Caprese Pizza

Mr. Gaunt bought me a cute little Basil plant and re-potted it in a cute little yellow pot. We put it in the window, where it took all of 3 days to wilt and die. We don’t really get sun. Oh well, I can’t wait till we have a yard, or even a porch! Some day.

Before the Basil plant died I picked a bunch and made this YUMMY Caprese Pizza!

INGREDIENTS:

-Whole Wheat Pizza Crust

-Handfull of fresh Basil Leaves

-Olive Oil

-Balsamic Vinegar

-1 Medium tomato

-Fresh Mozzarella

DIRECTIONS:

-Brush crust with olive oil

-Layer evenly with basil leaves

-Slice tomato thin and layer on top of basil

-Sprinkle with mozzarella

-Splash with vinegar

-Bake per crust instructions (about 12 minutes @ 375)

Review: Ezekiel Bread

I’d like to repeat again, that change does not happen over night, and that health is a lifelong process. I am by no means a perfect eater, and I hope no one ever thinks I am. I’m not. I also have a few items I have yet to turn over to the Healthy Food Gods. One of these things was bread.  I have been using (for the last year) Sara Lee 45 Calorie Delightful Wheat Bread this is leftover from my Weight Watchers days where this bread rolled in at a mere 1 point for two slices! It’s hard to get better than that. Also its SUPER soft, which I love in a bread. I felt pretty bad about it, I means it’s a great bread, but it contains a few to many “un-clean” ingredients. Way more than 10 (they say you should avoid eating foods that have more than 10 ingredients, and any ingredients you can’t pronounce) so it had to go.

We were at Sunflower Market last week and found Ezekiel Bread. At first I was confused by the Holy Scripture, but then read this:

Inspired by the Holy Scripture verse Ezekiel 4:9., “Take also unto thee Wheat, and Barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and Spelt, and put them in one vessel, and make bread of it…”

We picked up the

Organic Sprouted 100% Whole Grain Flourless Bread

The ingredients are amazing too:

INGREDIENTS: Organic Sprouted Whole Wheat, Filtered Water, Organic Malted Barley, Organic Sprouted Whole Millet, Organic Sprouted Whole Barley, Organic Sprouted Whole Lentils, Organic Sprouted Whole Soybeans, Organic Sprouted Whole Spelt, Fresh Yeast, Sea Salt.

The nutritional information is even better than I thought it would be.

For one slice:

-80 Calories

-0.5 grams of fat

-3 grams of fiber

-4 grams of protein.

Not bad for something that is 100% clean, and Vegan.

So of course all of that is good, but how about taste? I was a little nervous because it’s not a soft bread. It’s very dense and…hearty.  To start off with Mr. Gaunt made me a grilled cheese and turkey sandwich on our George Foreman. It was actually really good! I was surprised. I’ve tried other healthy breads before and have always found them too sweet. I don’t like sweet breads, I think they are gross. This bread isn’t sweet at all, perfect bread flavor. Obviously when grilled its crispy, so the soft thing doesn’t make much of a difference.

Next we tried a regular old cold turkey sandwich. At first I thought, yup too dense and hard, not gonna like it, but the more I at it, the more I loved it. It has a nice nutty flavor, and its so filling. I just felt like I was eating good healthy filling foods. Not to mention I have recently found a love for Grey Poupon, and that is delicious on it!

So overall I am VERY pleased with this bread. We will be sticking with it, and I will try more recipes with it: French Toast, Bread Crumbs, egg sandwiches, etc. If you have tried it, Id love to hear your opinions too.

Trial and Error: Whole Wheat Vegan Cake

So I learned today that you really can’t just “wing it” when it comes to baking. I’m a big fan of making recipes up on the spot or substituting when I don’t have what they ask for. With baking this often results in a big FLAT cake…lol!

I searched around a bit for a Whole Wheat Cake, still working on not making anything with WHITE flour. I found two recipes that looked good. This Sour Cream Coffee Cake sounded good (using Whole Wheat Flour, as well as this Whole Wheat Walnut Coffee Cake. I’ve also recently been a little obsessed with Alicia Silverstone’s Website The Kind Life and her take on eating Vegan. So I thought I could just combine some recipes and make a cake vegan…lol…it turned out…interesting.

Here is what I did:

Ingredients

• 1/4  cup  packed brown sugar
• 1  teaspoons  ground cinnamon
• 1  cup  granulated sugar (although to do it again I would only use 1/2 cup)
• 1/4  cup Earth Balance (vegan butter)
• 2/3 cup Unsweetened Organic Applesauce
• 1  cup  Vegan Sour cream
• 1  teaspoon  vanilla extract
• 1 3/4  cups Whole Wheat flour
• 1  teaspoon  baking powder
• 1 small apple diced small
• Cooking spray

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°.

Combine first 2 ingredients; set aside.

Place granulated sugar and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well-blended (about 5 minutes). Add Apple Sauce and Apples, beating well after each addition. Beat in sour cream and vanilla. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder, stirring well with a whisk. Gradually add flour mixture to sugar mixture; beat well. Pour into sprayed round pan, sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon mixture.

Bake at 350° for 45 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool the cake on a wire rack.

Optional lemon Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 to 3 tablespoons water or milk

Pour on top of cooling cake, add fresh sliced strawberries.

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In the end both Mr. Gaunt and I thought this tasted good, but it didn’t really rise. It would have been nice if it had been thicker and fluffier. The whole Wheat Flour gives it a very wheaty taste, I liked it. I will have to keep trying this to see if I can’t find a better recipe…err…a REAL recipe…lol!

In better news, we won our softball game! I kinda pulled my groin so that sucks. I just keep hurting myself, oh well. Hoping to take it easier tomorrow at work, I busted my ass today. Oh and I have Easter pics to show you too! Soon enough.

Can Pizza be Healthy?

No!

Kidding. (= of course in generall ALL pizza SUCKS for you! Seriously, you think a slice of vegetarian pizza wont be too bad but according to WW the average slice of vegetarian pizza is SEVEN POINTS! Yeah and like your gonna stop at one slice…ha! Anyways Im not crazy about pizza, but I sure dont mind it either! The other day I bought a whole wheat thin crust pizza crust at Whole Foods, and then two nights ago MR. Gaunt and I made this:

Its Whole Wheat Pizza Crust (pre made, thin crust), a little home made pesto for sauce, fresh spinach, chicken (on Mr. Gaunt’s side) cherry tomatoes and mozzarella! So so yummy! No points or recipe or nutritional info on this one, just yummy food porn. You should try your own! Avoiding meat and limiting cheese is key!