Tortilla Pizza– How to make Pizza with a Tortilla crust

Posted on February 17, 2015 by lazygirldinners

Tortilla Pizza

A friend of mine has been espousing the virtues of the Baking Steel for over a year and half now. We don’t make very many pizza’s in this house, so I put it on my list of things that I want to buy in the future, but really can wait. Then I read all about the virtues of this steel plate in Modernist Cuisine, and I knew that I needed one sooner rather than later. Aside from being a great way to make brick oven style pizza’s, the baking steel works as a plancha, an anti-griddle, and a teppanyaki. A multi-purpose gadget always excites me, so I ordered one. I came across a great article on Serious eats about a reversible version of the Baking Steel, and right next to it was a recipe for Extra-Crispy Bar-Style Tortilla Pizza and I knew that I had to try it. Leave it to me to buy a gadget made for making pizza only to put it aside to make a pizza in a cast iron skillet. After making this, I don’t know why I never thought to try making pizza with a tortilla as a base before. I’ve used naan, pita, and a middle eastern bread to make pizza before, so you would think it would have occurred to me to try one with a tortilla. This pizza is super-duper easy, takes less than 10 minutes from start to finish, and it’s the best thin crust pizza that I’ve ever eaten. For my gluten free friends, this pizza is easily adapted to become gluten free by switching out the flour tortilla, with a gluten free tortilla, Whole Food’s sells a host of different varieties. You can add additional toppings to this, but I kept it simple.

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 7-10 minutes

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons of Organic Tomato sauce (I used the Trader Joe’s brand)

1/4 cup of freshly grated parmesan cheese

1/2 cup of organic mozzarella cheese (grated)

3 fresh basil leaves sliced thinly

1 large organic flour tortilla

1/2 teaspoon coconut oil or grape seed oil

Directions: Pre-heat oven to broil. Add the oil to the cast iron pan and bring to temperature over high heat.

Once the oil is hot, wipe out any excess with a paper towel–be careful not to burn yourself.

Add the tortilla to the pan, turn the heat down to medium-low.

Add the 3 tablespoons of tomato sauce,

spread the sauce out evenly over the tortilla, all the way out to the edges.

Add the mozzarella.

Then add the parmesan around the edges–you are giving your pizza a parmesean crust.

Add the basil:

Transfer the pizza to the oven,

Allow the pizza to cook for 3-4 minutes or until the cheese bubbles and browns.

Remove the pan from the oven. The pizza should be nice and crisp–if it is not, place the cast iron pan over a burner, turn on the fire and allow to cook for another 30-60 seconds until it’s nice and crisp. Remove the pizza from the pan slice, serve and enjoy! This recipe is only for one pizza, so if you need more adjust accordingly. My daughter enjoyed this so much, that she begged me to make her one for breakfast the next morning.

If you like this recipe you will probably like my recipe for Artisan Prosciutto Tomato and Basil Pizza.

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How to make Onion Powder–DIY Onion Powder

Posted on February 11, 2015 by lazygirldinners

DIY Onion Powder–How to make Onion Powder

Recently I was chatting with some professional chefs online one of them was talking about using dried powders like garlic and onion in a recipe that he was playing with. He wanted to know where he could find better quality powders. The discussion quickly went from people being helpful, to people questioning whether any chef of good standing would ever use a dried product versus a fresh product. One person in particular, said absolutely not! Others, said of course and then went on to make a case for when dried spices are needed, and in those cases how using dry spices make the dish better. The discussion got me thinking about how often I use dried spices, and what dry ingredients I use. The truth is that I am one of those cooks, who relies heavily on fresh ingredients. The produce bin in my refrigerator is always stocked with, fresh thyme, parsley, mint, cilantro, basil, and whatever other herb is in season–ALWAYS. I can’t imagine cooking without the use of fresh herbs. At the same time, my cupboards are stocked with the dried version of all the fresh herbs that I just mentioned, and many, many other dry spices, like garlic powder, cumin, tarragon, onion powder…the list could literally fill this page! If you’ve been following my blog, then you know that I make many of my own spices. When the person in that forum asked about sourcing onion powder, my immediate thought was, why not just make it? So I did. It’s a simple process, but the onion powder that you get from this process is the best that you will probably ever taste–or smell–the smell had me salivating–this is the stuff that great onion dips, and soups are built from!

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 6-8 hours–

Ingredients:

2 large onions sliced thinly

Directions: Evenly spread the sliced onions on a dehydrator sheet.

If using an oven, place the onions on a parchment lined bake sheet. Set the temperature on your dehydrator to 125F. If using an oven, set it to the lowest possible setting 150F. Let the onions dehydrate until brittle, then remove and let cool.

Once the onions have cooled, place them in a spice grinder/coffee grinder and blend into a powder. Stop here if you want onion flakes,

Transfer to an airtight container until ready to use.

Mango Ice Cream

Posted on February 10, 2015 by lazygirldinners

Mango Ice Cream

My husband loves mango’s and is especially fond of mango kulfi–an Indian ice cream. It’s a special treat that he likes to enjoy whenever we go out to eat at an Indian restaurant. Although Kulfi is delicious, most recipes call for corn flour as a thickening agent. I prefer the use of egg yolks to thicken my ice cream. This ice cream is ultra creamy, not as rich as a Kulfi, but delicious none the less.

Prep time: 30-45 minutes

Cook time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

3 cups of organic mango puree

1.5 cups of organic milk

2 cups of organic heavy cream

4 egg yolks

1 vanilla bean

1/4 cup-1/2 cup of maple syrup more if you like it ultra sweet or if your mango’s are not sweet

Directions:

In a medium bowl, beat together the yolks, and your sweetener of choice.

You can beat by hand using a whisk, or use a hand mixer. Beat until thoroughly smooth and creamy. (A couple of minutes by hand.) If you’re using maple syrup, or agave, the mixture comes together quite quickly.

Put 1 cup of the cream, and all of the milk, into a medium saucepan over medium heat.

Scrape the vanilla seeds from the bean with the tip of a small knife, and place into the pan; add the pod too. Heat the mixture until just before it starts to simmer (DO NOT LET IT SIMMER). Remove mixture from heat.Strain the hot mixture, reserving the milk and discarding thevanilla bean pod.

Add half of the hot mixture to the egg-yolk mixture, and whisk until blended. Be careful when adding the hot mixture to the egg mixture, go slowly you don’t want scrambled eggs. Stir this mixture into remaining hot mixture in the sauce pan,add the last cup of heavy cream and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, add in the mango puree,and cook until mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon.

Remove from heat. Quickly cool the mixture by pouring the hot mixture into a bowl over an ice bath, or let it cool to room temperature for at least 30 minutes. Once the cream has cooled sufficiently, freeze in an ice-cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions.

If you don’t have an ice cream maker, check out this Link to see how make ice cream without one.

You could also freeze the cream in popsicle molds, or make a instant pop in a Zoku Quick Pop Maker–like I did below!

Roasted Cabbage Wedges with Cider Herb Vinaigrette

Posted on February 4, 2015 by lazygirldinners

Roasted Cabbage Wedges with Cider Herb Vinaigrette

One of my favorite winter vegetables is cabbage. I love it in a hearty soup, braised in a crock on the stove, or roasted in the oven. Cabbage seems to be one of those vegetables for me that not matter how I cook it, it’s comforting in every way! This recipe is a favorite of mine, the roasted cabbage alone is awesome, but the vinaigrette really takes it to another level!

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1 small head of cabbage quartered with core intact, so it doesn’t fall apart

3-4 tablespoons of oil

4 cloves of garlic sliced thinly

sea salt and black pepper to taste

Vinaigrette

2 tablespoons of Apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon of mustard oil

1 tablespoon of finely chopped cilantro

sea salt to taste

Directions: Add the ingredients for the vinaigrette to a bowl, mix well and set aside.

Pre-heat the oven to 425F.

Add the cabbage to a foil lined bake sheet, then drizzle with oil and season with sea salt and black pepper on both sides. Lastly top with sliced garlic, and place in the oven.

Cook for 10-15 and cabbage takes on some color. Remove from oven, drizzle each wedge with some of the vinaigrette, serve and enjoy!

If you like this recipe check out my recipes for Indian Spiced Cabbage and Ground Chicken and Cabbage Curry!

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DIY BBQ Rub–Lazy Girl All Purpose Barbecue Seasoning

Posted on February 3, 2015 by lazygirldinners

Lazy Girl BBQ Spice Rub

By now you know that I love to make my own dry rubs and seasonings. I am a particular fan of the Trader Joe’s brand BBQ rub, but it’s not organic, and it contains sugar. So of course I had to make my own version–without the sugar. I find that most things that call for sugar, either need less than the recipe calls for, or don’t need it at all. If you want to add sugar to this, then by all means add it, 1 teaspoon of maple sugar won’t kill you, but it really isn’t necessary for this recipe, this seasoning is fantastic all own its own. Also a bit of spice is nice in the recipe but I have made it optional. My daughter isn’t a fan of spicy foods, so I often leave the spice as a later addition for the grown ups. This truly is an all purpose seasoning, it taste great on chicken, pork, tofu, or steak.

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: none

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons of smoked paprika

1 teaspoon of onion flakes (can sub onion powder)

1 teaspoon of satsuma powder (can sub 2 teaspoons of orange zest)

1 teaspoon of cumin

1 teaspoon of ground coffee

1 teaspoon of himilayan sea salt

1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes (optional)

Directions: Add all ingredients to a small bowl,

Mix well:

Transfer to an air tight container until ready to use:

This is such a great seasoning, and it’s not just something to use on grilled meats. I used it to make oven roasted barbecue chicken the other night, and it was a huge hit!

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DIY Yogurt–How to Make Yogurt

Posted on January 28, 2015 by lazygirldinners

I have been wanting to make my own yogurt for a long while now. I have put off making it because I rarely buy milk, unless I want to make ice cream. The truth is that we don’t drink milk, so there is rarely a need for it in our home. I was in Whole Food’s the other day and went to pick up a jar of my favorite Bulgarian yogurt, when I thought–now is the time to make my own. The process is super simple. I did it with my Sous-vide machine, but you could do this in your slow cooker on low, in a dehydrator set to 110F, or with just the light of your oven door.

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 5 minutes Plus 6 hours of non cook time

Ingredients:

4 cups of full fat organic milk

4 tablespoons of full fat organic yogurt–make sure the yogurt that you choose has active live cultures.

Directions: Heat the milk in a stainless steel sauce pan,

When the temperature reaches 110F turn off the fire and whisk in the yogurt.

Transfer the mixture to a glass jar,

Lightly cap it,

If you aren’t using a slow cooker or a immersion circulator, place the jar in the oven and turn on the oven light and allow to culture over night. If using a slow cooker, fill the cooker with water, place the jar inside and set the cooker to low–or 110F.

If using a circulator, fill a pan with enough water to cover the sides of the jar, set the circulator to 110F and add the jar–let sit for 4-6 hour’s or until the yogurt thickens to the consistency of store bought yogurt–the longer you let the yogurt sit the more tart and thick it becomes–so if you find that you like the consistency and taste at 4 hours then remove it from the heat then–if you like it more tart then let it go for longer–even over night–it’s really up to you, and your preference.

Remove from circulator and refrigerate. Once refrigerated, the yogurt will thicken a bit more, and the whey will separate from the yogurt, you can pour it off or mix it back into the yogurt.

The yogurt will keep for up to 2 weeks. If you plan on making another batch you can use this yogurt as a starter.

How easy was that?! I can’t believe I didn’t try this sooner! The yogurt is delicious!

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Oven-Roasted Broccolini with Lemon-Garlic Parmesan

Posted on January 27, 2015 by lazygirldinners

Oven Roasted Broccolini with Lemon-garlic Parmesan

Going to the Farmer’s market on Sunday has become routine for my family. My daughter gets excited about going and so do I. I never know what my weekly meal plan will include until after I’ve forged my way through the market. This week the pickings were slim. I don’t know if was just extremely busy before we got to the farmer’s market, or if the farmer’s just didn’t have much to share. Either way, I left with only two produce items–broccolini and strawberries. Not my usual bountiful assortment. I had no idea how I was going to prepare the broccolini, and decided just before cooking it, to roast it and top it with the lemon-garlic parmesan mixture. The flavors sounded like they would pair well to me, so I took an chance, and I’m so glad I did. Beside’s my Roasted Broccoli with Garlic–this is new favorite way to prepare broccoli. For my Paleo, Vegan, and Whole 30 friends leave out the cheese, this is still great without it–the lemon really makes this broccolini sing!

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 10-15 minutes

Ingredients:

1lb of organic broccolini (can sub broccoli)

1/2 cup of freshly grated parmesan cheese

1/2 teaspoon of lemon powder (can sub 1 teaspoon of lemon zest)

3 cloves of garlic, minced

2 Tablespoons of oil plus an additional 2 teaspoons

sea salt to taste

Directions: Pre-heat the oven to 450F. To a small bowl add parmesan, garlic, and 2 teaspoons of oil,

mix well and set aside.

Line a bake sheet with foil, add the broccolini, 2 tablespoons of oil, and sea salt and toss well.

Place in the oven for 10 minutes. At the 10 minute mark, remove the sheet pan from the oven, and top with the lemon-garlic parmesan mixture.

Return the pan to the oven and cook for an additional 3-5 minutes or until the parmesan browns, remove from oven, serve and enjoy!

If you like this recipe you might like my recipe for Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Parmesan, Lemon and red pepper flakes, or my recipe Parmesan Chicken with Roasted Romaine.

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Curry Spiced Crab Cakes with Raita

Posted on January 20, 2015 by lazygirldinners

Curry Crab Cakes

We have been chugging along here, still trying to help Page adjust to being in school and away from me. Friday was hard, as soon as we pulled up to her school she began to cry. It was so hard to leave her, she was crying and begging me not to–this parenting gig is hard! Despite the hard drop off, she did much better through out the day, than she had the day before…baby steps. In other more happy news, we got a new refrigerator! We settled on a Kenmore Elite LG Grab-N-Go and we could not be more happy. Our old refrigerator was 20 years old, so we could have gotten away with getting something much less expensive and it still would have been an upgrade for us. The Grab-n-go feature is great, but what really sold me on this refrigerator was the airtight compartment it has. I’ve had a bundle of kale in the airtight compartment for 2 weeks, it is still as fresh, and crisp as the day I bought it. It would have been trashed in my old refrigerator. Now on to the crab cakes. I love crab cakes, and I love crab curry. so why not combine the two? I topped these with raita, but these are equally as delicious all on their own alone.

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

8 ounces lump crab meat

1 egg

2-3 tablespoons coconut flour

1/4 teaspoon lime powder (or zest)

3 tablespoons of finely chopped cilantro

2 teaspoons of curry powder

1/4 cup of onion, finely chopped

1 large garlic clove minced

1 tablespoon of lime juice

2 tablespoons of oil, I used olive

2-3 Tablespoons of butter or ghee for frying crab cakes

Sea salt to taste

Recipe for Raita

1/2 cup of full fat organic yogurt

1/4 cup of chopped tomatoes

1/4 cup of chopped cucumber

3 tablespoons of finely chopped red onion

3 tablespoons of cilantro, finely chopped

sea salt to taste

Directions for raita : Combine all ingredients in a bowl and refrigerate until ready to use.

Directions for crab cakes: Heat oil in a saute pan, add in onion garlic and curry seasoning, cook for 2-5 minutes or onions turn translucent.

Transfer onion curry mixture to a bowl to cool ( 5 minutes).

Add in crab meat, cilantro, egg, lime zest and coconut flour and combine well.

Once crab mixture has come together form patties for frying. Heat the butter or ghee in a skillet, add crab patties and fry until golden brown on both sides, about 4 minutes on each side.

Remove from heat and enjoy!

If you like this recipe you may like my other crab recipes: crab cakes, crab fried rice, steamed crab recipe or crab taco’s.

Green Bean Chicken

Posted on January 14, 2015 by lazygirldinners

Green beans with Chicken

We are having a rough week here. Page is finding adjusting to school harder than any of us had hoped. She was fine initially, but has had a delayed reaction to being separated from me. Yesterday was an especially hard day for us all. She cried all day at school, and when I picked her up from school my heart just broke. She looked like she had been crying all day, and the way she fell into my arms…let’s just say that I was reduced to one giant puddle! Needless to say, I never got around to posting my blog yesterday.

A few weeks ago we were out running the last of our Christmas errands, and stopped to eat a Chinese restaurant. As we browsed the menu, I asked Page what she wanted to eat. She quickly removed the menu from my hands, took a few seconds and said “I want the green beans mom!” With her tiny finger she pointed to a picture of a plate of glimmering green beans and said ” I want this one!” Under normal circumstances I would ignore her, and get her what I think she might eat, but she was so confident in her choice that I ordered the green bean chicken for us to share. I’m so glad I did! I don’t know who enjoyed the dish more, me or Page. The beans were crisp and fresh, and Page devoured almost all of them! The moment I tasted this dish, I knew that I had to try to recreate it at home.

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound of fresh organic green beans, ends trimmed

1 tablespoon of garlic paste

1 teaspoon of ginger paste

2 tablespoons of soy sauce

3 tablespoons of rice vinegar

1 chicken breast. cubed

sea salt to taste

Directions: Heat the oil, garlic and ginger paste in a saute pan just until the garlic and ginger become fragrant (about 30 seconds).

Season the chicken with sea salt and add it to the hot pan. Toss well, and allow the chicken to cook through about (5-7 minutes).

Once chicken has cooked through, add in the soy sauce, rice vinegar and green beans.

Cook for an additional 5-7 minutes–the green beans should still be crisp, remove from heat, serve and enjoy!

Oven Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Rosemary

Posted on January 7, 2015 by lazygirldinners

Oven Roasted Sweet Potatoes With Rosemary

Do you like sweet potatoes? I love them! My husband–not so much! Enter this recipe and he is a convert! I just love a recipe that can convert someone, don’t you? The best part of this recipe? Three ingredients AND it’s super easy!

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

3 cups of cubed organic sweet potato

1 tablespoon of fresh or dried rosemary

2 tablespoons of coconut or olive oil

sea salt to taste

Directions: Pre-heat your oven to 425F. In a large bowl toss together the sweet potato cubes, rosemary, sea salt, and oil–making sure that all of the potatoes get coated in oil.

Add the potatoes to a foil lined bake sheet and cook in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until potatoes take on some color. Remove from the oven, serve and enjoy!

Lazy Girl Dinners

A Lazy Girls guide to quick, healthy, and easy recipes!

Category Archives: dinner

Tortilla Pizza– How to make Pizza with a Tortilla crust

How to make Onion Powder–DIY Onion Powder

Mango Ice Cream

Roasted Cabbage Wedges with Cider Herb Vinaigrette

DIY BBQ Rub–Lazy Girl All Purpose Barbecue Seasoning

DIY Yogurt–How to Make Yogurt

Oven-Roasted Broccolini with Lemon-Garlic Parmesan

Curry Spiced Crab Cakes with Raita

Green Bean Chicken

Oven Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Rosemary