Miscellaneous Recipe Reviews – Individual Vegan Margherita Pizza from VedgedOut.com

The Northeast was scheduled to be hit with a major snowstorm last night, but thankfully, we only got a few inches. Since we were supposed to get a blizzard, everyone was working at home today.

I have really been in the mood for pizza, but eating a plant based diet with no oil, that is not as easy as you might think. At best, I can get a pizza with no cheese. That is not a bad thing…believe me. I can really sink my teeth into a veggie pizza with no cheese.  But sometimes, you just want the full pizza experience.

I’ve been seeing this recipe on one of my McDougall groups and I’ve really been looking forward to trying it. Here’s the thing, though. You can’t be hungry and just decide you want pizza. When you make it from scratch, there’s a little planning involved.

Today was that day! Yay!!!

I used the recipe from Vegded Out.

Recipe has been removed at the insistence of Veged Out.

I made the dough from scratch. 5 minutes to throw the ingredients together, another 5 minutes to knead (the recipe says to knead for 10 minutes, but it only took 5 with my trusty Kitchen Aid stand mixer). 60 minutes resting time to allow the dough to rise and another 5 minutes to cut and roll out the dough. So…that’s 75 minutes for the dough….mostly inactive time.

I had some organic chunky marinara left over, so I used that.

Next is the moxarella cheese. Oh. Em. Gee. Did this put it over the top! This took a total of about 7 minutes to blend up and cook up.

We made our pies with spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, and artichoke hearts in water. We also sprinkled on a bit of oregano. Yum. We topped all of that with the moxarella and baked for 12 minutes. What came out of the oven was pure magic. The dough was perfect, the cheese was delectable, and the entire pie eating experience was one that calls for repeating…frequently.  This is real food people.

Do yourself a favor and take the time to make this pizza. I promise…you will not be sorry.

Healthy, Oil-Free Veggie Fried Rice

Healthy, Oil-Free Veggie Fried Rice

¼ cup vegetable broth

1 onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 inch piece of ginger, minced

1 red bell pepper, diced

1 carrot, diced or shredded

4 cups brown rice, cooked

2 cups edamame, from frozen

4 tablespoons tamari

Using a skillet on medium heat, add a little bit of the broth and onions. Cook 5 minutes until onions are soft, adding more broth as needed to prevent sticking.

Add garlic, ginger, pepper and carrot. Cook 5 minutes.

Add cooked rice, edamame and tamari.

Stir until combined and heated through.

Note: The edamame was an afterthought.  I was going to add baked tofu, but I saw the bag of edamame sitting in the freezer and it was calling my name.  The possibilities here are endless.  Feel free to add whatever veggies and protein that you have on hand and would like to use.

A Health Tonic

A Health Tonic

September 24, 2014

I felt a little run down after work today. It’s been a long couple of weeks and I think it’s just caught up to me.  I have to remember that it has only been 4.5 months since my heart attack and bypass operation, but it frustrates me nonetheless.  I want to be able to do all the things I could before…but I cannot.  I have to build up to it, which seems to be taking sooooooooooooo long.  I guess it really isn’t, but it seems that way to me.

I decided to make myself a tonic to pick myself a bit before my haircut appointment. Here is what I made:

Hot Cocoa

12 oz. Astragalus tea

1T Raw Hemp Seeds

1 T Raw Cacao

1 T Lucuma

½ T Maca

2 Dates

½ dropper of Vanilla Stevia

You may need to add more sweeteners. I do not like this drink very sweet.  Now, this of course was not completely my idea.  You see…while I am not 100% raw, I like to watch raw food videos on YouTube.  One person that I follow is Dara Dubinet.  Her trick to staying raw in cold weather is hot tonics.  Soooo, I borrowed her idea.

Here are the benefits of the ingredients:

Astragalus stimulates the immune system and has a antioxidant effect that inhibits the production of free radicals (you know…those things that age us).

Raw Hemp Seeds are a great source of complete protein and have a perfect balance of essential fatty acids..you know, Omega 3 & 6.

Raw Cacao is full of antioxidants and is believed to lower LDL cholesterol (that’s the bad stuff). I have read that it can help improve circulation and reduce the risk of heart disease.  Well, just because I already have heart disease doesn’t mean I can’t help to discourage the disease from advancing.

Raw Cacao also has caffeine, so you probably don’t want to have it late it the day if that sort of thing bothers you.

Lucuma is a natural anti-inflammatory that adds a creamy, almost caramel quality to this tonic.

Maca – don’t add too much maca to your tonic as it will give it a really funky taste. Maca is good for hormonal balance…enough said.

Dates are a natural, whole foods sweetener, so instead of ingesting refined sugar with no nutritional value, you are eating a sweetener full of fiber. Dates are also a good source of calcium, iron, phosphorous, sodium, potassium, and magnesium. Sure beats plain old white table sugar, now doesn’t it?

Vanilla Stevia is a natural sweetener that will not raise your blood glucose (be careful…too much of this can make your drink very bitter). Stevia is my favorite sweetener for beverages.  A little goes a long way.  3-4 drops in a cup of tea is about as sweet as 1-2 teaspoons of sugar.