Monthly Archives: March 2015

Comfort food, Healthy, Informative, Main Dishes

How to health-ify pizza

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Who doesn’t love pizza? Chewy dough, crispy crust, tangy sauce, myriad toppings. I adore pizza in all its many forms. Deep dish, thin crust, stuffed crust, veggie, pockets, rolls.

The problem is that chain pizza is really not healthy. We all know this. Mountains of cheese, grease that literally drips from each slice, fatty processed meats as the most popular toppings, and dough made with bleached white flour.

However, most people do not want to make a cauliflower crust, with ground flax and chia seed, all-veggie pizza with no sauce and kale.

There must be some middle ground.

Turns out there is! Good news, you can have you pie and eat it too. (Pizza pie that is) If you really have a craving, go ahead and order that $5 hot and ready. But every little step you take to healthify it will contribute to your long-term overall health.

Simply start with the addition of 1 cup of vegetables to your meal every day, and your body will thank you. It’s easier than you think!

Besides adding good stuff, you can also cut down on the not-so-good stuff. Try one step each time, and see which suit your tastes. Over time, your taste buds will become used to less and less fat and salt, and will come to appreciate new flavors.

Here are some tips:

  • Ask for half the amount of cheese, or no cheese at all
  • Opt for vegetable toppings like mushroom, onion, and spinach rather than bacon, sausage, or pepperoni
  • Make pizza at home with store-bought or preferably from scratch dough and fresh vegetables (a great way to clean the fridge!)
  • Just have one slice, and add a bowl of soup or salad to the meal
  • Buy a plain pizza (which will save you money too) and top with your own grilled vegetables at home
    • Topping ideas: wilted spinach, steamed kale, red bell peppers, sliced onions, banana peppers, microwaved sweet potato slices, cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini, squash, tomatoes

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Do you have any ideas of your own on how to health-ify pizza?

Healthy, Main Dishes, Vegan, Vegetarian

Broccoli Slaw Veggie Burgers

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This is yet another creative way I have come up with to use up some extra broccoli slaw. Tuesday I shared a recipe for vegetable fried rice using broccoli slaw, today I’m sharing my tweaks on my famous veggie burger recipe.

As I shared with my quinoa and kidney bean recipe, all you really need is some grains, some veggies, and a binding agent. This is another fantastic way to use up odds and ends. Any type of bean, grain, lentils, barley, greens, etc can be incorporated into patties. Then just fry them up, and you can enjoy them alone, on sandwiches, in lettuce wraps, or freeze for later.

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This recipe makes about 4 cups, and about 6-8 patties, depending on how large you make them.

Ingredients:

  •  2 cups cooked couscous
  • 1/3 can vegetarian beans
  • 1/4 c chopped mushrooms
  • 1/2 c broccoli slaw
  • 1/4 c spinach
  • 1/4 c chopped cabbage
  • Squirt of lemon juice
  • 3 tbsp. oil of choice, such as coconut

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Step 1: In a bowl, mash up your beans. You can use any kind, I had an open can of these vegetarian baked beans so that is what I used. They gave a nice tomato-ey taste to the finished product.

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Step 2: Mix in your couscous or other grain. Meanwhile, stir fry all your vegetables in a covered pan until soft.

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Step 3: Mix in your veggies. Add the lemon juice to taste, along with any herbs or seasonings you want to use. If the mix is too wet, add a tbsp. or two of flour. If it is not at all moist, add lemon or warm water. The mix should be like soft cookie dough.

Step 4: Form patties with about 1/2 cup mixture, and place in a heated frying pan with 1 tbsp. oil. Fry 4-5 minutes, until browned. Flip, and cook another 4-5 minutes. Remove to a plate and keep warm. Continue cooking 2 at a time until all are cooked.

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Now you can enjoy your healthy, easy, vegetarian creation!

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I covered mine with some homemade sauerkraut and sriracha.

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Healthy, Main Dishes, Side dishes, Sneaky Healthy, Vegan, Vegetarian

Easy Veggie Steamed Rice

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On its own or as a side dish, vegetable steamed rice is one of my new absolute favorite go-to dishes. It is fabulous for using up leftovers in the crisper drawer before they are unusable. It is a good way to hide extra veggies for people who don’t love their taste. You can try new vegetables without having to fully commit. And it is endlessly variable.

The basis of this particular recipe was a bag of broccoli slaw that was on super sale, I had to have it. But you can only eat so much slaw at a time, so I had to find some creative ways to use it up. I’ve also been eating a more vegan diet, so I bulked it up a bit to make it a full meal. Feel free to add in a meat of your choice like chicken or shrimp, sauces you like such as terikayi or soy, and switch up the veggies.

Ingredients:

  • 1 c uncooked rice
  • 2 cups water or broth
  • 1-2 cups veggies
    • I used: 1/3 cup broccoli slaw, 1/3 cup diced bell pepper and onion, and about 1/2 cup raw spinach
  • Handful smashed almonds or peanuts
  • Soy sauce to taste

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If you have a rice cooker, this entire thing can be cooked together. Same goes for a crock pot. If you don’t have one of those option, you can boil the rice and fry the veggies separately and then mix together.

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Step 1: Put the rice, water, and veggies into the rice cooker, and turn on. Alterntively, place in a small slow cooker and cook on low 1-2 hours. Or, boil the rice according to package, and stir fry the veggies in 1 tbsp. oil until soft, then mix.

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Step 2: This is not required. If you want, heat 2-4 tbsp. oil in a pan, and add the cooked rice and veg. Cook for 5-7 minutes, until rice begins to brown and crisp, and flip with a spatula. Cook the other side until brown, then serve hot.