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

My "Famous" Turkey Burgers

These turkey burgers are a go to favorite meal in our household. We typically have them a couple times a month. They never fail to disappoint us! This is a recipe that I created a couple years ago when looking for a good beef free burger. I hadn't found one that I just really enjoyed. It seemed like any recipe I tried was either too dry or too "sticky wet" and didn't form into patties very well. So I got in the kitchen and came up with this tasty little burger!

I say "famous" because it has become a favorite among a lot of my family (whom are all actually beef eaters). My grandpa has requested my "famous turkey burgers" on a number of occassions! The best part about everyone enjoying these burgers...they are sooo easy!!

"Famous" Turkey Burgers
Makes: 4 Burgers
Ingredients:
1lb ground turkey
1 tbsp olive oil
cooking spray
1/2 cup chopped onion
2-3 cloves chopped garlic
1 tbsp grated parmesean
4 slices swiss cheese
4 whole wheat buns
8 oz sliced mushrooms

In a large bowl, mix together ground turkey, (I use half 93% fat free and half 99% fat free because the patties form better this way. If you choose to use only 99% fat free, beware you may have a hard time keeping the patties together! You could always just use 93% if you choose or whatever your grocer has.) onion, garlic, and parmesean cheese. Be cautious not to over mix or the meat with cook up tougher.

Form into 4 patties. I have a handy burger press, but simply making 4 balls and flattening will work fine as well. Since there is only 2 of us, I will immediately, put two of the patties in the freezer for the next time! In the summer months you can put a piece of foil on your grill and cook them that way. (It is important to put foil down or spray the grates on the grill because turkey burgers will stick much easier than beef.) In the winter months I just put them on the stovetop over medium to medium high. They will cook 6-7 min on each side.

While the burgers are cooking, slice up your mushrooms. Put the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat and toss in the mushrooms. Cook until softened, 5-6 minutes, stirring occasionally.

When the burgers are almost done, place 1 slice of cheese on each burger, let melt approx 1 minute.
Place 1 burger on each bun and top with lots of mushrooms! Feel free to use any other condiments of choice. We typically use a small amount of ketchup, but I'm sure your favorite condiment will make it that much better of a burger for you!

We normally have baked beans and/or chips and salsa with our burgers, but again, pick your side of choice with burgers!! These are so tasty! Hope you enjoy them as much as my family does!

~Erica

Spicy Hawaiian Chicken Burgers

Thanks to Pinterest I have gained a great resource to expand on healthy recipes. Last night, we made these great chicken burgers! Hopefully my photography skills will improve when it come to taking food pictures, but for now I will do my best to provide the best I can! Since we don't eat red meat in our household, I am always looking for other burger options. My husband eats red meat, but he knew before he married me there would be no red meat served in our household. :) These chicken burgers were excellent and definitely a meal we will eat again! I made green beans to go with ours, but you of course could pick any side of your choice! Hope you enjoy!

Spicy Hawaiian Chicken Burgers
Via: Homemade by Holman

Ingredients:
2 pounds ground chicken
6 pineapple rings (or equivalent slices, cut about 1/2" - 3/4" thick)
6 slices pepper jack cheese
6 whole wheat hamburger buns
1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp seasoning salt (I use Lawry's)
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 clove garlic, minced

Combine the ground chicken, soy sauce, 1/2 the paprika, 1/2 the chili powder, seasoning salt and cumin. Lightly mix with your hands and divide into 6 even balls. Form patties, making them slightly thinner in the middle and sprinkle with remaining paprika and chili powder. Refrigerate about 30 minutes.

Preheat the grill to medium heat. Coat grates lightly with oil. Grill burgers over medium heat about 6 minutes per side. The burgers should flip easily when they are ready to turn, if they want to stick, give them another minute. Top with cheese for the last 1-2 minutes of cooking time to melt. Remove to a plate and cover with aluminum foil to rest. Grill buns if desired.

For the pineapple, if you are using rings, grill directly on the grates over medium heat. Carefully turn after 1-2 minutes. If you are using pineapple slices or chunks, thread onto skewers and grill skewers in the same fashion. Assemble burgers and enjoy.

~Erica

Craving Curber Juice

As promised, here is one of our favorite juices...the Craving Curber. I forgot to take a picture, sorry about that! You'll have to take my word, that it will look yummy and taste it too! We bought a Juicer because we intended to use it lots and stick with it. But if you are just wanting to try it out first, you could use a blender and then strain it. Since I haven't tried the blender I can't make any promises on how easy it will or won't be. If you use a juicer, it is fairly easy. The most time consuming part is preparing fruit or veggies.

Craving Curber Juice
1 Serving, 389.6 calories

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups Raspberries
1 cup Strawberries
2 Oranges
2 Apples

Directions:
We bought frozen raspberries and strawberries because it was cheaper and since it's winter, its harder to find good fresh ones. So defrost berries if frozen.

Peel the oranges and apples and core apples. Cut oranges and apples into manageable pieces.

If using a juicer, follow your machines instructions. If using a blender, I would just be careful not to overload the machine. Since you are using a large amount of fruit, you should probably do it in a couple cycles, straining between each.

Best of luck! This juice is very yummy and really does do a good job a keeping you from getting hungry, hince the name!


~Erica