Skinnier 'za

Do the humpty hump. Pretty happy its hump around here. After a long traveling weekend, it takes a bit to get this girl back in the grind routine. Monday and Tuesday consisted of work and workouts, dinner, promptly followed by the couch for some recovery. The rest was needed. But I'm rejuvenated halfway through the week and am looking forward to a friend's jewelry party tonight for some lady time.

 

With Main Man's recent report from the Dr, we've had to change up some of our habits/traditions/regulars around the house....like Sunday night pizza from Casey's (the gas station chain, if you're not from the midwest). It's the best pizza ever, you guys! Their taco pizza has Doritos on it instead of tortilla chips....yeah, they went there. Their canadian bacon and mushroom is my fave, but Main Man likes sausage and banana peppers. But let's be real, I'll eat whatever is in the sell by the slice case when I walk by...there's so much yummy cheese, and I really think it's their sauce that does it for me. Sauce is the most important part, if you ask me, and you should ask me because I fancy myself a pizza expert.

 

Alas, pizza at home is the way to go if you're watching calories, fat, or cholesterol. I cringed when I looked up a slice of Casey's pizza on their nutrition page of the website a while back. The stuff is made by the devil himself, I swear. Soooooo good, but soooooo bad for you. But you gotta kill the cravings somehow, so we've started making our own pies, so we know what's on 'em and in 'em. 

 

We went with a thin multi-grain crust from Whole Foods...it was organic and the fat stats were the best I've found to date. Also, the pre-made crusts sometimes come out cardboardy and/or chewy, and generally don't have great taste to them. This pre-made crust was the exception to that rule...

 

 

The other big switch you can't pull on an ordered pizza (don't ask me why) is turkey pepperoni. I'm telling you, if you can taste the difference, I will send you a high five in the mail. I make awesome paper high fives. You want one, believe me.

 

I have always used Contadina pizza sauce in the squeeze bottle as I've done the taste testing R&D, and it always takes the cake. Or the pie, it takes the pie.

 

The next trick? Pile that pizza pie high with veggies like spinach, peppers, mushrooms, artichokes, garlic, olives, and whatever else you like in your face. The more veggies, the more flavor and nutrients you're packing into each slice...that way you can use a lighter sprinkling of the cheese, and that's what brings alot of the fat and calories with each mouthful. Top with a generous sprinkling of Italian seasoning and you have yourself a pizzaria fresh, craving killer pizza pie, that is a fraction of the guilt that a takeout would be...with no taste sacrifice. Go ahead and try it...I'm accepting paper high fives in thanks.

Zucchini pizzas

My zucchini savior, Mallory, dropped me off a couple honkers a while back and I was a kid in a candy store figuring out how I would use them. First off I made bolognese sauce subbing zucchini for carrots and celery...and I was pleased. Then I saw this. On Pinterest. Pinterest is evil sometimes. I see an idea and I get obsessed with it. It's on my mind until I can make it, DIY it, craft it, or do it.  This was one of those pins that got me (I picture it pinning me like in a wrestling match...do you?) and I sliced up a zucchini the minute I got home.

As you know from last week's post of mini turkey and quinoa pizzas, I always keep pizza ingredients on hand (canadian bacon, turkey pepperoni, mozzarella cheese, sauce, pizza seasoning, mushrooms). I'm a fat kid at heart, what can I say? I'm also a food slore (I'm sure you can imagine what two words are the base for that word), and actually I would probably be more acutely classified as a pizza slore. I don't discriminate when it comes to the pie, I'm open for all sorts of pizza experimentation (remember these portabello pizzas?) and annihilation.

You guys! These were soooooo good! Like I wish you could hear me right now because I'm screaming this at you! I am in luuuurve. I thought about bringing some to bed with me to keep under my pillow but I didn't think Main Man would approve. "What's this? Pizza sauce on your pillowcase?" "Don't worry about it...stay on your side of the bed and mind your business."

In conclusion, make these. And get yourself a Mallory who will give you zucchini. That is all.

Mini turkey and quinoa pizzas

It's the last intallment of Quinoa Week, people. I'm a little sad. I'm sure you are too. It will be ok...I have some delicous zucchini recipes to share next week. Does that make you feel better?  It does me :)

 

This is not so much of a recipe, as it is a way to use leftovers. When I made the turkey and quinoa stuffed peppers there was too much filling to fit inside just four peppers. What's my knee jerk reaction? Ummmm...duh. You throw it on some 'za! I make these little english muffin pizzas all the time at work for lunch (throwback post, this was my 4th post EVER). I always have the ingredients on hand to have an impromptu pizza throwdown...don't call yourself a pizza lover if you don't. Usually it's canadian bacon, turkey pepperoni, and mushrooms with some fresh mozz and a little pizza sauce. Today we add quinoa....muahhahahaha (that's an evil laugh if you couldn't tell...be scared, be impressed).

 

I loaded the turkey quinoa mixture onto an english muffin that I had already slathered in pizza sauce, and then topped it with fresh grated mozzarella and italian seasoning. Baked for 10 minutes at 400 degrees. And then I scarfed. And I scarfed.

And I ate half a leftover pepper as a side. I literally can't get enough. It's a problem, people.

And this ends our lovely week long visit to the fairytale land of quinoa...I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. I will be coming back frequently but hopefully this weeklong stint will ease my obsession. Just a little?

What else am I obsessing about,  you ask?! Ohhhhhh, just that about 30 of my closest girly friends and lady family members are on their way to come visit me for the shower and bachelorette party my MOH and bridesmaids are throwing me. No big D. The seconds feel like hours right now. Longest. Day. Ever. Can't waaaaiiiiiiit to see you all! Have a great weekend, all!

Pizza sammich

I have a friend who has had awesome results from Weight Watchers, so naturally I wanted the low down on the program. I'm too cheap to pay for it, especially when I pay my monthly dues to Kosama workouts, but I figured if she could just tell me how many "points" I'm supposed to have each day, then I can google and figure out what everything has in it. Plus, I follow a couple blogs that strictly feature WW recipes, and I already eat Smart Ones meals at work (they are a WW product so they list their points on the box). This can be that hard, can it!?

So for my weekly shopping trip, I picked up some WW cheese spread to see how it was. OMG, you guys. They're not fooling around with this stuff. I could eat it on anything....like even just my finger. I haven't tried the other flavors besides the jalapeno pepper yet, but don't worry I have some in the fridge. Anyway, I will admit this was not a planned meal...I just looked in the fridge, saw what I had, and threw it together. And then ate the same thing the next night, and the same thing the next night, until my good loaf of bread was gone. Yeah....that good.

This is very similar to my recent posting of pizza paninis, except with way less prep, and no need for a Griddler...plus this newfound cheese love of mine just takes the whole thing up a few notches!

Toast your bread (gotta be the good stuff, this is Everything bread from Wal-Mart, who surprisingly has an awesome bakery) and spread a cheese wedge on top of one side.  Layer some turkey pepperonis, canadian bacon, and a little pizza sauce before closing up shop to devour your creation.

I threw it in the microwave for a quick 20 seconds to heat the insides up even though the bread was toasted, and then we were in business! A hearty meal in literally the time it takes you toast a couple slices of bread and not too damaging on your waistline (under 300 calories), although it seems like a cheat meal! You really can't beat something like that...

Breakfast pizza

If you live in Iowa, you know about Casey's breakfast pizza. For some reason, this gas station chain is our go-to pizza place....when we get a craving for some 'za, we don't call Pizza Hut or Godfather's, we call the gas station. And when you want breakfast pizza, it's the only place to be. I've only had better breakfast pizza one place, and that's in Montezuma so it's a pretty long drive from home. Sounds odd, but don't knock it till you've tried it...I'm telling ya! I've been searching for a way to make it at home for quite some time, and the elusive ingredient is the nice cheese sauce they use instead of regular pizza sauce (10 points if anyone reading works for Casey's and can snag me that recipe).  I've looked on Pinterest (it's the new google when it comes to recipes) and couldn't find anything but people simply using shredded cheese instead of sauce. Then it hit me...I saw a can of Cheddar cheese soup in the grocery store, and figured I could give it a shot! Oh, did it work...the soup is the perfect consistency for pizza sauce and I seriously surprised myself at how good this homemade pizza was!

I made 2 of them to freeze and take to the lake for Memorial day weekend, so we wouldn't have to worry about breakfast each morning. I also wanted to "skinny up" the standard breakfast pizza a bit. Although this is not exactly diet food, if you're going to have breakfast pizza, it's better than your other options.  Here's what you need for 2 pizzas:

2 whole wheat thin crusts

2 cans cheddar cheese soup

1 lb breakfast sausage, browned (I plan to use turkey in the future but this was deer sausage given to me by a friend)

12 eggs, scrambled (I used 6 eggs and 6 egg whites)

6 pieces bacon, cooked and crumbled (use turkey for even less calories)

1 package canadian bacon

2% shredded colby jack cheese

From here, it's pretty self-explanatory, but I'll take you through the steps.  Spread your cheese sauce on the crust. I didn't quite use a whole can on each crust, but I used 3/4 of it.

Add the eggs and sausage, top with bacon and canadian bacon.

Top with shredded cheese...

Bake at 425 degrees for 20-25 minutes from frozen (do not thaw). If you don't freeze it, I would start watching at 15 minutes.

And here is the lake breakfast of champions....coffee and skinnier breakfast pizza. My oven there is gas, not electric, so it wasn't exceptionally cooked since the oven didn't get as hot as I would like, but I brought leftovers home and crisped them up in a pizza oven and it took the pizza to a whole new level. Me thinks this stuff is going to be a common freezer item at the Casa de Stensland Numero Dos...and I wonder why my wedding dress still doesn't fit like it should?  When Main Man asks "Did you really make this?" I suppose it means I did something right though.  Happy Thursday, all!

Portebello pizzas

I don't need to go into it again. You know about the relationship I have with pizza.  It's the epitome of love/hate, and it has a power over me that I don't like to admit.  Sooooooo, as you know, I am constantly in search of ways to get a fix without tipping the scales.  One of my faves is english muffin pizza, and I make them at work for lunches a lot of the time when I want to be good, but want to feel like I'm being bad. These are the same story...

I found these on Pinterest, obviously, and they were on the list immediately for the weekend at the lake. Anything I can make ahead and throw in the oven or on the grill was right in my wheelhouse for the long Memorial Day weekend. Here was the recipe I found:

4 portobello mushroom caps

1 15 ounce can diced fire roasted tomatoes
4 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese (thinly sliced or grated)
Preheat oven to 350. Spray rimmed baking sheet with non-stick spray. Clean mushroom caps with paper towel and remove stems. Spoon 1/4 cup tomatoes with or without juice into cap. Layer mozzarella cheese over tomatoes. Bake in oven for 20 minutes. Serve with a knife and fork.
Serve hot or room temperature.

115 calories, 5.9 g fat, 6.9 g carbohydrates, 9.8 g protein, 1.7 g fiber, 200 mg sodium, 2 PointsPlus

I did do some tweaking though...I like my 'za with some meat on it's bones, so I added turkey pepperonis for only 10 calories to each mushroom (2 per mushroom). I also used my favorite pizza sauce, rather than roasted tomatoes, so I really got the pizza flava oozing from each shroom. Sprinkled some mozzarella on top, and ended the show with some italian seasoning on each one.

The best part about this is that you can customize it however you would like! I think I will get full size portabellos and make a meal out of it sometime soon, you can prepare and cook these in 15-20 minutes total so it's great for a weeknight meal. I may or may not have bought the ingredients again this weekend to make for dinner tonight :)

Pizza paninis

Have you ever had a pizza sub from Subway?  Don't do it. Let me clarify...I'm a huge Subway fan, but their pizza sub is nothing to write home about. Main Man and I stopped in the other day when we were on the road, and discovered that the new pizziola sub is their special this month.

MM: "Why does it take you so long to order? Just get the special, if it's the special, it means it's good."

Me: Reading the entire menu before getting the same thing I always get.

MM: "You would never survive in the real world."

Me: "I feel like I'm doing a decent job of it??"

MM: "In the real world, you have 10 minutes to grab something for lunch and stuff it in your face before getting back to work. So you get the special, because it's the best that day."

Me: "That sounds like a horrible existence if you ask me...."

**Pay and walk to the car**

MM: "This pizza sauce tastes like Spagettios"

Me: "So I guess the special isn't always so special, then is it..."

We have fun, that's what we do. But his logic was proved wrong that day in that Subway...I love being right! :) Anyway, I tasted his sandwich, and his description was correct...on a pizza sub, the sauce is the star of the show and they sure didn't have an A-list cast for their pizza show.  Which leads us to....pizza paninis! I love the idea of anything pizza, if you can't tell by "pizza" having it's own category on the blog (go check out pizza casserole for my fave)....and I just KNEW I could do a pizza sandwich better than Subway.  Girls night, here we come!

It's super simple, just grab whatever pizza toppings you fancy and start building.  These mushrooms made my sammy sing if you ask me! I just tossed fresh mushrooms in garlic powder and italian seasoning to cook a little before adding to the sandwiches and they gave the sandwiches a great, authentic taste (unless the texture is an issue for you with mushrooms like it is some of my girlfriends).

Ingredients:
turkey pepperonis (can't even tell the difference and sooo much better for you)
canadian bacon
mushrooms prepared above
diced green peppers
your fave pizza sauce
italian bread (good bread is a big deal)
fresh mozzarella cheese (gaaahhhhhh, how did I not eat the whole block before dinner was done!?)

Spray your outsides with buttah (I Can't Believe It's Not Butter spray works well and has no calories) so it doesn't stick and let these suckers hang out on the Griddler a little together. You can see when the cheese starts oozing out, and you open it up to the pretty grill marks on your bread, that your sandwich is complete.

Look at that cheeeeeeese! These were fantastic, if you ask me....and Main Man tackled 3 of them when he got home so he must've enjoyed the special that day a little better than he did at Subway the other day. I win! :)

Pepperoni logs

I sort of threw these together for a Jamison family get together due to a lack of planning.  I know...me? Lack of planning for food parties? I know what I'm making for events at least a couple weeks ahead of time and am usually so excited, I make it a few days before the event if possible.  But this came at a busy time where we had made plans for Friday night, we were tailgating all day Saturday (which I also made food for), and went straight to the pot luck on Sunday....my crockpots were being used for the tailgate.  What to do, what to do?

Well, I happened to see some string cheese and egg roll wrappers in the fridge and decided to throw in some pizza sauce and pepperonis just to see what happened.  I did make a taco salad as well, so that if this blew up in my face, I wouldnt be known as a total failure at least.  I have made these baked cheese sticks before too, and they were similar enough that I was pretty confident the added ingredients would only bring these up a notch.  Here's what you need:

package of string cheese
your fave pizza sauce
package of turkey pepperoni
egg roll wrappers
olive oil

There you have it.  It's actually pretty self explanatory from there.  You cut the egg roll wrappers up into quarters.

Squirt a little pizza sauce on there.

Put a pepperoni down.

Cut the string cheese sticks into thirds. Place one of the thirds on each.

Brush with olive oil around the edges so they stay shut, and roll those buggers up, tucking the sides in as you go.

Put on a greased baking sheet, and either freeze till we needed them like I did, or bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes (keep an eye if they start oozing cheese, nobody likes a cheese-less log). 

Sorry for the photo quality, my camera was dead from the weekend so a cell phone pic will have to suffice. I will say that you have to be sure to serve them right away when they're out of the oven and hot.  The people who were nibbling on them piping hot were raving but when we sat down to eat, it was like a chunk of string cheese was stuffed in an egg roll wrapper...which is exactly what happened. We took the leftovers home and ate the whole rest of the pan when they were hot so I can vouch that the temperature makes a huge difference on these. Serve with pizza sauce or ranch for dipping.  It's times like these that I am thankful to be a food hoarder and be able to throw together two dishes for a potluck without making one trip to the store! 

Pizza casserole

Got kids? Having kids for dinner? That didn't sound right, how about this: Having kids OVER for dinner?  Pizza to the rescuuuuuuue!  This is a whole heckuva lot less greasy than take out, tastes as good as pizza, feeds an army (including toddlers), and is easy to make ahead so it's hands off when you're trying to wrangle the little peeps...plus I skinnied it up a bit :)

We had a special guest over for dinner, so I wanted to try this recipe out on her.  Little Ms. Delaney Jones pictured here with Baby...

And counting with daddy:

I made this the night before so I could just throw it in the oven and I think she ate more of it than her daddy did! Here's what you need:

1 bag egg noodles (no yolks)
1 extra large can of spagetti sauce
3 cups shredded mozzerella cheese (2 %)
1.5 lbs hamburger (you could def use turkey here, I just happen to have a large bovine in my freezer to use)
1 package pepperonis (I use turkey pepperonis because you literally can't tell the difference)
1 can mushrooms, drained

Boil  your noodles per the package instructions. Brown your hamburger in a skillet, I added a can of mushrooms for good measure.  I would have added onions if we didn't have an onion hater in our midst...and no, it wasn't the 2 year old!  We went onionless for Christina :) I also added a lot, and I mean A LOT of italian seasoning at this point. I didnt measure, just dumped till it tasted yummy!

Grease your baking dish with Pam and spread a layer of spagetti sauce on the bottom to prevent stickage (yes, that's a word in my book).

Now layer in half the noodles, and then half the meat mixture....

Now half the sauce on top.  Now add the rest of the noodles, then half the cheese, the rest of the meat, the rest of the sauce, and then the rest of the cheese.  Finally, throw a layer of pepperoni on top with another few dashes of italian seasoning.

Cover with foil and bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for another 15 minutes. Once it's done baking, take it out and let it sit for 10 minutes so it can cool off and settle together, otherwise it just falls apart on your fork.

Add a little parmesan cheese and some cracked red pepper and dig on in! We fed 4 adults (with one going back for a huge helping of seconds) and one child and still had a decent amount of leftovers so I woult think this would easily serve 6 adults and a few children. 

And this doesn't have to be just for kids...the Trix rabbit would be pumped!  Justin killed the leftovers last night and here was his review: "NOMNOMNOM you need to NOMNOMNOM make this NOMNOMNOM again NOM soon NOM. It's like goulash NOMNOM but better. No, its like NOMNOM spagetti and pizza combined NOM.  Whatever, NOMNOM, its just really good so make it again NOM."

Halfway homemade pizza

I'll tell you a secret.  Anything you make at home has a heckuva better chance at being better for you than if you order in.  Pizza is no exception to that rule, it really gets a bad rap healthwise when they pile on full fat cheese, greasy full fat meat, brush the crust with butter, etc.  I'll give you no argument that it tastes heavenly, but I'm always guilt ridden when I've got a full belly of 'za.  The problem is, I can't just stop eating the stuff....it's in my blood, my DNA, or wherever those weird, cheesy, fatty cravings hide out and pounce on you from.

I guess I can't really call this homemade because I use store bought crust and store bought sauce but come on...I wanted to watch a movie and hang with my dude instead of whipping up food from scratch! I should at least get points for not ordering in...

This is a way to lessen your guilt after downing your fair share of pizza pie.  Here's what you need:

1 can Hy-Vee refrigerated pizza dough
1 can/jar your fave pizza sauce
whatever meat toppings you want to throw on it (can bacon and turkey pepperoni are good ones for flavor that dont pack much fat/calories)
whatever veggie toppings you want to throw on it
mozzerella cheese (2% if available, fat free doesnt melt very well)
italian seasoning
fresh basil

From here on out, it's pretty much up to you how bad/good for you your pizza will end up being. I used mini turkey pepperonis which are pretty much harmless, and then threw on all sorts of veggies to spice it up! 

My original intention was to grill pizza because I've seen it on so many blogs and cooking shows but to be honest, we were hungry, and I didn't want to risk ruining it and having to start over!  So we went with the tried and true...

First thing is first, we did thin crust because I don't want all the carbs from the thicker crust....you can choose which way to do it by how thin you roll it out.  I used a regular baking sheet...make sure to spray it with Pam first so the crust doesn't stick to the pan.

Spread with your favorite sauce...I've tried them all and this is by far the best in my opinion! I also minced some fresh garlic and stirred it around in the sauce...you HAVE TO have fresh garlic on pizza....it's like state law.

At this point, it's pretty self explanatory. 

Layer your toppings!  As I said, I used mini turkey pepperonis and mushrooms on the whole thing.  Then I added fresh spinach and cherry tomatoes from the garden to one side....

And sour kraut and banana peppers to the other side (thinking that if this spicy side hurt J's weak stomach, he had a whole non-spicy side to fall back on)....

You also see slices of greyere and fontina cheese mixed around on the top of the pie, I had about 1/4 cup of each left laying around after the 5 cheese lasagna I made the other day, so I distributed that before shredding 1 cup of reduced fat mozzerella and spreading it on top of the whole pizza.  An easy way to cut fat is to cut cheese, so the less cheese you use the better off you'll be (I could've gone with less than what I did).  I sprinkled the whole thing with italian seasoning and some fresh basil I cut off my plant (I can't explain how much this MAKES the pizza), and got ready to throw it in the oven and get to the couch....

425 degrees for 20 minutes and you're in business....

Cut it up and enjoy!  For some reason, square pieces make me feel at home.  Maybe because you don't have to have crust for the middle pieces? Don't ask me.  I will say that we will be doing this a lot more often to save on cash and calories in the future...it was a hit!