Homemade Pizza Sticks

This is another favorite off of my new Homestead Blessings DVD "The Art of Breadmaking"!

It's FAST and EASY and YUMMY!!!

Dough

2.5 cups flour 

(plus additional flour for rolling out)

1 T yeast

1 t salt

4 T Olive Oil

1 C warm water

1 T honey (not necessary, but helps activate the yeast)

Spread

1 stick melted butter

Garlic mixed into butter

Mix dry ingredients then add wet ingredients.

Knead dough for 5 minutes, then let rest 5 minutes.

Roll out dough (*on parchment paper--this will make transferring to pan easier!) into an oval.

Brush on melted butter/garlic spread.

Add cheese and herbs (I used Cheddar, Mozzarella, Oregano, Basil and Rosemary, then top with Parmesan).

Pat it all down with your hands and quickly fold in half.

Pinch edges and lightly roll the dough so it's a little more flat.

Transfer to pan (this is why you use parchment paper because it can get messy and floppy without it!)...plus, you can cook on parchment paper!

Bake at 375* for about 15 minutes.

Once it's out of the oven, I brush on olive oil and lightly cover with more Parmesan Cheese.

Cut in long strips then once across the middle.

I serve it with garlic butter and my homemade marinara sauce.

Marinara Sauce:
-2 cans Tomato sauce
-3 T Tomato paste 
-3 T Brown sugar
-Seasoning (like oregano, basil, garlic, thyme, etc)
-a dash of flour

Healthy Meatball Hoagies (a recipe worth repeating)

Some of you may remember how I recently lost 30 lbs!  Well, I've been reading a lot of blogs where people are aiming for a similar goal...so I thought I'd share this yummy, healthy recipe with you!

I've posted it here before, but figured it's worth repeating!!!

(It's a favorite of ours from The Biggest Loser Family Cookbook)

Healthy Meatball Hoagies:

-Olive oil spray

-2 egg whites

-1/2 cup quick-cooking oats

-1/4 cup fat-free milk

-1/2 cup parsley

-1 Tablespoon minced onion

-1/2 teaspoon oregano

-1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

-1/4 teaspoon salt

-1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

-1 pound lean ground beef (but we usually use ground turkey because it's cheaper!)

-1 jar of sphagetti sauce

(note: Biggest Loser has a marinera recipe, but when we compared nutritional value to pre-made products like "Ragu" we noticed very little difference, so now we just use a pre-made jar and save on time!)

Preheat oven to 400*.  Lightly coat a large non-stick baking sheet with olive oil spray.

In medium bowl, mix together egg white, oats and milk with fork until well combined.  Add the parsley, onion, oregano, garlic powder, salt and crushed red pepper flakes and mix until combined.  Mix in the beef or turkey until well combined.

Make about 32 uniform meatball (each about 1 1/4" diameter--a little bigger than a ping pong ball).  Roll the balls with your hands and arrange, not touching, on the prepared baking sheet.  

Bake for 8-12 minutes, or until no longer pink inside.

This makes 4 (8 meatball) servings.

Wanna know the good news?!

8 meatballs are only 194 calories!!!!!!!  With about 26 grams of protein, 5 grams of fat and 2 grams of fiber!!!

Once you have the meatballs made, we like to let them simmer in spaghetti sauce on the stove.

Then we take (healthy, wheat) hoagie bread, toast it open-faced for about 7 minutes in the 400* oven.

But you can also put the meatballs and sauce over a bed of Rozoni Healthy Harvest pasta.  Both are delicious choices!!!

This week, I'm linked up to these fabulous food meme's...

Sopa De Arroz

I don't know about you, but sometimes I just miss my mom.  She's my best friend, my silliest friend, my most trusted confidant, my role model...

And even though she's just 2 hours away, it's just not close enough.

I've been really, really missing her lately.

Often, when I start to miss my momma, I just start cooking some of the things she's known best for...

So this week, I made her famous SOPA DE ARROZ!

Now, if you know my mom, you know she is WHITE...she's beautiful, but she's white...and yet, you'd NEVER know that if you ever tasted one of her authentic Mexican dishes!

You see, she knows how to make all sorts of authentic Mexican food because when she married my daddy (a handsome, full-blooded Mexican) my Grandma Macias (who, by the way, was NOT a fan of "white girls") decided to teach her to make Mexican food from scratch!

So here is the Macias family's "Sopa De Arroz" (Mexican Rice)

Ingredients:

--2 T Shortening

--1 cup long grain rice

--3 cups water

--1 can tomato sauce

--1 T minced onion

--1 T crushed chicken bouillon

--2 t garlic cloves or garlic powder

--1/4 t comino (cumin)

--salt to taste

Brown rice in hot shortening until "golden brown".

Stir frequently to keep from burning!

(Golden Brown Rice)

Place water and all other ingredients in pot or skillet, bring to a boil...

Once it has been brought to a boil, lower heat to medium, place lid on tightly and cook 20 minutes.

DO NOT STIR AT ANY TIME!!!  

( I can still hear my mom yelling into the kitchen, "Just don't touch the sopa!")

Remove from heat, let simmer 10-15 minutes...

And enjoy! 

(I made my sopa to accompany my Enchilada Casserole...)
(Enchilada Casserole recipe soon to come!)

And that night at dinner we talked about the boys' grandparents...their memories and why we all love them! It was a special dinner for sure!

My blog friend, Veronnica, has a new meme I thought was just too fun not to join!  Check it out...

And I'm linked to two other great blogs I just found!...

Homestead Blessings--Cinnamon Rolls!!

I do believe I might be the only wife/mom who has never made homemade cinnamon rolls!

(Please tell me I'm not the only one!!) :) 

I've been very proud of my yummy homemade cinnamon rolls, even though to everyone else it seems to be a "Been There Done That" thing!  ha ha!

I have to say that making these was SO MUCH fun!!!  I loved it!  And they were SO tasty too!

-Dough rolled out

-Brown sugar/butter mixture applied

-Cinnamon sprinkled

-Dough rolled up

-Cutting the rolls out

(I couldn't believe they looked like the ones from the can!!!)

-After they had their second rise

-Ready to go in the oven!

-Glazed and ready to eat!

Okay, here's the truthful part--these took me about 2.5 hours!!!  (YIKES!!) 

I made these on a Saturday morning when Ryan was out cutting wood for us this winter (we heat our house with a wood stove).  So the boys were excited to wake up to my announcement "I'm making cinnamon rolls for breakfast!"  Let's just say after 2 hours of waiting with mouths watering, they devoured them!

Overall, they were worth it, but I learned a lot about multi-tasking for next time...and I learned how to prepare the dough the night before in a way that doesn't sour it!

I probably should have watched my instructional video a little better!  But really, the West girls did it again!  They explained each step so thoroughly that I was never left wondering "Am I doing this right?" during the process (and normally I ask myself that several times with a new recipe!)

So now it's your turn to tell me about your cinnamon roll recipe...and how long does it take you to make your homemade cinnamon rolls?

My first "Homestead Blessings" Review--Bread-making!

(See my post HERE for more info on my new "Homestead Blessings" collection!)

The only DVD I have watched so far is "The Art of Bread-Making" and I loved it!!!  Just seeing how simple the whole process really is and how the West girls explain each step so clearly, was wonderful.  Plus, they threw in lots of tips and extra info just so you know why you use what you use and why you do things a certain way..and why each food has a different bread recipe!  And I don't know about you, but I like knowing the reasoning behind the methods!

They show you how to make both basic breads and quick breads...

So the video includes the following bread recipes:

Basic Bread
Sourdough Bread

Cinnamon Rolls

Hamburger Buns (I'm sure this would be handy for my hometown friend, Candace, who makes a different burger every Friday!)

Pizza Dough

Stuffed Bread Sticks

A "Loaf Meal" (more below)

Corn Bread

I was so excited about all of them, I didn't know where to start!  But I finally decided to be a bit daring and give the "Meal Loaf" a try.  In the video, they show you how to make a breakfast loaf (eggs, sausage, zucchini and squash) but I decided to branch out and make it in what I'm calling a "Pizza Loaf".

I made the bread first...

 Then I started working on some homemade pizza sauce (I wanted the WHOLE meal to be from scratch!)...

My hubby LOVED it!  He wants me to keep it around as marinara to dip in! 

My Pizza Sauce:

Tomato Sauce

Olive Oil
Garlic

Basil

Rosemary

Oregano

After the bread had it's second rise, I rolled out my dough and added my Pizza mixture to it...

My Pizza Mixture:

Pizza Sauce

Hamburger

Onion

Green Peppers

Cheese

Garlic

Butter

Salt

(and I think I threw in some other stuff as I went along!)

Then I did a little decorating (the video shows you how to do this)...

Then

came

the

reward

of 

all

that
hard
work...

I was

SO

excited 

to 

see 

the finished

product!

VOILA!!!

I brushed on some garlic butter and topped it with mozzarella cheese and IT WAS WONDERFUL!!!

The thing I loved about this recipe, is that I was able to make TWO "meal loafs", PLUS an extra loaf of just plain "Basic Bread"!!!  So three food items for the work of one!

I took the extra Pizza Loaf to a recent widow (the mom of one of my most precious friends, Morgan- she lost her dad unexpectedly just weeks ago-Please pray for the "Ward" family!)

So all in all, my first baking experience was fast, smooth and without any mistakes...I attribute that to the thorough tutorial I got from my "Homestead Blessings"!  (I am NOT very homemaker-minded or talented!!)

And guess what?  There's more to come--I've already made the cinnamon rolls and the stuffed bread sticks!!!  (I told ya I was feeling better!)

Making Sweet Cereal A Little Healthier

My husband and I love sweet cereal!  As a result, so do our kids!

Over the years, we've spoiled ourselves (and our kids) with a pantry full of delicious, sweet cereal choices for the morning (and for late-night snacking)!

Well, Since Ryan and I have started eating healthier (remember my posts of losing 30 lbs?) we've learned to enjoy some new breakfast choices (like Mini-Wheats!) but, still, we have a weakness for the sweet, kids cereals.

So here's what we've done to make them a little healthier as we wean the kids (and ourselves) off of them!

Mixing Trix and Kix

We bought a couple of these plastic cereal boxes at WalMart ($5)

We mix a full box of Trix with a full box of Kix (both are off-brand)

This is just a small portion of the finished product, but as you can see,
it's still colorful enough to trick please the kiddos!

The Key: Each time you mix the cereal,
add less and less of the "sweet" cereal...

next thing you know, your family is weaned!!!  :)

We have also mixed Cocoa Puffs with Kix...it's pretty tasty, actually!

We do the same with Frosted Flakes and Corn Flakes

We also have two of these smaller boxes (WalMart $2.50) for mixing...

1) Honey Nut Cheerios and plain Cheerios

2) Apple Cinnamon Cheerios and plain Cheerios

(Since Cheerios are pretty healthy, all-in-all, we've kept this mixture even and don't plan to "wean" off of the sweeter cereal here...instead, it just makes them even healthier!)

It works for us!

This post is linked to Works For Me Wednesday and Real Clean Wednesday!

MckLinky Monday--Share A Favorite Healthy Recipe!

Last week, I started a new dealy bop called "MckLinky Monday" and did a "tell me about your Easter" post...since a few of you joined in, I'm gonna keep going with it!  Every week it'll be a random topic you can write about and come back and link us all to it!

So since I've been sharing how I lost 30 lbs of extra weight, I thought for this "MckLinky Monday" we could share some healthy recipes!

Here's a favorite of ours from The Biggest Loser Family Cookbook...

Meatball Hoagies:

-Olive oil spray

-2 egg whites

-1/2 cup quick-cooking oats

-1/4 cup fat-free milk

-1/2 cup parsley

-1 Tablespoon minced onion

-1/2 teaspoon oregano

-1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

-1/4 teaspoon salt

-1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

-1 pound lean ground beef (but we usually use ground turkey because it's cheaper!)

-1 jar of sphagetti sauce

(note: Biggest Loser has a marinera recipe, but when we compared nutritional value to pre-made products like "Ragu" we noticed very little difference, so now we just use a pre-made jar and save on time!)

Preheat oven to 400*.  Lightly coat a large non-stick baking sheet with olive oil spray.

In medium bowl, mix together egg white, oats and milk with fork until well combined.  Add the parsley, onion, oregano, garlic powder, salt and crushed red pepper flakes and mix until combined.  Mix in the beef or turkey until well combined.

Make about 32 uniform meatball (each about 1 1/4" diameter--a little bigger than a ping pong ball).  Roll the balls with your hands and arrange, not touching, on the prepared baking sheet.  

Bake for 8-12 minutes, or until no longer pink inside.

This makes 4 (8 meatball) servings.

Wanna know the good news?!

8 meatballs are only 194 calories!!!!!!!  With about 26 grams of protein, 5 grams of fat and 2 grams of fiber!!!

Once you have the meatballs made, we like to let them simmer in spaghetti sauce on the stove.

Then we take (healthy, wheat) hoagie bread, toast it open-faced for about 7 minutes in the 400* oven.

But you can also put the meatballs and sauce over a bed of Rozoni Healthy Harvest pasta.  Both are delicious choices!!!

So what about you?  What is a favorite healthy recipe that your family enjoys?

Link it up below!  And don't forget to also make sure you're entered for my 2 giveaways by Tuesday night!!!  Click here to do that!

On the Menu: Parmesan Chicken

This is my husbands favorite meal!  It takes quite a bit of work to put together, but the smile on his face is always worth it! 

What it takes:
5-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3 eggs
1/3 c. milk
2 c. seasoned bread crumbs
1/4 t. garlic powder
1 t. oregano
1 t. basil
1 t. fresh, chopped parsley
1/2 c. olive oil
2 jars (15 oz each) Spaghetti Sauce
16 oz shredded mozzarella cheese
Parmesan cheese

How it goes:
Pound chicken breasts flat.
Combine bread crumbs, garlic powder, oregano, basil and parsley.
Dip chicken breasts in beaten eggs and milk. Then roll in bread crumb mixture.
Saute each chicken breast in olive oil.
Layer bottom of a casserole dish with sauce.

Chicken sauteing, Casserole dish prepared. 

Layer bottom of casserole with sauce, then chicken breasts, then cover each with mozzarella cheese.

Almost ready!

Pour remaining sauce on top and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and parsley.

 Time for the oven...

Bake 30 minutes in a 350* oven.

Ready to serve!

Dress it up:
You can also make a few servings of spaghetti noodles or angel hair pasta to go along with it.

Ryan and I's on a bed of noodles

And for the kids, I cut it up and add spaghetti

(We had 2 little guests with us this night-hence the 2 extra bowls) 

Enjoy! This one is certainly "yummer yummers" and worth all the work!!!

A Favorite That Used To Be Dreaded

"What's for dinner?"
"Meatloaf."
"Oh no! Meatloaf? Ugh."

Growing up, as far as I was concerned, "meatloaf" was almost a bad word. I was NOT a fan.

But this recipe is different from any meatloaf I've ever had. Everyone in our family loves it! Ryan actually requests it and our boys cheer when they hear it's meatloaf night! And I love it because it's good for leftovers too!

Try it out on your family!

BBQ Meatloaf
--1/2 cup KC Masterpiece BBQ sauce
--1 lb. ground beef
--1/2 cup chopped onion
--1/4 cup plain bread crumbs
--2 T parsley
--1 egg
--salt & pepper

--Combine all ingredients. Mix lightly to blend. Form into loaf. Place in shallow baking dish.

--Bake uncovered at 375* for 40-50 minutes. Remove from oven, let stand for 10 minutes.

As we say around here, it's Yummer Yummers!

In fact, we're having it tonight and I'm serving it with salad, corn and baked potatoes.

And, by the way, my new favorite way to make baked potatoes is after washing them, to stab them all over with a fork, lightly cover each one in olive oil (just rub on with your hand), then roll each one in salt and place in the oven with your meatloaf (at 375*) for about an hour.

Enjoy!