Pizza Margherita

 

I had a sudden craving for pizza on Sunday, and instead of waiting for dinner time, we decided to have it for lunch. A quick drive over to Trader Joes, and 20 minutes later, we had fresh whole wheat pizza dough ready to be used. The dough comes in a plastic bag, and already wet. You can find it in the refrigerated section, usually around the vegetables and dips section. Let the dough settle out of the bag for 20 minutes and its ready to use. We split half the dough and made a pizza for two, and used the rest to make twelve mini pizzas for snacks later. I stuffed the flattened mini pizza dough into muffin tins and added the same toppings. They crisped up better and we are definitely going to make them for the next potluck we go to.

 

The last photo on the right shows lots of extra cheese, which is a result of a fiancé who loves cheese more than he loves me and he sprinkled a handful of shredded mozzarella on top of everything, something purely optional to do.

 

I wasn't really taking measurements so the amounts listed below are best guesses. I couldn't find the baking instructions for the dough on the Trader Joes bag, so I guessed 400 degrees F and baked about 15 minutes, maybe a few extra,. until the dough had turned a little brown and the cheese had a few brown spots and was completely melted. Another option for making pizza is throwing it on a gas grill. This is a really easy way to bake your pizza without getting your home warm during the summer time and the crust always turns out amazing. If you do grill, throw the dough on the grill first, giving it time to bake, and then put the ingredients on top to melt together.

 

PIZZA MARGHERITA

 

 

 

1/2 bag of Trader Joes whole wheat pizza dough

1 cup canned tomato sauce

1 TBSP tomato paste

3 TBSP basil, julienned

1/2 roma tomato, sliced

5 slices of fresh mozzarella cheese

drizzle of olive oil

few turns of freshly cracked black pepper

 

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Prepare the pizza dough by letting it settle for 20 minutes at room temperature.
3. Prepare the pizza sauce by mixing the tomato sauce with the tomato paste. Set aside.
4. Prepare basil, tomato and mozzarella and set aside.
5. On a floured surface, roll out the prepared pizza dough, moving from the center out. Make the dough as even as possible.
6. With a large spoon, scoop the pizza sauce on top of the dough, moving from center toward the outer edge. Leave about 1/2" space between the edge of the pizza dough.
7. Lay tomato slices, and then some basil, and then the mozzarella, in that order. Sprinkle remaining basil on top.
8. Drizzle a little olive oil on top of everything and add some freshly cracked black pepper.
9. Bake the pizza for at least 12-20 minutes, depending on the strength of your oven and thickness of your dough. For crispier crust, bake until the edges turn a light brown and the cheese has a few brown spots.

 

 

Italian Wedding Soup

I've been a LITTLE busy last couple years, working on becoming a RN. As a result, I've neglected this little blog that no one reads. I still eat a primarily vegetarian diet,  but I've toyed more with veganism in the process. I even went vegan for a whole month sometime in 2015! It was huge learning curve and I enjoyed the many things I've learned from that experience. I continue to get surprised today as I find more delicious vegan recipes and learn that there are a lot of people interested in the world of veganism.

Recently, I was reading Brunette Ambition by Lea Michele, who plays talented Rachel Berry on Glee and herself in her whirlwind life. Lea and I have a lot of eating similarities, we eat as vegetarians/vegans most of the time. She was kind of enough to include some tasty recipes in her book, one of them I tried right away. Her Italian Wedding Soup is vegan (without the parmesan cheese sprinkled on top at the end) and is full of flavor. You won't even notice its vegan because its so hearty. I may want to try this recipe later with some barley added in.

I made about 8 servings out of this recipe, two were eaten for dinner and the rest was frozen for lunches later in the week. Please be sure to fully cool the soup before bagging anything. Scoop portion into freezer safe ziplock bag and lay flat to freeze. They hardly take up any space this way. I'm big on meal prepping now: it saves time and resources, I get to eat good food, and it's much healthier than anything from the shelves at the supermarket. This soup is super easy to make, freezes well and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Yay for Lea!

The recipe below was slightly modified to work with what I had in my kitchen.

VEGAN ITALIAN WEDDING SOUP

3 TBSP extra Virgin olive oil

4 carrots, chopped

4 stalks of celery, chopped

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 large onion, chopped

8 cups vegetable broth

1 to 2 pinches of salt

1 to 2 pinches of pepper

1 to pinches of red pepper flakes

Juice of 3 lemons

3 to 4 unpeeled russet potatoes, cubed

1 bunch of kale, de-stemmed and chopped

16 oz dried green lentils (or 2 cans of 15oz prepared lentils)

Water to cook lentils

parmesan cheese (optional)

1. Cover bottom of a pan with olive oil and heat to medium.
2. Add the carrots, celery, garlic, onion and a pinch of salt and pepper and saute until vegetables are soft and tender, about 5-10 minutes.
3. In a separate pot, bring vegetable broth to a boil, then reduce heat to low. 
• I used about 6 TSPS of Organic Better Than Bouillon Vegetable Broth
4. Add the sauteed vegetables to broth and cook on low for 30 minutes.
5. Add a bit more salt and pepper, pepper flakes, and lemon juice to taste.
6. Add the potatoes and cook for 15 minutes.
7. If using dried lentils: The lentils will swell so be sure to account for that in the pot size.
• Wash and rinse the lentils. Add double triple amount of water to lentils in the pot and bring to a boil. Lower heat to low and let it simmer and absorb the water until fully cooked, about 15-20 minutes.
8. Stir in the kale and cooked lentils and cook for an additional 15 minutes.
• I prefer buying dried lentils and cooking them, but you can substitute with 2 (15 oz) cans of prepared lentils.
9. (optional) Top soup with parmesan cheese.