Wegman's Recipe Combo Pizza

Recently and very excitedly I finally signed up for a membership for a Wegmans card and got this free recipe book with my registration. I flipped through a few days ago and everything in it looked absolutely amazing!! (meat and other uneattables aside) Today I got home from work, napped, did arti, and by the time everyone was starving and cranky. While I couldn't remember any one particular recipe, I ended up mashing a few together to get this delicious Squash Tomato Pesto Naan Pizza. Wow what a mouth full =) So good!!

All were either from my freezer or left over items...
Pesto
Mozzarella cheese
Naan
Sliced tomato
Pre-cut squash from Wegmans
Pizza Sauce

YUMMMMMMMMMM!

PURPLE Bell Pepper!

I'm amazed. I just opened my refrigerator door to find this rare vegetable. Actually I'm not sure exactly how rare it is, but I was stoked and surprised to see it. Apparently my masa and masi found it when they went apple picking around here last weekend. Anywho, time to cut it up for the pops salad. =(

Pesto Pizza!

This was delicious and very simple! I made it twice in one day!

So I made pesto using any recipe you find online or you can buy it ready made. Whenever I make anything, I ALWAYS modify it to my tastebuds, so sometimes I never really keep track of how I'm modifying it, which is what happened in the case of this pesto unfortunately.

Ingredients:
1 Mama Mary's Thin Crust Pizza Crust
1/4 c. pizza sauce
1/4 c. pesto
1/2 c. shredded Mozzarella cheese
Salt to taste
1/2 Fresh Lemon

1. Turn oven on to 350 degrees F. During its pre-heat time, put the crust in the oven.
2. When the oven is done pre-heating, take the crust out. Spread on the pizza sauce.--its not supposed to be too saucy--just a thin layer
3. Spread on the pesto on top of the sauce. It's okay if the two mix.
4. Throw on the cheese and shake on some salt and squeeze on some fresh lemon juice.
5. Bake the pizza until the cheese is melted.

YUMMMMMMM.

Some notes:
When I make my pesto, I freeze it, which means I don't add the Parmesan until I'm ready to use the pesto. However, instead of mixing in the parm, I just sprinkled it on top of the pesto once I spread it onto the pizza but before I threw on the mozzarella cheese.

Deep Fried Goodness

I was going to say I usually am not a fan of deep friend things, but then I remembered all those appetizers from last year and cheesy fries that I craved every few days. Anywho, I made these as a "wariety" for the Pops for his Chaturmas...and well we all ended up eating them leaving him no left overs for today because they turned out to be just thaaattt good. So if you don't mind opening all your doors and windows to the chilly air outside, I urge you to give these a try.

Deep Fried Cheesy Broccoli, Carrots, Potatoes

I really eyeballed this recipe, so really just give it a whirl and I'm positive it will turn out just as good for you!

Potato Prep:

Wash and peel 2 medium sized yellow or white potatoes. Slice to them ~1/2 cm thickness and leave them to kinda of dry while preparing the rest of the things.

Carrot Prep:

Rinse a handful of the ready peeled carrot sticks. Drop them in a small pot full of water and bring to boil. 

Broccoli Prep:

Wash a handful of broccoli florets and cut the stems off, but keep them long enough that you can hold them by just a pinch. Drop them into the pot with carrots and keep at boil for ~3 minutes.

Drain the boiling water out of pot and immerse carrots and broccoli in an ice water bath for a few minutes. 

Drain cold water and let carrots and broccoli dry on paper towel.

"Kheru" Prep--Kheru is a Guju term. I believe its called "batter" in English, but I learned Guju first so that first term that came to me.

Once again this recipe is farali--but instead of the two farali flours, just substitute all-purpose flour.

• 4 tbl shredded Cheddar cheese
• 2 heap tbl yogurt
• 1 serrano pepper--grinded with hand held grinder
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 c. Buckwheat flour
• 1.5 c. Rajigira flour
• 1-2 quarts cooking oil heated to about 375 degrees F in pot leaving at least 3" space at top of pot

Mix all this together and then add water to make a semi-smooth (you don't have to break the cheese) batter that has the consistency of pudding (enough to make it stick to the vegetables).

Drop a tiny bit of batter into the oil to see if it is ready--the oil will start to bubble a lot around the batter.

Dip each vegetable into the batter one at a time and place carefully into deep fryer. HOT OIL WILL BURN YOU RIDICULOUSLY! Remove when dark golden brown with a slotted long arm spoon and place on a paper towel on a plate.

Dip in spicy honey mustard dip or squeeze some lemon on and shake some masala on.

"Healthy Frick" Food

So sometimes for my dad's chaturmas, I just throw some things together which I suspect taste good and it apparently does.

I'll call this a "Roasted Zucchini Salad"

Ingredients:
1 Medium Zuccini
1/2 Green Bell Pepper
1.5 c. Purple Cabbage, cut
Dry Italian Seasoning to taste
Salt to taste
Olive Oil
Pepper to taste
1 Fresh Lemon

1. Pre-heat oven at 350 degrees F.
2. Cut the Zuchini into long pieces, about the thickness and length of your forefinger.
3. Cut the bell pepper into pieces, about the size of a dollar coin.
4. Arrange the Zuchini and bell pepper pieces onto a baking sheet. Drizzle on olive oil. Sprinkle on some seasoning, salt, and pepper to taste. Squeeze on about a teaspoon of fresh lemon juice. Bake for about 20 minutes until bell pepper edges start to brown.
5. Add few tablespoons olive oil and saute the purple cabbage until it is half-cooked (you don't want it overly cooked and too floppy). Add seasoning, salt, pepper, and lemon to taste.
6. Toss and serve.

YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

Easy Peasy Cheesecake!

I guess I'm in the baking mood =)

Ingredients:
1 Graham Cracker Pie Crust (6oz)
1 16oz Low-Fat Philadelphia Cream Cheese Container, softened
1/2 c. White Sugar
1/2 tsp Vanilla
1 tsp lemon zest
3 eggs--see note below

1. Pre-heat oven at 325 degrees F. Beat the cream cheese, sugar, lemon zest and vanilla. Add the egg substitute and mix just until blended.

2. Pour into crust. Bake 40 minutes (until center is almost set). Cool. Refrigerate 3 hours.

YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Some notes:
1. To soften the cream cheese, place the container in the microwave on High for 45 seconds. (this is much easier at the same cost of buying the 8 oz packages)
2. Use Splenda if you want to make this treat even healthier.--I'm just not a fan of the Splenda taste.
3. For clean edges on the cheesecake slices, use a sharp knife to cut the chilled cheesecake, wiping the knife blade with a damp cloth between each cut.
4. EGGS-so I obviously used egg replacer--EnerG egg replacer which is 1.5 tsp powder + 2 tbls warm water mixed prior to adding to the recipe.

Spice Cake for Fasting

Yet another Chaturmas-friendly farrari recipe =)
Spice Cake!

Ingredients:
1/2 c. Singoda Flour
1/2 c. Buckwheat Flour
1/2 c. Potato Flour
3/4 c. White Sugar
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1 1/4 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Ground Cloves
1/2 tsp Ground Nutmeg
1/2 tsp Ground AllSpice
1 pinch Ground Black Pepper
_________________________________________________________
1 tbls Honey
1/4 c. Oil
1 tbls Distilled White Vinegar
1 tsp Vanilla
1 c. Cold Water

1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F. Whisk together the first set of ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

2. Stir together the second set of ingredients in a measuring cup.

3. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients; pour the wet ingredients into the well. Mix the batter together until just blended. Pour the batter into an ungreased 8x8 inch baking pan.

4. Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 30 to 40 minutes. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack. Either frost it with vanilla frosting or sprinkle on some confectioners sugar.

YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Some notes:

When you make the batter, you might have to add some water and oil because the Singoda flour makes it extremely jello-like.

Also, the taste turns out great, however it does not rise as well as normal cake because of the farrari flours and their consistency. I'm sure the eggs have something to do with it too.

Pinwheels!!

so ever since Houston and Kashyup&Tejals wedding more than a few of us have been going gaga for these amazing pinwheel appetizers...so I'm going to make them today--unfortunately can't be lazy ab it because Shivu is not here to help.
So I found a basic recipe for them online and kind of twerked it a bit:
to make 100:

ingredients:
16 oz sour cream
16 cream cheese-softened
2 Serrano chilies-finely chopped
2 c. grated cheddar cheese
1 can olives-well drained and finely chopped
1/2 c. green bell pepper-finely chopped
1/2 c. red bell pepper-finely chopped
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
4-5 tsp taco bell mild sauce (swaminarayan safe =D)
10 10" flour tortillas

MIX all the ingredients except tortillas

SPREAD about 2 heap tbls onto each tortilla

ROLL each tortilla individually

WRAP each roll with Saran Wrap
REFRIGERATE rolls for several hours

UNWRAP & CUT into 1/2"-3/4" thick slices discarding the ends

YUMMMMMMMMMM

some notes:
I used low fat cream cheese to make this a little healthier.
The serranos can be quite powerful and spicy even to the touch so if you wear contacts DO NOT CUT them. Instead throw them in a hand grinder!!

Potato Pizza

Since the start of Chaturmas, the pops only eats salads and farrari foods. So for the parent's 24th anniversary, which was yesterday, he wanted me to make them pizza that he could eat. Having visited Lowes 3 times, Home Depot, and a masonry place, I was in no mood to cook yesterday. Today's a new day, and despite feeling sick, I feel bad we didn't get them anything for their anniversary, which they surprised they made it to 24 years of togetherness, so potato pizza it is.

Originally, the idea was to use some sort of farrari flour like rajagda or singoda flour which you can find at some Indian stores. But after we thought about it, debras made of farrari flours usually turn out very hard and break like crackers instead of being soft. 

I found this recipe online for potato pizza, which is actually for those who are on gluten-free diets. Obviously I had to modify it for Swaminarayan appropriateness, so here it is. It turned out to be surprisingly delicious!

Ingredients:

5 Yellow Potatoes--These are great for all-purpose cooking. Russet Potatoes are even better for baking and can be used instead.

1 tablespoon Singoda Flour--I believe Egg Replacement powder should be a good substitute since the original recipe asked for 1 egg.

3 Tomatoes--Sliced

Mozzarella Cheese

Salt, Pepper, & Italian Seasoning to taste

Any additional toppings: brocolli, black olives, bell pepper, etc.

Directions:

1. Wash and shred the potatoes. Put into colander. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt and let sit for 10 minutes. Pre-heat oven to 350F.

2. In a small bowl, add a few teaspoons water to Singoda flour and mix. The mixture should have a liquid consistency.

3. Lightly grease a skillet or pie pan. A nonstick saute pan will work as long as it does not have a rubber or plastic handle.

4. Press all the extra starch out of the potatoes in the colander. Transfer the potatoes into the skillet and mix in the flour mixture.

5. Evenly spread out and press the potato mixture into the bottom of the skillet similar to any other pizza crust.  Bake, uncovered, for 25 minutes at 350F.

6. Sprinkle some olive oil onto the crust and bake for another 20 minutes at 350F.

7. Place one layer of tomato slices onto the crust. (add other toppings if you wish) Sprinkle with salt, pepper, Italian seasoning to taste, and a light layer of mozzarella cheese. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 350F.

AWESOME EKADASHI-CHATURMASNESS! ENJOYYYYYYYY