In a Busy World

My husband and I love pizza and we have been playing around all winter with different recipes trying to get the "perfect pizza". Yesterday, before I went into the office, I made the dough. I use a Martha Stewart recipe from her Favorite Comfort Foods cookbook, if you've never seen the book you should check it out the recipes are great. She has a recipe in there for the best chocolate chip cookies that I have ever had! Perfectly crunchy on the outside and warm and gooey on the inside, yum!! I'm giving myself a craving for cookies now, great just what I need. But as always I am getting off track...

Back to the pizza. I decided to try roasting some tomatoes with garlic and olive oil to add to the basic pizza sauce. It worked out great, the roasted tomatoes gave it that hint of sweetness that we were missing. I like to use the Campari tomatoes, or something of similar size, they roast up quickly and are not as juicy and watery as the big vine ripe tomatoes, you don't want the dough getting soggy on you. What I ended up doing was using a very very thin layer of pizza sauce and adding the roasted tomatoes and garlic on top of that. Then I sprinkled some Italian seasoning, added the cheese, and topped it sparingly with some sliced mushrooms and red pepper. I served it with a small mixed green salad and voila, an easy weeknight meal! And the dough recipe makes enough for 2 thin crust pizzas so you can freeze the second one if you choose to.

Roasted Tomatoes:

10 tomatoes - leave them whole

3 cloves of garlic sliced very thin

olive oil

salt

Place tomatoes and garlic in a stainless steel pan (i use my stainless steel french skillet) drizzle with olive oil and toss to coat. Sprinkle with kosher salt. Put pan into a 400 degree oven and cook for about 10-15 minutes, checking to make sure garlic doesn't burn. When the skin on the tomatoes bursts and they feel soft they are done. Take them out and once they are cooled enough to touch remove the skin, it should come right off, if it doesn't they are not done. I strained most of the oil out b/f adding the garlic and tomatoes to the pizza (I just did this with my hands, why dirty the strainer?). Crush the tomatoes a bit as you're putting them on the dough.

I just want to add that I know a lot of people will probably not want to make their own dough since its so readily available in stores, but I would definitely recommend at least trying it out. The recipe is so fast it really only takes about 5 minutes and its all in the food processor. It's just one more step that will allow you to control what you and your family are putting into your bodies, plus I think it usually tastes better.

The closer to scratch you can make each meal the better off you will be in the long run. I don't believe in excessive calorie cutting and crazy fad diets, I don't believe that is the answer to staying healthy, and God knows it wouldn't make me happy. But if you can keep on a "wholefoods diet" and control your portions I think that is the key to a healthy diet. Eating as close to the earth as you can, meaning starting with fresh veggies, and unprocessed foods is really the best thing you can do for your body.

I understand that today is a world in which everyone works, whether you're single, married, parents, single parents, whatever, everyone is busy. I get this, my husband and I both work and on really busy days sometimes the last thing I want to do is come home and cook. But I do find if you can even learn just a few basic quick meals you can come up with a fast healthy meal in about half an hour. And of course if you can plan ahead that makes all the difference in the world, although planning is not always my strong suit.

You are way better off grabbing something like chicken breasts or pork loin on your way home from work than stopping off for take out or even cutting corners and buying the pre-roasted chickens from the market. It's really as easy, from that point, as throwing the meat in a roasting pan, sprinklig it with salt and pepper, drizzling with olive oil and putting it in the oven. Then throw a sweet potato, carrots, or any root vegetable in there while you're at it and put together a quick salad. I find if you buy the baby mixed greens from the market, often organic varieties are available, it makes the salad that much easier to make. That whole thing couldn't take more than ten minutes of hands on work.

I have two really basic marinades that you can use on chicken pork or steak that I use when I'm in a rush.

Garlic & Herb Marinade:

Olive Oil

1 tablesppon Chopped parsley (if you don't have this in the house just leave it out, you can add any dried herb in it's place)

2-3 cloves minced garlic

salt and pepper

Asian Marinade:

3 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce

1/4 cup olive oil

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

a few drops of sesame oil

1 teaspoon grated ginger (if you don't have this on hand you can leave it out)

2-3 garlice cloves minced

These marinades are super easy and really versatile. You can make them in bigger batches and keep them in the fridge so you can have them on hand when you need them. I also think the more you cook the easier it gets. I always find the first time I try a recipe it takes me much longer b/c I am spending time reading and measuring. After that initial trial run it usually goes much more smoothly and much faster.

Happy Eating!!!