Recipe of The Day: Creamless Potato Corn Chowdah

The weather outside is frightful! Well...to me at least it is. The cold is starting to drift in. Days like these make me feel so blah. But, a good pot of hot warm chowder makes me feel great!

Unless this were a cheat day I would have pulled out all the stops and used heavy cream and bacon in this recipe. Since, I can no longer indulge in such flavorful fattening goodies I have to improvise. I had to think of a way that I could make a good tasting chowder that used no cream whatsoever. I tried to scour the net for some recipes. But, due to some malfunctions...thanks to Firefox that quickly ended. I figured a bunch of taters and some milk would give me the creamy results I was looking for. So here is what I came up with. Feel free to alter these measurements and tastes to your liking. JP and I like things spicy. Spicy to the degree that we would burn our throats in agony for some goodness! So here we go...

Prep Time: 10-15 minutes
Cook Time: 25-30 minutes
Servings Size: 4-6 People



Ingredients:

4-5 large potatoes (any variety you like)
2 cups of 2% Milk
1 1/2 cups of frozen or fresh corn
1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
1/2 large white onion
2 stalks of green onion
salt, pepper, garlic salt, and cayenne pepper to taste

Chop all of your vegetables. Spray pot with Olive Oil spray or use a tiny bit of regular Olive Oil. Saute bell pepper and onions in pot on medium high heat. Saute until soft. You can remove from heat and set aside. Chop and peel your potatoes. Put pot back on stove and add in potatoes corn and milk. Bring to a boil and then bring down to medium low heat. Watch your pot and be sure not to scald the milk. You can add in your seasonings. Cook until potatoes are tender. Add more season if you need to.

This is a really quick dish. It's a great alternative to a chowder that uses heavy cream. JP threw some shredded cheese in his and said it was good like that too. I also sprinkled some parsley on top of mine. It added a nice touch! :) Very nice for those cold nights. I just finished a bowl and can say I am fully satisfied!

Enjoy!

~Feather



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Recipe of The Day: Whole Wheat Pizzas!

I have been slacking on the site! I really have no excuses either. :( I've been cooking some good things, and I need to get them on here ASAP.

Last week I wanted the kids to do something fun. So I decided we should make pizzas! Not to mention they would probably eat pizza everyday of the week if we let them.

A few months ago I started buying whole wheat graham flour. I use it to make all kinds of things. On the back of the box there is a recipe for whole wheat pizza crust. The recipe is extremely simple and doesn't take all the work of a normal pizza crust. If you are expecting some pizza hut type results, well then you need to find a recipe like that. This recipe is very simple and boasts a dense thick crust. You can jazz it up to your liking. You can also determine how thick or thin you want it. I personally like thick crust, so it's really up to you. The kids really enjoyed making their pizzas. They are always asking me to help out in the kitchen. So I know they enjoyed themselves.

Here is the recipe:

Hodgson Mill Whole Wheat Graham Flour Wheat Pizza

1 package of Active Dry Yeast
1 cup warm water 115° F
1 1/2 cups Whole Wheat Graham Flour
2 tsp. granulated sugar (or sub with sugar substitute)
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. Olive Oil
1 1/2 cups of White Flour (I use regular all purpose)

Preheat oven to 425°F.
Dissolve yeast in warm water. Allow to rest 5 minutes. Stir in whole wheat flour, sugar, salt, olive oil, and 1 cup unbleached white flour. Knead in remaining white flour by hand; about 5 minutes (the dough will be smooth and elastic).

Spray a medium-sized bowl with no-stick cooking spray(you can use some olive oil I used an Olive Oil spray). Place pizza dough in bowl and turn to coat thoroughly. Cover and allow to rise in a warm, draft-free place for 15 minutes. Spray a one 14-inch pizza pan or two 10 inch pizza pans with no-stick cooking spray (or grease lightly with oil). Stretch pizza crust to fit pan and flute outer edges of pizza dough to hold fillings.

I would suggest not to make the edges to thick. Unless you like it like that. I added some pizza sauce and seasonings to the crust before we added the toppings. We topped our pizzas with ground Italian sausage, smoked sausage, boneless chicken breast, feta cheese, onions, green bell peppers, mixed shredded cheese. You can be creative and add anything you want. Whatever you like throw it on there! Have fun with it! Enjoy!

Here are the kids creations. They loaded their pizzas with tons of meat!


Here is my pizza. See how I made the crust a little thick? It was still good!

~Feather

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