Sunday, March 25, 2012

Pizza, Pancakes, and Plants

Last week while I was at the grocery store, I saw some mushrooms and got a craving for pizza with sauteed mushrooms.  And bonus, I realized that I already had all of the other ingredients that I needed on hand - score!

I followed this whole wheat pizza dough recipe with just a few slight changes.

Ingredients:

- 1 cup warm water (about 110*F)
- 1 packet active dry yeast
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- about 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, finely chopped

Directions:

Pour the warm water into a mixing bowl and sprinkle the yeast on top; let sit for 5 minutes, then add honey.  Gradually stir in the flours, salt, and olive oil.  Knead until the dough comes together and is smooth and springy - it will be sticky.  Lightly oil the mixing bowl and roll the ball of dough around so that it is lightly coated with oil, like so:


Cover loosely (I used a tea towel, you can also use plastic wrap - but just lay it on top, don't secure it) and let rise for 45 minutes.  Ta da:


While the dough is rising, preheat your oven as hot as it will go (mine went to 525*) and give it sufficient time to heat up before the 45 minutes are up (this will depend on your oven).

After the dough has risen, punch the dough down, then pretend like you're a pizza master and try to spin it around on your fists.  If that fails - like it did for me :) - don't fear - you can just stretch it out and shape it with your hands.  I formed the dough into one big rectangle on a baking sheet, but feel free to make any shapes you want, like animals, states, celeb crushes, etc., or make individual pizzas.


Top the pizza however you like.  I made a pesto sauce and eyeballed the ingredients, using fresh basil (from my basil plant!), almond milk, raw walnuts, nutritional yeast, garlic cloves, a sprinkle of salt, and olive oil.  I also added sauteed mushrooms, halved grape tomatoes, and kalamata olives.


Bake until the edges brown and some bubbles rise up in the dough (mine took 13 minutes).  And there you have it - whole wheat pizza made from scratch!  And the leftovers taste great warmed up in the oven OR eaten straight out of the fridge - I taste-tested both methods for you guys :)

While you're waiting for your pizza to bake, check out the sunset.


In between washing dishes.  (Or loading them in your dishwasher if you're lucky!)


This morning I was excited to be able to make pancakes for brunch.  I followed this recipe from Julie at Peanut Butter Fingers for Honey Whole Wheat pancakes, but tragically, I forgot the honey!!!  I didn't realize until I already started cooking the pancakes :(  They were still delicious, though, and I love that they're made with great ingredients like whole wheat flour, oats, and chia seeds.


I couldn't decide if I wanted to top them with Greek yogurt or peanut butter, so I used both!  Plus a sliced banana and strawberries.


Greek yogurt on one side.


Peanut butter on the other side.


And a pumpkin spice latte with plenty of frothy almond milk.  The froth makes it so much more fun!

After my brunch, I went on a planting spree.


Aerial view (not sure why I felt the need to take this shot, but here it is):


That's my sickly basil plant in the middle (I bought it as a plant, not from seeds - can't take credit for that one!).  I did plant a few basil seeds in hopes that I will be able to have some back-ups if my existing plant bites the dust soon.  I also planted some strawberries (wishful thinking, I know), lavender, forget-me-nots, chives, and rosemary.  And yes, those are yogurt containers - I didn't want to commit to buying any more cute pots until I actually grow something :)

I'm so impatient, I keep wanting to go look and see if anything has started growing yet, haha.

Hope you all had a great weekend and are ready for a new week!

And a special happy birthday goes out to my dad:

My dad's on the left - original gangsta.
Song of the day:

"Never Meant to Know" by Tally Hall.  Love this band - they're all incredibly intelligent and so witty.  Plus they have a song about Mary-Kate and Ashley, so obviously we're meant to be together.  All of us.


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