Naan Pizza with Asparagus

Our time is extra valuable to us lately, between working all day, marathon training, giving two dogs some quality time, and other personal commitments, we have very little time to squeeze in a healthy dinner once our day finally ends around 8-8:30pm (and that's if we're lucky)! When I found this recipe on runnersworld.com I knew it was going to be a hit! Not only did it sound delicious, it looked quick and easy, which it turned out to be both of those...bonus! With one taste of this yummy pizza, I guarantee it will become a favorite of yours as well.

Naan Pizza with Asparagus
adapted from Runners World
Calories per serving: 360
Carbs: 32g
Protein: 18g

Ingredients:
2- 9inch store bought naan (normally found in the bakery department at most grocery stores)
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup part skim ricotta cheese
salt and ground black pepper to taste
1/4 cup prepared pesto
3 slices Canadian bacon, cut into thin strips
8 asparagus spears, cut into 1 inch pieces
1/2 cup (about 2 oz) grated fontina cheese

Adjust oven rack to lower middle position and heat over to 425 degrees F. Place naan on a baking sheet. Mix ricotta and pesto in a small bowl and dollop onto breads. (Couple of notes: I only make 1 pizza at a time since there is just 2 of us and one naan is 2 servings. Also I like to spread the ricotta pesto mixture instead of just dolloping.)

Toss the asparagus with oil and a light sprinkling of salt and pepper. Evenly distribute spears along with Canadian bacon, over naan.

Bake until the bread is warm throughout and asparagus are bright green, about 10 min.

Remove from oven; divide the fontina equally and top each naan with a portion of the cheese. Return them to the oven and continue to bake until breads are crisp and cheese has melted, about 5 minutes longer. (Note: I did not have fontina on hand last time, so I used reduced fat feta crumbles instead and it was excellent!)

Cut each pizza into quarters, serving each person two slices. Serves 4.

Don't forget a good glass of wine and you'll have a perfect meal! I hope you enjoy this healthy and delicious dish as much as we do!

~Erica

Red Velvet Gooey Butter Cookies

As promised, here is the recipe for these delicious, red velvet gooey butter cookies!

Red Velvet Gooey Butter Cookies

Adapted from: Paula Deen

Ingredients:

8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 box red velvet cake mix

confectioners sugar, for dusting

Directions:

1. In the bowl of a mixer, cream together the cream cheese and the butter. Beat in the egg, then the vanilla. Beat in the cake mix until completely combined. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

3. Roll the chilled dough into tablespoon sized balls. Roll in confectioners' sugar and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in the preheated oven for 12 minutes. Remove to wire rack to cool.

These turned out great! Adam loves red velvet and was so excited about these...they were a hit! :) Hope everyone has a wonderful Valentines Day with all the loves of your life! I will be spending my evening with chinese take-out and a movie night on the couch with Adam (and prob our snuggly dogs too)...a tradition we started our first valentines together! 

~Erica

Valentine's Treats

Over the weekend, I was finally able to get back in the kitchen and do some fun baking! Being that Valentine's Day is this week I wanted to make a couple treats for the one's I love most...Adam and our 2 dogs! :) I made the dogs' some yummy Cherry Crunchies, which they seemed to love! For Adam (and me too <3) I made a couple; Chocolate Heart Peanut Butter Cookies and Red Velvet Gooey Butter Cookies! Yummy! Now, I know neither of these should be on our diet plan while training for a marathon, but I couldn't resist! Besides, I ran 45 miles last week and will run even more this week...I can eat a few extra calories, right?! :)

The recipe for the dogs treats' is so easy and doesn't take too much time either. Plus, your favorite furry friends will love you for these! After their jog with us yesterday afternoon, they were very excited to have a new delicious treat as a reward!

"Puppy Love" Cherry Crunchies
From: Rachael Ray Magazine


Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup dry milk powder
1/2 cup dried cherries, chopped
1 egg beaten

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, stir together all of the ingredients and 2/3 cup of water, adding more water as needed if the dough is too stiff.
2. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough 1/4 inch thick. Using a 1 inch cookie cutter (I used a heart shaped for the occasion!), cut out the dough and transfer to a greased cookie sheet. Gather and combine all the scraps, roll and form more cookies; repeat until all of the dough is used. Bake until crisp, 25-30 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool.

On to the Chocolate Heart Peanut Butter Cookies. These are the traditional Chocolate Kisses Peanut Butter Cookies only the kisses are replaced with Dove chocolate hearts! They turned out so cute!

Chocolate Heart Peanut Butter Cookies
From BettyCrocker.com

Ingredients:
1 pouch (1lb 1.5oz) Betty Crocker peanut butter cookie mix
3 tbsp vegetable oil ( I used light olive oil, as that's all I buy)
1 tbsp water
1 egg
2 tbsp sugar
36 heart shaped milk chocolate candies (I used Dove dark chocolate because that's our fave!)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In medium bowl, stir cookie mix, oil, water, and egg until dough forms.
2. Shape dough into 36 (1 inch) balls; roll in sugar. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

3. Bake 8-10 minutes or until light golden brown. Immediately press chocolate candy into top of each cookie. Remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks. Cool completely, at least 20 minutes, before storing in air tight container.

I will share the other cookie recipe tomorrow on Valentine's Day! <3 Happy Baking!

~Erica

Life Happens

Sorry for my delay in posting. I was doing so much better blogging more frequently, but then I guess "life happens" and we can't always do things as we planned. On the 31st of January I lost a very great man and important part of my life, my grandpa! He lived 93 awesome years and I am so blessed to have been able to have him in my life that long, but will miss him everyday! I get solace in knowing he is back with my grandma in a much better place now! I want to share some amazing pictures from his funeral. He was in the army and served in WWII so our family made sure he was honored in the best way possible! Complete with the 21 Gun Salute, Bagpipes playing taps, and presentation of the American flag to our family...my grandpa was honored just the way he deserved that day and we will forever remember it!

My parents, sister, brother-n-law, 2 nieces, Adam and I

~Erica