Grilled pizza is yummy

We don't use our grill very often.  Tom's groomsmen got it for him when we got married and he loves it.  All his friends talk about grilling all the time and it makes me jealous.  Since we live in a neighborhood where you aren't exactly going to leave your grill out on the patio for anyone to see (or take) we have to get it in and out of our detached garage every time we want to use it.  This may not sound too bad but Tom regards it as a huge pain in the butt.  You have to use keys to go in the side door of the garage.  Then open the barn door style front doors to the garage, wheel the grill out of the garage and down the ally.  Then open the side gate and maneuver the grill through the gate and then kind of lift it up over a lip so it is on the patio.  Now I timed Tom and it only took 2 minutes... but apparently its 2 very frustrating minutes because he hates to do it. Side note: Eventually we plan to put up a 6 foot wooden fence so that people can not see into our yard and then the grill can be left outside to be used more often (although it will still be chained to the back porch).  I know, I know mom if you're reading this you're thinking "Just move someplace where no one will steal your grill if you leave it outside."  That's a whole different conversation.

ANYWAY..... grilled pizza.  I used the bread maker to make the pizza dough (seriously this bread maker is amazing. I'm including a link to it here: http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?SKU=40118208).  Tom stretched the dough and we had enough for two pizzas.

 

He went outside to start grilling the dough.  Just brush the side that will be on the grill with olive oil first. 

 

While he was outside hard at work I sautéed some peppers and onions for one of the pizzas. 

 

 So once one side of the pizza is grilled you flip it and put the toppings on the already grilled side.  That way while the other side is grilling the cheese will also be melting.

Pizza number one: Marinara sauce, peppers and onions and mozzarella cheese.

 

Pizza number two: BBQ sauce and shredded chicken (I was making chicken in the crockpot or buffalo chicken dip so I just took a few spoonful's for the pizza) and mozzarella cheese.

 This little guy is from some dough that Tom ripped off one of the other pizzas.  This kid that lives behind us was riding his bike up and down the ally while we were grilling and asked us what we were making.  He was amazed that you could make pizza on the grill so Tom made him a piece.

 



 There you have it.  Grilled Pizza!  So delicious.  It was one of the best summer evenings this summer.  Grilled pizza and summer shandy.  And we sat outside to eat and play phase 10 since it was only in the low 80's. Awesome :)

 

 

 

P.S.- Brigette here is a link for a recipe for gluten free pizza dough.  It has powered milk in it but I'm sure  you could either skip that since its a small amount of substitute something else (maybe almond milk?)  If you make this and use that vegan cheese you guys could have pizza!!!!!

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/gluten-free-pizza-crust-recipe 



Week 3 and 4

So week 3 was workout for 30 min a day.  If you read my last post you know I started off already behind.... I had 2 infractions total for not working out.  No infractions for water.  I'm running to the bathroom every hour, but I'm consuming 90 or so oz of water a day. 

Now lets talk about not eating sweets.... I had 4 infractions this week!!!! Yikes.  Lots of penalty sit ups.

Week 4 was no alcohol.  Going into the week I knew I was not going to do well... We were in Denver visiting one of my BFF's from Tuesday-Friday.  I drank every night we were there.  Then we got home and went to the O's game on Sat.  Of course I had to drink there.  What is baseball without beer? 

3 sweets infractions while in Denver too.  And 2 days not working out in week 4 too.

Week 5 is unprocessed foods.  I'm going to keep a food log for the week to try and keep me on track.  I'm off to a crummy start already... I had Subway for lunch.  Woops.  It was necessary though.  We got back really late fri night and I didn't go grocery shopping until later today.  There was very close to no food in our house to eat. 

So all in all I have to admit that I'm doing really really crappy with this challenge.  Like really bad.  Part of it is that its summer time and I want to eat sweets and drink booze, this is my vacation time after all.  On the flip side, I have more free time so there is really no excuse for not working out 30 min a day (especially since I would consider walking the dogs for 30 min as exercise).  The friend I was visiting in Denver is interested in trying the challenge.  I think after this week is up I will probably try to keep doing it as much as I can (minus the alcohol).  I plan to start the challenge again at the beginning of the school year.  Then hopefully I'll actually put in an effort instead of halfway committing like I have this time.  We'll see.

Week 2

As predicted... week 2 of the 5 week challenge was a struggle.  In week 2 you still drank 64 oz of water a day and then you added on not eating sweets.  The water was not so bad.  It's a little harder when I'm at home because I like to take my time with coffee in the morning and then by the time I start drinking water its already lunch time!  But I was able to get in the required water each day without any trouble.

Not eating sweets on the other hand.... not so easy.  I had three "infractions" this week.  For each infraction you have to do 100 sit ups (or whatever you choose as  your punishment... Tom is doing 30 burpies for each infraction... crazy man).  The first time I willingly decided to eat a bag of pretzel m and ms and enjoyed every single one of them.  The next time wasn't really my fault.  There was a lot of alcohol involved.  We were out to dinner with friends and they told the waitress that it was my birthday so I was serenaded by a mariachi band at a Mexican restaurant and forced to wear a sombrero and eat ice cream. Then the next day we were at Camden yards and I ate a cookie from a buffet table before I realized it was a sweet!  Tom was sitting next to me the whole time and didn't point this out to me until the cookie was gone.  Grrr.  It wasn't even that delicious.  Oh well.  Life goes on.

Week 3 started today.  Workout for 30 min a day.  I'm already behind... no work out today.  By the time I woke up it was already ridiculously humid out and now its dark so I'm not going to take the dogs for a walk.... I'll do my punishment sit ups tomorrow.  My run for tomorrow is also 55 minutes so I feel like it all evens out.  My plan is to get up at like 7 am tomorrow and run before it gets too hot out.  We'll see if this works...

5 week challenge

I know people hate it when "skinny" people complain  about their weight.  I'll be done in two sentences I swear.  I know I am not overweight, but I have a few pounds to loose.  I'm at 116 (I know you're rolling your eyes at me but that's a lot when you're only 5 ft tall) and I'd like to loose 5 lbs.  See done complaining. 

I've used myfitnesspal to calorie count in the past and it works pretty well.  But its annoying to log all of your calories everyday.  And then as soon as I stop I slowly gain back the 5 or so pounds I loose.  Every now and then I get fed up and I'm like "Who cares?  My body obviously wants to weight 116 bc that's where I keep ending up."  I'm currently in a mood where I want to just get it off and be done with it (The jeans I wore to the Bruno Mars concert last night encouraged the need to loose the 5 lbs as well.  I was stuck in a bathroom stall tugging on my jeans like a crazy person trying to get them back up).  Eating unprocessed definitely helped when we first started, and I expect to loose a few pounds without trying this summer since I will be able to cook more often. 

But in the meantime I'm doing this 5 week challenge with some friends:
http://www.justusfourblog.com/2013/03/weight-loss-motivation-5-week-challenge/

Basically this is how it works.  Each week there is a focus.  But you have to also be doing the focus things from the weeks before.
Week 1: Drink 64 oz of water a day
Week 2: No sweets, AND drink 64 oz of water
Week 3: Exercise for 30 min a day, no sweets and 64 oz of water
Week 4: No alcohol, exercise for 30 min a day, no sweets and 64 oz of water
Week 5: Unprocessed foods only, no alcohol, exercise for 30 min a day, no sweets, and 64 oz of water

The way the challenge is supposed to work is that everyone pays a fee to join and that goes in a pot.  Then, for every time you have a violation of one of the things in the challenge (for example: not drinking 64 oz of water in a day) you pay a dollar into the pot.  Each week you track the percentage of weight each person has lost and the person who looses the highest percentage at the end of the challenge wins the pot. 

Being that I'm a teacher, and its summer time, and I won't have a paycheck until September.... doing this with money was not an option.  We are using 100 sit ups as our penalty if we have a violation instead.  I like this a lot because then its at least helping the overall goal.  100 sit ups is also harder then parting with a dollar.  I'll definitely think twice before violating one of the challenges.

We started last week.  I've lost all of .2 lbs.   Today is the start of week 2. Week 2 will kick my butt.  I love chocolate, and baking cookies and frozen yogurt.  I imagine I will be doing a lot of penalty sit ups in the next 4 weeks.  Exercise for 30 min a day should be ok, it just means I will HAVE to take my dogs for a walk, especially on the days that I don't run.  The no alcohol week is happening the week I'm in Denver to visit one of my BFF's from elementary school.  I envision A LOT of penalty sit ups that week. 

I'll try to remember to post a weekly update :)

Lots of food

Soooooo I've been pretty terrible about blogging recently.  But school is out and it is officially summer, so I should be much more productive now (in theory at least).  The end of the year brought on A LOT of stress and cupcakes and crappy food.  But instead of focusing on that... here's some of the delicious unprocessed food I've had recently:



 

 

 

I took another crack at homemade potato chips today.... we bought a mandolin after our last potato chip making adventure but then never tried again.  It worked ok, but I still think the potato slices were too thick.  We bought the cheapest mandolin bed bath and beyond had to offer so it is not adjustable.  Next time, I'm going to try using my food processor to slice the potatoes and see if that makes them any thinner.  Here is the recipe I used:

http://www.oprah.com/food/Baked-Potato-Chips-Recipe 

For the last 5 minutes they were supposed to bake (after you flipped them) I let them go for about 10-15 minutes since the potatoes were thicker.  I also added garlic and parmesan before putting them back in the over for the final bake time.  They turned out pretty good.  I think they would have been perfect if they were thinner. I'll try again next week. 

 

 

 

This was breakfast this morning.  A student gave me jam she made (strawberry and rose petals).  I had that on Italian herb bread.  It was DELICIOUS. 

 

 

 A few weeks ago we had a taco casarole for dinner.  I can't figure out how to get the recipe off my facebook page.  Let's see if this link works:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151643128166117&set=a.10150434648906117.410338.689546116&type=1&relevant_count=1 

 

Basically the casserole is crushed up Doritos on the bottom, then 1 lb. of ground turkey that is cooked in taco seasoning, then 8 oz cheddar cheese and 8 oz mozzarella cheese shredded and shredded lettuce on top (there is also supposed to be tomatoes but I think tomatoes are gross).  I know Doritos are not unprocessed but give me a break... they are delicious.

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

The casserole turned out ok.  I would definitely do it again, but I would cut way down on the Doritos and the cheese.  The original recipe calls for 7 oz of Doritos I think.  I could def have been cut in half.  Same with the cheese. 

 

 

This was another facebook recipe: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151456840393297&set=a.90314668296.82088.589658296&type=1&relevant_count=1   

 

After we tried cauliflower pizza twice with no success I was excited to see this recipe. 

 

 

The crust turned out MUCH better than our cauliflower pizza dough but we definitely should have let it bake a little longer before adding toppings.  We were able to pick it up and eat it like pizza but it was not as firm as I would have liked.  Another problem could have been that the recipe called for full fat cream cheese but I only had one package of regular and I wanted to double the recipe, so I substituted low fat cream cheese.  It was really delicious though.  

 

 

 

 

Oreo's?  How did they make it into a blog post about unprocessed food.... because they are delicious, that's how.  Sometimes you just need an Oreo.  But then when I'm feeling like a healthier cookie I have this:

 



 

these are the cookies I blogged about a few posts ago, with organic hot chocolate from Whole Foods.  Yummm.   

Running...

So last time I blogged I was like "I'm gonna start running again... GO ME!"  That lasted for about a week.  Then it stopped for about a week (in my defense it was raining A LOT recently).  I reset my running plan on micoach and stated up again this week.  The runs have felt really good... but my knee has been hurting afterwards.  Time to do more squats and strengthen the muscles supporting my knee.  I know that is smart, but man I hate squats. 

 

Anyway.... Tom has not been running with me because his chiropractor forbid it.  It's a little lonely running by myself, but I do get to rock out to awesome 90's music on my ipod when I run now.  You win some, you loose some.  :)

Cookies

Since we've made the switch to unprocessed I've been searching for an unprocessed cookie recipe.  It turns out, not too many of those exist.  I tried oatmeal raisin cookies with honey instead of sugar a while ago (should probably try that again now that I've discovered Stevia).  Once I found out about substituting molasses for brown sugar baking possibilities opened up a little, but I was still not thrilled about the taste of the cookies. 

A huge downfall in the beginning was not using chocolate chips.  Eventually, I scoured the shelves of Whole Foods until I found a brand (Sunspire) that is made with cane sugar instead of just saying "sugar" on the label.  I made cookies a while ago with these and they turned out pretty good.  I went back to Whole Foods to get more chocolate chips for this cookie adventure.... except I accidentally got Carob chips instead.  Same brand and same label.  UGH!  I made chocolate chip pancakes with them one morning and put a handful in my mouth to eat as I was cooking the pancakes (obviously) and it was pretty gross.  I shouldn't say gross... carob chips aren't bad... but when you're expecting dark chocolate and you get that, you won't be thrilled.

Anyway.... lots of side notes to tell you that I decided to try the good old fashioned Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip cookie recipe.

I made a few substitutions and cut the recipe in half.  Here is the actual recipe I used:

1 1/8 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick butter (softened)
3/4 cup Stevia in the raw
1 tablespoon molasses
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 cup carob chips (I highly recommend chocolate chips instead)

I followed the Nestle recipe to actually mix the ingredients:
http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/18476/Original-NESTL%C3%89-TOLL-HOUSE-Chocolate-Chip-Cookies/detail.aspx

Directions

PREHEAT oven to 375° F.

COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

 

They turned out pretty good.  Definitely did not taste like Nestle.... but they were good.  I took them to my friend Katie's house for a dinner date and she like them too!  She suggested trying some other types of flour (rice, oat, etc).  Next weekend I may have to experiment a little more... the search for the perfect unprocessed cookie continues. 

PS... no pictures on this post because apparently I was being a slacker.  I went into my phone gallery to upload pictures to this post and realized I don't have any :(