Greek Pizza & More

I love pizza night.

Sure, it means I have to make the dough and then roll out each pie.  But it's so worth it.  This is pizza the way we like it, without all the grease and the cheese that makes you question if it's really cheese.  Every time we order delivery pizza, I feel a little sick afterwards.  Making your own pies means controlling the chemical additives and junk that the pizza companies would rather you not know about.

Tonight was Greek Pizza night, and I threw in a Spanish one for the heck of it.  Bell peppers, tomatoes, black olives, prosciutto, feta, chorizo - all you need is a glass of vino and you're good to go!

I order my pizza flour from King Arthur Flour Company.  Trust me, this flour is worth it.  Your pizza dough will be smooth and elastic.  It will also be the perfect combination of crunchy meets chewy. If you cannot find the 00-style flour, buy a decent bread flour.  All-purpose flour just won't cut it.

You can find my recipe for pizza dough here.


The toppings we used were:

8 oz. Boar's Head Feta Cheese (I crumbled the entire block)
1 bell pepper sliced thin
1 cup cherry tomatoes, quartered
3 slices purple onion, chopped
Small can sliced black olives
Parmesan, grated
McCormick's Greek Seasoning (no salt)
Extra virgin olive oil
1 link Aidells chorizo, sliced
3 oz. prosciutto, torn to pieces

The pizza dough recipe listed above (use the link) makes three pies.  Use the toppings knowing you'll need to split them three ways.  I wanted to do a chorizo/Granny Smith apple slice pizza, but I figured my family would not appreciate that.  At least it wasn't my usual fave - bell pepper and anchovy!

Use 1 tbsp. olive oil instead of pizza sauce

The last toppings are Parmesan, seasoning, and olive oil drizzle 

Bake on a pizza stone at 445 for 15 minutes

Finished Greek pizza

Some chorizo pizza goodness!!

Bottom line:  make these pies how you prefer.  The dough takes about an hour and 15 minutes from start to finish.  If you use the right flour, it takes seconds to roll out.  With a little planning, you can make meals you and your loved ones will be proud of.  Much better than delivery regret!

Rainy Days & Mondays...

Yes, they always get me down.  It's wet outside, so wet that my yard has turned into a bog that has tried to claim the shoes off my feet.  There has to be a cure for this dreary dampness.  While comfort food immediately comes to mind, a lot of comforting food is not so comforting in calories.  Take the classic and oh-so delicious mac and cheese, for example.  I believe in eating healthy for the entire family and cheese-laden macaroni says, "Heart disease, please" more than, "Mac and cheese - my mom loves me".

It has been a meteorological mess this January for most of us.  I say lighten up the mood. Ignore the weather.  Turn on some beach-y tunes, light some summery candles, and cha-cha-cha-CHOP!

Plentiful Pasta Salad

3 large or 4 medium boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
1 cup seeded and chopped tomatoes (or halved cherry tomatoes)
1 large bell pepper, chopped
1 English cucumber, chopped
1 small can sliced black, green, or kalamata olives
1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
1/4 cup good EVOO
1/4 cup of good red wine vinegar
2 tsp. Greek Seasoning or Herbs de Provence or Italian Seasoning
(I used 1 tsp. Greek and 1 tsp. Herbs de Provence)
1 pound box of whole wheat pasta shapes (like whole wheat Barilla bow ties)
(I used two left over boxes of whole wheat Rotini and Penne, half left in each box)
Sea salt and black pepper

- Note -
I get asked all the time about the pre-cooked chicken.  It's super easy and such a time saver if you buy a large package of chicken breasts and come home from the market and cook them.  Preheat the oven to 350, line a large cookie sheet with non-stick foil.  Place chicken breasts on the sheet then bake for about an hour or until no longer pink.  Cool, then either shred and place in freezer bags or put whole pieces in freezer bags.  Ta-da! Most of your meal, already done!


Directions:

Boil pasta according to package directions.  Drain.  In a large bowl, combine pasta and all ingredients, from chicken through feta cheese.  In a measuring cup, combine EVOO, red wine vinegar, and seasonings.  Whisk with fork.  Pour over pasta.  Toss to coat well. Super easy!

This meal is good for when you have family visiting, friends over for poker night, and it will offer days of lunch for work or school.  Barilla makes an excellent whole wheat pasta that does not have the typical grainy taste most whole wheat pastas tend to have.  I buy Boar's Head feta cheese and when possible, feta made from a local goat farm.  The next time your market has a Barilla sale (Lowes Foods sells them 4/$5 often), stock up.  Keep canned olives and seasonings in stock.  If you pre-cook the chicken and freeze it, your grocery bill for this meal will be one bell pepper, some tomatoes, one cucumber, and feta cheese.

Once again another meal where you can make the most of what is in your pantry.  Substitute whatever you do have for the above ingredients - Shrimp, tofu, ham, bacon, cheddar, smoked Gouda, pepperoni, - you get the idea.  If I can convince more cooks to stay in the kitchen instead of running to the merciless golden arches, then take baby steps and use what you've got on hand.  Concentrate more on the healthier aspects once you get in the practice of cooking more meals than eating out.  This dish can get you cooking while putting a smile on your face and ease to your wallet!

A meal that saves you money and from the rainy Monday blues!




Weight Watchers points per serving - 6
(based on the recipe counter online)

Black Olive Bread, Parte Seconda

In part two of my Black Olive Bread mission, I woke up to find a bizarre chemistry experiment in my starter crock.  It was nasty.  It looked like science gone wrong.  But that's good, because it sure wasn't supposed to be pretty or smell very nice.

Before I begin the final stages of this journey, let's take a second to discuss bread.  Specifically, French and European style breads.  Do you still believe if you eat this, you'll get "f-a-t"?  If I cannot change your mind, let's let Lance Armstrong try and convince you.

Put away the Wonder Bread (I wonder what's really in that), read your bread labels (the fewer items the better), and maybe even switch to Ezekiel Bread.  Fiber is our friend, and the better breads can offer you lots of friendship.  But as with anything else, eat in moderation.  

Back to our mission.  There's a total of 4 cups of flour that needs to be added to this, as well as more water, some salt, and a tad of EVOO.  Warning, when you dump the sponge/starter into the mixing bowl, it's sloppy and wet.  It looks sponge-like on top, but it is watery underneath.  Very gross, but again, very good.  It's what we want.  Now time to mix it up with Sir Lancelot!

This is where it gets messy.  Please take all rings off (safety for the diamonds comes first!) and flour up those digits.  Dust a healthy portion of your countertop with more flour and get to kneading.  I knead my bread dough in shifts so it doesn't get overworked.  It knows better than you will if it's ready to rise or not. 

I knead for 5 minutes, then let it sit for 5.  Smooth and elastic is what we're striving for, so if you need to keep working it after that first 5 minute rest, do so.  I did.  This was a total of two round of 5 for 5.  You will be stunned at how the dough is more relaxed after that 5 minute rest period  Hey, wouldn't we all be?

Really gluten-y dough is good and you can always tell when you've got it because it has these neat stretchy-looking window panes on the dough's surface.  

The directions said let it rise for 2 hours, but an hour and half should do it in my warm kitchen.  The best way to know is to do the poke test.  I feel kind of bad doing the poke test.  It's like bullying the Pillsbury Dough Boy.  Just like with the calzone dough, stick one finger into the risen dough and if the impression remains instead of repairing itself, the dough is ready.

Punch down the dough and spread it out onto a floured portion of counter.  Now is the time to add your olives, if you want any at all.

I chopped 1/2 cup oil-cured black olives and combined them with the optional orange zest.  Since I've had bread like this before, I also know the flavor benefits from a bit of dried (or fresh) thyme leaves.  I added a pinch of dried thyme.   

Knead the olives, zest, and thyme into the dough and once combined, form into two separate rounds of dough.  I froze one of the rounds as I knew there was no way we'd eat two loaves of bread at dinner.  Let the rounds sit for their second rise (if baking both) for 30 minutes.  I preheated my oven during this time, including a pizza stone on the bottom rack.  Bake each round for about 30 minutes after their second rise period.  You'll know when the bread is ready when you knock on it and it gives a hollow sound.

I'm serving this tonight with my version of Lemon Chicken with Artichokes, a spinach side salad, sparkling mineral water.  If you're doing Weight Watchers, this meal with 1/4 of the loaf is 7 points.  From now on, I'll try to find out the points to all that I'm cooking for the benefit of WW clients.

The bread took a full 24 hours to make, but it is oh-so worth it!  No chemicals, no trip to the boulangerie, and my home gets the blessing of freshly baked bread aroma that we'll all enjoy for the rest of the day.  Give this bread project a try.  I think you will find a peace in the entire process.  It will bring an all new meaning to the words "happy meal"!  Mangia bene!!!

WW Points: w/ meal and salad, 7 points; bread alone is 3 points

Black Olive Bread, Da Una Parte

This is Part One (Da Una Parte) of this week's Show and Tell.  I'm making Black Olive Bread from Nancy Harmon Jenkins' "The Mediterranean Diet Cookbook".  Nancy recently released her new edition of this cookbook, for those of you who are interested in more of a Mediterranean diet.  From the original book, page 139, is where I got the recipe for the olive bread.  I imagine if you do not like black olives (these are oil-cured), you could use green or kalamata.

I started with SAF Instant yeast from King Arthur Flour Company.  For this special sponge, we needed to bring out the big guns - KAF's "Sir Lancelot Flour" and, their crock for bread starters.  FYI - KAF was mentioned in Nancy Harmon Jenkins' latest cookbook edition.  Yea! Props for some of my favorite peeps!!!

I added 1 & 1/2 cups very warm water to the crock and then the 1 tsp of instant yeast.

The Sir Lancelot flour came next, and then I stirred it to a sloppy-looking mess.  

This sponge is going to sit overnight in a corner of my countertop and come tomorrow, I'll be preparing the rest of the dough.  More flour, water, salt, oil-cured black pitted olives, and orange zest...can't wait!