Meatless Monday - White Pizza

I've been thinking about starting to do recipes for Meatless Monday for a while, but am just now getting around to it. I'm actually a big fan of meatless meals, and I think eating them once a week is a good way to ease into it.

This is one of my favorite pizzas, it's so good and you don't miss the meat at all! Because it's a pizza it was difficult to measure out the ingredients that I included and list exact quantities.

So, I'm just going to list out the ingredients and you can use your discretion and personal taste as to how much of each to include.

White Pizza Ingredients



1 pizza crust
1/2 cup or so of Alfredo sauce
1 tsp chopped garlic
fresh spinach
very thinly sliced red onion
sliced mushrooms
fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced
grated mozzarella cheese

On your pizza crust pour Alfredo sauce, and chopped garlic. Stir to combine, and spread evenly over pizza crust.



On Alfredo topped pizza crust layer the thin slices of fresh mozzarella,



a few handfuls of fresh spinach,



the sliced mushrooms,



and the thinly sliced red onion.




Sprinkle about a cup of shredded mozzarella cheese on top.



and bake according to your crust's directions.



Sometimes I toss a little fresh basil, fresh ground black pepper, or parmesan cheese on top once the white pizza comes out of the oven.

I hope you enjoy! Let me know if you try this out!

Jennifer

P.S. Today's pictures were all taken by my wonderful husband. Despite my requests to not include me in the pictures, several similar to this one:



appeared on the camera. A prime example of why I requests only pictures of the food! ;)

7-Up Cake

I made this a couple of weekends ago and it was so good! Definitely not part of a low-calorie, low-fat diet plan, but it sure is tasty!!



7-Up Cake Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups butter
• 3 cups white sugar (I used 2 1/2 c. and it was fine, but I think the 3 c. would have been better. ;) )
  
• 5 eggs
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons lemon extract
• 3/4 cup lemon-lime flavored carbonated beverage

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

2. Cream the butter and sugar together in a stand mixer for 20 minutes.

**Now, I know this sounds like a crazy long time that's completely unnecessary. BUT, I decided to play by the rules and actually cream the butter and sugar for the full 20 minutes and it makes so much of a difference! You can watch the consistency of the batter change from regular cake batter to almost a frosting consistency. I firmly believe it's part of what makes this cake so good. So, just set a timer, and let the mixer do the work. If you don't have a stand mixer, it's doable with an electric hand mixer you just don't have the freedom the stand mixer provides.**

3. Add eggs to butter/sugar mixture one at a time. Add flour, lemon extract, and 7-Up.

4. Pour into a well-greased and floured bundt pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 75 minutes.

5. Invite lots of people over so you don't end up eating the whole thing by yourself. ;)

The above, (excluding step 5), were how the recipe was given to me. Top step it up a litte I made a glaze for the top with 1 cup of powdered sugar, 1 Tbsp of lemon juice and a splash of 7-Up whisked together and poured over the cake after it had cooled. Then I put green and yellow sprinkles on top because don't sprinkles just make everything better?

I'm linking this up to Kelly's Korner's dessert recipe link-up, be sure to check out all the other links. Here are links to a few more of my favorite dessert recipes I've written up: Easy Pineapple Upside-Down Cake, Fruit Pizza, Chewy Almond Fudge Brownies, and Banana Pudding.
Whew, I didn't realize there were that many! For someone who's not supposed to be eating sugar it sure seems like a lot of dessert recipes! haha

Enjoy!

Jennifer

Cobb Salad for Two

This is one of my absolute favorite, go-to, easy, weeknight dinners.

Reasons why it's my favorite include:
1. It's pretty cheap.
2. It's pretty healthy.
3. It's so easy.
4. And so incredibly fast!

Cobb Salad Ingredients

1 bag of romaine lettuce (or your favorite kind of salad mix)
1 Roma tomato, chopped
1/2 cucumber, peeled and chopped
1 avocado, peeled and chopped
gorgonzola or bleu cheese crumbles
3-4 slices of bacon cooked and crumbled
1 grilled chicken breast
Dressing of your choice

And that's it. You can take all the ingredients and throw them together like any old tossed salad. But, to make it prettier, (looking like you put a lot more effort into dinner than you actually did), put a few cups of lettuce in the bottom of a large bowl.



In rows put 1/2 of the cucumber and tomato,



1/2 of the avocado,



a few spoonfuls of crumbled gorgonzola,



and 1/2 the grilled chicken in a row up the middle.



My husband grilled this delish chicken out on the grill, but if we're in a hurry a lot of times I just use the frozen mesquite grilled chicken breasts from Sam's and they work great!

Then I just throw 1/2 of the crumbled bacon on top.



If you wanted to use more bacon and line it up in the same fashion as the veggies, chicken and cheese, that would be fine. We just don't use much bacon, so I think it looks better sprinkled on top.

Top with your fav dressing and enjoy!

A few notes...

I always try to find the natural cured bacon with no nitrates or nitrites. The Oscar Meyer natural brand is good, but this one is probably our favorite:



it has good bacon flavor and actually has fewer calories and fat per slice than turkey bacon! I usually just cook the bacon in the microwave as directed on the package, I think it turns out well and doesn't seem as greasy.

And this:


is our favorite dressing. It's in the refrigerated section by the salads instead of with the non-refrigerated dressings in the condiment aisle of the supermarket. It's almost the consistency of ranch dip, so a lot of times I thin it down with a little milk mixed in.

Lastly, a real cobb salad has boiled eggs on it too, but I'm not an eggs in salad kind of gal. Plus, with the bacon and chicken I don't think this salad needs any more protein or fat and calories. It's plenty filling as is! ;)

According to the app on my phone one bowl of this salad as written is less than 400 calories! If you use the same dressing we use it comes in right at 500. Not too bad!

Jennifer

The Little Roaming Buffalo

A couple of weeks ago while cleaning out closets I found a little buffalo plastic figurine in a box.



I thought my husband might like to see the little buffalo who'd been packed in a box for a few years.

But, husband was sleeping.

So, I just put the little buffalo on his nightstand and kind of forgot about it.

And then a week passed and I completely forgot about the little buffalo.

Until he ended up on my nightstand.

Husband was at work when I found the little buffalo on my nightstand, so I called to ask him just exactly how the little buffalo ended up on my nightstand.

His response, "your nightstand must have been on his migratory route."

Smart alec.

So, I did what any normal wife would do. I put the little buffalo in husband's soap dish beside his sink in our bathroom. ;)

The next day I opened up the armoire in our bedroom and saw this:



Apparently the little buffalo had gotten lost on his "migratory route" and had ended up locked in the armoire.

To ensure that he wouldn't get "lost" and locked in the armoire again, I moved him to the top of the dryer in the laundry room close to our backdoor, so if his migratory route needed to take him out of the house he would be close to his escape route.

But then, today the little buffalo appeared on top of my hair products back in our bathroom.




For a migrating buffalo he sure has a poor sense of direction.

And suddenly I was having flashbacks...

Oddly enough, this is not the only migrating plastic figure in my family. My family has a vintage plastic Santa Claus from the 1960's, similar to this one:

that also mysteriously moves around my parent's house.

I'm just hoping the little roaming buffalo doesn't multiply like the Santas did. I think there are three or four of them now, (they're very easy to find in junk shops and ebay). They've all been known to hide in the Christmas tree, in ac vents, in beds, in boxes mailed to college, in the bathroom, you name it. ;)

Have I mentioned before that I love my husband and family. Life is just so much more interesting when you never know if you're going to find a little buffalo or vintage Santa hiding out in your dishwasher/drawers/cabinets/nightstand.

Jennifer

P.S. Dear family, this post is not meant to imply that I would like a Santa to appear at my house. ;)

An Update

This guy and some friends arrived at our house via Fed-Ex on Saturday.

In case you're unfamiliar with what this is, it is a sharps container, aka where you throw away used needles so they don't infect the general trash population. This means that we have moved onto a different treatment for infertility: injections.

My body did not respond to my April treatment cocktail at all, so my Reproductive Endocrinologist, (RE), is hoping that maybe the addition of some injections will help things along. For now I'm only doing the injections every other day in combination with some pills. RE said that the combination of pills and shots reduces the risk of my ovaries hyper-stimulating, which we definitely want to avoid. *If you would like to be totally freaked out just google OHSS.*

I started the injections Saturday night, which means that I had my second one tonight, and will do my final one Wednesday night before I go in for tests on Thursday. Thankfully, I am married to an amazing medical professional who is used to giving people shots, (and enjoys it! What the heck?!). So he administers the shots, and I don't have to do it myself. ;)

They're really not bad at all so far, the needle is teeny tiny, (29 gauge for you medical folks), and I'm actually having a lot fewer side effects than I had the last few months on just pills, (i.e. I'm no longer ravenously hungry constantly-always a good thing!). For the record, the side effects are all worth it if everything works, it's just when they don't work that it gets frustrating.

So, that's where we are now. I thought I would be really nervous taking this step in my treatments, but I'm kind of excited about it. It's kind of nice to change things up and try something different. Now, let's all say our prayers and keep our fingers crossed that it'll work! :)

Jennifer

P.S. Having prescriptions delivered to our house totally makes me feel like a senior citizen! I mean, really, who else do you know that does mail-order prescriptions. haha ;)

MIA

Apparently I've been missing in action for the past few weeks! At first I didn't have anything say, then I felt like it had been so long that I needed to write a really good and interesting post, and then blogger was all weird and wouldn't let me log in and do anything.

So there, a thoroughly uninteresting explanation about what we've been up to for the last almost three weeks! The truth is we've been busy doing regular every day stuff. I haven't even taken many pictures lately. Here are a few though, (some of them are a little more than three weeks old):

Me and the husband before church one morning. I thought he looked extra handsome, so I made him stop and take a picture. Unfortunately this was the best we could get. The ultra-pale face is the reason I rarely wear red, it totally washes me out.
P.S. Not a clue what in the world my hair is doing!

Grilled Chicken and Cherry Tomato Pasta for dinner one night

"Bon Appetite Y'all" - on a cute tea towel I saw at a local gift shop. I loved it! ;)


Saw these at Kroger one day.
I'm sorry, but what's the point????


I know this picture is crazy blurry, but one night on my way home from a quick trip to Target I had to stop at a stop light. In front of me walked a man in a kilt, playing "Amazing Grace" on the bagpipes!!! No lie. Definitely one of the most random things ever! I really wish someone would have been in the car with me to witness this!


Saw this in a cute store in downtown McKinney with my friend Jacquelyn and her momma. We got a big kick out of it. ;)


A-MAZING sushi! Seriously, iPhone photo does not do it justice. At. All.


A rainbow after a, (much needed), day of rain. I just love rainbows.


7-up cake. I had to take some pictures of it because I've never had a bundt cake turn out more beautifully. Yes, I just described food as beautiful. I'm a weird-o.


Finally finished my quilt top!! I think this picture was taken right before I started sewing all the squares together.


A better picture of it all ironed and smoothed out. My cousin Sarah graciously came over and helped me pin all the layers together. Had she not been there to assist me I don't think I'd be done yet! It's definitely a job made easier with a second pair of hands! I started quilting it together tonight, but so far it's not looking so hot. Don't expect any zoomed in pictures of my stitching. ;)


We had dinner at Macaroni Grill and I drew a picture of Miss Kitty on the table top.


I think it was a pretty good likeness, what do you think? haha Unfortunately our table didn't have a blue crayon, so both her eyes are the same color in my drawing, but oh well. ;)

So that's pretty much it! I am aware of the fact that about half of these pictures are of food. In my defense, my most recent monthly drug cocktail made me ravenously hungry for the last two months. It's absolutely amazing that I haven't gained 10 pounds. haha Next month we're going to try a new cocktail with hopefully fewer side effects, or at least not some that don't make my eating habits on par with a teenage boy! ;)

Jennifer