Hi Friends,
Today is all about cooking! I've been trying to save every penny we have for our upcoming trip to Miami, by cooking all of our meals. I've created some delicious healthy recipes that my boyfriend and I adored. I also made a polka-dot layer cake that I'm uber proud of. I hope you all enjoy these recipes as much I as took pleasure in making them.
Cauliflower Pizza
I've seen this recipe on different health blogs recently but it never really turned me on. Pizza curst made solely out of cauliflower.... umm no thank you. While talking to my boyfriends Mother last week, she gave me this recipe to cauliflower pizza, and said it was Delicious. With a recommendations like that, I had to try it out.
Crust Ingredients
2-1/2 cups cauliflower
1 egg white
1 cup shredded low fat mozzarella cheese
2 tbs grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp Basil
1 tsp dried oregano
pinch of sea salt and pepper
Preheat oven to 425 F
Spray or grease your pizza pan (I used a cast iron skillet)
Place cauliflower into food processor and chop until fine, if mixture gets watery you have gone too far (if you do no have a food processor use a blender or grate cauliflower)
Combine the rest of the ingredients and spread the dough out evenly onto your pan, making sure it not thin in any spots
Bake crust for 15-20 minutes, until the crust looks slightly brown
Remove from oven to add your sauce and toppings
I made a mini pepper, onion, and mushroom pizza, and sauteed my toppings for 3-4 minutes
Place back in the oven for an additional 5-10 minutes
Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes
Cut and enjoy
Picture step by step directions below
This recipe can be made gluten free, vegan, or paleo
This pizza was really tasty. I couldn't believe the crust, it tasted a lot like a regular pizza crust, with none of the guilt. Even my boyfriend asked for a few pieces, it was really that delicious. He also couldn't believe I didn't use any flour in the recipe.
This one is a keeper. It a good way to hide vegetables in common foods that your kids/husband/family will really enjoy
Asian Sticky Wings
2lbs chicke wings
1/4 cup honey
2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
1 tbsp chili garlic sauce
1 tbsp sesame seed oil
2 tbsp teriyaki sauce
1 tbsp rice vinegar
2 cloves garlic
1 inch fresh ginger
2 sliced green onions
as needed non-stick spray
Preheat oven to 450 degrees
In a bowl combine honey, soy sauce, chili garlic sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, and teriyaki sauce.
Peek ginger and grate it using a small cheese grater
Press garlic, add ginger and garlic to mixture, and stir to combine
Place chicken wings in a colander and rinse well
Cut each wing at the joint
Add the wings to the bowl of sauce and stir to coat and place them in preheated oven
After 25 minutes of baking, stir the wings to re-coat with sauce then turn the oven to broil
Broil for 3-5 minutes, stir then broil again for 3-5 minutes
Because broiling cooks fast and every oven is different keep an close eye on your wings.
Keep stirring them until they have turned nice and brown
The sauce should have reduced and thickened significantly during the broiling stage
Let wings cool for 5 minutes before serving
Sauce will thicken as chicken cools
Sprinkle sliced green onions on top
Polka-Dot Layer Cake
This weekend we celebrated one of our good friends 30th birthday. If I had to describe this guy using one word it would be: clever. Searching for a birthday present was nearly impossible. Instead of giving him something that he would pretend to love then stuff in the back of his closet for the next 5 years I decided to bake him a cake. Not just any old cake, a polka-dot layer cake.
It was quite the adventure, with a huge reward. This was my first layer cake, and it turned out excellent.
The recipe is simple, the extra steps are a little time consuming, but you can do it.
Basic White Cake
All the recipes I found called for boxed cake, but I'm not a boxed cake kind of girl. You can substitute box white cakes if you are in a hurry, but this recipe is just as simple, with no added preservatives.
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 package dry vanilla pudding mix (jello brand)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C)
Grease and flour a 6x5 inch pan
In a medium bowl, cream together sugar and butter
Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in vanilla
Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well
Stir in the milk until batter is smooth
Pour or spoon batter into prepared pans
Bake for 30-40 minutes in preheated oven, for cake pops bake for 20-25 minutes
Cake is done when its springs back to the touch
Since this is a polka-dot cake we have to make our polka-dots first. I purchased a cake pop pan from target for $20, I wanted to keep searching for cheaper pans, but I didn't have the time.
Spoon a few tablespoons of batter into 4 separate bowls. Add food coloring to each bowl creating different colored batter. I used red, blue, green, and orange.
Place batter in cake pop pans and bake for 15-20 minutes. You don't want the cake pops to be fully done, they will re-cook in the layer cake
Once colorful cake pops are done, trim off any excess cake, making sure each cake pop is a perfect circle
Add a few tablespoons of batter to the greased layer cake pans.
(I searched high and low for 6x5 inch pans, I finally found them at Sur la table for $12.99. They were difficulty to find, but worth the trouble)
Place the colorful cake pop balls on top of the the batter in the layer cake pans, then cover them with the rest of the batter
Cook cakes for 30-40 minutes until toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean
Let cakes cool on wire rack while you make your frosting
Combine ingredients and beat on medium speed until smooth and fluffy
Once Frosting is done, and cakes are cool frosting your cakes
This was the first time I've ever frosted anything and I was NERVOUS. I remeber my mother making her first few layer cakes and having to hold it together with tooth picks. This was the deciding moment for me. I couldn't serve a cake held together with toothpicks. I also remembered some of my mothers cakes comming out crooked. OMG what did I just get myself into???
I started by piling on a few spoonfulls on frosting on the top of the bottom layer. I knew that some frosting would end up squriting out of the sides, and since these cakes are taller then normal, I wanted to make sure I got enough frosting in the middle.
Once I was happy with my frosting job, I place the 2nd layer cake on top. Just like I imagined, a lot of frosting started pouring out of middle of the cake, but since I piled it on pretty thick I wasn't too worried. I piled more frosting on to of the cake and used my frosting spreader to slather it on as smoothy as possible.
At some points my cake started to tilt, instead of freaking out, I just kept frosting it, and tried to correct anything I could. In the end the cake stood up perfectly straight and the frosting actually looked smooth. I placed the cake in the refrigerator over night to set.
The next day I removed the cake and was thrilled to see it actually looked like a real layer cake. No tooth pics, not sloppy sides, no drooping.
I cut out a big E out of white paper and placed it in the middle of the the cake.
Then I used my hands to press sprinkles all over the cake and all around the E.
This is the finished product.
Can you believe I made this?? I couldn't, my boyfriend was very impressed, but I was still nervous about the taste and the frosting the cake ratio.
We spent the entire day with our friend celebrating his birthday with an all-you-can-drink brunch, some bowling, and a good old fashion house party.
We all ended up at a bar by the end of the night, that's where I presented the cake.
Once I pulled it out of my cake holder everyone ohh ahhhhhhed
Did you really make that cake???
OMG look at all the sprinkles.
The birthday boy jumped up and down with excitment.
We lit candles, sung happy birthday, and then came the most exciting part, I got the honor of cutting the cake.
It took me a while to actually cut a piece. When I finally did everyone went crazy. Are those poka dots in the cake? How did you get the circles so perfect???
I passed it out and got nothing but great feed back. The frosting to cake ratio was perfect. The cake was moist and fluffy, not too sweet. Everyone was impressed, I spent the next 20 minutes explaining how I got the color balls into the cake. Everyone loved it. The cake was gone within 20 minutes. I couldn't believe it guys! I pulled off my first layer cake.
Tips
Next time I'm going to search for 6x3 pans so my polka-dots are more pronounced.
Thats all today folks.
Have a wonder-filled Tuesday
Blessings
Mary
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