Sweet Southern Belle

Thursday night was pizza night at our house. This was my first attempt at pizza dough and homemade sauce. The pizza turned out great and was super yummy! I did however try to trick my dear husband with veggie pepperoni instead of the horrible real stuff. He was not tricked at all….when asked what he thought about the pepperoni he said they tasted like vegetables but added that they didn’t taste bad! He’s really being a great about all the food changes we are making!

I made the sauce early in the day so the spices had time to flavor the sauce. This made enough for two pizzas so I put the leftover portion in the freezer for the next time we make pizza.

1 (4 oz) can of tomato paste (I used organic)

1 ½ cups water

1/3 cup of olive oil

2 gloves or garlic, minced

Salt and Pepper

½ tablespoon of chopped oregano

½ tablespoon of chopped basil

½ tablespoon chopped rosemary 

(I used fresh spices)

Mix together tomato paste, water, and olive oil. Add garlic and all other spices. Mix well and let sit for 3 + hours for flavor.

Pizza Crust

3 cups of all-purpose flour (I used unbleached bread flour because that’s what I had on hand)

1 (.25 ounce) of dry active yeast

2 tablespoons oil

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon white sugar

1 cup warm water (100 degrees)

1 package of Italian seasoning (optional)

Combine flour, salt, sugar, and yeast in a large bowl. Mix in oil and warm water. Spread out on a large pizza pan or stone. Top as desired.

Oh how I love fresh homemade bread and oh how I love a bread machine that does most of the work for me! Homemade bread is a 100 times better for you than store bought, 100 times better tasting and much cheaper too! I don’t buy bread at the store at all now. I bake a loaf or two each week for my family. This is my favorite wheat recipe from the Amish Mennonite cookbook (with a few changes). It’s got a great taste and is good for slicing for sandwiches.

Whole Wheat Bread

½ cup lukewarm water            ¼ cup oil

½ teaspoon sugar                    1/8 cup of honey

1 tablespoon yeast                   1 cup hot water

½ tablespoon salt                    1 cup whole wheat flour

¼ cup sugar                             1 ½ cups of unbleached bread flour

Bread Machine

Put all liquid ingredients (water, oil and honey) in first, and then add flours, sugar, and salt. Add yeast last. Be careful that yeast does not touch liquid. Set on whole wheat setting, 1 pound loaf.

By hand

Mix 1/2 cup lukewarm water, 1 teaspoon sugar, and yeast; set aside. Beat together salt, ¼ cup of sugar, oil and honey, and 1 cups hot water, then add whole wheat flour. Now mix the two mixtures together. Mix well. Then add bread four and mix by hand until it won’t stick to the bowl much anymore. Let the dough sit to rise until double in size and put in pans. Let dough rise in pans until about ½ inch higher than the pan. Bake in 2 greased bread pans at 300 for 30-35 minutes. Brush with butter when baked.

There is much debate in the world of nutrition as to the definition of healthy food. Some believe a low-fat diet is best, some believe a low-carb diet is best, some believe a meat-free diet is best and so on and on it goes. I have tried all of the diets at different points in my life and certainly pass no judgment on what others choose as “healthy” for themselves but my family has been recently making changes towards what we believe is healthy eating. It’s not low-fat, low-carb or meat-free it’s simply “whole” foods. We are trying to cut out as much processed foods as possible. I buy mostly organic food but when I indulge with something processed organic is a must for us. As a part of this we are eating a lot less meat, partly to help even out the cost difference between organic and conventional food costs. There are other reasons we are cutting back on our meat consumption but I’ll save those for another post on another day.

I’m certainly no expert on whole foods or cooking from scratch. I’m learning as I go so I thought as a way to keep myself accountable I’ll try to blog as often as I can with menus, pictures and recipes of what we are eating. Some days I may choose to blog about what I made for breakfast while others it may be lunch or dinner.

Tonight’s dinner was Black Bean Burgers on Whole Wheat buns with homemade French fries. This was an incredibly delicious and filling meal. Even my dear husband who looked at me strangely when I told him we were having veggie burgers instead of the venison burgers he was hoping for enjoyed the meal a great deal. My dinner preparation started in the morning when I made the yummy whole wheat buns for the night’s meal. I got the recipe off of another blog. This was a very easy recipe and the buns tasted 100 times better than store bought buns.

A little closer to dinner I made up the black bean burgers and cut up the fries. All three recipes were a first for me. The black bean burger recipe was one I pieced together after reading several veggie burger recipes and not finding exactly what I was looking for. Here’s a picture of the finished product.

The fries were organic Idaho potatoes cut up with salt, pepper and garlic. I baked them on 450 for 30 mins.

Black Bean Burgers

16 ounces of cooked ( and cooled) black beans, drained and rinsed

1/3 cup mushrooms

½ onion

3 gloves of garlic

1 egg

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 tablespoon cumin

1 teaspoon of hot sauce

1 cup of bread crumbs ( I used the homemade wheat loaf I had on hand)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and lightly oil a cookie sheet.
2. In a bowl, mash black beans with a fork until thick and pasty.
3. In a food processor, finely chop mushrooms, garlic and onion. Then stir into black beans
4. In another bowl stir together egg, chili powder, cumin, and hot sauce.
5. Stir the egg mixture into the mashed bean mixture. Then stir in bread crumbs until the mixture is sticky and holds together.
6. Divide into 5 patties
7. Place on cookie sheet and bake for about 10 mins on each side