Wheat and Teff Pizza

Okay so whole wheat and teff (an ancient Ethiopian grain) might not sound like they'd be too tasty in a pizza dough, but they are. Really. I thought I'd experiment with my pizza dough to see what proportion of whole wheat flour I could use and still have my family really like it and this is what I came up with. I added the teff for additional nutritional value (it is a neat little grain that you can add to almost anything) and was surprised by how well it went over. Everyone loved this pizza! Yay! And the teff gives the pizza a cute freckled appearance and a nice chew which is awesome. I served the pizza Beau Jo's style (one of our favorite Pizzerias) with honey on the side to dip the crusts in. If you can't find teff in your grocery/natural food store you can just leave it out and add a bit more wheat flour.

Wheat and Teff Pizza
-makes 2 large pizzas

3 cups white bread flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup teff (no need to grind or anything, just add whole teff grains)
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tablespoon salt
1 1/2 rounded tablespoons instant yeast (SAF)
1 1/2 tablespoons liquid soy lecithin
2 1/4 cups hot tap water

Pizza Toppings: pizza sauce, shredded mozzarella (about 2 cups per pizza), pepperoni, veggies, etc, and shredded Parmesan

Preheat oven to 375. Spray 2 large pizza pans with non-stick spray and set aside.

In the bowl of a mixer combine flours, teff, sugar, salt, and yeast. Mix with dough hook just to distribute ingredients evenly. Add lecithin (I just eye ball it), and hot water. Mix with dough hook on high speed for 1 minute. Check dough and add a little more flour or water depending on the texture - you want it to pull away from the sides of the bowl and be the texture of stiff cookie dough. Mix with dough hook on high speed for 6 minutes.

Turn dough out onto a non-stick sprayed surface (spray your hands to so you can work with dough easier). Knead into a ball and cut in 2 equal portions. Take one portion and roll out into a large circle with a rolling pin. Place on a non-stick sprayed pizza pan, making sure you stretch dough out to the edges. Repeat with other half of dough.Put toppings on top: pizza sauce, shredded mozzarella, toppings of choice and then finish it off with a generous sprinkling of grated Parmesan.

Bake at 375 for 16-20 minutes on bottom rack, until toppings are bubbly and starting to brown and the bottom of the crust is golden. Serve with honey on the side to dip the crusts in, because it's yummy.:)

Easy Butterscotch Sauce

I was so pleased to find out that I could switch out the chocolate chips for butterscotch chips in my favorite hot fudge sauce and end up with an incredibly tasty butterscotch sauce. Yay! We had the butterscotch sauce over ice cream (Costco's Premium Vanilla - oh that stuff is so good!) for a quick and easy FHE treat last night. I bet you could also use peanut butter chips for a yummy peanut butter sauce. Ooh that sounds good. I'll have to try that next time.

Easy Butterscotch Sauce

1/4 cup butter, cut into pieces
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup butterscotch chips

In a saucepan combine butter and sweetened condensed milk. Heat, stirring constantly, until butter melts. Remove from heat and add butterscotch chips, stirring until chips are completely melted and combined into sauce. Serve over ice cream.

BYU Mint Brownies

These brownies are killer! Killer! I can't get over how good they are. I am fighting temptation right now to go and have another one (a tray of them are sitting in my fridge as I speak ready to go to work with my husband tomorrow). I will resist though because 1 is enough. They are so rich! But SO yummy. I got this recipe a while ago from my friend Corinne. Thanks! It is actually the real mint brownie recipe, just scaled down, from Sugar-n-Spice in the Cougareat. You can find this recipe on the BYU Magazine website here. I added the chocolate frosting/topping which IMHO rocks and also changed the method a little bit to make it easier. I hope you like these brownies too!

BYU Mint Brownies

Brownies:
1 cup butter (2 sticks), melted
1/2 cup cocoa (I used Dutch Process cocoa)
2 tablespoons honey
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional, I left them out)

Mint Frosting:
5 tablespoons butter, softened
dash of salt
3 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
2 1/3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon mint extract
1-2 drops green food coloring

Chocolate Topping:
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
6 tablespoons butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make a foil sling (to make the brownies easier to take out of pan and cut) by taking 2 sheets of foil and placing them in the bottom of a 9x13 baking pan making sure there are a few inches of overhang. Take another 2 sheets and place them the opposite way across your pan making sure there is over hang. (I do double sheets of foil for strength.) Spray the foil lined pan well with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.

In a bowl combine 1 cup melted butter and 1/2 cup cocoa powder and stir until smooth and combined. Transfer this mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer and add honey, sugar, and eggs and beat well to combine. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Add these dry ingredients to the mixer and beat until combined. Add in walnuts if using. Spread into the foil lined baking pan and bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes (it was 30 minutes for me). Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.

To make mint frosting: combine 5 tablespoons of softened butter, powdered sugar, and corn syrup int the bowl of a mixer. Start beating and add milk slowly until it is the consistency of thin cake frosting. Add mint extract and food coloring and beat until combined. Spread this mint frosting over the completely cooled brownies. Place in the freezer until frosting has hardened.

To make chocolate topping: combine chocolate chips and butter in a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 45 seconds. Stir and microwave another 30 seconds or so until melted. Stir well until chocolate is smooth, melted, and completely combined with butter. Spread over the cold mint frosting layer and smooth to the edges with an offset spatula or knife. Place back in freezer until topping is hardened.

Now for the cutting. Once brownie layers are all set up and cold remove from freezer and pull the brownies out of the pan by the foil sling. Peal the foil sling off the brownies and place the slab of brownies on a cutting board. Using a sharp knife cut the brownies into squares, dipping the knife in hot water and cleaning it off after each cut (believe me this makes it so much easier). Place the brownies on a platter and refrigerate until ready to serve. YUM.

Pork Milanese

Oh Pork Milanese, where have you been all my life? I made this delicious recipe last night and fell in love. The pork tastes kind of like an Italian schnitzel. And I love me some schnitzel. The crunchy outer coating is so great and then with a squeeze of lemon it is just... swoonworthy. Mmmmm. My whole family loved it. My kids especially loved squeezing the lemon slices over the pork. It made me proud that they appreciated the added freshness and zip the lemon juice gave the pork. I served it with roasted red potatoes and corn on the cob. I modified the recipe slightly from Steak N Potatoes Kinda Gurl - a fabulous food blog.

Pork Milanese

3/4 cup flour
1 cup panko bread crumbs
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon water
6 boneless pork chops, pounded to 1/3 inch thick (cut off excess fat)
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, divided
lemon slices for serving

Place flour in a pie plate (or shallow bowl). In another pie plate beat 2 eggs with 1 tablespoon water. In another pie plate combine panko, Parmesan, oregano, basil, garlic powder, salt, and some freshly ground black pepper. Mix well. Take each flattened pork chop and first dredge in the flour, then egg letting excess drip off, and then dredge in the bread crumb mixture, patting to coat both sides well. Place on a cooling rack placed over a cookie sheet and let breaded pork chops rest for 5 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and cover a cookie sheet in foil and then spray with cooking spray. Set aside.

Meanwhile heat 1/4 cup of olive oil in a large skillet. Once oil is very hot place 3 pork pieces in the skillet and let cook until browned (a minute or 2), flip and then cook until browned on the other side. Place these fried pork pieces onto the foil lined cookie sheet. Repeat process, putting 1/4 cup more oil in the skillet, let it heat up and then brown the remaining 3 pieces of pork on both sides and put on the cookie sheet as well. Put in the oven and bake for 5-8 minutes, or until internal temp. of the pork reads 165 degrees. Transfer pork to a platter and serve with lemon slices squeezed over pork. 

Our Breakfast Smoothie

My kids have really been into smoothies for breakfast lately. It's amazing the things you can hide in a smoothie and your kids will still think it's such a treat! This recipe of course is very adaptable. I really like the added richness that avocado gives it. Yum. BTW, my kids, very excitedly, call it the Kung Fu Panda Smoothie because the tofu package that I buy right now has Po from Kung Fu Panda on it. Yay for tofu marketing to kids. I usually double this to feed my whole family for breakfast and serve it with whole wheat toast with peanut butter on it. This breakfast makes everyone happy.

Our Breakfast Smoothie

1 cup orange juice (or other liquid such as: vanilla soy milk, vanilla almond milk, pineapple juice, etc.)
1 banana
1 cup frozen berries or other frozen fruit (optional, I use frozen mixed berries)
3 oz silken tofu (or a scoop of protein powder)
1/2 cup ice cubes
large handful spinach or kale
1 tablespoon psyllium husk powder (or powdered apple fiber, ground flax, etc.)
1/2 an avocado (optional)

Combine all in the blender and let it rip. Makes about 3, 1 cup servings.

*For a less sweet "green smoothie" use soy milk or almond milk and leave out the berries.