"Taco Bell" Mexican Pizza

I've said before that I love cheese--as a result, all foods made with said cheese are near and dear to my heart. Thus, I have always had a dangerous love affair with the Taco Bell Mexican pizza. And I'm not joking on the dangerous part: I've had food poisoning at least twice from Taco Bell alone, and I know my waist line gives me dirty looks as soon as it sees the bell on the bag. But I have a cheese addiction, and the Mexican pizza keeps me from tweaking.

So, as a compromise one night, I decided I would at least attempt to make my own pizza (and maybe cut down my chances of getting the food poisoning again :p). It turned out really well and was MUCH more filling than Taco Bell's version--my husband even said he liked the taste of this one better, but as he could take or leave Taco Bell, I'm not sure that will convince you other Bell lovers out there that this is worth a go. But the lack of food poisoning should--so try it any way.

Ingredients:

-Flour tortillas (props if you make these yourself--I used store bought)

-Quart of veggie oil for frying

-1 pd. of lean ground beef

-1 packet of taco seasoning (I found a taco bell one--score!)

-1 can refried beans

-1 jar salsa (also found a taco bell one)

-2 cups shredded cheddar cheese 

-1 bunch green onions

First, you need your flour tortillas crispy. Heat the veggie oil in a large skillet over medium heat. You will know the oil is ready when you stick a wooden spoon into the middle of the oil and bubbles rise up around it (or if you have a thermometer). (Disclaimer: I don't really believe I need to say this, and this is rather tongue-in-cheek, but as I married a lawyer, I will: do not use your fingers or any other body part to ascertain that the oil is hot. It will burn you, and then you will won't get to eat the Mexican pizza. And you'll have hospital bills. So use the spoon.)

When the oil is ready, carefully place a tortilla in the oil. It will begin to puff up, so carefully puncture any bubbles in the tortilla with your spoon, fry until the tortilla is crisp, and then remove and place on a plate covered with paper towels (to absorb the extra oil). Repeat this process until all tortillas are cooked.

Next, get your ground beef ready. Cook the ground beef in a skillet until it evenly browned, then drain off any residual fat. Mix your taco seasoning with water according to package directions and add to your ground beef in the skillet (note: if you are trying to cut back on your sodium, look for a low-sodium mix or do not add the full packet of seasoning to your ground beef...or add your own spices that do not contain salt for best low-sodium results). Simmer over low-heat until all water is absorbed and the beef is evenly coated with the seasoning.

Chop the bunch of green onions, shred your cheddar cheese, and turn the broiler on in your oven. The rest is all assembly!

On top of one of the crispy tortillas, place the following:

-a layer of the refried beans

-a layer of the ground beef

-a second tortilla

-a thin layer of salsa

-a generous sprinkling of cheddar cheese

-a sprinkling of green onions

Place all assembled pizzas onto a baking sheet. Finally, place under the broiler for 3-5 minutes, or until cheese is melted, and serve! 

The beauty of this recipe is that you can even add other veggies, change the meat (say you'd prefer a ground turkey Mexican pizza for health/diet reasons), alter the cheeses, or make any other changes you want to fit your needs. Of course--I like the original best, and I hope you enjoy!

Tomato, Lemon, and Cannellini Bean Pasta

Let's face it--trying to cook a healthy meal is expensive. It's much easier to buy a package of Ramen noodles or macaroni and cheese for a dollar than it is to find something that is affordable AND has nutritional value. So, wanting a recipe that wouldn't break the bank, I found this: Lemon, caper, and white bean pasta. The recipe is supposed to be made from foods that are generally already in your pantry (and that are fairly cheap!), so I decided to give it a try. I omitted the capers (I didn't have any, and didn't want to spend money on them just for this recipe) and instead used my friend Sarah's roasted grape tomato idea in their place.

Ingredients:
1 box grape tomatoes
1-2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 teaspoon dried basil (fresh would be even better!)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 box angel hair pasta (I used whole wheat)
1 large lemon, zested and juiced
1 teaspoon garlic pepper
1 (15 ounce) can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
Salt to taste
Optional toppings: Parmesan cheese, parsley 

Put the water on to boil for your spaghetti. Salt the water to flavor your pasta.

While the water is heating up, prepare your roasted tomatoes. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. In a medium bowl, mix together your grape tomatoes, olive oil, basil, and minced garlic cloves until all the tomatoes are well-coated. Spread out on a baking sheet. When the oven is ready, cook at 400 degrees for 7-10 minutes (7 minutes is fine if you want the tomatoes a bit firmer; they will start to break down by 10 minutes). I may come back to this recipe for a homemade pasta sauce in the future--the smell of the tomatoes when they are finished is amazing!

Next, get your sauce ready. Melt the butter in a skillet over low-medium heat. Using a handheld grater, shred the peel of the lemon (the shreds of lemon peel are the zest) into the butter. To get the most juice from your lemon, roll it on the counter applying pressure with your hands to get the juices to flow, then cut the lemon open and squeeze the juices from each half into the butter, as well. Add in your garlic pepper and salt and mix well. Finally, toss in the cannellini beans and roasted tomatoes until heated through.

Toss with the spaghetti or simply serve the tomato-bean sauce on top and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and parsley if desired. Enjoy the meal--and the extra money in your wallet! :)

**I had to include a close-up to point out the color here. The dish is still tasty without the tomatoes, but they provide both an added depth of flavor and beauty in presentation. A feast for the stomach AND eyes! (Now really...go enjoy ;)).

Sarah's Banana Bread

I found a baking buddy! Sarah and I met through mutual friends, and while at first I was simply impressed by her spirit and optimistic attitude, I later discovered that she also shares the same love for cooking and baking that I do--a kindred spirit! Hence, the next few recipes are inspired by or are directly from her, beginning with an amazing chocolate chip banana bread.

Here is Sarah's list of ingredients:

2 cups brown rice flour (*I used regular bread flour, since I could not find this)
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon table salt
3 very ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/4 cup plain yogurt (you can also substitute Greek yogurt for additional nutritional value)
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (or honey is good if you're out)
1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

 All ingredients

 Mashed bananas!

Now, when the recipe calls for "very ripe" bananas, it means very ripe-like brown all over. I can tell you from experience that you cannot force bananas to ripen by glaring at them, no matter how hard you try. So try to buy bananas that are already at least yellow, or you will be waiting a few days for your banana bread. Since my bananas were not ready yet, and I was banana-bread obsessed for those few days, I performed several unnecessary Google searches about bananas and can tell you why they should be brown. Apparently, the riper the banana gets, the more sugar it releases, making for a sweeter bread. And, you know...it's easier to mash a riper banana. WARNING NOTE: Do NOT place your bananas near other fruits while you are waiting for them to ripen. I lost three peaches with a lot of potential yumminess that way (bananas release a gas which causes other fruits to ripen faster). At this point, I could also tell you all the facts I learned from Shark Week (I spent some quality time with Google and the Discovery Channel this week), but I will spare you.

So, on to the baking (instructions from Sarah)!

Adjust a rack to the lower middle position of the oven and preheat it to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9x5-inch loaf pan.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.

In a medium bowl, stir together the bananas, yogurt, eggs, melted butter and vanilla, mixing well.

Gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry, just to blend--do not over mix. Add in the chocolate chips. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs, about 50-60 minutes (most breads will take the full hour). Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn it out and let cool completely. (Or at least for 10 minutes if you really can't wait any longer :))

This was my first attempt at baking bread, and it was hugely successful--the hubby, who hates bananas, actually enjoyed the banana bread, and since he's my litmus test, I was fairly proud. It is also tasty microwaved for about 20 seconds and buttered (and I intend to use stale pieces--if the bread lasts that long--to make banana bread french toast in the future). Mmmm! Thanks again, Sarah, and to everyone else: enjoy!

Gourmet Paninis

If you couldn't tell from my first recipe posting, I love cheese. The kind of love where, if I were stranded on a deserted island and could only have one food with me, it would probably be cheese. So, I was daydreaming about grilled cheese sandwiches the other day (because they are made from my food crush) and pondering how I could make the ordinary grilled cheese sandwich a bit more blog-worthy. And then I found this recipe: Fresh Mozzarella, Prosciutto, and Fig Jam. The ingredients are as follows:

4 soft French or Italian rolls

10-12 ounces fresh mozzarella, thickly sliced

8 ounces prosciutto, thinly sliced

¼- ½ cup fig jam or fig preserves, to taste

Soft butter for spreading on bread

I followed this pretty much as follows, except I used ciabatta bread (I thought the square shape was cute...ahem) and added some spinach for a little added color and, I suppose, some nutritional value. But mainly for the color. Also, I don't own a panini press, so I used my little George Foreman type grill thing instead. And since it is non-stick, I omitted the butter. Trust me, you won't miss it when it comes to flavor.

I like recipes like this, because you really can't mess them up. All you have to do is:

1) Slice your bread, and spread the fig jam liberally on one side (or both--I will explain why in a moment).

2) Pile on the prosciutto, slices of the fresh mozzarella, and some washed/de-stemmed spinach leaves.

3) Cover the sandwich with the other bread slice, toss into your George Foreman (or place in a warm skillet and press down with a panini press) and just squeeze the heck out of it. The sandwich will get more compact, have lovely little grill marks for presentation purposes, and oh yeah--be ooey, gooey, melty, salty, and caramelized from the fig preserves. Then, you eat, drool, and repeat.

Which brings me back to the fig jam. This needs a special mention, because I almost didn't buy fig jam. I'd never had it before, the stuff was $5 a jar, and the strawberry jam, $3 cheaper, beckoned invitingly to me from beside the fig jam on the shelf. But, I sucked it up and bought the fig jam to stay true to the recipe.

And holy shitake mushrooms, people, was it amazingly delicious. First, it lacks the tartness of most other jams, so it just accentuates rather than dominates the other ingredients of the sandwich. The flavor is much more....like raisin-flavored honey. Or heaven. And when cooked, the jam warms up and sweetens, becoming almost candy-like, which provides a nice contrast to the salty prosciutto. And now, I am making it a life goal to get the fig family into as many recipes as I can from here on out. Try the figs, people--you won't regret it!!

Finally, the finished product--enjoy!

Cake Pops!

The last couple of days, I have felt inundated by images of cupcakes. (OK, so I looked in a magazine advertising cupcakes, and Paula Deen had that Hello, Cupcake! lady on her show--it's still a sign from the universe, gosh darn it!) So what better way to end a Friday afternoon than with some baking? Unfortunately, I recently began dieting, and the caramel corn cupcake recipe I was drooling over did not seem diet-friendly. So, I opted for something in a smaller, more diet-friendly size. And thus I give you...the cake pop.

Before starting, I looked at various cake pop designs. I figured I would use this first foray into the cake pop world as an introduction to basics, and just try to make something that looked like this:

The goal was to one day work up to something like this (and be sure to look at the rest of Bakerella's website--those cake pops are CRAZY awesome). Yay Star Wars pops!

The basic posed a few challenges of its own, however, so I am going to post what I did first and then post my suggestions for what I could have improved on at the end.

So, let's get to it: my basic cake pop. I'll be honest: I did the lazy baker's version. As suggested by recipes here and here, you can buy a box of store cake mix, a container of pre-made store frosting, a package of candy melts/baker's chocolate/almond bark, and pre-made decorations of your choice--nothing needs to be made from scratch. Add a box of lollipop sticks and a piece of styrofoam (to stick your cake pops into as the chocolate sets) from your local hobby store (i.e. Michaels, Hobby Lobby), and you're done.

I selected a box of red velvet cake mix, container of cream cheese frosting, and baker's white chocolate.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, when it comes to your choice of chocolate for the chocolate shell, buy the baking chocolate, almond bark, or candy melts, NOT the chocolate chips. The chocolate chip bags promise that you can simply melt the chips and add some shortening...and while I am more than willing to admit that I could have microwaved incorrectly, my chocolate chips came out a congealed mess. My Baker's chocolate? Came out perfectly. Either way, you save yourself a step.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Step #1: Make your cake according to package directions.

When finished, allow the cake to cool on the counter for 30 minutes. Next comes the fun part. See your lovely, oh-so-perfect cake? Time to destroy it! Using a spoon, break up the cake into crumbs, starting in the middle of the cake and stopping just short of the cake's edges (these are a bit tougher, so I just removed them to keep my cake crumb pile nice and soft).

Scoop in your frosting (you can do all of these steps in the pan you baked the cake in!), and use your spoon to integrate it into the cake crumbs so that they are evenly moistened and stick together. Hint: continue to use your spoon here. I was tempted to use my hands, but the mixture sticks to your hands and makes further integration difficult. When it's all mixed together, cover the cake/frosting mix, and place in the refrigerator for 3 hours or longer.

Cake balls can fall apart easily, so be sure to give the cake mix its fridge time. When the 3 hours are up, remove the cake from the fridge, and take out a baking sheet and line with wax paper--it's time to make the cake mix into balls! If you have one, a small ice cream scoop or melon baller helps you to make your cake balls easily and uniformly-shaped. If not, use your hands to roll pieces of the cake mix into balls about an inch, inch and a half big. The recipes suggest that you should have about 36 cake balls (I had 42). When all your cake balls are formed, place the baking sheet with the cake balls into the freezer for one hour.

And now, here is the challenging part: the chocolate shell, lollipop stick, and decorations. The way the recipes tell you to accomplish the final transformation from cake ball to cake pop is as follows:
1) Microwave or melt your chocolate over the stove (in a glass bowl atop boiling water).
2) Dip the lollipop stick in the chocolate and then stick the chocolately-end into a cake ball (the chocolate should act as glue to keep the cake ball on the stick).
3) Dip the cake ball in the melted chocolate to cover it in the chocolate shell.
4) Stick the completed cake pop in the styrofoam and allow the chocolate shell to set.
5) Decorate as you desire with sprinkles (do this BEFORE the chocolate sets) or with a drizzle of a different chocolate (i.e. white chocolate over dark chocolate or vice versa).

I followed these instructions and ended up with several lovely cake pops. See, evidence:

And, they were tasty. However, I had a few that simply slipped down the lollipop stick, and there was the congealed chocolate chip incident I alluded to earlier. My suggestions? 

1) Again, avoid the chocolate chips!!! Get the chocolate that was destined to become a candy shell. It will feel fulfilled, and you won't be irritated.

2) Either make the cake balls about half the size as that specified above (to reduce the weight on the stick) OR put the cake balls back into the freezer once you've inserted the sticks to allow them to set awhile OR lay the cake pops sideways as soon as the chocolate is set to reduce the weight on the stick. 

Follow these steps (with the modifications suggested above), and I know your cake pops will be fabulous! Enjoy!

Homemade Doughnuts!

One of my guilty slack-off pleasures as a newlywed is to troll www.thenest.com: a website with information on housing, cooking...and politics/current events. An unexpected combo to be sure, but it keeps me entertained. One of the message board posters there had a plate of delicious-looking homemade doughnuts in her signature, and it looked like something I needed to try! I located a recipe here: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/crispy-and-creamy-doughnuts/detail.aspx

Now, these donuts come out more like a standard Dunkin Donut, if you have those in your area (i.e. a bit lighter than a cake donut). This recipe also only calls for glazed donuts; I had a taste for cinnamon sugar ones, since my husband and I often buy these from our local farms/pumpkin patch type places, and they are always SO good! So, I will tell you how to make both! First, the ingredients:

• Dough
• 2 (.25 ounce) envelopes active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees)
• 1 1/2 cups lukewarm milk
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup shortening
• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 quart vegetable oil for frying
•  
• Glaze
• 1/3 cup butter
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 4 tablespoons hot water or as needed

Cinnamon-Sugar topping

1/3 cup butter

3/4 cup white granulated sugar

2-3 tbs cinnamon (or more, to your taste)

To begin, cut open the yeast packets, and sprinkle them over the warm water. Let the mix sit for five minutes or until it becomes foamy. Now, this was my first time cooking with yeast, and I learned a few things about it. One, temperature is hugely-important. Yeast needs the water to be warm and it will need a warm environment in the kitchen to rise at a decent pace. So, you may want a 75-80 degree kitchen today (I stupidly had my air conditioning turned on full blast on a 70 degree day, and my dough took a good hour and 45 minutes to rise. Learn from my mistake!!). Second, yeast is a fungus, and so it is a bit smelly. Just keep imagining fresh doughnuts in your head as you smell the yeast-i-ness, and you will make it through.

Next, mix the following in a large bowl: the yeast mix, milk, sugar, salt, eggs, and shortening. Use a whisk to make the integration of the shortening easier. When all is combined, add in the flour to the mix in 1/2 cup intervals, again whisking to remove any lumps. You can also use a hand mixer set on low speed if the spoon isn't working for you (I just figured mixing by hand would help cancel out the future doughnut calories :p).

When it is well-mixed, knead the dough for about five minutes, then place it into a greased bowl and cover lightly (saran wrap works well here--just be sure to spray with non-stick spray and cover loosely). Finally, leave the dough alone to rise. It will be ready for action once it is about double its original size and will leave an indentation if touched (if it springs back into its original place when touched, it needs more time).

Once the dough has doubled in size, it is, as they say, time to make the doughnuts! First, prep your space. The recipe calls for you to roll the dough out onto a hard surface, and the dough was still obstinately sticky for me when I uncovered it. So, I taped some saran wrap to my counter top and sprayed it with non-stick spray and sprinkled it with a bit of flour. I highly suggest doing something similar to keep your dough from sticking. Then, place your dough on this surface, cover it with a piece of wax paper, and roll out your dough with a rolling pin on top of the wax paper, until the dough is a 1/2 in. thick (be sure to use the wax paper to keep the dough from sticking to the pin). Use a doughnut cutter to make your dough into the well-loved doughnut shapes (or, as I did, a drinking glass and a small, circular piece from a pastry bag--cooking is all about innovation after all). Finally, allow your doughnuts to again double in size until they look like the ones below:

Finally, it's time to cook the doughnuts and make your toppings. I made the doughnuts first and then went back to make the glaze and such after--the doughnuts fry up very fast, so you may want to devote all your attention to them first. Heat the oil in a skillet (or a deep fryer if you have one) until it reaches 350 degrees (or until a wooden spoon placed in the center of your oil starts to have little bubbles coming up around it--in case you don't have a thermometer). Using a spatula, slide the donuts (2-3 at a time) into the oil, flipping them over as soon as they achieve a light golden color on one side. Once they are golden on each side, remove them and set them on a wire rack to cool (just be sure to place a cookie sheet underneath to catch the mess!).

Toppings are up to you, but here is a glaze option and a cinnamon-sugar option. For the glaze, melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat, and then add in the confectioner's sugar and vanilla. This is going to thicken up and become frosting-like in consistency, so you will need to add a tsp or more of hot water to thin it out. A little goes a long way, so be sure to only add one tsp at a time until the glaze is thin enough to be drizzled over the doughnuts. Then, simply drizzle over the doughnuts as they cool on the wire racks, and feel free to add fun embellishments like sprinkles!

The cinnamon sugar topping is even easier. Simply mix together your sugar and cinnamon in a bowl and melt the butter in a separate dish. Brush the butter onto the top of the doughnuts and place them into the cinnamon sugar mix--the butter will act as a glue to keep the cinnamon and sugar on the doughnut. Cover the other side of the doughnut in butter and dip the other side in the mixture. (Alternatively, you can place the cinnamon and sugar in a paper bag and shake it to cover all surfaces of the doughnut). These were my favorite, though the glazed were very good, too.

And the final result: time-consuming, but oh so yummy! Enjoy!

Swedish Meatballs and Noodles

After three weeks of placing our life in boxes, my husband and I have finally moved into a new place--with a beautiful new kitchen! So of course, I needed a homemade meal to break in the new place and settled on one of my favorites from childhood: Swedish meatballs and noodles. I'd say this recipe is most similar in taste to the Stouffer's boxed dinner...but it's also thicker, fresher, meatier, and more flavorful (and actually fairly healthy--just watch your portion size)! The recipe was inspired by a combination of a random card I found in a recipe box, some stroganoff ingredients, and my own imaginings. Here are the ingredients (note that I ended up swiping paprika for parsley at the last minute at the end of the recipe):

For the meatballs:

3/4 pd. of lean ground beef

3/4 to 1 cup of breadcrumbs

2 egg whites

1/4 chopped yellow onion

1/2 tsp allspice

1/3 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/2 cup beef broth (prepared or made from bouillon)

For sauce:

1 can cream of mushroom soup (healthy fat/sodium version)

1 packet Lipton onion soup mix

1/2 cup sour cream (I used light)

And finally, a bag of egg noodles (brand of your choice--I used whole wheat ones for the health benefits)

To begin, preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Combine all ingredients for your meatballs in a bowl except for the beef broth (i.e. ground beef, onion, egg whites, spices, breadcrumbs). When finished, form 1 inch balls of meat out of the mixture (ice cream scoopers help to keep your meatballs a uniform size for even cooking). Warm a skillet, put in a few tsp of oil to prevent sticking, and brown the meatballs over medium-high heat. When browned, transfer the meatballs to a baking dish, pour the beef broth on top, cover with aluminum foil, and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes. This will help them to complete the cooking process, and they will be finished when they are no longer pink on the inside.

While the meatballs cook, prepare your sauce and noodles. To prepare the sauce, combine the mushroom soup and packet of dry onion soup mix in a large skillet on the stove (over medium heat). Depending on how thick you like your sauce, you can add a little milk to thin your sauce out, but be sure to add it a tsp at a time to keep it from getting too runny. Cook your egg noodles in a large pot according to the package's directions.

When the meatballs are close to being finished, take your sauce mixture off the stove and stir in the sour cream until thoroughly blended (you do not want to do this over the heat in case the sour cream curdles).

To serve, place a heap of egg noodles on a plate, add a few meatballs, cover with sauce, and sprinkle with parsley! And there you have it: tasty, healthy, and simple--enjoy!