In the kitchen

I am on a roll in the kitchen. I already mentioned that waffles are my new favorite quick breakfast. I continue to make small tweaks whenever I make them. Right now I am using up some dried plums, a.k.a. prunes, and I sent CF a batch recently.

The past couple of weeks I used my crock pot a lot - chicken and dumplings, taco chicken, beef stew - and I have more to make with the crock pot too. Danielle pointed out that when cooking for one person, freezing some from your crock pot meals makes a lot of sense. I have found that chicken turns my stomach after one round of left overs, but crock pot-cooked chicken does not. So freezing crock pot chicken will be great! The taco chicken I made was just a couple of chicken breasts, some left over black beans, the last of a jar of salsa, some chopped green pepper, and some spices. Cook on low for 6 hours. Shred chicken. Ta da!

This weekend was a chance to try recipes found on my latest obsession, Pin-ter-est. One is a flax meal crust for pizza that my sister found. This is RIDICULOUSLY easy. I did not have any tomatoes or tomato sauce or anything. I mixed some plain yogurt with some onion soup mix to spread just a little on the crust for some sauce stuff. (The remainder will be used as onion dip for veggies later.) On top was the last of some bacon chopped and fried before putting on the pizza, chopped spinach and artichoke hearts from the freezer, some cooked mushrooms.

Obviously cheese on top. Here in the Midwest, cheddar is yellow. It still bugs me.

This made a small pizza, but the third of it I had for dinner was very filling. I liked this crust better than the cauliflower crust I made recently. If I want to make the flax meal crust more regularly, I need to find an inexpensive source of flax meal though. This recipe was worked out as a carb-free alternative to pizza crust. I managed to keep the pizza pretty carb-free (except for the onion soup mix), but would ultimately love a healthier crust that still tastes like bread. I may play with this one by adding some beer to give the crust a yeasty taste. I am sure you will be on the edge of your seats waiting for that post.

I also made some quinoa cakes, which are not nearly as visually appealing as the ones pictured on the link, but are still delicious. My sister had already made these and said they were good. I actually made them for breakfast tomorrow, to be topped with red pepper spread from Trader Joe's, goat cheese, and an egg.

Skimming through my Food! board on Pin-ter-est, I see I tagged zucchini pancakes. I highly recommend those too. I made them over the summer, and also shredded and froze a bunch of zucchini I may have to thaw to make the pancakes again.