Veggie Pizza

Okay, So I dont have this down to a definate science yet. I like to add whatever i have on hand, but essentially this is an uber yummy salad on a pita!

Ingrediants

2 pitas (we used whole wheat)

2 wedges laughing cow cheese (garden herb i think was the flavor)

3T fat free philly cream cheese

2T powdered ranch dressing mix

diced veggies of your choice I added about 1 T of everything i had

whatever meats if you want any

I will put pics of everything we added. Normally we eat this completly cold and raw, but with all the cheese and using fat free cheese we decided to put it in the oven till the cheese softened and we wouldnt lose it all over the floor. We used alittle leftover rotiserre chicken, chopped up 3 piece of turkery roni a piece and a Tbsp of bacon bits.  definatly a super quick and easy meal when we are hungry but dont really feel like cooking. Oh and i mixed the cream cheese, the laughing cow and the ranch together till smooth and creamy and then spread on the pita.

lol, i was organized

topped with cheeses

meats

creammy cheesy cheese

add yumminesstop with tons of your favorite raw veggies

add cheese

Topped with our meat products and enjoyed!

I have a few other recipes i will be adding soon, but things have been so hectic i havent taken very many pictures. I am excited they will start on our sunroom next Tuesday!  Been cleaning house like it is going out of style. Havent really wanted to cook anything for fear of makin a mess.

White Bean and Tuna Citrus Salad

This recipe is easy to throw together if you have a handful of fresh veggies you need to use and don’t know what to do with them. Feel Free to also use whatever type of bean you like. I prefer the flavor of the white beans because the taste is not overpowered by the rest of the ingredients. I have made so many variations to this dish, you can use whatever fresh vegetable that you like, Also play around using your favorite beans, this is also very good with black beans. You can serve this on top of lettuce, with pita chips, in a wrap, or just by itself. If you have any variations you particularly enjoyed please feel free to let me know.

 

Ingredients

• 2 cans beans (I used northern and black-eyed peas)
• 1 cup flat italian beans (fresh or frozen)
• 1/2 pint of grape tomatoes cut in half  (or variety of garden matoes in different colors)
• 1 green onion (diced)
• 2 stalks celery (diced)
• 1/2 each red pepper, yellow pepper, orange pepper
• 12 oz fresh tuna cubed
• 1 orange
• 1/2 grapefruit
• 1 lime
• 1 salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 c of your favorite vinaigrette
• chopped cilantro, basil or parsley (optional)

First you want to prepare your tuna. After it has been cubed put it in a non reactive bowl. Add all of the juice from your citrus and salt and pepper. Stir and cover. Place back in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. The acid from your citrus will cook the tuna.

Blanch your italian beans for approx 5 minutes in boiling water and then rinse in cold water. Drain and rinse your canned beans. Dice your celery, peppers, and onion. Mix everything together and toss in your slice tomatoes. When the tuna is done drain it and then add it to your vegetables. Toss with your favorite dressing and refrigerate till ready to serve.

This tastes even better the next day.

white bean and tuna citrus salad. YUM!

One of the Many faces of Quinoa.

   So the other night Kev and I decided we want Quinoa for dinner. I am desperately trying to monitor how much food we are eating as of late, so I thought this would be a great alternative as opposed to couscous. Rather than do the usual adding of herbs and chicken stock. I also decided to make it plain. This way if there were leftovers we could heat them up and have them either for breakfast or lunch. The easiest way for me to make quinoa is in my rice cooker (which I cant live without). Ratio is about 2:1 water and grain, or is it more of a seed? This came out scrumptious without the saltiness of the broth. I just added a squeeze of lemon juice to mine and I think Kev added a touch of olive oil to his.  I had 3 cups cooked quinoa left after dinner that night so I packed them up in one cup containers and put them in the fridge.    

Plain fluffy white quinoa

 The next day is when I got creative though. I had never made a cold quinoa salad b4. I figured since i was going to be grilling, the best way would be to have a cold salad, minus all the mayo from a pasta ot potato salad. So I got all of my veggies that i had chopped in the fridge and added them to my cold quinoa. A bit of dressing and then put back in the fridge for the evening, it was awesome! SOO hard to put down and not finish it. After all the veggies I had added to it. Kev and I both had 1 cup of it, but I was able to store 3 more 1 cup containers back in the fridge again. 1 for him to take to lunch and 1 for each of us the next nite with dinner. I think this is my new favorite way to serve quinoa.    

Easy Cold Quinoa Salad    

1 cup dry quinoa    

2 cups water    

Add to rice cooker and cook. Since this cooks soo much like rice in the rice cooker and takes about 15-20 minutes to cook. I imagine if you cooked it on the stove the same way you do rice it would be about right. If you do not buy in bulk like I do, you may want to just read the directions on your box. Once done, put in a shallow dish and let chill for a few hours. Overnight is best.    

For the salad    

1/2 c chopped peppers (red, yellow, orange, green or whatever you have on hand)    

1/4 chopped carrots    

1/2 small bag of cooked and chilled edamame    

1/2 a seedless cucumber diced    

1/2 cup of diced fresh tomatoes    

1/4 c light raspberry vinaigrette or you can use a balsamic vinaigrette    

Mix all of this together. If you have any other veggies you would like, add them. If you would like more or less dressing. this is a very forgiving recipe. Chill it the rest of the day and serve . you can serve this as a side dish or as a meal in itself.    

Veggies added to the quinoa

As a main course.

As a tasty side dish.

Like I said this is my first time making it cold, but i bet it would be awesome with some diced grilled or rotisserie chicken thrown it in. Feel free to play around with it.

Obsession thy name is FOOD PORN!

  Lets face it, those of you who know me have known for a very very long time that food is my obsession. One way or another the subject comes to surface no matter what the conversation. Not only while I have been at my heaviest and unhealthiest, but also at my thinnest and most active times in my life. I enjoy cooking. I stumbled across some words a few days ago and again today which i was searching in trying to find a good title for my blog and I thought I would list them.

 Epicure, gourmet, gastronome, bon vivant, Foodie

n. a person devoted to refined sensuous enjoyment (especially good food and drink)

 Glutton, gourmand, gourmandizer, trencherman

 n. a person who is devoted to eating and drinking to excess

 Connoisseur, cognoscente

n. an expert able to appreciate a field; especially in the fine arts

 Expert

 n. a person with special knowledge or ability who performs skillfully

Cook

n. someone who cooks food

Baker, Bread Maker

 n. someone who bakes bread or cake

Debauchery

 n.Extreme indulgence in sensual pleasures; dissipation

Carnal, fleshly, sensual

adj. marked by the appetites and passions of the body “carnal knowledge”; “fleshly desire”; “a sensual delight in eating”; “music is the only sensual pleasure without vice”

Decadent, effete

adj. marked by excessive self-indulgence and moral decay; “a decadent life of excessive money and no sense of responsibility”; “a group of effete self-professed intellectuals”

Epicurean, luxurious, luxuriant, sybaritic, voluptuary, voluptuous

adj. displaying luxury and furnishing gratification to the senses; “an epicurean banquet”; “enjoyed a luxurious suite with a crystal chandelier and thick oriental rugs”; “Delia spent the remainder of her days in voluptuous magnificence”; “a chinchilla robe of sybaritic lavishness”

Hedonic, Hedonistic, Epicurean, Self Indulgent

Pursuit of or devotion to pleasure, especially to the pleasures of the senses, Devoted to the pursuit of sensual pleasure, especially to the enjoyment of good food and comfort. Excessive indulgence of one’s own appetites and desires.”a hedonic thrill”; “lives of unending hedonistic delight”; “epicurean pleasures”

 

  All these beautiful words make food sound soo dirty and evil.. AND super tasty. This is my Food Porn. I am over indulgent in these things. LOL. The first step to overcoming a problem is admiting I have one. Well, this is me saying, “I can quit at any time. But I am not going to. I will not let this control me. I am in complete control. NO PROBLEM!” De Nile ain’t just a river in Egypt. LOL. I have fun and sometimes stumble across genius that I didn’t realize I posess. Sometimes I impress myself. Most importantly though, I really enjoy what I do. It makes me happy. Even better, at times, it makes others happy too. A Hedonist? An Epicurean? A Foodie? A Glutton or Connoisseur? You are Damned Skippy I am, and proud of it!

Crockpot Steel Cut Oats (single serving)

  I am super excited about this recipe. My husband for the longest time has eaten plain boring processed oatmeal for breakfast. When I first met him, it was made on the stove every morning. No sugar, no salt, no milk, vanilla or other spices, just plain oatmeal. I started mixing it up for him in the mornings adding my little touches of butter and cinnamon, hint of vanilla, maybe some fruit. Unfortunately he loved it. I got myself in trouble ,cuz now he wanted his breakfast like this every morning. So it goes from him waking up to make breakfast, to ME having to wake up at the crack of dawn to cook. What to do what to do?   

  Now it has been a few years since I have been doing this, so I don’t remember where I got the idea for starting making steel-cut oats. More than likely it came from someone on Food network, and the only one I can think of as of now would be Good Eats. Well I decided we would give this a shot since this could be made in the crockpot. It felt like my savior. I followed the recipe and still would add a few things in every now and then, but the batch made a very large quantity. It was nice for a while, we would both have oatmeal the first day and then maybe the second, I wont do the same thing for more than a day or two, I get bored. Kev had it for one more day, but the remaining amount would start to dry out and get hard so I was throwing that away. I Hate throwing away food! Plus, the crock pot edges would get super hard and crusty and made it a pain to clean. After doing the steel-cut oats for a while, I switched to pre-made packets of quaker oats. Tasty, instant and just plain ole reliable.    

   Every now and then I would still get a request for steel-cut oats so I was still searching for crock pot recipes. Well I stumbled across another site that someone had on making steel-cut oats in the crock pot who also complained about cleaning the burnt edges of the crock. Turn your crockpot into a double boiler. Brilliant! While she made hers in a very large bowl and then filled the crock pot up with water, it still made too much for us. However now it made things so much easier for me to figure out what to do. Steel cut oats ratio is 4:1. four cups water to 1 cup oats. Breaking that down even smaller is 1/4 cup oats to 1 cup water.  That ratio is perfect for me, but for a little more filling for Kev, I would add another half. Since I dont have an 1/8 cup, I just use tablespoons. 4 Tablespoons to 1 cup of water, and 6 Tablespoons to 1 1/2 cup of water. After all of my rambling, here is the base recipe for my steel cut oats.   

Single Serving Steel Cut Oats    

4 Tablespoons Steel Cut Oats    (1/4 cup)            

1 cup of water or flavoring of your choice   

pinch of salt   

sweetener to taste   

Add oats and water to your cup. Place in your crockpot and fill it up with water to the same level as the water in your cup. Cover with lid and put on low. When you wake up in the morning you may have to use a ladle or measuring cup to remove some of the water from the crockpot to get your cups out, but once you do feel free to add whatever fixin’s you like to your oats. They are like rice as in they are a blank canvas, sweet or savory, the only limit is your imagination. Oh yes and when I make his oats, I make them in this cup, I use 6 T oats and 1 1/2 c water and this is how full it makes these cups. They are 20 oz mugs, perfect for him, just a tad too much for me, unless its dessert!   

Crock pot oats in the evening

   

Your crock pot oats in the morning

   

Stir till creamy and serve

   

Or you can add all your extras at this time. i added almond milk and cinnamon

   

Now As I said there are millions of ways you can serve this. My two favorite ways as of right now is adding a packet of swiss miss hot chocolate to my water b4 putting it in the crock pot. I love this so much I make it for my breakfast and through the day I make another one and put it in the fridge so I can have one for midnight munchies or just for dessert. This one tastes just like chocolate tapioca pudding. It is awesome! Another favorite is Adding coconut milk instead of the water and then adding a couple of tablespoons of crushed pineapple. When it comes out in the morning I like to add a little of the leftover juice to my cup to make it a little creamier, makes and awesome piña-colada dessert with a squirt of whipped cream on top. Don’t tell. This is just awesome cold. Plain with some maple syrup chilled in the fridge. I loove it!  Kev like his with either flavored coffee creamer to replace some of the water, or will make it plain and then add a big spoonful of peanut or almond butter and a touch of honey to sweeten. If I put peanut butter, I like a mashed up banana added. And as far as sweetener. Its oatmeal people, add what you like, there are tons out there and if you like sugar substitutes, organics, brown, white, honey, agave. Use it. There are no rules to this recipe other than remember that your water to oats ratio is 4:1. If anyone has any other ideas or things you like to do with your oats, please let me know. I am always looking for new ideas. I heard some people like to add chunks of cheese and ham, fish, pesto and other unusual things to it. Kinda like a risotto. I am all ears!

The Begining of Yumminess!

Well,  this is my first post. I will try to expand upon it alittle more when I have alittle more time. I have decided that as much as I search, talk, enjoy and live for food and creating new things I might as well be bloggin about it. Mainly to have a place where I can keep all of my ideas and recipes that I use the most. I am tired of every single time I want to make a recipe that I always use that I cannot remember how to make, googling new recipes and taking what i want from all of them.

  There is nothing more disheartning that perfecting a dish, but then not writing it down and then i cant remember how to do it the exact same again. I may end up starting with my most common of my everyday items and then work on my concotions. Since I looove taking pictures as soon asI can figure out how to do it. I want to add photos as well. I have no idea on what I am doing yet so I ask that you bear with me and hopefully I will improve as time goes by.

 I look forward to sharing my adventures with you!