Stuffed Pizza

I have tried to make this before after Jeremy and I watched an episode of Man vs. Food and he ate one in Chicago.....the first ones turned out OK....but they seemed to sort of fall apart once they were cut, and the crust never really got crispy.....so after doing much research today, I found someone who made one using a springform pan - genius - why didn't I think of that?!?! So.....I made one and it turned out much better - blog worthy, I guess. If you like pizza - try it - it's really not hard at all.  (Plus, I cheated a used store bought pillsbury pizza crust, just unroll it.)

Ingredients:

I didn't end up using the spinach, it was still frozen & I'm impatient.

• 2 pillsbury pizza crusts
• 1 Springform pan
• Some Mozzarella cheese - I used about 1 bag
• Olive oil/cooking spray to spray pan
• Pizza/Marinara Sauce
• Whatever ingredients you like in your pizza, I used:
• Pepperoni
• Sausage
• Yellow Bell Pepper - chopped (about 1/4)
• 1/4 onion - chopped
• 1/4 red bell pepper - chopped

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400
• Spray bottom and sides of springform pan w/ cooking spray
• Place pizza dough over top of springform and allow to fall down in, keeping some excess over the sides for tucking in at the top - you may have to cut a little off some of 2 of the sides to ensure the other 2 sides have enough dough.

• Take about a handful of cheese and sprinkle it in the bottom on top of the dough

• Mix the rest of your toppings - peppers, onion, sausage (minus the pepperoni) and then pour into the crust

• Top with pepperoni

• Then top with cheese (the amount you prefer)

• Then cut the top crust to the size of the top of your pizza, and fold over the excess edges onto it, like you would a pie.

• Cut a few slits in the top to allow steam to exit during cooking
• Spread some marinara on the top of the pizza, leaving the edges clean

• Top with a little cheese for garnish

• Place in the oven for 25-30 minutes until the crust is to your liking

(1/2 way done....)

• Remove from the oven, and immediately remove the outer case of the springform pan

• Let the pizza cool like this for about 10 minutes before cutting so it doesn't fall apart.

• ENJOY! It was definitely delicious and very filling!

Broiled Flank Steaks with Spicy Roasted Potatoes

This meal was really easy to make, especially since the meat needs to be marinated for several hours, but then it only takes a few minutes to cook. This was especially nice when I decided to try to move an extremely heavy bookcase (w/ all my nursing textbooks on it) and practically ripped the whole thing in two. So, due to that, I ended up at target purchasing not only a new (bigger) bookshelf, but also a new dresser for the closet.....both of which had to be put together (thank goodness for JEREMY) I could've handled the bookshelf, but after helping with the dresser that took 3 1/2 HOURS - I would've lost my mind and possibly thrown it off the balcony if I had been doing it alone.

Jeremy working on the bookshelf....

So back to the cooking --

Ingredients:

Ignore the lemon juice and Mrs. Dash - I changed my mind after the picture

• 4-5 cloves of garlic, pressed (I only used 4 b/c mine were pretty large cloves)
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tbsp. lime juice
• 1 tsp. pepper
• 1-2 lbs flank steak
• 4 russet potatoes - cut in to wedges
• 2 tbsp oil (I use Smart Balance which is a mixture, but you could use veg. oil)
• 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper (don't use too much - they will be too spicy)
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. paprika
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Broiler pan
• (A glass of wine - you'll need it trying to cook and put together furniture)

Steps:

• Mix together the garlic, soy sauce, lemon juice, olive oil, and pepper in a shallow baking dish
• Add steak to dish, turning to make sure they are fully coated, cover the dish and refrigerate for 2-6 hours (longer wouldn't hurt.....I wouldn't try doing to less)

• Potatoes - Preheat oven to 400
• Place potato wedges in a medium bowl, toss together with oil, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, and paprika until well coated

• Place on baking sheet in an even layer, sprinkle with salt and pepper

• Place in oven for 30-35 minutes
• Once the potatoes are done, take out and tent with aluminum foil

• Put oven rack as close to the top of the oven, Turn oven to broil and let oven heat up for 10-15 minutes
• Pour about 1 cup of water in the bottom of the broiler pan, place the top rack back on and spray with a little oil to keep the meat from sticking
• Remove steak from marinade, place on broiler pan
• Once oven is ready, place broiler in, and let cook about 2-3 minutes, remove, and cook the other side for about 2-3 minutes, but watch the meat for how well done you want the meat. 

• Once they are done, remove from oven and let sit about 5 minutes

• I then turned the broiler off, but put the potatoes back in for about 2 minutes to let warm and crisp the tops a bit.
• After the steak cooled, transfer to cutting sheet and slice against the grain.
• Everything is ready to serve - we ate ours with some steamed peas, and topped the steak with some horseradish

Enjoy!

Crab Cakes

I have been wanting to make crab cakes for awhile, but since crab meat is SO expensive and I hear a lot of people say the recipes are always hit or miss, I didn't want to try until someone recommended a recipe - so I got this recipe from my brother-in-law's brother.....He gave me a few tips, and I tweaked the recipe slightly on my own, it ended up really good, but I made mine really big (the whole recipe made 6 crab cakes...) so they took a little longer than I expected to cook, so you can make yours as large as you like or depending on how many people are eating with you. Jeremy ate 2 crab cakes and I ate 1 and maybe 2 bites of a second, they were very filling. So if you like crab cakes - try these! (I think if i make them again I might add some red peppers or onion?!)

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. lump crabmeat
• 1-2 cups bread crumbs (I ended up using 1.5 cups, but you just have to eye it)
• 2 cups mayonaise (I used Vegenaise - mayo with no eggs and NO cholesterol)
• 2 tbsp. dijon mustard
• 2 tbsp. Old Bay seasoning
• 1 tbsp. worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbsp. horseradish (I used very hot horseradish - the less creamy version)
• 1 egg
• Juice of 1 lemon

Steps:

• Check the crabmeat for shells (mine had none - I used Chicken of the Sea)

• Place crab meat in bowl, add bread crumbs until evenly distributed with crab (I started with 1 cup and ended up adding an additional 1/2 cup once I started adding the sauce)

• In a 2nd bowl, mix the rest of the ingredients until well incorporated

• Slowly mix the sauce into the bowl with the crab meat, add until the mixture is moist but NOT soupy (this is where I decided to use some more bread crumbs in order to use the entire sauce mixture - but you don't necessarily have to use all of the sauce - just eyeball it to the consistency of your liking)

• Preheat oven to 375
• Cover a baking sheet with foil, lightly spray with cooking oil.
• Form the crab mixture into patties to your liking (the original recipe stated to put them in 4-6oz patties - I have NO idea how to gauge that - I made mine pretty big since it was our meal, but if you wanted to make like an "appetizer" version, you could make lots of small cakes)
• Place cakes on baking sheet and put in the oven

• The original recipe said to cook for 10-15 min - but b/c of the size of mine it took 25 min until I was happy with the color and consistency. You can also put them under the broiler for a minute to brown the tops....

• I served mine with some white shoepeg corn on the cob and an arugula salad.

• It was yummy! BUT very filling!!

Balsamic & Rosemary Marinated Steak with Gorgonzola & Arugula

I found a similar recipe to this in Clean Eating Magazine, cut out how to make the marinade and accidentally threw away the recipe....oops, so this was my rendition - turned out pretty well. The original recipe called for bleu cheese crumbles (bleh) so I chose to use Gorgonzola instead!

Ingredients:

• 1 lb top sirloin- trim fat
• 1 cup balsamic rosemary marinade (below)
• 2 tbsp peanut oil
• arugula
• crumbled gorgonzola cheese
• sliced cherry tomato
• olive oil & vinegar dressing

Balsamic Rosemary Marinade

• 1 cup balsamic vinegar
• 3/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 tbsp chopped rosemary
• 1 tbsp garlic powder
• 2 tsp fine sea salt
• 1 tsp ground black pepper

whisk all the ingredients together - refrigerate  (it will make more than 1 cup - so you can save some if you want to use it another time)

Steps:

• Marinate steak in 1 cup balsamic rosemary marinade for atleast 1 hour (I marinated mine for about 2)

• Heat skillet on medium high heat with 1-2 tbsp peanut oil
• Remove steak from marinade, discard, and place steak into skillet

• Heat steak 5-6 minutes on each side
• Remove from skillet, to cutting board, slice steak in thin slices, against the grain.

• Place arugula and tomatoes on plate, top with sliced steak, and top with gorgonzola cheese

• We used the salad dressing on the side as to not over do it.
• It was DELICIOUS- Jeremy loved it - that's always a good sign!
• Enjoy!

I know it's easy to keep all my recipes online - but I have several recipes I have gotten from other places or from my mom and it's nice to have somewhere to keep them - my dad has started a business called "Bearly Memories" in which he sells memories boxes for anything you could think of, and he gave me a recipe box a few months ago. I have started transferring all my recipes over to the cards and taking pictures of the finished products to place in the box - I love it! So if you think about it - check out his website Bearly Memories or find his Facebook page Bearly Memories Facebook page and LIKE it.

Here are some pictures of my recipe box:

Shake N Bake Buffalo Chicken w/ Oven Fried Sweet Potato Ravioli

Jeremy has a slight obsession with 2 things - buffalo chicken and sweet potatoes....so this meal was made specifically for him (and the oven fried ravioli was his suggestion - b/c we couldn't really figure out what to eat the sweet potato ravioli with other than butter?!) So, I am NOT a deep fryer or a pan fryer....I don't enjoy it and I feel like it's hit or miss when you are frying foods - so I don't do it. That's where the oven fried comes in and the use of shake n bake - chicken comes out crispy and PERFECTLY cooked EVERY TIME!

Ingredients:

• 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken tenderloins
• 1 package crispy buffalo shake n bake bread crumbs
• Hot sauce
• 1 package Monterey Sweet Potato Ravioli
• 1 cup bread crumbs
• 1 tsp. oregano
• 1 tsp. basil
• 2 tbsp. parmesan cheese
• 1 egg white
• 1 tbsp water
• oil (might be easier to use Pam or spray cooking oil - I just don't use spray oil)
• Veggies - for a side dish

Steps:

• Combine bread crumbs, oregano, basil and parm cheese in a bowl

• Mix egg white and water in another bowl.
• Dredge ravioli 1 or 2 at a time in the egg/water and then place in the bread crumbs and cover well with crumbs - set aside 

• Preheat oven to 400 
• Spray or pour a small amount of oil on the top and bottom of the ravioli in order to get the "fried" effect in the oven

• Shake n Bake states to soak your chicken with water before dredging in the mix in order to make sure it sticks, I poured some hot sauce on mine to "wet" the chicken before placing them in the bag and shaking - it definitely helped with the buffalo taste (especially if you like them a little hotter) and kept the chicken moist, rather than drying out.

• Place chicken on a baking sheet.
• Place chicken in the oven and set for 20 minutes

• Once there are 12-14 minutes left on the timer, place the ravioli in the oven and cook both until the timer goes off.

• I didn't have any ranch dressing, they were still really good without, but if you like to have something to dip your chicken in....you could always use ranch or bleu cheese.
• Serve alongside some veggies or the side of your choose!

• Enjoy!!!