Homemade Ham & Pineapple Pizza

Okay, so I’m not sure if I’ve ever mentioned this on my blog, but pizza is my favorite food in the world. I don’t care if that makes me a 12 year old. I love it for many reasons, including, but not limited to:

1. It covers all four food groups.
2. It brings ham and pineapple together in my mouth.
3. It's just as good leftover as it is fresh.
4. It's covered in cheese.

I’m kind of embarrassed to admit that, until recently, I’ve never made a pizza from scratch... Unless you count pita-pizzas, in which case I’ve made hundreds!

Anyhow, I decided to rectify this blasphemous situation and so I bought myself a pizza stone, peel and assorted pizza making ingredients. I went to town on them and succeeded brilliantly. With brilliant forethought I made 2 LARGE Pizzas and therefore got to eat a whole ton of it. (Don’t worry, I worked it off at bootcamp!) Below is the recipe for homemade pizza sauce and homemade pizza dough…

 

Super Flavorful Homemade Pizza Sauce (original recipe here)

1 can tomato paste

6 oz warm water

3 tbsp Parmesan cheese

6 cloves crushed garlic

2 packets of Splenda (or a couple tsp of white sugar)

1 tsp onion powder

½ tsp oregano

½ tsp marjoram

½ tsp basil

½ tsp black pepper

¼ tsp cayenne pepper

¼ tsp dried red pepper flakes

Salt to taste

Directions

1. Combine ingredients together. Make sure to crush oregano, marjoram and basin in your band first, which releases the flavor.
2. Let pizza sauce sit for at least 30 minutes so the flavors can marry.

Easy Homemade Pizza Dough (original recipe here)

1 package active dry yeast

1 cup warm water (110 degrees F)

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

2 tsp white sugar

Directions

1.  Dissolve yeast in a bowl with warm water. Let stand 10 minutes.
2. Combine all other ingredients and mix until a still dough has formed. Cover and let rise about 30 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
4. On a floured surface, knead dough until it’s no longer sticky.
5. Use your hands to press the dough out into a circle big enough to fit your pizza stone, or use a rolling pin.
6. Top with sauce, then ham, then pineapple and then mozzarella cheese (or whatever delicious pizza toppings you like).
7. ENJOY your pizza goodness.

Chicken Cheese Avocado Quesadilla

My daily life revolves around food. Often, before I'm even out of bed I have a meal plan. Might sound excessive but remember that I eat the same thing for breakfast every day (banana, mixed berries, flax and almond milk protein smoothie) and I plan my lunches and a general dinner theme on Sunday. I know most people can't/won't eat the same thing for five days straight, but lucky for me I thrive on consistency. Also, I try to be conscious about not over shopping and buying more food than I need, then having to throw it away., so I don't usually have too many options!

Quesadillas are something I make all the time. Fact: quesadillas are delicious. Even when I have no groceries I still have the fixings for a dilla. All you need is cheese and tortilla- never let yourself run out of those! Sometimes I make them as simple as pesto and cheese. Often I'll use leftover fajita filling. I love a pesto cranberry chicken and Parmesan dilla. My most favourite, by far, is chicken with cheese and avocado!

Chicken Cheese Avocado Quesadilla

Ingredients
Whole wheat tortilla
Chicken
Cheese
Avocado
Salsa

Directions

1. Place wrap in a frying pan and turn stove to medium-high.
2. Chop chicken into bite sized pieces (I used teriyaki chicken -yum)
3. Sprinkle one half of tortilla with cheese, then top with chicken.
4. Cut up avocado and distribute half on top of chicken, top with more cheese.
5. Mash the remainder of the avocado and spread on empty side of tortilla.
6. Fold the tortilla over on itself and cook until edges harden, then flip to other side. This only takes a few minutes. 
7. Get your salsa out and a plate, cut the dilla into 4 pieces and enjoy!

Shelly's Shepherds Pie

This is the very first shepherds pie I've ever made... which isn't that surprising because I've only liked shepherds pie for about a year! I used to hate my food touching, so shepherds pie was my worst nightmare. To this day, this food-touching anxiety creeps up on me and I have to talk myself down from the ledge and remind myself that it's my a big deal.

So the shepherds pie idea came to me out of pure necessity. I made potato skins last week and had a huge bowl of mashed potatoes to use up! Someone suggested shepherds pie, to which I gave them my yuck face. However, the idea grew on me, so I conducted some google research and decided to give it a try. Here's what it's all about...

Shelly's Shepherds Pie (Recipe adapted from Simplyrecipes.com)

Ingredients:
2 tbsps butter
1 white onion chopped
1 head of garlic minced (what? I like a lot of garlic!)
1 lb ground chicken (or more if you want it really meaty)
2 pkgs beef bouillon
1/ cup water
2 tablespoons Worcestershire (what a dumb word)
3 cups frozen mixed veg (peas, carrots, corn)
Salt and pepper
Mashed potatoes (I whipped mine with sour cream, then salt and peppered them)


Directions:
Preheat oven to 400•. Sautée onion and garlic until translucent, then add in chicken and cook until no longer pink. Add in Worcestershire and bouillon and season to taste. Then throw your vegetables in and let them cook for a couple of minutes. Throw the meat mixture jnto a 9 x 11 glass baking dish. Next is the in part, spread the mash potatoes over the meat and smooth it out or make it swirly, whatever you want. Bake it for 30 minutes. You can broil it at the very end if you're looking for a crispier top. Enjoy! Here's some pics...