Cold Veggie Pizza

This is a refreshing twist on regular pizza. It's made fresh and served cold. It's also a great way to get plenty of vegetable servings in one sitting. If smaller children are going to be eating it, you might want to try softer vegetables over hard to chew ones like broccoli or carrots.
Also, this recipe is a longer time investment than some. You might want to prepare the cream cheese base, crust, and veggies earlier in the day and chill until you're ready to assemble your pizza.

Cold Veggie Pizza

• Pre-made and chilled whole wheat pizza crust (see recipe below) (or buy ready-made)
• Garlic-cream cheese base (see recipe below)
* cold chicken or pepperoni, diced (if desired)
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup each of the following veggies (cut into small pieces):
carrots, sprouts (uncut), celery, tomatoes, broccoli, red onions, red cabbage, jalapeños, red or green peppers, fresh spinach, marinated sun-dried tomatoes, cucumbers, artichoke hearts, any other veggies you love or can think of!

1. Spread cream cheese base onto chilled crust. Add veggies (and meat) to your desire. Cut carefully and serve right away!

Cream Cheese Base
1 pkg. light cream cheese (Neufchatel)
2 Tbsp. minced garlic
1 Tbsp. minced, dried onion
2 tsp. oregano
1/8 tsp. red (cayenne) pepper
1/8 tsp. lemon pepper
3 Tbsp. milk

Process in a food processor or with a hand mixer until well blended and smooth. Chill until ready to use.

Whole Wheat Pizza Crust
7/8 cup warm water (literally)
1 package dry yeast
1/2 tsp. sugar
1 1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. olive oil

1. Put the water in a 2 cup measuring cup. Add the yeast and sugar and stir. Let sit for 3 minutes until foamy.
2. Put the metal blade in the bowl of a food processor, add the flour and salt, and pulse to mix. Stir the yeast mixture, turn on the machine, and slowly pour the mixture into the feed tube while the machine is running. Process until a ball of dough forms. Add the oil, then process for 40 seconds to knead the dough. Pull the dough out and knead on a lightly covered surface for about 5 minutes more.
3. Put the dough in a bowl that has been oiled lightly with olive oil. Cover with plastic wrap or a cloth. Put in a warm place and leave it until double in size, about 45 minutes – 1 hour.
4. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
5. Punch the dough down, flatten it out onto a pan sprinkled with cornmeal (or you can cook on a pizza stone.) Cook for 20-25 minutes or until lightly golden brown. The dough will cook fairly quickly, so keep an eye on it. Chill until ready to use.

"Mexican" Lasagna

Considering that no Mexican that I know has approved this recipe as authentic, I put the word Mexican in quotation marks. Just a little disclaimer. However, this is a dang tasty recipe. So, don't let that deter you from trying it!

Mexican Lasagna

1 ½ cups cooked black beans (or 2 cans black beans, rinsed well)
2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
3 large flour tortillas sliced into strips
12 oz. salsa
4 oz. green chilies, drained
1 cup Monterey jack cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray 9x13 baking dish with no-stick spray. Layer in the following order: tortilla strips, half of black beans, 1 cup cheddar cheese, ¾ cup salsa, tortilla strips. Next, layer 1 cup cheddar cheese, green chilies, ¾ cup salsa. Last, layer tortillas, remaining black beans and top with 1 cup Monterey jack cheese. Cover with foil and bake 50 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 10 minutes. Serve with diced fresh tomatoes and sour cream.

Note 1: 3 cups of cheese seemed excessive to me, so you can use less if you’d like – I tend to use just the 2 cups of cheddar cheese and distribute it evenly between the 2 layers and the top.

Note 2: You can combine 1 lb. cooked ground turkey or beef with the black beans for more protein. I also like to add a can of diced tomatoes – ½ for the first layer and ½ for the second layer. It adds a lot more moisture, which I felt it needed. The beans tend to dry out during baking.

Let me know what you think!

Welcome to my new blog!

I'd like to start off this new blog with a really yummy pie recipe from my step-mom that is surely fit for the holidays. It's light and not too sweet, and it's surprising how much it tastes like pumpkin. (It passed my husband's approval who wouldn't even eat sweet potatoes to be polite.)


Diane's Sweet Potato Silk Pie

Crust:
1 ½ cup flour
1 Tbsp. sugar
½ tsp. salt
½ cup vegetable oil
2 Tbsp. cold milk


Filling:
1 ½ large sweet potatoes (or yams if you’d like), baked, peeled, & mashed
8 oz. package cream cheese
1 can sweetened condensed milk
2 eggs
1 Tbsp. cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp. cloves
¼ tsp. allspice
¼ tsp. ginger
½ tsp. cardamom (optional, but really good!)

Crust:
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Once ingredients are well mixed and clinging together, put the dough in a deep dish pie plate and flatten with your fingers until the crust is even and all the way up the sides of the pie plate. Bake pie crust for 5 minutes.

Filling:
Mix sweet potatoes with cream cheese. Add can of sweetened condensed milk, eggs, and spices. Pour into the baked crust. Bake at 350ºF for 45 minutes or until firm and a toothpick comes out clean. Good warm or cold with whipped cream or ice cream!