Homemade Veggie Pizza with Daiya Cheese

Hiya! So, I can't promise when I will be able to post recipes. I hope for once a week, but don't hold me to it! It'll help that I'm going to try to keep it short and concise. Ha! If you know me well, you'll know that's quite a challenge... ; ) Okay! Let's get to it. Recipe Two:


Homemade Veggie Pizza with Daiya Cheese

Unbaked vs. Baked

My life changed when my friend from Colorado posted her family's pizza dough recipe on her blog. Honestly? In the past I've been pretty lazy when it comes to pizza. Frozen. Pre-made crust. Whatever. Not that those are bad options, but homemade is always ALWAYS better. Seriously. And this dough is so awesomely easy, you really can't go wrong. 

Homemade Pizza Crust

from The Blanchard Bistro

Ingredients / Directions:
In a bowl add: 
2 cups 110 degree water 
1/2 Tablespoon sugar and sprinkle over
2 Tablespoons active dry yeast.  
Proof 5 minutes.

Then add:
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 Tablespoon oil
1/2 Tablespoon salt
About 4 cups flour (You can use AP flour or wheat or a combo, whatever you like. You've just got to watch the amounts - don't want to add to much!  I usually add about three cups and stir it in, then knead in more as it's needed to create a soft, but not sticky, dough.)

Knead dough.  Let dough rise in greased bowl, covered with a clean dish towel, for about 20 minutes, till doubled.  Divide into 2 sections.  Roll out on a floured surface to fit your pan.  Place on pizza pan  Cover with tomato sauce (I usually just use jarred, but you could get fancy and make your own), Daiya brand mozzarella cheese, and other desired toppings (I like green peppers, artichoke hearts, and sautéed extra firm tofu, but whatever floats your boat.).  Bake at 400 degrees for about 15-18 minutes, until cheese is bubbly and edges of crust are browned.

Makes enough for 2 large pizzas, but I generally make a half batch and freeze half of the dough before I let it rise. A quarter of this batch is the size of pizza I made that's in the picture. It's enough for 3 meals for me! 

If you've never used Daiya cheese, I highly recommend it! It's available at pretty much any health food store and it comes in 3 flavors: mozzarella, cheddar, and Pepper Jack (which is my favorite). The mozzarella is perfect for pizza. I like all of them better melted than not, but you can see what you like. The shredded is all I've seen so far, but I know they have more products coming out very soon. Give them a try! P.s. I'm not getting paid for this. I wish!! I'm just a fan. : )

Sweet Potato Black Bean Burritos with Avocado Cream

First recipe! Woot! This also happens to be one of my favorites and one of the first I altered to make it vegan. Totally easy. Taking a recipe you already love and just tweaking it a bit might be the best way ease into being vegan or maybe just because you can't handle dairy (like me) or want to cut back on meat. Who knows? It's good to know there are options out there. : )

So! In this case, I just took the original recipe, adapted it for my taste, and used dairy substitutions to make this yumminess happen.

Sweet Potato Black Bean Burritos with Avocado Cream

adapted from Cookie + Kate

Ingredients

Burritos

• 1 medium sweet potato
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika 
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
• sea salt and black pepper
• 4 to 6 tortillas
• 1 jar Roasted Red Peppers (I used already sliced only needed about half the jar)
• 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1+ cup shredded non-dairy cheese (I used Daiya Pepper Jack)

Avocado Cream

•  1 ripe avocado
• 1/2 cup mild salsa, jarred
• 1 garlic clove, roughly chopped
• 1 to 2 teaspoons fresh jalapeño, deseeded and roughly chopped (I used jarred slices, actually)
• 1 lime, juiced
• 1 tablespoon packed cilantro leaves (I didn't have fresh so I used dried)
• up to 2 tablespoons water, to thin as necessary
• sea salt, to taste 

Toppings

• 1 1/2 cups chopped romaine lettuce
• 1 small onion, finely chopped (optional)
• finely chopped jalapeño (optional)
• non-dairy sour cream (Tofutti brand is awesome)
• salsa

For the burritos, Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Wash and peel the sweet potato. Chop them into large, bite-sized chunks. Toss the sweet potatoes in a bowl and coat with the olive oil, cumin, paprika, cayenne pepper and salt and pepper. Pour the sweet potatoes onto a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Arrange the sweet potatoes evenly in a single layer. Bake for about 45 minutes, flipping the sweet potato chunks halfway, until they are golden brown around the edges.

Make the avocado sauce: in a food processor or a good blender (I actually just used my Magic Bullet blender since I have neither of those things), combine the avocado flesh, salsa, garlic, jalapeño (skip this if your salsa is spicy) and lime juice. Blend. Add the cilantro and blend again. Add water to thin out the sauce if you want; the sauce should glop easily off a spoon. Taste and blend in some sea salt or add another squeeze of lime if necessary. 

Make sure the oven is still on at 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Place your tortillas on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. In the middle of each tortilla, put down a couple strips of roasted red pepper, then pour black beans down the center and top it all with roasted sweet potato chunks. Sprinkle 1/4 cup or more of jack cheese on top. Pull one edge of the tortilla over to the center of the burrito, then pull the opposite edge over to overlap a bit. Gently roll the burrito over. Repeat with remaining burritos. Bake your burritos for about 5 minutes on the middle rack, until the cheese is melted and the tortillas are lightly crisp. I usually get 4 burritos if I'm using 8" tortillas or 6 from 6" tortillas. Either works. 

Transfer a burrito or two onto a plate and spread avocado cream on the top. Garnish with onion, sour cream, lettuce, salsa, or whatever else you have or sounds good. Dig in!! 

These burritos also reheat in the oven incredibly well as long as they don't have the avocado cream or garnishes on it yet. 

If you try this recipe, let me know how you liked it! Comments always welcome. 

Fresh Start and Intro

Source

Hello! Whew. This feels weird. I've had my other blog for, uh....wow. 7 years. Which is culinarycontessa.blogspot.com , if you care to know. I intended for it to be a food blog, but I basically failed at that. It really had no direction and evolved so many times as I changed and got older that the description really means very little now. So I'm gonna keep this one simple! A picture or two, recipe and source, if applicable, and a description of what I did or what I changed. Sound good? Cool.

But first! A bit about me, if you're coming here for the first time. I am 27 years old. Single White Female (not the movie. Haven't seen it, but pretty sure it's a bad thing). Go by the name of Anika (which rhymes with Monica). I graduated in culinary arts about 6 1/2 years ago and have mostly worked in baking since then. Sweets have always been a passion, but I've expanded my cooking horizons since I've been living on my own and cooking for myself. I became a vegetarian on a whim after reading this book. Actually began as vegan, sorta, but I really had no clue what I was doing, so I pulled back to vegetarian, which worked to start with. And I held strong for over 4 years! But there was always that nagging at the back of my mind. Stopped drinking cow's milk, started with soy but once I discovered Almond Milk? Pff. I was a goner. That stuff is amazing. No joke. People asked me about eggs. "Aren't those meat, too?" Ehhhhhhh. I didn't have a good answer, really. It's amazing what we can rationalize when we don't want to see the truth.

BUT. Mine eyes have seen the glory of a fully vegan life! (Yes, that was typed to the tune of "Battle Hymn of the Republic" ; ) )  It began earlier this year when I started feeling SUPER crappy basically every day. I suspected an allergy, but wasn't sure to what. Gluten? Nah. Tree nuts? PLEASE NO!! Had to go off Almond milk for that experiment. Horrible. But I ruled that out. Phew! But... dairy. That was possible. My dad is Lactose Intolerant, so I asked what his symptoms were. They sounded scarily similar. Dang. I'm quite the cheese-lover. But I tried to cut most things out. Milk, already gone. Cheese, found a good substitute (more on that later). No ice cream. But items with cultures like sour cream and yogurt didn't seem to bother me, so they hung around a bit longer. It did make me think, though. What was stopping me from making that jump to vegan? My stomach clearly didn't want dairy anymore. I only ate eggs a few times a month, if that. So? I did what I always do: research.

Seriously, I love research. One of the few things I miss about school. I love learning new things. In fact, I love knowing things in general. So I tried a few vegan recipes. Read some blogs. Scrolled through Pinterest, of course. And I checked out "The Kind Diet" by Alicia Silverstone from the library. It's about time, too! It's a pretty great book. I'm not quite a "superhero" yet, but maybe someday. : )  So, that lead to more books and reading. An amazing podcast called "Food for Thought" hosted by the great Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. Fantastic. I love her. She has amazing books as well. The information is all there! It's everywhere, in fact. But we as humans have somehow learned to completely tune it out. So I learned all I could and I told myself I was "transitioning" to vegan, but really, once the decision was made, it became harder and harder to eat those certain things. I'd say it's been about a month since I became "officially" vegan. I put that in quotes since veganism is not a destination, but a continuous journey. I'm not sure if someone else said that first or not, but it sure sounds good either way ; ) . But it's true. You don't just reach this place where vegan is where you are, what you are, and all you are. We don't work that way. Humans are always moving, changing, growing. I still have so much to learn and have enjoyed everything so far.

Sorry, perhaps you can tell that I can be exceptionally long-winded. Most posts won't be like this! I just have wanted to write about this new change for the longest time. Anyway. Recipes coming!

 p.s. I'm still quite the newbie so if I happen to screw something up, feel free to let me know. I would appreciate any feedback, in fact! Just keep it positive. Here we go! : )