Cracker Pizza Crust

Ryan wanted to do a lower calorie, thinner, crispier crust for pizza. He found one he wanted to try and came up with one that is super crispy. It was yummy!

1 1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 cup wheat flour
3 tablespoons cornstarch

1 tablespoon sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup water

3 tablespoon olive oil

Pre-heat the oven to 475 F. Mix everything together and knead. Divide the dough in half. Spread each half on a well grease 14 inch pizza pan. (I used cooking spray, and then used a little olive oil on it too. Pre-cook the crust for ~5 minutes until the crust bubbles up with air pockets. Add the toppings and put back in the oven to finish cooking. Ours took about another 10 mins. Keep an eye on them and take them out when they look done.  Cut each pizza into 12 slices - the crust is 73 calories per slice. 

We made BBQ Chicken and a Margarita pizza. Note on the Margarita pizza - we added the basil after the pizza cooked. I think next time we will add them tomatoes after it is finished too. Cooking them makes the pizza really juicy with all the tomato juice that cooks out. 

BBQ Chicken Pizza:

1 cup cooked chicken cut into pieces (or start with raw and cook with the onions)

1/2 large red onion

1/3 cup barbecue sauce (or a mix of BBQ sauce and some wing sauce)

1/4 cup ranch dressing

Mix BBQ sauce and ranch dressing. Chop onion. Saute the onion in the sauce mix. Add the cooked chicken (or cook chicken with the onion and then add sauce). 

Spread over pizza. Top with:

3 stalks of celery, chopped

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1/2 c shredded Parmesan cheese

Bake until done. The BBQ Chicken toppings add another 103 calories per slice to your crust. 

Try the Four Cheese Chicken Pesto Pizza too!

Lemon Blueberry Zucchini Bread

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• Today is a baking day!! I don't know why but this is the third recipe we have tried today- Ryan's new pizza crust is up next.  I found a recipe for lemon zucchini bread, and I have left over grated zucchini from the pancakes we made for lunch so I thought I'd give it a try. I like extra lemon- so I added some. And I had too much zucchini, so I added it too- and left out the oil. Ryan said to add blueberries, so I did. I hope it turns out well. The batter was delicious! It's still in the oven. It's going to be Sunday morning breakfast. 

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• zest of 2 medium to large lemons 
• 1 large egg
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 3 cups shredded zucchini 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup fresh blueberries

Combine the sugar and lemon zest.  Add the zucchini, egg, lemon juice and vanilla. Mix in salt, baking soda, and cinnamon. Stir the flour into the zucchini mixture until combined. Fold in Blueberries Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Pour into a greased 8x4 inch loaf pan and bake at 325 degrees for 55 to 60 min, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean. 

Cool on wire rack and cool in pan for about 10 minutes. Turn bread out on a wire rack to cool completely. 

Once bread is cooled, glaze.  This recipe made way too much frosting! I think I ended up with almost double what I needed. And I had to use more than 1 cup powdered sugar. 

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• Juice of 1 lemon or less
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, whisk together the confectioners' sugar, lemon juice and vanilla. Add more sugar as needed for correct consistency. Drizzle the glaze over the bread.

Veggie Pancakes AKA Korean pancakes Pajun or Pajeon

Another non-breakfast pancake recipe - you could use it for breakfast too! I found this one on the internet somewhere and made some changes and here it is!  It could have used some more seasoning like garlic or cilantro or parsley. Myles said it needed peppers in it. Pierce said it tasted too much like carrots (no one else noticed that as the predominate flavor though). Adria said there was too much ground black pepper in it. BUT in spite of the complaining, they all asked for seconds!

RECIPE EDITED 07/30/2016 to take into account the above suggestions - and they are BETTER than ever!!

2 cup grated carrot
4 cup grated zucchini
6 green onions chopped
1 red bell pepper or 1 dried hatch chilli chopped (we have used both)
1/4 c chopped cilantro (about 1/3 of a bunch)
4-5 eggs, beaten (You need 5 if you used generous cups to measure the zucchini)
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 to 1 teaspoon pepper (I forget it sometimes)
2 cup flour

Mix the veggies, milk and eggs in a bowl. Sprinkle baking powder, salt and pepper over the top. Mix well. Add the flour and mix. Heat a griddle to about 300 degrees - lower than for regular pancakes. Pour by 1 Tablespoon onto griddle- spreading out to make a thin pancake.

 Cook until bottom side is browned, about 5 mins, then flip and cook until the other side is browned, about 5 minutes. These need to cook at a lower temp for a longer time than regular pancakes or they are under done in the middle. - This made 41 pancakes for us, 37 calories each. Serve with Pajun Sauce, recipe below.

1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup water
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp garlic powder (or to taste)
1 teaspoon sesame seeds
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper (optional - we skip it)

Mix together and serve as a dipping for pancakes.

Spinach Pancakes and Turkey Burgers

I found 2 recipes that we have made at home recently and they turned out really well! I got them off other blogs, but I'm adding them here so I don't lose them. The first was Spinach pancakes - I looked at a bunch of recipes and decided to go for this one from weelicious- It says it makes 16 - its wrong! We doubled it and it made around 20 average size pancakes.  We made them Sunday night for dinner. Here it is again with the changes we made including doubling it:

• 2 cup packed fresh spinach
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice plus  enough milk to make 2 cups - mixed together to curdle
• 2 large egg
• 2 tablespoon coconut oil
• 2 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt

1. In a blender, combine the spinach, rmilk, egg, and oil and blend until smooth. Add the sugar, baking powder, soda and salt and mix. Mix in flour.  Pour approx 1/4 cupfuls onto hot griddle and cook about 2 mins - or until edges look dry and top has bubbles. Flip and cook the other side.  I calculated about 85 calories per pancake. 
2. 

Picture from Weelicious

Yesterday, I found a recipe at Deals to Meals for chicken burgers and coleslaw. We used to use her service, but not anymore - Most of her recipes are really high calorie or unhealthy, and Ryan felt that doing the our shopping at Smith's was just as good as trying to go everywhere to get her deals - which he is NOT willing to do!  But anyway, this recipe looked pretty good and we had a lot of the stuff it called for that we got from Bountiful Baskets last week. Ryan had also bought some ground turkey because I wanted to try it. I even had a turkey burger at Ballard's Iceberg - it was disappointing! It did not taste the way I remembered it. So we had to make our own.  So here is the recipe re-posted, but with the changes we made. 

Asian Turkey Burgers with Slaw

Slaw Dressing:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup white vinegar or rice vinegar
1 tsp. sesame oil
1 tsp. soy sauce
Salt to taste
1/3 cup sugar, or to taste
Dash Sriracha mustard

Turkey Burgers:
approx 3 lbs. ground turkey
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
2 stalks green onions, sliced
2 Tbs. red onion, diced small
2 tsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. sesame oil
2 Tbs. coleslaw dressing
1 package hamburger buns

Slaw:
1/2 purple cabbage, sliced thin
2 stalks green onions, sliced
1/4 cup cilantro (the rest of the bunch)



Make the coleslaw dressing and set aside. For the burgers, mix together of the ingredients until combined. Heat the BBQ grill. Ryan said the patties did NOT stay together well. He pretty much made them on the grill. He also learned that turkey cooks differently than beef. It did not shrink down like beef does. When our patties were done, we cut them in half - they were a better size for the bun that way. A half a patty was about 2.5 oz and had about 90 calories. Also he said he had to cook them for a longer time at a lower heat. They were delicious! 

While the patties are cooking, make the coleslaw. Mix the veggies, add the dressing and toss to coat. Our Slaw was VERY juicy! When I took my first bite the juice dripped out and Ryan said, "be careful... They rain!" But is was great and the juice was good spooned over the burger too. 

Toast the Hamburger buns. When the patties are done, put a hot patty onto the bottom of the hamburger bun, top with coleslaw and the top bun and serve.

Pic from Deals to Meals - we ate ours too fast for me to get a pic!

Avocado Cilantro Greek Yogurt Dressing

So my last post was all about desserts - While I was making those this past Sunday afternoon, we were watching a documentary called Fed Up about the obesity crisis in America - and the horrible food choices we make and the things the government has done to make it worse instead of better. As we watched, we decided we couldn't actually eat the lime cheesecake bars - hence the reason I froze them or took them to the neighborhood BBQ. We found that documentary referenced in a book called Eat Fat, Get Thin. The book has some good ideas - but it is super wordy and hard to read. Myles and Pierce watched it with us, and Pierce even said we better start doing a better job with our food choices.

So today for breakfast I made whole grain toast spread with mashed avocado seasoned with lemon juice, salt and better, and topped with an egg. YUMMY! - Even the kids liked it. Genna ate it too and she claims to hate eggs. The other 3 asked for seconds. Although mid prep on the seconds, Pierce decided he was too full. Then for lunch I made a  green salad and top it with a homemade dressing. It was really good! The kids all ate it even though they complained about having salad - AGAIN!

It makes 2 cups or 16 servings. A 2 Tbsp serving is only 40 calories. But you will probably eat more than 2 Tbsp.

1 avocado
1/2 c plain greek yogurt (we use the Kirland brand)
1/2 -1 bunch cilantro (I had some in the fridge and threw it in- probably more than 1/2 a bunch)
1 lime, juice and zest
2 Tbsp lime juice - I didn't measure, just poured some in from the bottle
1/2 tsp garlic powder - didn't measure that either
1 tsp salt - didn't measure here either
pepper to taste
1/2 c water

Put the avocado, cilantro and yogurt in a food processor. Pulse until smooth. Add lime juice and zest, garlic and salt and pepper to taste. Scrap into a bowl and add water. It was thick dressing - we used a spoon to serve it. It would be a GREAT dip too. You could add more water or lime juice to make it pour-able. But I liked how it turned out.

Lime Cheesecake Bars

I found a recipe for 3 layer lemon cheesecake bars awhile ago, and thought they would be fun to make. BUT I didn't have them lemons or the Nilla wafer cookies the recipe called for. So I made up my own recipe. These are SUPER rich!! But they are delicious. One tiny piece is enough. The original recipe also had white chocolate chips in the cookie layer part - I'm glad I skipped it- it would have been too much.

Crust:
2 cups of gingersnap cookie crumbs (I  only had 1 and 3/4, so I used 1/4 c graham cracker crumbs)
1/4 c sugar
1/2 c butter, melted

Line a 9x13 dish with parchment paper or tinfoil. Mix the crumbs, sugar and butter. Then press firmly into the pan to make a crust.

Cheesecake filling:
2 (8oz) packages cream cheese, softened at room temp.
3/4 c sugar
2 large eggs
2 limes, juice and zest

Beat the cream cheese until smooth. Mine had previously been frozen- that makes it curdle- it ends up a little gritty. But it still worked. Add the eggs, sugar, lime juice and zest. Mix well and pour over cookie crust.

Cookie topping layer:
3/4 c butter, softened
1 1/2 c sugar
1 egg
3/4 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 lime, juice and zest
2 cup flour

Beat the butter and sugar until smooth, Add the egg, vanilla, baking powder, lime juice and zest. Mix until combined. Add flour. Mix well. Drop spoonfuls onto the cheesecake layer, doing your best to spread the dough to cover the cheesecake layer.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 min. or until the top is lightly browned.  Cook completely and chill overnight - or freeze. These are best served cold. I cooled mine in the fridge and then cut them into 40 squares and put them in the freezer for later. I took some of them to the neighborhood Fourth of July BBQ.

You can see flecks of lime zest in the bars! 

Yield 40 servings approx. 150-155 calories each (depends on the gingersnap cookies used. To get the full 2 cups I would have needed 40 cookies and they were 120 cal for 5.)  I www.caloriecount.com to calculate the calories.

Cherry Ice Cream

PARTY TIME!  (AGAIN!)  Ryan can hardly stand it.  We are having the family over again. His family was here last weekend, and my family is coming tonight. Andrew is in town, and it's our last big chance to party before he heads home to Hershey, PA.  We are doing potluck BBQ. I hope we have enough food.  I am doing homemade ice cream - Cherry flavor. It's cherry season and Ryan's mom gave us a bunch she bought for last week when Ryan's sister was town. We have been eating them all week and still have a lot! I'll add pics later.

3 cups cherries, remove stems and pits
3/4 c sugar
1 pint (2 cups) heavy cream
1 can (21oz) Cherry pie filling
1 cup whole milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond extract

Blend cherries, sugar and milk and pie filling in a blender. Add the cream, vanilla and almond extract. Mix well and chill for 1 hour or so.

Add:

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk
1 and 1/2 cup milk (or enough to fill 4 qt mixer - I used skim milk)

Freeze in your ice cream freezer.

It turned out! The family said it was good. Ryan and I had 2nd helpings - 1 and 1/2 more servings than I should have had. :-)