Foodie Feature: Mike's Garlic + Basil Naan Pizza

This is a great and fun recipe if you're home alone or not super hungry, or well... you're like me and you really just fail at all things cooking related. There's NO cooking involved! Except a small stint in the oven just to melt/toast it all! Even I can do that, people! So I know you can, too! Mike is a pizza LOVER! I mean LOVER. And I am not really a fan all that much so this was a nice compromise for the two of us. It's really yummy and so so simple! The rest is allllll Mike! Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• Fresh mozzarella (not the stuff in a bag. look for it in a package in the deli area. it will clearly say "fresh mozzarella."
• Fresh basil
• A pack of garlic naan bread
• A jar of you favorite tomato sauce (I used "fire roasted tomato and garlic")
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Ground black pepper
• A tall frosty beer for the chef (totally optional)

Step one:

Lay out your desired number of naan breads on a baking sheet. (Cooking these on a baking sheet will yield a soft chewy crust with crispy edges while cooking them directly on the rack will result in a crust that is crispy all the way through. I prefer them on a baking sheet but you decide what's right for you) use a pastry brush or a clean set of hands to brush the bread with a light coat of olive oil. After the olive oil I usually toss on just a pinch of black pepper.

Step two:

Take your tomato sauce and use a spoon to spread it evenly around the top of the bread leaving just a little bit of a border on the outside so you have a nice crust when it's done. Now take some of your basil (not all of it) and sprinkle it evenly on top of the tomato sauce.

Step three:

Take your shredded mozzarella and spread in evenly on top of your pizza. use as much or as little as you like. Sometimes the fresh mozzarella is a little tough to grate. the best way to do it is to used the big holed sized of the grater and use light pressure. It's ok that it crumbles apart (and it will) because you can use all those crumbles too. It's just cheese and it's all going to look the same after it spends a little time in the oven.

Step four:

Take the rest of your basil and spread it out evenly on top of the cheese. Now really really really lightly drizzle olive oil over the whole thing and then crack some pepper on top of it just to finish it off.

Step five:

Place your pizza(s) in an oven that has been preheated to 350. let it cook for about 12-15 minutes. You're looking for melted cheese and a golden brown edge on the crust.

Step six:

Nom.

We served our Naan pizzas with a side of vegetables. This is completely optional of course! 

Let us know if you decide to try it!

xoxo

Foodie Feature: Mike's Bowtie Pasta + Peppers

Mike made another yummy dinner last night and we were much too tired to write it out and post it so we saved it to tonight (where we just spruced up a pizza with herbs and such... but we'll share that another time!). He's really been getting into the cooking things lately and I'm glad. He seems to really really love cooking. And I'm so proud of him for cooking such yum stuff! I wish you all could come over and eat with us to experience it! [If you're in/around middle Tennessee, let a girl know! We'll invite you over sometime!] Anywhoo, as per usual with the Foodie Features, the mic is all Mike's from here on out! Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 2 links of Tofurky brand Kielbasa [Meat-Free Polish "sausage"]
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 orange bell pepper
• 1 clove of garlic minced
• 10 oz of bow tie pasta 
• 5 table spoons of extra virgin olive oil
• 2 table spoons of lemon juice
• 2 table spoons of pesto
• 3 table spoons of shredded fresh basil (preferably from your bonus moms garden, but store bought will work.)
• salt and pepper

Step one:

Preheat the broiler on your oven to high. Place the whole peppers (stem and all) on an ungreased baking sheet. Turn them frequently until the are about 80% black. just trust me, I'm not going to make you eat burnt peppers. When the peppers are done take them out of the oven and set them aside until they are cool enough to handle.

Step two:

Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add pasta, reduce heat slightly and cook until tender. Drain pasta when finished and put aside.

Step three:

In a medium mixing bowl combine minced garlic, olive oil, pesto and lemon juice. stir until blended well.

Step four:

When the peppers are cool enough to handle remove blackened skin completely. Then remove the stem and seeds and chop the peppers in to medium chunks. 

Step five:

Slice up kielbasa and fry in a large saute pan (or in my case a wok.) with olive oil until slightly browned.

Step six:

As soon as the kielbasa is done cooking add the pasta, peppers, and sauce all together in the same pan as the kielbasa and stir until everything is mixed together. Salt and pepper to taste. When everything is brought back up to temperature mix in the basil and immediately remove from heat and then serve. [Kaelah's note: We served ours with Tomato + Basil Focaccia and spicy pepper hummus. And of course, like every single meal, with a fresh Spring salad.]

Let us know if you try this one [or the other!] 

xoxo

PS; You can make this meal vegan by substituting the pasta with an egg-free noodle or shell (we didn't realize these contained eggs) and foregoing the pesto! 

Foodie Feature: Mike's Udon Yum-Yum

Okay, so let's just be honest here... I have absolutely nothing to do with this post except for 1) I named it [Do you really think Mike would name something "Udon Yum-Yum"?!] and 2) I nom'd the beejeezus out of it [Seriously... it's delicious!]. Now that we've got that out of the way, we wanted to showcase some more of the things we make [read: Mike makes, we eat] because many of you expressed interest in seeing and hearing more about what we cook via the survey. So here you have it! I don't know how often this will happen, but I'm sure it'll be much more frequent as Mike has been cooking every single night and everything is deelish! From here on out in this post, it's Mike talking to you so enjoy! [And let us know if you decide to give it a go!]. You can visit [and follow!] Mike's blog by CLICKING HERE!

Mike's Udon Yum-Yum

Ingredients:

• Canola Oil
• 1 Clove of garlic (NOT the whole thing!)
• 2.5 Cups of broccoli 
• 1 Yellow Squash
• 1 Zuchini
• 1 Red pepper
• 10 oz of Udon Noodles
• Sweet and Sour Sauce
• Salt and Pepper

Step 1:

Cook noodles according to package directions. You want to be careful you do not cook the noodles for too long otherwise they will be a little mushy. You want them to be thoroughly cooked while still being firm. When the noodles are done drain the water in a large colander and then toss them under cold water to stop them from cooking any further. 

Step 2:

Chop your vegetables to desired size. I usually chop them in to pieces about the size of your thumb. Not the size of your friends thumb, YOUR thumb. 

I usually put my broccoli in a steamer bag and microwave it for about 30 seconds just to soften them up a bit since they tend to take much longer than any of the other vegetables to cook. This way you can toss everything in together and the broccoli is already nice and moist. 

Combine all the vegetables in a mixing bowl and then add in your minced clove of garlic. Salt and pepper your veggies to taste and then mix them all together. 

A note on your wok:

Always bring your wok (or any other pan) to cooking temperature before adding oil. Adding the oil after the wok is already hot is going to create a film to keep food from sticking. (Do not use olive because it burns at high temperatures. Use oils like canola or peanut) When bringing your wok to the correct cooking temperature you can easily test its readiness by flicking water on the cooking surface. You want the water to immediately steam when it hits the wok and then linger on the surface and simmer. If it evaporates when it hits the surface the pan is too hot and needs to be turned down and tested again until it is correct. Once the heat is correct add the oil and swirl the pan to make sure the bottom and sides are coated.

Step 3:

Heat wok and add vegetables. They will cook quickly and need constant movement. They are done when they have a nice golden finish on them

Step 4:

As soon as your vegetables are done cooking add your noodles into the mixture. You want to stir ever thing until it is nicely mixed and the noodles are nice and hot again. Then add your desired amount of sauce (we like a lot) and stir until sauce is evenly distributed. 

Step 5:

Eat. We paired ours with a fresh Spring salad.

Until next time,

Mike

(and)

and it's the weekend...

so yesterday we went and ate at genghis grill and had a nice little date day i suppose. then last night i called into work to find out if i needed to bother coming in... granted i'm not snowed in or anything but you mention the word 'flurries' and it sends everyone in tennessee into a tail spin. they told me to go ahead and come in so i did just that. got to work at 9pm and found out that they wanted to call me at 8:30 and say stay at home... but i leave for work at 8pm so i was already over halfway there. bleh. it was dead. dead dead dead. finally at midnight my boss man just told mde to head north and go home. i counted down my register, put out some glasses and headed home. much to my dismay, i had very very few bills in my pocket from the night. i talked to mike on the way home and finally got in at 12:45am. i practically coasted through downtown because it was so icy. i was determined to craft away last night so i did! i stayed up until 4am fighting with my sewing machine trying to make an iphone case. i hate how it came out but i guess its a step in the right direction.

we slept and slept and slept and slept. finally pulling ourselves from bed at 1:15pm. we made toast and headed out for daily errands. we went to JoAnn Fabric to get a new rotary cutter, a cutting mat, some snap clips, felt felt felt, sewing books, and a mini craft iron among other things. Then we got chips & salsa from Garcia's [our fave!] before heading home. We ate some chips and salsa, I listed a ton of stuff on my etsy and then we headed to Kroger to get a few groceries. we came home and made a vegan pizza with the new "cheese" i had talked about in the last post [btw, the brand is VEGAN GOURMET, not vegan alternative, my bad!]. but anywhoo, the pizza was fantastic. [i'll include the recipe below!]

this is what i wore today:



HOLY COW I'M WEARING JEANZZZZ! weird.

Outfit Details:
Shirt: Truly Madly Deeply for Urban Outfitters $28
Jeans: Charlotte Russe $30 [the flare jeans that a reader HATES, ha sorry!]
Flats: Walmart $9
Vegan Leather Jacket: Aryn K. for Therapy $100

The Pizza:

BEFORE it went in the oven

AFTER it came out. YUM!

This is the crust we used. You can buy it at Whole Foods.

How to make it:

• Preheat over to 425 degrees F. Take the crust out and drizzle it with extra virgin olive oil. Use a pastry brush to distribute it evenly. Apply a coat of pizza sauce [the amount to your liking]. Shred up Vegan Gourmet Mozzarella Cheese Alternative and distribute evenly over entire pizza. Cut up a zucchini and slice in halves. Place zucchini and mushroom slices on pizza. Add a little more sauce and "cheese" if you want the vegetables to bake IN the pizza. Place pizza directly on the oven and cook for roughly 8-10 minutes, or when it looks done. Then slice and enjoy!

Mike and i were both pretty ecstatic when we took our first bite of the pizza because it was phenomenal. Mike's favorite food is pizza and he could eat his weight in it in a single day, i'm sure. Now he can have it yet again! I'm not sure I'd even want regular pizza again. I liked this tofu cheese because its not as heavy so it doesnt leave you feeling bloated and gross like normal pizza does. Anyway, y'all should all try it because it will make you believers :)

Angie, the other bartender at work, just called to let me know that i'm not missing a thing. It's been dead all night and we're just praying that it picks up next weekend. I've missed practically a week and a half's worth of work because of this stupid slump. I can't afford to miss any more :(

Here are two funny pictures of Baby G today.. I felt like sharing!


and just to end things on a good note, here are some silly FlipCam videos!








oh oh oh, one more thing, i know i mentioned it in passing up above, but i FINALLY listed some things on MY ETSY so please click HERE to have a look! especially if you love owls or vintage brooches because i'm clearing out parts of my collections! *If you're interested in buying multiple things, i WILL cut you a deal! just speak to me before purchasing!

a YUMMY vegan recipe!

okay okay! so i promised the recipe to the yummy vegan stirfry that mike and i make [read: i just cut the vegetables... he actually makes it haha]. and finally! my cardreader works so here you go! you guys should DEF try it! feel free to ask if something isnt described in enough detail, etc!


What you'll need:

• 1 pack Wild Rice Tempeh [can be purchased at Whole Foods]
• 1 pack Brown Rice
• 1 red pepper
• 1 yellow squash
• 1 zucchini
• 1 pack of stir-fry veggies [snow peas, carrots, broccoli]
• Sliced mushrooms
• 1 bottle of Stir-fry sauce [any brand is fine, the kind we got has a ton of sodium... bleh!]

* Start by washing & slicing the vegetables in halves & then halves again [quarters, derrrr]. Then slice those up into smaller pieces for the stir-fry... As shown below:



* Boil a pot of water and cook as much rice as you think you'd like [typically 1-2 cups, depending on how many you're feeding]. Boil the rice for about 30 minutes. [The package says cook it with a certain amount of water, but really, cook it with less. You want it to remain a little firm.] Basically cook it at your own discretion.

* Gather together all of your vegetables.


* Take the tempeh out of the package and slice it long ways. Then cube it up in a similar manner that you did the vegetables.



* Boil a pot of water and cook the tempeh for about 7 minutes.

* Then strain the tempeh and stick it in the oven on a cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes [until it is golden brown.] at 450 degrees F.



* Fix up a pan and put a very thin coat of olive oil and heat it up until the oil is nice and hot, then put in the vegetables. Let the veggies simmer until most of the olive oil is gone and then put in the stir-fry sauce. [or whatever sauce you choose, we're going to try sweet & sour next!]. Put the sauce in by thirds. Let the veggies soak up the sauce a little. The best rule of thumb for timing this is to try a carrot. When the carrot is at a decent texture, add in the rice & the tempeh and cook them around a little more. Continually turn the veggies and tempeh so it allows them to soak up more of the sauce. The timing is completely at your discretion [don't be afraid to try it while it's on the stove. Only you will know when it's the right amount of "done".]



* Then TAH-DAH! it's done! and eat it upppp!



It's such a fantastic recipe and Mike is oh so good at making it! I could literally eat it almost every day! We're going to try it with different sauces until we find one that is perfect. The regular ol' stir-fry sauce is great, but it's highhhhh in sodium! If you try it, let me know how it turns out for you! It's a wonderful way to try something vegan if you're thinking about making the switch, and it's something that even meat-eaters can enjoy!

xo

ps; if you'd like to see the rest of the photos that go along with this recipe, click HERE to see the set on Flickr!