Purple pizza!

My kid thought that this was just the bee's knees. She could not believe that pizza could be purple! She even ate the shaved asparagus on top.

This dough was pretty tacky in texture, but it ended up rising very quickly (about an hour, maybe a little less) and puffed up like crazy when baked.

This is actually not the finished product - my husband demanded that I add more mozzarella after I took this photo. So imagine this but with more cheese! The crust was so soft but was the perfect texture. I think that the beets definitely contributed to that! It definitely did not taste like beet pizza, if anyone is wondering. 

Thanks to The Cooking Photographer for this fantastic dough recipe and to Annie's Eats for the shaved asparagus pizza recipe!

Makes two 12” pizzas

3/4 cup cooked and chopped beets, lightly packed in a liquid measuring cup (or see notes)
Enough almost warm water to make 1 cup when mixed with cooked beets, plus 1 tablespoon.

2 cloves garlic, added in when beets are pureed (I added this)
1 package bread machine or active dry yeast
1 teaspoon honey
3 cups all-purpose flour (Use good quality all-purpose or bread flour)
1 teaspoon kosher salt

2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for the bowl

1. Scrub beets under warm water to clean. Stab a knife into it a few times for venting. Line a plate with paper towels, place the beet on the plate, and cover with a paper towel. Microwave the beet on high for several minutes until easily stabbed through with the knife. Cool completely.

2. Chop the beet into chunks. Place 3/4 of a cup of the chunks (lightly packed) into a liquid measuring cup. Top with enough water to make 1 cup. Puree the beet/water mixture in a blender until smooth. (A couple small chunks are ok, but you might end up picking them out as you roll the dough. You can also strain beet mixture through a fine mesh strainer if you have one.) Pour the mixture back into the liquid measuring cup and top with enough water to make 1 cup, then add 1 more Tablespoon.

3. Add all the ingredients into a stand mixer bowl. Mix with the dough hook until well kneaded.

4. Remove from the bowl and knead by hand for 2 minutes on an unfloured surface. (If you have a counter that stains find another place). Pat into a ball.

5. Grease a large bowl with olive oil and add the dough, flipping once to coat. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm spot until doubled.

6. Roll out the dough on a floured surface, do the final stretches by hand by gently pulling the ends with your fingers. Place on a lightly oiled and coarse cornmeal covered pizza pan, and then add the toppings.

Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Yum! These were delicious. Bursting with a great coconut flavor and just the perfect texture. I divided the dough and mixed half with one cup semi-sweet chocolate chips and the other half with white chocolate chips. Both were equally tasty!

Below is the modified version of the recipe - you can find the original here.

Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 cup butter, soft
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp coconut extract
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 cup medium shred coconut
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (Ghirardelli)
1 cup white chocolate chips (Ghirardelli)

Cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs and coconut extract. Stir in dry ingredients. Divide dough and add the cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips to one half and the cup of white chocolate chips to the other half. Drop by rounded spoonfuls on lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375° for 10-12 minutes or till lightly browned.

Makes 4 dozen.

Burgers with a twist.

These Lebanese-inspired chicken burgers from Elly Says Opa are fantastic. Tender and full of flavor, they will certainly become a staple in our menu! I served the burgers open-faced on the whole wheat pita I baked yesterday with a large salad and some baklava for dessert.

I did make a few changes and the recipe reflects that. The original recipe can be found in the link above.

Lebanese-Inspired Chicken Burgers


1 lb. ground chicken
1/4 cup bread crumbs
2 heaping Tbsp. fat free plain yogurt
Juice of 1/2 lemon
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1/2  heaping tsp. allspice
salt and pepper
4 whole wheat pitas, warmed

Yogurt Sauce
1/4 cup plain fat free yogurt (Greek is best because you don’t sacrifice creaminess)
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1-2 cloves garlic, crushed or finely minced/pressed
salt and a just a little pepper

Make the sauce by combining all the ingredients. Allow the sauce to sit as you prepare and cook the burgers, so the flavors can marry.

To make the burgers, combine all ingredients and mix–but don’t overmix. Form into 4 patties. Spray your grill or grill pan with some olive oil and grill the burgers for about 5 minutes per side, or until done.

Place the cooked patties on the pita, along with any garnishes you’d like and top with the yogurt sauce.

Pita, baklava, pull-apart bread, oh my...

It was a productive day in my house today :) There is just something about Sundays that make me want to bake!

I started out with making this cinnamon sugar pull-apart bread from Annie's Eats, and my oh my, was it delicious! What a great weekend breakfast treat. You will not regret making this bread.

Next up was another hit from Annie's blog - whole wheat pita bread! This is the stuff dreams are made of. Light and fluffy and perfect for the Lebanese-inspired chicken burgers we will be eating tonight.

Last but not least came the Greek baklava from Elly Says Opa. This dessert is positively sinful. I was a bit frightened to try it, as phyllo dough can be tricky to work with, and I am not a woman of much patience. Alas, it worked out well and the end result is absolutely decadent. The syrup itself is to die for. I would not skip out on the lemon peel or cinnamon stick - it really adds something extra.

                         

(As a side note, I used pecans instead of walnuts, as I am not a fan of walnuts.)

Grocery shopping with a bike.

I have had a lot of questions about how we manage to get a decent amount of groceries while only owning a bike and no car. It has definitely been an interesting learning experience. I used to go to the grocery store frequently - as in, every two or three days - with my daughter in the trailer, which gave me limited storage space. That got old pretty quickly. I've found that it is much easier to go to the store by myself, of course, with only the trailer for company, but it's hard to say no to a two year old that loves helping me pick out food.


Recently, I've had to borrow a bike from a friend because the tube in my bike sadly cracked. She also lent me her son's bike seat, so we have been trying that out. Liliana is smitten. We will be picking one of those up once I find the perfect bike for myself.  An advantage of the bike seat is that Lili can sit in it and I can tow the empty trailer to the grocery store and any other places we need to go. Today, for example, we went to Target, Strack & Van Til (grocery store) and the Dill Pickle (co-op). This is what I managed to carry in our Chariot trailer, with Liliana in the bike seat.

Garlic (2 heads)
Onions (5 pound bag)
Lemons (3)
Cucumber (1)
Red pepper (4)
Yellow pepper (1)
Scallions (1 bunch)
Tomatoes (2)
Green lettuce (1 bunch)
Green pepper (1)
Strawberries (1 container)
Asparagus (1 bundle)
Potatoes (4)
Spinach (big container)
Flat leaf parsley (1 bunch)
Portobello mushrooms (6)
Cilantro (1 bunch)
Ground chicken (2 pounds)
Ground beef (1 pound)
Turkey sausage (1 pound)
Butter (1 pound)
Feta cheese
Chihuahua cheese (8-oz)
Cream cheese (1 block)
Mozzarella (8-oz)
Queso fresco (2-oz)
String cheese
Red wine vinegar
Tomato sauce (28-oz)
Diced tomatoes (15-oz can + 28-oz can)
Phyllo dough (16-oz pkg)
Black beans (3 cans)
Green chiles (4-oz)
Allspice
Ground cloves
Dried sage
Dried marjoram
Milk from a local dairy (1 gallon)
Milk from a semi-local mill (10 pound bag)
Fair trade bananas

The spices and herbs were bought in bulk, and I only bought what I needed, so it was a very small amount for each one. 

Toothpaste
Nighttime pull-ups
Toothbrush
Stickers

Stuffed yellow peppers.

Forgive the photo - I had a two year old hanging on me and it was very hard to get a decent looking photo of something that is not so pretty to begin with.

Rest assured, it was delicious! I served it with healthy 'refried' beans from Weelicious.

Stuffed Yellow Peppers

Elly Says Opa

4-6 yellow peppers
canola oil
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 links chipotle chicken sausage, or other Mexican-style or spicy sausage, casings removed
3/4 cup salsa
1/2 cup chicken broth
cumin/chili powder/salt & pepper to taste
1/2 cup rice, cooked or par-cooked
1 cup cheddar/Mexican/manchengo/whatever kind of cheese you want

Preheat oven to 375.

Cut lids off peppers. Remove core, and place on a cookie sheet/jelly roll pan sprayed with oil. Spray peppers lightly, too.

Heat oil in a skillet. Add onion and cook until translucent. Add garlic and sausage. Crumble and brown sausage.

Stir in salsa, chicken broth and seasonings. Add rice and simmer for a couple minutes, absorbing some of the liquid. Remove from heat and stir in cheese.

Fill peppers with mixture. Bake for 30 minutes.

First bike!