Caramelized Onion and Sweet Potato "Pizzas"

And now back to our regularly scheduled food programming :)

I've had my eye on Erin's Caramelized Onion & Sweet Potato Tart for a few weeks now, but when I got out all my ingredients to make it tonight, I realized that I had accidentally purchased puff pastry shells and not puff pastry sheets. Not wanting to make another trip to the store, I decided to make a batch of my whole wheat thin crust pizza dough and see what happened.

In short, MAGIC.

 I rolled out the dough super thin, so when it cooked up it was crunchy and almost cracker-like.

I then followed Erin's recipe exactly and cooked my "pizzas" for about 8 minutes each (I use a pizza stone to get nice, crisp crust).

The flavors were so rich and warm and perfect for this cold evening. I was running low on Parmesan, but next time I'll be sure to use a heavier hand.

I had some beets from our CSA last week that were begging to be used, so I scrubbed them and tossed them in a pot of boiling water for about 30 minutes and then just served them with salt and pepper.

Brian loves beets. The bowl was half empty by the time I cut the pizzas and sat down to eat!

If you are here for the first time from FitBlogger, WELCOME! How are you cooking differently now that the seasons are changing?

Unwind

As soon as I typed that title, I was reminded of a super-creepy young adult novel I read last year by Neal Shusterman by the same name and now I am totally creeped out remembering how weird it was! I might have nightmares...
 
B and I went running this afternoon. I planned to do 4 miles, but around 2.5 my knee started hurting (I forgot my brace again, I am a dummy). I managed to finish 3.1 miles (5K) in about 27 minutes, then power-walked the rest of the way in.

I was a little disappointed that like two weeks ago I ran a flipping half marathon and today I couldn't even complete 4 miles, so I decided to unwind with a little yoga.

....Unwind was the wrong word to use there. Jillian's Yoga Meltdown is a WORK. OUT. I was shaky and dripping with sweat when I finished. I find Jillian herself pretty obnoxious, but I have to admit, she knows her stuff. The workout combines power yoga poses with repetitions and intervals. My heart rate was up - it is definitely aerobic. I also didn't get bored or distracted, which tends to happen when I practice traditional yoga. However, it did not help me unwind! I took a long, hot shower afterward and felt a little better.

For dinner we just scrambled eggs and ate them in a tortilla with prosciutto, cherry tomatoes, and goat cheese. Sometimes, you just want eggs for dinner!

Last night, though, I made a pretty awesome soup. I recommend you make this soup immediately and then eat it for every subsequent meal for the next week, since that's about how much soup this makes.

[Source]

Mexican Inspired Vegetable Soup
from Shutterbean

Ingredients

• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 3 carrots, chopped
• 1 32 oz. container vegetable stock
• 1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin (a heaping one is just fine)
• 1 bunch kale, chopped
• 1 red pepper, chopped
• 2 medium zucchini, chopped
• 1 medium sweet potato, peeled & chopped
• 2 12 oz. cans black beans, rinsed & drained
• 3 corn tortillas, diced
• 1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
• hot sauce
• salt & pepper

Method
In a large pot, heat olive oil with onions on medium heat and cook until onions are transparent. Add the carrots, garlic and cumin to the pot and cook for about 3 minutes. Add the vegetable stock and canned tomatoes to the pot, raise the heat to medium high. Add the kale, zucchini, red pepper, sweet potatoes and black beans to the pot and bring to a boil.  Add in your tortillas, half of your chopped cilantro and a few splashes of hot sauce and stir.  Reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes.  In that 15 minutes, add the rest of your cilantro and taste the soup every now and then to see if it needs more salt, pepper or hot sauce.


I actually took pictures of this myself, but these are pictures that Tracy took because I'm too lazy to get my butt off the couch and get my camera. Doesn't it look yummy?

[Source]

Do you practice yoga?

Kitchen Explosion!

What a day!

We started this morning with an oatmeal pancake for Brian (he cannot stop raving about these) and some yogurt and fruit salad for me. It was a rest day for me, so I rested and read lots of your blogs! So many exciting things going on in the food and fitness world - you all inspire me! The morning went by quickly though, and we raced out of the house to pick up my father-in-law at the airport and headed to Mountain View to watch the Holland/Uruguay match.

I have to say, I didn't really want either team to win. Pair that with a totally packed Irish pub and mediocre food, and I was just feeling kind of meh when I finally made it back home (Don't get me wrong, watching a soccer match in a pub full of cheering, crying, table-banging fans is serious entertainment, I am just more excited about the Spain/Germany match tomorrow).

�Viva Espa�a!
[image source]
 

So, as I usually do when feeling a bit meh, I headed into the kitchen to see what kind of trouble I could get into. Have you ever had one of those days when you are in the kitchen making one thing and then you think, Oh! I can make that other thing! and then that reminds you of another thing and before you know it you have like 15 different recipes going at once? Yeah, that was me this afternoon.

It started innocently enough, with Hawaiian popsicles. Once my molds were full though, I had a little bit of the puree leftover and thought, This would go really well with that mango sorbet recipe, so I started peeling and pureeing mangos. Once the ice cream maker was whirring away, I thought, I guess I should start making dinner!

Whew! Here's a more organized approach to my kitchen madness, with some pictures and recipes thrown in for good measure!

Hawaiian Popscicles
adapted from Catherine McCord

Ingredients
1 can (13.5oz) lite Coconut Milk
2 cups fresh pineapple (or 1 14oz can drained)
1 banana
Shredded coconut
Agave nectar, to taste

Method
1. Pour ingredients into a blender/food processor and puree.
2. Pour into popsicle molds and freeze for at least 4 hours.
3. Imagine you are on a tropical island.

You can get super cute silicone popsicle molds all over the place (like these or these or these or these) but I got my popsicle molds in the $1 bin at Michael's last summer and they work just fine for me.

Run them under warm water for about 30 seconds before you try to extract them. Yum!

Like I said, I had about 3/4 cup of coconut milk/pineapple puree left and I thought, Mango sorbet! So, here ya go:

Mango Sorbet
adapted from Our Best Bites

Ingredients
3-4 mangoes
2T lime juice
1/3 cup agave nectar
More shredded cocount (maybe 1/3 cup? I didn't measure)
leftover Hawaiian Popsicle puree (or not! This is totally delicious with just mango and lime juice or with pineapple chunks)

Method
1. Pour ingredients into a blender/food processor and puree.
2. Pour into ice cream maker and freeze per manufacturer's instructions.
3. Imagine you are still on that tropical island. Can't you feel the warm breeze?

This is seriously my absolute favorite thing to make with my ice cream maker. I have to hide it from my husband. Then, when he finds it, he hides it from me. Keeps the marriage fresh, folks.

As I was concocting these frozen delicacies, it occurred to me that maybe I should get some actual dinner going. When I made Emily's vegan black bean burgers last week, I froze half of the recipe. The patties had been defrosting all day, so I popped them in the oven for about 30 minutes to heat through while I chopped up some sweet potatoes.

Baked Sweet Potato Fries
adapted from Our Best Bites

Ingredients
1lb sweet potatoes, cut into 1/4" matchsticks
2T extra virgin olive oil
1/2t cumin
1/2t oregano
1t salt
1t parsley
1/8t black pepper

Method
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Toss potatoes, olive oil, and seasoning in a small bowl until potatoes are completely coated.
3. Arrange sweet potatoes in a single layer so that pieces are not touching each other. Place pan in oven and cook for 10 minutes. Use a spatula to gently flip fries and return to oven. Cook for an additional 10-15 minutes or until fries are starting to lightly brown and crisp.
4. Remove pan from oven and cool 5 minutes. Serve immediately.

 

I thought these were just OK, but Brian thought they were great. Our oven cooks a bit hot, so I think they were a little overcooked, but the flavors were really nice so I will definitely be doing these again (that pic is from before they went in the oven).

I dirtied pretty much every dish in the kitchen, but Brian was a trooper and cleaned everything up for me! I sometimes feel bad when he does the dishes, but he always reminds me, You cook every night! I might as well help with the dishes! He is very meticulous.

Hahaha! 

Yep, he's a keeper!

Do you and your partner have a cooking/cleaning agreement?

In our house, whoever cooks get out of cleaning duty (this is me about 95% of the time). If we cook together, we both clean together. And about maybe about 50% of the time, I either do a lot of cleaning as I go, or I help clean up anyway (especially if I made a super-huge mess)!