Homemade Pizza

Two or three weeks before we moved away from Colorado, I found an amazing high-altitude pizza dough recipe. The ONE time I made it, it was amazing, at least. I thought I'd share some photos from that adventure, since we've been having a "heat wave" here in Santa Maria, oh, getting way up into the 80's. 

Here's the yeast proofing!

nice ball of dough

the dough after rising

ready to put it in the oven!!

YUM. Just yum.

Of course, it was a hot summer day when I decided to heat up the oven to 500 degrees so I could try this awesome recipe. We had a "picnic" in the front bedroom, the coolest room in the house at the time. Caleb very much enjoyed his pizza, and we enjoyed a fun dinner. :) I'd like to make it more of a family tradition to have homemade pizza for dinner regularly, since I have fond memories of doing that growing up!

Sweet Potato, Pepper and White Bean Ragout

Not only did I have the opportunity to try out my new dutch oven cookware (thanks, MOM!!!).... I tried it with a new recipe that turned out really tasty!


Here we are sauteing red and green bell pepper, sweet potato, and garlic

The finished product! Yum! Meatless and delicious, flavorful and hearty. Although next time I think I will substitute other veggies for the peppers. They don't translate to leftover status very well-- a bit limp and slimy. (When I make stuffed peppers, I try to only make a quantity that we can eat right away.) We looooove our leftovers! I used white beans, not from a can... but dried beans that I soaked and cooked in my crock pot. It's cheaper and healthier to "make your own" beans, sort of (I didn't "make" them, God did, but I guess I "prepared" them, and with no salt or sugar or mystery ingredients added). I am still trying to figure out how to get the desired texture. Sean likes firmer beans in soups or stews, but my last batch of black beans came out kind of pithy. More cooking adventures ahead!

Update: we tried this dish with peas and carrots (originally frozen) instead of bell peppers and again it was super tasty! This is a "keeper" recipe, another wonderful meatless entree.

Skillet Pasta Florentine

I realized I never posted about the meatless meal I mentioned a couple months ago. Here 'tis! (I hope to get back to blogging more often, so stay tuned....)

This is the only picture I took of this meal, but I plan on making it again, so there will be step-by-step photos next time!!! This was an amazing meal, also meatless like the ragout! It was amazingly yummy, sort of like an inside-out lasagna. Again using my dutch oven (though the recipe called for skillet, hence the recipe title), I basically layered tomato sauce, cooked spiral pasta, and a second layer of tomato sauce in the dish; then a mixture of ricotta cheese, cottage cheese, chopped spinach, seasonings, and one scrambled egg (I think that's everything) spread on top, then simmered the whole thing for about 20 minutes. DEEEEELISH! We loved it, and I calculated it cost me $6.17 for a meal of 6-8 servings. I want to start pricing out our meals to see which ones give me the most MMMM for my buck... since I already have a price list started for basic staple ingredients. If I could collect an arsenal of cheap AND healthy AND yummy meals, that would be awesome. :)