Off plan... (recipe!)

So last night's dinner was homemade pizza.  Those of you who read my weekly menu plan know that pizza was not on that list.  That's the great thing about it, I can deviate from my plan with out it being a huge ordeal.  I had to pick up cheese for the meal, but I had everything else here.  I made the crusts - with some improvising to the recipe that I found, made some quick pizza sauce and there it is. Easy peasy.  Sometimes even with the best laid out plan improvising is the best!

I bought a thing of goat cheese from Costco so I have 2 things of it to use up.  (I am totally in love with the flavor!)  So my pizza was goat cheese, fresh tomato & fresh spinach.  Hubby had canadian bacon, turkey pepperoni, peppers & onion.  Little man had turkey pepperoni.  I used one dough and divided into 3, I rolled it pretty thin and it puffed up nicely - be sure to poke the dough otherwise it resembles pita bread...lol Not speaking from experience or anything. :)  

Recipe credits

I told hubby & little man that we are changing things up.  There will be no more eating out - except once a month.  Last night would have been easy to give in.  Little man wanted to have Little Caesars for dinner - I mean it's only $5 a pizza, right....  I spent $2.50 on cheese and got homemade pizza that is MUCH better than Little Caesars.  We pay too much money for convenience.  Which is why I am trying to add pre-made ready to go (homemade) items to my freezer.  The Bean & Cheese Burritos that I have for this weeks meals is a perfect example.  I am going to make enough for dinner, but I will also be making extras that I will put in baggies and freeze so that if we need dinner in a hurry or just want something other than a sandwich for lunch we can take one out and heat and BOOM! there's dinner or lunch.  Homemade & I know what's in it.  Not to mention our wallets will like it too!    Have no fear there is a post in the near future about make ahead meals.  

Pizza Dough

Ingredients 

• 2 cups flour
• 1 tablespoon yeast
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2/3 cup lukewarm water ( plus an additional 2 tbsp)

Directions

1. Mix 1 cup of flour with all other ingredients.
2. Gradually add 2nd cup of flour until it forms a ball. Use your hands to form and knead the dough.
3. Let the dough rest 10-15 minutes in a bowl covered with a dish towel or saran to keep it warm.
4. Spread out onto greased pizza pan and top with your favorite toppings.
5. Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 15 minutes. Enjoy!

Picky Eaters

Do you find yourself with a picky eater?  I have been blessed with children who aren't super picky.  Yes of course they each have things that they don't like, but for the most part they'll eat almost anything.  My youngest likes fresh carrots, but can't stand cooked carrots & he won't eat fish or shellfish (except coconut shrimp...gotta love it).  But he will eat a caesar salad - how many kids like caesar dressing?  Sneaking food in can be difficult, especially if they are anything like him.  He would always smell his food first and let me tell you his nose is incredible!!  Crazy incredible.  Which made it very difficult.  I fooled him once to eat halibut - told him it was chicken....yea that last about 2 bites in and he was NOT amused!

I ran across a post from another blogger about sneaking in veggies & thought I would share my thoughts on this.  You will notice that my sloppy joes have lots of veggies in them.  I don't necessarily add veggies to sneak them in for my kids - for my family it's been more about adding veggies so that we are getting enough on a daily basis.  Let's face it - it's easy to go an entire day without any veggies if you really wanted to.  I don't recommend it, but it is possible, especially for teenagers!  You will also see that my mac n cheese recipe (in this week's menu plan) has spinach in it & yet my 9 year old loves it!  We also do smoothies in the morning and I add some spinach to those as well.  For that you really do need a good blender that will get the spinach super fine so it's hard to see.  I have a Ninja
& LOVE it!

Another option I have tried and we really enjoy is making "noodles" out of zucchini.  I saute them in a little bit of olive oil and then just add some salt and pepper (sometimes some Italian seasonings) and serve with some pasta sauce of choice and it's delish! 9 Year old approved!  :)

This weekend I hope to make some chocolate zucchini muffins.  Another great way to get those veggies in.  Of course you are making a sweet bread but it does make for a great treat!  My son isn't fond of zucchini - once he sees I have made this he will ask me to make him some pumpkin bread - his all time favorite.  At least it has a ton of pumpkin in it too!!  :)

In the end it's really all about finding out what works for your family.  It will take a few trial runs but don't get discouraged.  Sometimes like it or not you just have to put your foot down.  I make my kids take 2 bites of food before they can tell me that they don't like it.  Even if they don't like it sometimes they have to eat it anyway - cooked carrots for example.  It's our job as parents to be sure that they are getting the nutrition that they need.  They might not like you for that moment, and that's OK you're the parent, not the friend.  :)

Dinner recap: last night we had the Honey Lemon Chicken.  The chicken breasts I used were a little small so in the end there wasn't a ton of meat, but just enough for the 3 of us.  I did chop up some fresh broccoli and add that to it, which was delicious!  My 9 year old thought it was too lemony.  So if you have a picky eater who might not like lemon I suggest 1/2 the amount of lemon and perhaps another tablespoon of the honey.  I thought it was great, but I love lemon.

Picture and recipe credit.

A different kind of grilled cheese sandwich

Lunch is served!  When I first stumbled upon this sandwich I wasn't quite sure how good it was going to be.....  However it enticed me more than anything and I figured what the hell, it's worth a try!  I am so glad that I did!  Once you get past the cheese tearing up the bread everything about it is to die for!!  The combination of goat cheese and cucumber is amazingly fresh!  It is a filling yet light lunch that I am sure you will love!

Cucumber Goat Cheese Grilled Cheese!

Ingredients:

• Two slices sprouted wheat bread
• Two ounces goat cheese
• Sliced cucumber
• Coconut oil spray

That’s it! I used the coconut oil spray on the bread instead of butter to get a nice grill.

The sandwich was so fresh and delicious. It didn’t feel heavy like a regular grilled cheese sandwich. The cucumber added a great crisp as well. I’m totally hooked!

Enjoy!!

~K