I always thought that as a stay at home mom I'd have plenty of time to do things like exercise, read, and write. The truth of it is that may days I'm lucky to squeeze in a shower, and reading? Since I've been home from Phoenix, I've barely made a dent in the fluff novel my mother-in-law gave me (yes, I openly admit that I love corny love stories). Anyway, the list of excuses could go on forever, but the point is I'm having trouble writing daily. But let's face it, who has time to read my rambling daily anyway?
Let's get on with it... Food!
So have you tried twice baked potatoes recently? This is a delicious and easy weeknight go-to meal. All you do is bake your potato like you normally would (I wash mine well, poke all over with a fork, rub with some olive oil and toss into a hot oven- 400 or so and bake until soft). After you pull it out of the oven cut them in half lenghwise and scoop out the pulp into a big bowl. For 2 large potatoes, I add about 1/3c fat free cottage cheese, a few tablespoons of parmesean cheese a few tablespoons of sredded cheddar. Depending on the consistency I am going for I might stir in a little fat free yogurt as well. Then I add some garic powder (actually I use a product from Tastefully Simple called Garlic Garlic- I LOVE this stuff), but if you don't have it garlic powder is fine. I always have fresh chives gowing on my porch so I chop and stir in some of those as well. Season with salt and pepper to taste then scoop back into the empty skins. Top the potatoes with just a little shredded chesse and put back into your hot oven for another 10-15 minutes until cheese is bubbly and slightly golden.
If you serve these with a large garden salad or your favorite soup, you've got an easy, healthy and very tasty weeknight meal.
Now, if you want a fabulous Friday night meal (at least that's when we serve it), you can try calzones. This is one of Josh's all time favorites. I will admit that working with pizza dough requires a little patience and practice, but it's totally worth the effort. You can buy frozen or prepackaged stuff, but homemade is much better, in my opinion.
If you're unfamilliar with calzones, they are basically pizza that has been folded over pocket-style. You can fill them however you would your favorite pizza. However our favorite is with fresh buffalo mozzerella, garlic and oregeno.
You begin with making the dough for the crust. It's actually very easy to do. It only requires flour, water, honey, yeast and salt. Dissolve 2 teaspoons of honey and a packet of active dry yeast into 3/4 c warm water. It sould feel like really warm bath water. And don't be intimidated b the yeast if you've never used it. Look for a little foil packet in your baking aisle. Stir that together and let it sit for a few minutes while you measure out 2 cups of flour into a mixing bowl. You can use whole grain blend, but for this I use the dreaded white flour :-) Add to the flour a half teaspoon of salt and mix a bit. Add the flour to the water and yeast mixture and stir until a soft dough forms. The easiest way to do this is to use a stand mixer with a hook attachment. YOu just set it and let is stir for about 5 mins. If you're doing it by hand, which I prefer sometimes, oil your hands and knead in the bowl or on a slightly foured counter. If you don't know how to knead go to youtube and find a short video.
Once you have the dough ready you need to roll or stretch into about a 12 inch circle. Make sure that if you're rolling you have enough flour on your counter to prevent sticking. I prefer to hand-stretch my dough. This requires less flour, so the dough is lighter and fluffier once baked. either way will work fine, though.
Cover a pizza pan in parchment paper to prevent sticking or you can bake right on a pizza stone. However if you're using the stone the transfer of the raw calzone to the surface gets tricky. I have an exceedingly difficult time with this which is why I use the pizza pan (unheated) instead. What I do is lay the prepared dough onto the paper covered pan, cover half with pizza sauce (I make my own, but you can easily find prepared). Be sure to leave a border of about an inch so that you can seal the calzone shut. Add cheese and your favorite toppings to the side with sauce. You then fold the uncovered portion of the dough over your filled half. Seal the calzone by pressing the dough edges together then fold up for good measure. I like to drizzle a little olive oil and parmesean on top prior to baking, but this is optional. Place in a very hot oven (450-500) and bake until golden (about 15 mins). Remove from the oven and enjoy! We love our with a big garden salad and ranch dressing.
Must run, baby is crying. Once again this will be left unedited. Read with a smile!
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