Boboli Pizza

This has got to be one of my absolute most favoritest pizzas ever. Mom found the recipe in a Cooking Light cookbook awhile back, and we've been making it ever since.
Ingredients:
Boboli Pizza Crust
~2 tbs olive oil
~1/2 c shredded parm
fresh ground black pepper
sliced or minced garlic
tomato ( I used home grown)
basil (fresh from my garden)

Instructions:
Brush olive oil onto crust.
Layer in the following order:
black pepper
1/4 c parm
garlic
tomato
1/4 c parm
some extra black pepper Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until cheese is melty. While baking, cut up basil into strips.
When pizza is done, pull out of oven and top with basil. Cut and serve. Oh so good.
You don't even know how good it is!

Roasted Potato, Garlic, and Red Pepper Salad

I have a friend that is not a fan of creamy, white foods. Like mayo. Yuck! So I made it my personal mission to find a recipe for potato salad that is not mayo or sour cream based. And I found it! And I made it for my little Memorial BBQ. And it was good!

Cast of Characters...
Mid-roast...

Ingredients:
6 garlic cloves, unpeeled
3 pounds small boiling potatoes (white, red, or fingerling)
2 red bell peppers
3 1/2 tablespoons EVOO
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup small fresh basil leaves
optional: olives, pine nuts, goat cheese, grilled chicken, tuna, or prosciutto

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 450F.
2. Wrap garlic cloves together in foil. Halve potatoes and cut bell peppers into 1/2" pieces. In a large bowl toss potatoes, bell peppers, and 3 tablespoons oil with salt and pepper to taste. Arrange potatoes and bell peppers in one layer in 2 large shallow baking pans and roast in middle and lower thirds of oven (simultaneously, roast wrapped garlic on either rack), stirring occasionally and switching positions of pans halfway through roasting time, until potatoes are tender and golden brown, about 35 minutes.
3. In a bowl immediately toss potatoes and peppers with 2 tablespoons vinegar and cool. Remove garlic from foil and squeeze pulp into a small bowl. With a fork mash garlic with remaining 1/2 tablespoon oil and tablespoon vinegar and toss together with potatoes and peppers, salt and pepper to taste. Just before serving, add basil. Serve potato salad at room temperature.

Gourmet
July 1997

And I suck and once again did not get a picture of the finished product. But trust me, it was pretty. Pretty good!

Pumpkin Muffins

I'm all about simple recipes. Quick and easy. For that reason, I love Semi-Homemade by Sandra Lee on the Food Network. This is not one of her recipes, but it's simple enough to be!

Are you ready for this simplicity...?
Ingredients:
1 box spice cake mix
15 oz. canned pumpkin
1 cup water (optional)

Instructions:
Mix ingredients and pour into prepared muffin tins. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.

The water makes them more doughy, softer. I personally like them better without the water.

For those of you on Weight Watchers, they are only 1 to 2 points each!!!

Maple Glazed Sweet Potato and Sausage

Thomas and Katie served this at a Tuesday Night Dinner some time ago, I think maybe last fall. It was a small turn out that night. But boy do I remember this recipe. Honestly, I think I was the only one that liked it. I don't know why others didn't, it was great!

Prep Time: 17 minutes; Cook Time: 12 minutes; Serves 14
Ingredients:
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 to 3/4 inch cubes
3 tbsp. butter
1 lb. smoked sausage, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 medium onion, halved crosswise and cut into thin wedges
1 large apple, peeled, cored, and diced
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 tbsp. packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. nutmeg (optional)
1/8 to 1/4 tsp. ground red pepper or cayenne

Instructions:

1. Bring 1 inch water and 1/2 teaspoon salt to boiling in Dutch oven or large saucepan. Add potatoes; return to boiling. Cover and cook over medium heat 3 to 5 minutes, or until potatoes are fork-tender. Drain well.
2. Meanwhile, melt butter in large skillet over medium heat. Add sausage, onion, and apple. Cook and stir 5 minutes. Stir in maple syrup, brown sugar, salt, nutmeg, and red pepper, mixing well.
3. Stir in sweet potatoes, stirring to coat. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until lightly glazed.

Per serving: 163 calories, 3g fat, 7mg cholesterol, 146mg sodium, 32g carbohydrates, 2g protein, 4g fiber.

Recipe compliments of Wal-Mart where Thomas found it. He then passed it down to me since I liked it so much.

Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies

The recipe is pretty simple... Follow whatever current chocolate chip cookie recipe you have. Me? I tend to always make the recipe that's on the chocolate chip bag.

But here's the difference...

• Instead of all-purpose flour, use whole wheat flour.
• Instead of butter, use half butter and half unsweetened applesauce.

Bake as normal.

Now, when I made these, I substituted the WHOLE amount of flour with whole wheat. But as I put the first sheet into the oven I read on the bag that when substituting, use half all-purpose and half whole wheat. Maybe it would have made a difference. Maybe not. The cookies were still really good. There was a slight flavor difference, but only if you really knew that there should be.

These cookies also froze and shipped well. I sent a majority of the batch to Alaska where Dennis and his kids gobbled them up.

Here you have, as my dad called them, Poop Pounder Chocolate Chip Cookies. Very high in fiber! 3 grams per 1/4 cup of flour...

Peach Sorbet

After having a surplus of diced peaches, like 2 gallons, left over from a catering job, I just couldn't bear to waste or dump them. And I knew that they're time would soon be expiring. So what do you make with diced peaches? Cobbler, sure. Pie, sounds good. Shortcake, tired of it. Sorbet, now that sounds good... Then I had to find a recipe. I didn't want just pureed peaches and simple syrup, I wanted more. Something unique. Something different. And let me tell you. I found it!

May I present to you...

Peach Sorbet
Serves 8. 3 1/4 hours, 15 minutes prep.

4 cups peeled* and diced fresh peaches, and their juices
3/4 cup fresh lemon juice*
1 cup sugar
5 tablespoons amaretto liqueur or orange juice concentrate

1. In a blender, whip peaches and their juices until smooth.
2. Heat remaining ingredients in a saucepan over low heat until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in peach puree.
3. Pour into an 8-inch square pan and set in freezer. Using a rubber spatula, stir every 15 minutes until creamy, about 2 hours.* Cover and allow to freeze.
4. To serve, scoop into small dishes and garnish with fresh fruit.

Nutrition Facts: calories 135, total fat 0.2g, dietary fiber 1.4g.

*Yea, the dices peaches I already had weren't peeled, so I didn't bother. I like to look of them not peeled, little specks of red throughout. And weren't you taught, a lot of the nutrients are in the skin! And I think I ended up putting more like 5 cups in the blender...
*Ran out of lemon juice, so I used lime too. And it wasn't fresh, the juices came out of the little plastic lemon and lime squeezey things.
*I didn't waste my time with a pan, spatula, and 2 hours. Into the Cuisinart ice cream maker it went. 30 minutes later I transferred it to a Tupperware container and into the freezer it went. Much easier!

Recipezaar