Personal Pizza & 2 Ingredient Chocolate “Milkshake”

I tried to make it to an earlier dinner without an afternoon snack, but I’m not one to ignore an audibly grumbling stomach. I kept it light with 5 dried plums (doesn’t that sound more appetizing than “prunes”?), which were tasty but not very photogenic… I’ll spare you.

Dinner, however, was photogenic if I do say so myself.

I began by using up a container of rapidly declining fresh basil to make a new batch of pesto:

• 3 cups loosely packed fresh basil leaves
• 1/2 cup raw cashews
• 1 small garlic clove
• juice from 1/2 lemon
• salt, black pepper, and red pepper flakes to taste
• 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

I really liked the mild taste of cashews in this pesto! I’ve been making parsley pesto and cilantro pesto with walnuts, and the basil-cashew combination has a much more subtle flavor. I’ll be making many batches of this pesto over the course of the summer.

Here we have:

• a piece of TJ’s Whole Wheat Tandoori Naan bread
• homemade basil-cashew pesto
• sliced “cocktail” tomatoes
• sliced goat cheese
• black pepper & red pepper flakes

I popped my assembled personal pizza in the toaster oven until the bread was warm and slightly crisp and the cheese was just starting to soften.

Who knew Indian-style bread would make such a fantastic pizza crust? Doughy on the inside and crisp on the outside, the whole wheat naan was the perfect vehicle for the delicate toppings.

What better follow-up is there to pizza than a milkshake? This is one of my absolute favorite summer desserts to make at home, and has only 2 ingredients:

• 1 frozen banana
• about 1/2 cup Silk Light Chocolate Soymilk (chocolate almond or hemp milk would be also be tasty)

This “milkshake” is thick & rich, and tastes much more decadent than it actually is. Expect to see many of these gracing my blog over the next few months!

Inspiration from Sarah x 2

After a trip to the gym, I made myself exactly what I was craving: a loaded salad.

The components:

• mixed greens & spinach
• undressed broccoli slaw
• grape tomatoes
• garbanzo beans
• 1/4 of an avocado, diced
• sunflower seeds
• Tribe 40 Spices Hummus
• crumbs from the bottom of the TJ’s Multigrain Pita Chips bag

I love me some fun salad toppings!

As I mentioned earlier, we received a couple of wedding registry packages yesterday. Like a good fiance, I waited until John got home I tore open the boxes, but not before taking a moment to appreciate the lovely Williams Sonoma gift wrapping:

Inside:

This hereby marks my very first Le Creuset pot, and I am so pumped to use it. My mom has a superb whole wheat bread recipe for which you plop the bread dough into a heated pot such as this, let it rise, and bake it. The resulting bread has a phenomenal crust thanks to the power of cast iron.

And from Crate & Barrel, the answer to this morning’s riddle…

an immersion blender, as many of you guessed

I broke this baby in by making Sarah’s Pumpkin Pie Flax Pudding. I followed Sarah’s recipe with just a few minor alterations:

• unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• 1/2 tsp each pumpkin pie spice & ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp pure maple extract

I couldn’t believe how thick the “pudding” became within mere minutes of bubbling away on the stove. It continued to thicken while cooling off in the fridge, and was ready for consumption after I finished my salad.

This incredibly healthy pudding tastes just like pumpkin pie filling – without the intense sweetness. I enjoyed 1/2 cup topped with 1/4 cup of Zoe’s Cinnamon Raisin granola.

Although the pudding tastes good as is, I think I’ll add a bit of pure maple syrup if I reach for it for dessert. Next time I make it, I may add in a couple more medjool dates – if you’ve been reading my blog for any amount of time, you are fully aware of my insane sweet tooth!

I’m excited to try out different variations on the genius flax pudding concept, originally seen on [the other] Sarah’s blog.

Thank you Sarah (x 2) for this awesome idea!

Violet-Hued Oatmeal & a Riddle

I can’t get over the gorgeous violet hue of this mornings oatmeal!

Stovetop:

• 1/3 cup each rolled oats, unsweetened vanilla almond milk & water
• 1 banana, sliced
• about 3/4 cup frozen mixed berries (straw, rasp, blue & black)

Mix-ins/Add-ons:

• 1 Tbsp ground flaxseed
• pure vanilla extract
• ground cinnamon
• about 2 Tbsp Chobani nonfat plain mixed with about 1/2 Tbsp blueberry preserves
• the last bit from a jar of Barney Butter (maybe 1 1/2 Tbsp?)

Warm berries are soooo good! They added flavor, antioxidants, and, of course, a beautiful color to my breakfast.

We received a couple more gifts from our wedding registry yesterday, which I’ll post about with lunch today.

Hint about one of them: I’ll be using it later today to make a fellow blogger’s version of the “flax pudding” that has been bouncing around the blogosphere. Another hint: I already have a Magic Bullet, food processor, and blender.  Any idea what this kitchen implement might be?