Tomato and Arugula White Pizza

White Pizza with Tomato and Lemon Vinaigrette Tossed Arugula

Yes, another pizza recipe. What can I say? I'm a college student. I found the crust recipe in Cook This, Not That, so I used that. The rest is my own brain power ;)

Crust:

1 package instant yeast

1 cup hot water

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp honey

1/2 tbsp olive oil

2 1/2 cups flour (plus some for dusting)

1. Mix the yeast, water, salt and honey together. L

et sit for 10 minutes (to allow the water to activate the yeast).

2. After 10 minutes, add the flour and olive oil. Mix until incorporated. Wrap in plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature for at least 90 minutes.

Pizza

4 tbsp olive oil, divided

1/4 cup mozzarella

1 tsp minced garlic

1 ripe tomato, sliced

1 handful arugula

juice of 1 lemon

1 tsp lemon zest

salt/pepper

parmesan cheese

1. Infuse 3 tbsp of olive oil with garlic on low heat. It's important to not burn the garlic; if you do, it will taste really bitter.

2. Divide the dough in half. Store one half (or use it for another pizza!), and roll the other out into a 12 inch pizza. Spread the olive oil on the dough.

3. Sprinkle the mozzarella cheese on the dough, add tomato slices and sprinkle a few arugula leaves on top. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Bake at 500 degrees on the bottom rack of your oven on a pizza stone or cookie sheet for 8 minutes.

4. While the pizza is in the oven, whisk the lemon juice, zest and salt and pepper together. Drizzle in equal parts olive oil and whisk. Toss remaining arugula in the lemon vinaigrette. After you take the pizza out of the oven, put the arugula on top. It will wilt from the heat of the pizza.

5. Let cool and enjoy :)

Easy Peasy: Chicken Broth

Okay, I have a confession to make: I absolutely hate store-bought chicken broth in soups. Sure, it's okay when you're making recipes that the other ingredients can cover it up, but it's just... so bad. It dumbfounds me that people use store-bought broth in soups when it's so easy to just make your own. Plus, the stuff from the store comes loaded with sodium, impossible-to-read ingredients, preservatives and other yucky stuff, and when you make your own, you control everything that goes in it!

So here's my secret to a quick and super easy chicken broth!

First, I start off with roasting chicken. And here's my biggest secret: I buy the whole roasted chicken that you can find in your store's deli. They're perfect because you can use the meat for your soup and the rest for your broth!

Next come the veggies: carrots, celery and white onion. Corse chop them and throw them in a large pot with some extra virgin olive oil and let them sweat out. Add in some fresh thyme, a bay leaf and parsley flakes or whatever herbs you enjoy in your soup (best part about making your own broth!). DON'T add any salt or pepper. You never know what the recipe you're using your broth for might call for, and you don't want to over salt anything! When your veggies begin to soften (you'll know by the amazing smell permeating through your kitchen), add your chicken and fill the pot with water.

Here comes the easy part: bring your water to a boil. After it comes to a boil, let it simmer. I usually let mine simmer for at least 90 minutes. Yes, some of the liquid will boil off and yes you should add more water when this happens.

Finally, skim the fat off of the top. Pour your broth through a strainer to get out all of the veggies and chicken. And you've got your broth!

How easy is that? After realizing how completely quick and simple it is, I personally find it sinful to buy that overly processed broth from the store.

Cold Weather is for Chicken Noodle Soup

It's freezing out. I'm not talking 30 or 40 degrees, I'm talking about in the teens during the day, single-digit temperatures at night. For those of you who know me, you know that this is literally my hell. I hate winter more than anything, but this cold weather is good for one thing: making delicious soup! And I decided on chicken noodle after making Alex some when she was sick.First things first, start off with a homemade broth. Nothing ruins a good soup faster than a canned, overly salted, overly processed broth. I have a quick and easy way to make broth that you can find here.

Grab a big pot. Put in about a tablespoon or two of extra virgin olive oil. Chop up carrots, celery and white onion (you can really add whatever veggies you like here!). Let the veggies sweat out in the pot until they're soft. Season them with salt, pepper and whatever herbs you like to taste.

I have a favorite herb salt that I use that has rosemary, garlic, sage and pepper in it

You'll be able to tell that the veggies are ready by the amazing smell that will come from them. When they're soft and delicious, pour in your broth and chicken. Bring it to a boil. **Make sure you taste it to make sure that it's seasoned properly**

Add your favorite noodles (I love Amish noodles!).

Let the soup simmer while the noodles cook. Finally, pour yourself a bowl and enjoy :)!

Family Favorite: Chicken Dijon

I've been missing my family a little lately, so I decided to make a meal that we have a lot. It's an extremely simple recipe, which is perfect because if you're like me, you're limited on time. And it definitely serves as a great comfort food to me (it did the trick, too. I'm feeling a bit less homesick).

At home, we've always eaten chicken dijon over brown rice and with peas. I'm definitely not a huge fan of peas, but I put some of the sauce over them and mix everything together and it's delicious.

Chicken Dijon

White Meat Chicken Tenders

1 stick of butter

1 cup of chardonnay

1 cup of heavy whipping cream

3 tablespoons dijon mustard

1. Melt the butter in a large frying pan or electric skillet. Cook the chicken in the butter until it's just white.

2. Add the wine. Simmer until the chicken is fully cooked.

3. Remove the chicken and set aside. Stir in the heavy cream and dijon mustard. Add the chicken back in a stir.

4. Serve over rice.

5. Enjoy :)

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

As usual, I've been craving something sweet. I've made pumpkin spice cake and pumpkin spice cookies about 5 times already this fall, so I decided to do something different: oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Simple cookie recipe; they're all pretty much the same right? So here's what I came up with for mine:

2 sticks of room temp butter

1 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups oats

1 cup mini chocolate chips***

***I don't like a lot of chocolate chips, so if you do, of course feel free to add more!

1. Preheat oven to 375.

2. Cream butter and sugars.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk flour, baking soda and salt together. Set aside.

4. Add eggs one at a time to butter/sugar mixture. Beat until incorporated. Add vanilla and beat.

5. Slowly add flour mixture to butter mixture. Beat until smooth.

6. Stir in oats and chocolate chips.

7. Bake until golden brown.

8. Enjoy :)

Banana (Nannerrr) Bread

I'm pretty sure that I subconsciously buy bananas just to let them get really ripe so that I can make banana bread. Honestly, I never finish my entire bunch of bananas, so I'm constantly making banana bread. Not sure why I've never posted my recipe before now, but I've made some tweaks to my original recipe, and here it is!

Nanner Bread

4 ripe bananas

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup of Egg Beaters*

1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce**

1 tablespoon skim milk

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat the oven to 325. Use butter or cooking spray to grease a bread loaf pan.

2. In a small bowl, mash the bananas, milk and cinnamon (I leave big chunks of banana in mine, but you can mash them as much or as little as you please!). In another bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set both bowls aside.

3. Beat applesauce and sugar together. Add Egg Beaters and vanilla and beat until smooth.

4. Add banana mixture to sugar mixture and stir until combined. Add dry ingredients and mix until the flour is combined. Don't over mix the dough!

5. Pour batter into pan and bake for an hour or so. Check if it's done by putting a toothpick in the middle. If it comes out clean, it's done!

6. Let cool. Slice yourself a nice, thick piece and enjoy!

Pan Fried Tomatoes

I've been craving fried tomatoes for the past few days. I'm guessing it's because I printed out a Fall Festival Munchie Map, and those were one of the things I decided I had to get (for those of you who don't know, the Fall Festival is a huge street festival in my hometown; there's over a hundred food booths that serve pretty much anything you can imagine: fried candy bars, brain sandwiches, lollipops with crickets in them, etc).

I had two heirloom tomatoes on hand, so I used those. But I'm sure this would work with any tomato you prefer. I sliced up those tomatoes, mixed up a simple batter and went to town.

Fried Red Tomatoes

2 heirloom tomatoes (sliced, patted dry)

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 egg

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

milk (I didn't really measure this)

1 cup bread crumbs

1 cup parm cheese

salt & pepper

cooking oil of your choice (I used vegetable)

1. Slice up those tomatoes. Pat them dry (this will help the batter adhere to them better)

2. Wisk the flour, baking powder, milk and egg. You're going to want a thicker batter so that it doesn't slide off the tomatoes, so use your own judgement on how much milk to add. Remember: you can always add more but you can never take anyway (although I suppose you can just add some more flour).

3. Mix the bread crumbs, parm cheese and salt & pepper together in a separate bowl.

4. Dredge the tomato slices in the batter, then pat both sides with bread crumb mixture.

5. Add to hot oil (be careful not to splash any of the oil on you!) Cook until golden brown.

6. Remove from oil and place on a plate that is covered with paper towels. Let cool and enjoy :)