Homemade Pizza

PIZZA, PIZZA!

Yum! We LOVE to make homemade pizza in our house and it is so much fun to put whatever YOU want on your pizza and make it personalized to you. My favorite is black olives, pineapple, Canadian bacon, and mushrooms. I also like to add green bell pepper but we didn't have any. We make our own pie crust as well. I use Bobby Flay's recipe for pizza crust. Once the dough has risen and I have split it for us, here's what I do:

First roll out pizza dough to whatever thickness you like (I like thin crust)

Top the crust with pizza sauce. I like Classico's line of pizza sauces.

Then I like to add a light layer of cheese (I add more after toppings are on)

Then comes your toppings! Here I've added Canadian bacon.

Then fresh mushrooms

Then pineapple slices and black olives and sprinkle a bit of Italian seasonings (and a bit of garlic powder if you like garlic)

Finally, top pizza with more mozzarella!

We have this AMAZING contraption that peels your pizza off of the counter and onto your pizza stone. Seriously, without this thing, we would be stuck with pizza on the counter instead of in our bellies ;) 

You can order one here.

We then cook our pizza on a pizza stone on our bbq grill. Let the stone warm up before you put your pizza on it (about 5 mins over med-high heat). Then put your pizza on the stone and let cook (oh, add corn meal to the stone just before you place your pizza on it. This will prevent it from sticking). There is no time here, just keep an eye on it and pull it off when it starts bubbling and edges get a bit brown. Take it off the stone with a large stainless steel spatula and place on a cutting board to slice. 

Enjoy your pizza!! Happy cooking!

Thank You Notes

Jen Hatmaker's book For the Love is so incredible on so many levels! I am not yet finished with it but I tell you what, my favorite chapters are her "Thank-You Notes" chapters. You know, like Jimmy Fallon's late night skits that he does where he thanks random items/things. Here's one of hers (that I have to agree with):

"Thank you, Daylight Savings Time, for making people wax on about the wonder of an extra hour of sleep, only to serve as an especially depressing reminder to parents that kids don't care about farmers and harvests and extra hours of daylight. I enjoy my kids standing at my bedside at 4:30 a.m. like creepy, wide-awake Children of the Corn. Naptimes are also jacked, so there's that. With all due respect-ish, A Tired Mom." (pg. 51 For the Love, Hatmaker)

How right-on-the-mark is that?!? I mean, really?!?! So for today's blog, let's share our funny, unusual, amusing thank you's. Here are a few of mine:

Thank you, Pee Pad Mattress Cover, for your glorious stretchy, plastic-y, saving grace. You are a little plastic wonder that saves my toddlers mattress from becoming a yellow crime-scene. Without you, I would be broke, and my child would be sleeping on a trash bag. 

Thank you, My Trusty, Daily-Wearing White Hat (if you know me, you know this hat!), for your ability to contain my crazy frizzy hot-mess of hair. You can make me look like I'm about to go workout, when really I am just going to the mailbox. You are worn everywhere...mall, grocery store, church (not on Sunday, of course!), around the house doing nothing...and everywhere in between. Thank you, trusty hat!

Thank you, UPS/FedEx/Any Package Delivery Service, for always conveniently dropping off packages and ringing the doorbell as soon as my child falls asleep for his nap. And it is not your fault. It's not because of you my child wakes up. You don't know that you have just unleashed the fury of my obnoxious barking dog (who will never, NEVER stop barking) at you for ringing the doorbell. Oh, yes, my 'Do not knock or ring the doorbell' paper note held up with Scotch tape has fallen off and blown to Timbuktu and I just keep forgetting to replace it. I'll do that now....

What are some of your thank-you notes? I would love to post them in another blog post!! Comment below and THANK YOU! :)

Penne Pasta with Portobello Mushrooms

This dish is light, flavorful, and just downright delicious! My 2.5 year old liked it and so did my hubby....so that's saying a lot! ;)
My goal the last few weeks have been to incorporate new and different foods and keep everything "clean." I have three cookbooks that I am pulling from and some of them I am adjusting and making it work for our family (and budget!). 

Here's the link for the recipe. Also listed below:

Ingredients:
4 quarts water
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup shelled frozen edamame
4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil, divided
2 cups brown rice penne or macaroni
2 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds
2 to 3 large Portobello mushrooms
4 cloves garlic, passed through a garlic press
2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 cup Roma tomatoes, chopped and drained
1/2 cup fresh chopped basil
1/2 cup fresh chopped cilantro

Directions:

1. Mushrooms are easy to clean. Simply remove the stalk and lift the outer skin from the cap using a small paring knife. It peels off readily. Slice the caps into quarter-inch pieces.
2. In a large saucepan bring about 4 cups of water to a full boil. Add a pinch of salt. Drop he frozen edamame into the boiling water and cook until the beans turn bright green. Immediately life them out of the boiling water with slotted spoon. Transfer to a small bowl and set aside.
3. In the still-boiling water add 2 Tbsp olive oil and the penne and cook al dente. Drain the penne, leaving behind about 1 cup of the cooking liquid. Put the penne back into the saucepan and cover.
4. Toast the sesame seeds by placing in a small skillet and cooking until fragrant. 
5. In a large nonstick skillet heat remaining olive oil over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms and sauté until they become soft. Add the minced garlic and rice wine vinegar. Stir. Cover and let cook over low heat for about 5 minutes. 
6. Place edamame in skillet along with tomatoes and herbs. Heat through. Pour mushroom mixture in a pot with penne. Add sea salt and black pepper. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds. Place pasted in heated serving dish.

Now I changed this up a bit. First off, I swapped the edamame for peas and steamed those in a separate small pot while the pasta was cooking (time saver!). I also used gluten-free quinoa pasta instead of brown rice pasta. I LOVE the flavor of the quinoa pasta! I also didn't have any sesame seeds, so I omitted that. I added chicken as well, marinated in Italian dressing. I topped our dishes with a bit of parmesan cheese as well. It was so delicious!!! I hope you enjoy! 

*Note...when cooking, turn on 'Italian Cooking Music' on Pandora...soooo much more fun!! ;) 

Source:The Eat-Clean Diet Cookbook

All Things Halloween

Now that I am a week late on posting this, here are some fun things we did for Halloween:

First of all, Troy was a dinosaur for Halloween and he had soooo much fun "rawring" (is that how you would spell that?!?!) like a dinosaur. His grandparents came to town for the weekend and we loved having them here for trick-or-treating. Troy was a champ! He tried stopping a few times to eat the candy that he got, but we were able to rally and finish our route! He was scared of a few costumes and would cry out and hid, but otherwise he had a lot of fun!

Here Troy is with his Grandpa! <3

Our first-ever carved pumpkin! I traced out the face and my hubby (being who my hubby is) carved it with an air saw!

Turned out pretty cute!

Here we are, just starting the fun!

And after!

Earlier in the week, during our homeschool preschool lessons, we created ghost footprints. Thanks to Pintrest for the idea! I wish I had done this on a canvas! Maybe next year Ill pull this out and just frame it and make a different one on canvas next year.

Troy is also very into Daniel Tiger, so when I was at Target, I bought this cute Halloween Daniel Tiger book. I also incorporated this book into our lessons for the week. You can also get this book on Amazon. 

Troy and his friend helped me to make my favorite Pumpkin Bread as well! They loved helping to mix the ingredients, crack the eggs, and of course, EAT IT! I will post that recipe soon and link it up here. 

While Troy's grandparents were here, I also made pumpkin cinnamon rolls, recipe courtesy of Mix and Match Mama. It was delicious!!! I didn't use nearly as much of the sugar mixture and will cut back on the amount of the pumpkin puree next time, but oh my goodness...it was delicious!! Thanks Shay for the recipe! Go follow her if you haven't! She recently spoke at my MOPS meeting and was fabulous! She has all sorts of great recipe ideas and super cute outfit posts! 

What did you do for Halloween? Post pics and comments! I love reading them!!

Boots!!!

I have a new favorite thing...my boots!! I have NEVER owned a pair of authentic cowboy boots and finally splurged and got my first pair a couple of weeks ago (born and raised in Texas...so let's take a  moment and raise your cowboy hats to the fact that I now own my own pair after 32 years!)! Y'all, I am ob-sessed with these adorable boots!! I got them from The Boot Barn (to which my 2.5 year old laughed at..."Me: I'm going to pick up my new boots from The Boot Barn!" Son: "A barn?" Me: "No, a Boot Barn." Troy: "Hehe, that's silly!") Anyway, they are Ariat brand, and I think it's the Alabama Western Boots.

I LOVE them! When I bought them they were on sale for $99! You can get them online here. 

My outfit:

Top: Target

Purse: Target, not available online that I can find

Scarf: Gift, not sure where

Boots: Ariat

Jeans: Forever 21

Do you own a pair of boots? I'd love to see them below in the comments!!

Have a blessed Sunday Y'ALL! :)