jay and I took our first attempt to make homemade salsa. I’ll be honest and say I ended up draining the first batch because I added waay too much lime. Oops! But I think in the end I got it down.

Homemade Pico de Gallo

Ingredients

• 1/4 of a Lime
• 1/2 small Red Onion
• 3 stems of Fresh Cilantro
• 2 medium size Tomatoes
• 1 tsp. Kosher Salt
• 1/2 Jalapeño

Step One. Dice all of your ingredients. They don’t need to be tiny, but they need to be a good size to throw in your food processor. Since I used my mini prep, this step was essential!

Also note that the hottest part of the Jalapeño are the seeds. Make sure you de-rib the jalapeño and fully rinse all the seed off.

Step Two. Combine all ingredients (except the lime and salt) in your food processor.

Step Three. Squeeze 1/4 of a lime on last and sprinkle on salt.

Step Four. Pulse on low until the combination is well mixed.

Step Five. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. The longer, the better. This step is essential to let all the flavors mix.

Step Six. Enjoy with your favorite chip!

Have you made salsa at home? How do you make it?

Baked Italian Avocado Eggs

I saw this recipe on Life Hacker a few weeks ago and was intrigued. It didn't help that I had recently purchased a bag of avocados from Costco. I was really worried I couldn't eat them all before they went bad. Boy was I wrong, real wrong! I tried the recipe on Life Hacker, but quickly realized it was missing something. Hence a new recipe was born!

Baked Italian Avocado Eggs

Serves: 2

Calories: 236

Ingredients:

- 1 medium Avocado

- 1/2-3/4 cup Egg Whites

- Salt and Pepper

- Oregano (dried)

- 2 slices of a Roma Tomato

- Shredded Swiss Cheese

Directions:

- Preheat oven to 425

- Cut avocado in half and take out pit (be careful and don't cut yourself)

- Place avocado in a oven safe pan (I used a cast iron skillet)

- Pour the Egg Whites into each Avocado half. Only pour in enough Egg to fill the hole left by the Avocado pit.

- Sprinkle Salt, Pepper and Oregano

- Place a Roma Tomato slice on top of the Egg

- Place in oven and cook for about 10-12 minutes

- Remove dish and top with Swiss Cheese

- Bake for an addition 1-3 minutes

- Garnish with Oregano (wish I had remembered to do this the first time around!!) and enjoy!

Now you should really share this with someone (your sweetie perhaps?) but I'll be honest I enjoyed the entire avocado all by myself. Sorry Jay!

Have a great weekend everybody!!

A Work Day

While some of you may have had a day off today, I woke up as normal and headed to work. Honestly, working today wasn’t ALL that bad. It always stinks waiting for the metro outside for more than 3 minutes on a cold day, but that’s life.

No, today was a good day, a productive day. And, if I stayed home I probably would have just watched TV.

Instead I went to work, picked up my Subway Art (and a frame), and added a little more personality to the apartment.

Then it was dinner time. Tonight I simply just went with it. I knew I wanted pasta and had Baked Tofu I wanted to use. All of a sudden I had a fantastic dish, Italian Tofu Mushroom Gorgonzola Pasta.

Ok, the truth is I am trying to use leftover ingredients from Jenna’s  Baked Polenta with Mushrooms Gorgonzola Cheese and Tomato Sauce. I made it last week but never blogged about it. Oops! For all intense of purposes I included the baking the Tofu into the recipe.

So instead, tonight I bring a similar but very different dish.

Italian Tofu  Mushroom Gorgonzola Pasta

Ingredients: serves 4 to 6

• 1 12 oz. block of Extra Firm Tofu (pressed)
• 2 tbsp. of Oregano
• 2 tbsp. of Garlic Powder
• 1/4 cup of Parmesan Cheese
• 1 jar of Trader Joe’s Roasted Garlic Marinara Sauce
• 1 lb. of Penne Pasta
• 1 cup of diced Mushrooms
• 1 cup of crumbled Gorgonzola Cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

3. Slice Tofu into 1/2 inch rectangles. Wrap cookie-sheet in Tin Foil and spray with cooking spray. Line Tofu on sheet and sprinkle with 1/2 of the Oregano, Garlic Powder and Parmesan Cheese. Bake Tofu at 350 degree for 20 minutes.

4. Turn Tofu and sprinkle of the remainder of the Oregano, Garlic Powder and Parmesan Cheese. Bake for another 20 minutes.

5. Take out of the oven and cool.

6. Boil water. Once it comes to a rolling boil, add Pasta.

7. Cube Tofu and add to a pot. Pour Pasta Sauce over Tofu and add diced Mushrooms. Heat on medium heat and stirring occasionally.

8. Once the sauce has warmed and about 5 minutes before you are finished cooking add in Gorgonzola Cheese. Lower heat and cook for 5 minutes.

9. Strain pasta and add to pot. Mix pasta and sauce.

10. Serve and enjoy!

Did you have to work today?

Garbanzo Eggplant Quinoa

Can you believe that today is the Winter Solstice? or even crazier is that Christmas is a mere 4 days away! This year flew by!

Tonight I bring you a spur of the moment recipe. I bought an Eggplant at Trader Joe’s and knew I had to use it tonight. Looking into our sparse cabinet, I quickly decided that a few ingredients would have to do. 20 minutes later I had a fantastic meal that I just have to share with y’all.

Garbanzo Eggplant Quinoa

Ingredients:

• 1 medium Eggplant
• 1/4 cup chopped Onion
• 2 tbsp. Canola Oil
• 1 16 oz. can of Garbanzo Beans
• 1 cup Quinoa
• 2 cups Water
• 1/3 cup Trader Joe’s Goddess Dressing

Directions:

1. Rinse Quinoa. In a pot, add quinoa and water. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for about 15-20 minutes.

2. Meanwhile cook the Eggplant in 1/2 inch cubes. In a fry pan, add 2 tbsps. of Canola Oil, Onion and Eggplant.

3. Sauté on high for about 10 minutes or until Eggplant starts to brown, add the Garbanzo Beans and let simmer until the Quinoa absorbed all the water or 5 minutes.

4. Pour the Quinoa in the fry pan with the Eggplant, Onion and Garbanzo Beans. Add Goddess Dressing and mix well.

5. Serve and enjoy!

Lauren’s Vegetarian Lasagna

After Mt. Vernon on Saturday, the girls and I headed to Courtney’s house for some Bubbly (by Andre) and Vegetarian Lasagna.

It is always fun to watch my friends cook. Everyone has different perspectives and tastes. It always amazes me all the different variations you can make of one recipe. Lasagna is definitely one of those dishes where everyone has their version. While I enjoy my version of vegetarian lasagna, Lauren’s is too good I had to share it! Her lasagna is unique as it replaces ricotta cheese with lots of mozzarella. Something I had never thought of! Enjoy!

Vegetarian Lasagna by Lauren

Ingredients:

• 1 package of no precook lasagna noodles
• 2 jars of tomato basil sauce
• 1 small jar of pesto
• 8 Roma tomatoes
• 1pkg sliced mushrooms
• 1lrg pkg of mozzarella
• 1 large onion
• Fresh basil
• EVOO

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 375.

Sauté chopped onion and mushrooms. Slice tomatoes evenly.

Heat tomato basil sauce over low heat, add 5 teaspoons of pesto sauce and sautéed veggies.

Coat bottom of pan with tomato sauce lay in noodles leaving about a quarter inch space between all and the edge of the pan so they can expand in baking. About three per layer depending on the size of your pan.

Add a layer of sauce, tomatoes, torn basil leaves and dribble pesto sauce at random.

Cover with cheese.

Add next layer of noodles and repeat.

Stop layers a half to quarter inch below top of pan. Top layer should be sauce, tomatoes, cheese and then pesto.

Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.

At 30 minutes check to see if layers are expanding and sauce and cheese are bubbling. Put into oven for 15 more minutes. Remove foil and cook under broiler for 5 minutes to brown cheese.

Let sit 10 minutes and serve.

Set table, gather friends, pour the bubbly and enjoy!

Vegetarian Lasagna

For those of you looking for a wedding post, come back next week.

For those of you looking for a running post, just be satisfied with the fact that we ran 12 miles along the lines of this. And check back next week.

Today, I’m stressed about the craziness that has become my life. When I am stressed I like to eat comfort food. And what could be more comforting than Vegetarian Lasagna? oh, and a glass of red wine?

 Vegetarian Lasagna

This recipe was inspired by Mama Pea’s Italian Style Meatless Meatloaf Muffins and Theresa's Vegetarian Lasagna Rolls.

Ingredients:

• 12 Lasagna noodles
• 1 cup chopped Spinach
• 1 cup Ricotta Cheese
• 1 15 oz. can of Pinto Beans
• 1/3 cup Rolled Oats
• 1 teaspoon Minced Garlic
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
• 2 tablespoons dried Basil
• 1 tablespoons dried Parsley
• 1 tablespoons dried Oregano
• 1 26 oz. Jar of Sauce
• Mozzarella Cheese
• Salt

Directions:

Bring water to a boil and add Lasagna noodles and a pinch of salt. Boil to packages instructions.

Meanwhile, pour Pinto Beans into a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 25 seconds. Mash and mix in Oats, Garlic, Worcestershire Sauce, 1 tablespoon Basil, Parsley and Oregano.

Combine Ricotta Cheese, Spinach and the remaining dried Basil in another bowl and mix.

Once the Lasagna Noodles are done, strain and run cool water over them until you can handle them.

Spray either an 8x8 or 2 5x9 Pyrex pans.

Pour enough sauce to cover the bottom of the pan and lay your noodles (2 for 5x9 pan, 4 for 8x8 pan, you may also need to trim noodles so they fit nicely in your pan).

Lay a thin layer of the Pinto Bean mixture. Pour a layer of Sauce, add a layer of noodles. Lay a thin layer of Ricotta cheese, pour a layer of Sauce, add a layer of noodles. Repeat until you are about a 1/2 inch from the top of the pan. Feel free to sneak a layer of Mozzarella Cheese in there too.

In one pan I had 2 bean layers and 1 Ricotta cheese layer and the opposite in the other pan.

Top your creation with a final layer of Sauce and Mozzarella Cheese.

Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes. Let cool about 10 minutes before serving.

Enjoy :)

As mentioned above, I made this recipe in 2 5x9 pans and froze one for later. Just make sure the Saran wrap touches the food when wrapping to prevent freezer burn.

Ah, at least tomorrow is another day!

What is your favorite comfort food?