Friday, December 3, 2010

BBQ Pizza

Saturday, August 7, 2010

















BBQ Pizza

Ingredients:

1 large Onion
12 ounces of Mushrooms
1 package of Morningstar Farms® Hickory BBQ Riblets
Pizza Dough (can buy store bought or make your own)
Salt to season onions when cooking
Olive Oil for cooking the vegetables


(If you want to make your own pizza dough, this is a recipe I found helpful recently to help us make ours.)

Ingredients for Pizza Dough:

1-2 Packages yeast ( 1/4 or 1/2 oz. or 2-4 teaspoons of yeast)
2 teaspoons sugar
4 cups of flour or more
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup olive oil
1 and 1/2 cups of warm water

(Makes 2 Large Pizzas, or Four Thin Pizzas)


Directions for Pizza Dough: from http://pizzatherapy.com/dough.htm

1. Put yeast and sugar in a cup. Add 1/2 cup of water. The water should be between 100 and 110 degrees F. ( 37° C- 43° C ). Mix well. Wait about 5 minutes for the yeast and sugar to activate.
2. In a large mixing bowl, add the flour, salt, olive oil, 1 cup of warm water and the yeast mixture. Mix this with a fork to get all the liquid absorbed by the flour.
3. Place a handful of flour on a mixing surface. Dust your hands and spread out the flour. Empty the contents of the bowl on to the flour.
4. Knead the dough for 8-10 minutes or until the texture is smooth and uniform. If the dough seems a little sticky, add a little more flour. One method to knead, is to lean on the dough with the palm of your hand. Press the dough to the mixing surface. Fold the dough and repeat.
5. Place the dough in a bowl and drizzle with olive oil. Place bowl in draft free area and cover with a cloth.
6. Let the dough rise for about an hour. Punch down the dough and wait about 45 minutes. Your dough is now ready.
7. Cut the dough in half.

8. Use your hands or dust a rolling pin with flour and gently shape dough on a floured mixing surface. until the dough is the desired shape. Keep using flour, as needed so the dough won't stick.
Just use your fingers to shape the dough or you can use a rolling pin.

9. Dust a cookie sheet with corn meal. (Oil will work ok, but the dough will be greasy.)
10. Use a spatula and slide the dough onto the cookie sheet. If you have a peel, assemble the pizza right on the peel dusted with corn meal. Then use the peel to place the pizza on the pre-heated Pizza Stone . (You can also assemble the pizza first and then slide a peel underneath the pizza.) If the pizza is "sticky" and won't slide easily, use some dental floss to slide under the dough!
Make sure you use enough flour under the dough next time!
11. The more you make dough, the easier it will become. Don't get discouraged if it seems difficult the first time.
You will surprise yourself at how easy it becomes the second time.

12. Actually, the hardest part of making dough is the clean up!



Directions for Morningstar Farms® Hickory BBQ Riblets:

IN THE OVEN:
1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. Remove riblet and sauce from pouch.
3. Wrap riblet and sauce tightly in foil.
4. Bake 30 minutes. Carefully remove from oven and let stand 2-3 minutes.
5. Product will be hot. Carefully remove from foil and transfer onto serving plate.
6. Cool briefly before serving.


Directions for cooking the veggies and assembling the pizza:

Set to pre-heat oven to 425 degrees F.

Place a large pan on a burner at medium high heat with a little olive oil.

Chop onion into strips or a dice and place into pan.

Clean and cut mushrooms into strips.

Once onions have cooked down place mushrooms into the pan with the onions.

Should take about ten to fifteen minutes to cook your vegetables.

Dough should be placed on a pizza pan or you can use a cookie sheet, make sure the pan is lightly sprayed with some cooking spray or coated with a little olive oil before placing dough.

Put your cooked onions and mushrooms on top of your pizza dough.

Then take your cooked BBQ Riblets, place on top in bite sized pieces and then put sauce from foil pouch on top.

At this time if you want any additional BBQ sauce you can add a little extra, otherwise the amount in the pouch was adequate.

Place pizza into the oven and cook for 15 - 20 minutes, making sure to rotate the pan half way through. It took about 20 minutes in our oven and remember that temperature and time will vary if you have an electric or gas stove.

Once pizza is finished cooking, let rest for at least 3-5 minutes, then slice and enjoy!

One Of My Favorite Go-To Websites

Post from my Saint Charles Vegan Eats Blog

Sunday, August 8, 2010


One of my favorite go-to websites is the Peta.org Accidentally Vegan website list.

If you've ever wondered what on earth is vegan, this is a great starter website to help you understand which products are vegan. I read product labels and eat a lot of fresh food, vegetables, fruit and bread. I also enjoy rice, whole grains and hummus just to name a few. There is many varieties of wine that are vegan but they are far and few. Most beer companies are safe however there are many that use methods for brewing that aren't vegan or use honey in their beer.

Two websites that I often refer to for vegan beer and wine is Vegan Connection and Veggie Wines. I've also used the website Barnivore before for what is vegan that I can enjoy. Another helpful website I have used before is iVegan website, explains what is vegan in a detailed list.

When I first became vegetarian then vegan I found Happy Cow helpful, I still do. There are lists of ingredients, explanation of what a vegetarian, vegan, raw foodist and many other varieties of diets are. As well as links to bed and breakfasts, famous vegetarians, and a restaurant locater to help you see what restaurants in your area are vegetarian and vegan friendly.

Using websites like Veg Web.com I've been able to find great ideas for my own recipes that I've made over the past two and a half years.

If you're considering pledging to do a week or more of the vegetarian or vegan challenge I applaud you. That's how it began for me and I never turned back, not saying that you will too, however it is a very rewarding healthy lifestyle.

Hopefully this year I will be able to post more recipes and acquire enough to construct my first cook book. Currently I have my weight loss goal that I have been working on for the past three years. I have about five months left to meet my goal. Hopefully I will be able to accomplish my goal by the deadline, however I've decided that I only reach my first goal that I won't worry about it. After all, I'll get there eventually this next year.

My Food Blog

Thinking about moving my foodie blog to this blog and just freely being able to update my recipes, reviews when ever I like and write about life too. It'll be about every part of me, probably a little personal at times but what blog out there isn't in some way, shape or form. Perhaps I'll bring over a few recipes and see what I like. I wanted to write a book this year but if I am able to achieve that it may be a goal for next year. That would be a good way to start out my 30th year for sure. :)