falafelpizza!

We love pizza. A lot. So much so that in addition to our regular pizza nights, I try finding ways to sneak pizza in on other nights too! Like the time I made the Italian Seitan Pizza.. This time, I decided I wanted a falafel pizza, because, falafel is awesome!


This pizza has all the great flavors of a falafel paired with fresh herbs and tomatoes and a delicious, crunchy, whole wheat crust.

You will need:
-Pizza crust
-Hummus
-Falafel dough
-Fresh herbs and tomatoes 


1. The crust

First off, I made my crust, I used this recipe, which has now become my go to recipe because it was so delicious! This crust held up really well to all the toppings I added. When making your own crust, it is really best to invest in a pizza stone, they make your home made crust even better! I start by preheating my oven to 400 degrees and adding the stone to pre-heat for about 45 minutes before I add the crust.


Ingredients:
1 package active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (120 - 125°F)
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon gluten


-Start by proofing your yeast by adding the package to the warmed water along with the sugar and allowing it to set for 10 minutes, after the 10 minutes, add in the oil and mix.
-Mix dry ingredients together and add in the wet, kneading well. Add in more flour if sticky or water if dry.
-Allow to rise in a warm place. I allowed mine to rise for about 45 minutes, but you can do it for a longer period as well. Roll out.
-I then added cornmeal to the pizza stone and placed my rolled out dough onto it. I pre-baked the crust for 10 minutes.


While the dough is rising you can start on the pizza toppings:


2. Hummus

For the pizza "sauce" I used hummus, which I used home made. You can add extra water or olive oil if you prefer a thinner , more sauce like topping.




3. Falafel dough

Then, I made the falafel using my recipe here. Instead of forming into balls, I spread the falafel batter out onto a greased cookie sheet and put it into the oven (while the pizza stone was in there) for about 10 minutes to get it nice and crispy.


Once your pizza crust has pre-cooked, add the hummus and the falafel topping and bake in the oven (still at the 400 degrees) for about 15-20 minutes.

4. Toppings


Then, top with fresh parsley, cilantro, and chopped tomatoes. And drizzle with tahini for good measure!

Breakfast Smoothie: Chocolate Peanut Butter Milkshake

This smoothie uses a frozen banana, which gives this breakfast smoothie a milkshake consistency! And what's better than a chocolate peanut butter milkshake?! This smoothie is a great way to have a healthy breakfast, yet have it taste like dessert!

I always buy extra bananas and once they get really ripe, I slice them up and keep them in the freezer to make these smoothies or banana softserve.

Ingredients:
1 frozen banana
1/2 cup oats
3/4 cup nondairy milk (I used unsweetened almond)
1 T cocoa powder
1 T flax meal
1 T peanut butterare
1 packet stevia (or other sweetener)

Add all ingredients to blender and blend until smooth, makes one smoothie!

Mini Donuts!!!!

My mom recently got me a mini donut maker, and it is the best. appliance. ever. I love it! Mini donuts are soooo cute! Almost too cute to eat! I've made them three times now and each time I'm equally excited by the lil mini creation I've made! The recipe I use is this one, I usually use a little less sugar than it calls for. I haven't yet started experimenting with different donut recipes, only toppings for now. The actual decorating of them is the best part! I've done either glazed, just powdered sugar, or chocolate! And then different types of sprinkles and nuts!

Here is what the donut maker looks like, it's called Babycakes and is basically like a waffle maker, so it only takes about 3 minutes to cook the donuts, and they're baked, not fried! You just pour the dough in and three minutes later, little baby mini donut babies!

You can find the info here.

 These are from my first time making them, taken with my cell phone..

And these ones I made recently with some friends:

Catching Up

Wow, it's been a long time since I've last posted! I've been working about 50 hours a week after being a jobless student, so it's taken some time to get reused to working so much! My body is finally getting used to working/standing for 10-12 hours a day and I'm finally not as exhausted! One great thing about my new job is that they feed us every day and our chef is amazing! He loves organic food and makes me vegan foods every day! For example, on my quick, 10 minute break today I had some organic pb on organic raisin bread with some organic aloe vera juice! So that's pretty amazing to get some healthy, organic food at work since I unfortunately don't have as much time to cook anymore..

So, I've taken some food photos here and there, so here's what (little) has been going on in my food life this past month.. I hope to start cooking and blogging about it again soon!

These are the chocolate chip blondies (plus sprinkles!) from CCK! They're made with chickpeas and are oh so good!

 This is some cheesy chili with roasted hot dogs and scallion corn bread from Appetite for Reduction.

These are my sweet potato burgers! One good thing about blogging recipes is I can actually remember what I did! However, I realized after I made these again, I had left out the breadcrumbs and they were still really good and firm! So, just goes to show that altering recipes to your certain tastes or what you have on hand is perfectly fine!

This was our southern foods night, and it was amazing. I made bbq seitan ribs mashed sweet potatoes, and kale (which is my new number one favorite food).

Ok, I hope to be back soon with a super cute dessert I've been making lately :)

Cell Phone Dessert Photos!!

I haven't posted in two weeks because I've had NO internet!! We just moved in two weekends ago and it took awhile for Comcast to be able to come hook it up.. but now I'm back!
I've also gotten a (super) full time job where I always work over time, like 45-50 hours a week! So I haven't been cooking as much, but here are some photos of some dessert I've eaten recently! These photos are all from my cell phone so they're not too pretty looking...

This is the peanut butter chocolate chip cookie dough milkshake from the Chicago Diner. It is seriously the best dessert ever.

This is a red bean cake from Amitabul, a healthy, vegan Korean restaurant in Chicago. These have a really interesting texture and are really good in a weird way..

This is banana ice cream with peanut butter from iCream. This place is really amazing, you get to make custom ice cream and then they freeze it on the spot! You pick your base (soy milk) your flavor, and then add ins and toppings! It was really good, I can't wait to go back and try new flavors!!

And this was the best cheese cake I've ever had. It was from this recipe. It's a recipe that had no tofu, just all cream cheese, which was a great idea!

Hopefully I'll be back soon with some recipes!

Friday Favorites!

Here are some of my favorite things lately! They are mostly things I want for around the house as Michael and I are moving within the next week! One good thing about us moving is that we finally get to decorate how we want to! Every piece of furniture will be something that we love :) So, I've been scouring around thrift stores lately trying to find pieces that we would both love, I can't wait to put everything together in our new apartment!

Here's some things that I would like to have for our apartment:

Something to put our keys/Michael's wallet on when we come into the house:

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A vintage alarm clock:

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Vintage canisters for ingredients:

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Cute, vintage plates:

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Baked Falafel

Falafel is one of our favorite foods. Unfortunately, the Mediterranean restaurant near us closed so we don't get falafels anymore without going kinda far.. I'm not sure why, but I never make falafel. The last time was at a friends house years ago... but it's SO easy! I'm definitely going to start making it more often! Plus, when you make it yourself, you can bake it and then you don't get a belly ache from greasy falafels :)

Ingredients:
1 can chickpeas
4 cloves garlic, pressed
1 small onion, chopped
1/4 cup fresh parsley
1/4 cup fresh cilantro
3 T whole wheat flour
1 tsp cumin
juice from 1/2 a small lemon
1/4 - 1/2 tsp salt

Yield: about 12 falafels

Ok, all you do, is put all of your ingredients in the food processor, until everything is well combined (don't pulse for too long otherwise you'll end up with falafel hummus..hmm...).

Then, form into balls and put onto a greased cookie sheet and bake on 375 for about 12-15 minutes each, or until they are brown!

We served these in wheat pitas with hummus, tomato, cucumber, and tahini! So good!

Then, we had Pistachio Halva. If you haven't had this stuff, it is "sesame fudge". If you like tahini, you'll love this! It's really rich and sweet. I actually didn't like it the first time I had it, but it's one of those tastes that the more you eat it, the more you love it! I took a bite of it before I took the photos, whoops :) But this way, you can see the texture in the last photo!