The winner of the Skin MD Natural lotion giveaway is comment #27, which is Coco!! I’ll send you an email to get your mailing address! Congrats friend!!
Super Soft (Giveaway Post)
It’s a rare thing around here when there’s a non-food-related giveaway… as a matter of fact, I don’t know that I’ve ever done one! BUT, when SkinMD Natural contacted me about their Shielding Lotion, I was intrigued.
One of the worst parts about cooking is the cleanup, right? The last thing I want to do after cooking a meal and using every pan in the kitchen is clean every pan in the kitchen…partially because I hate doing dishes and usually ask Adam to do it, and partially because I absolutely HATE what dishwater does to my hands.
Enter: SkinMD Natural Shielding Lotion. This stuff is AMAZING. (Just an FYI for the FTC: SkinMD Natural sent me this sample to test, and I didn’t get any compensation to do this review.) My skin is horrendous on my hands. I work in a school with old-school (ha! pun!) boiler heating, my hands are constantly in water while I’m cooking, and its always ridiculously dry in Chicago every winter. My hands were verging on gray there was so much dry skin! No matter how many manicures I get, every winter my hands look the same. After ONE application of the Shielding Lotion, the color in my hands returned. After 5 or 6 applications, I could actually feel a consistent difference in the texture of my skin. Two applications on my elbows brought me normal-colored elbows instead of the ashy nastiness I usually had. One application on my face got rid of the flakiness on my forehead I get in the winter.
Now, why the HECK am I telling you about this fabulous product? Well, the people at Skin MD Natural want to send one of YOU a full-sized bottle of their amazing lotion! It retails for $18, so it’s no shabby prize! Some other perks: It’s all-natural, fragrance-free, and is safe for hands, face, and body. You’ll LOVE IT!
How to enter:
For your first entry: Visit the SkinMD Natural website and leave a comment with one thing you learned or found interesting about their products.
For additional entries:
- Tweet about the giveaway, “Enter to win SkinMD Natural lotion from @imadedinner! Enter here: http://bit.ly/aNCuHw” Then come back and leave an additional comment that you’ve tweeted.
- Become a fan of What’s For Dinner? on Facebook. Then come back and leave a comment that you are a fan.
- Leave me another comment about why YOU need the bottle of SkinMD Natural!
- Link back to this post, then come back and leave another comment that you’ve linked.
The contest will run until Friday, February 26, and the winner will be announced in a quick post that night!
GOOD LUCK!
Simple Genius
I’m a skeptic when it comes to super simple recipes.
Wait, what do you mean I don’t have to open 5 spice jars and chiffonade a bundle of basil? You mean I don’t have to chop a dozen onions, grate a pound of carrots, and roast something for two hours? The resounding answer is YES.
Sometimes a good recipe takes 3 ingredients and a little bit of time, like what I made tonight. I saw this on HEAB’s blog today, and immediately clicked the link and discovered I only needed one thing to make this for dinner. What is this glorious thing? A simple tomato sauce as posted by Smitten Kitchen and adapted from Marcela Hazan. When I saw Marcela’s name attached to this recipe, I knew it had to be good. She’s never let me down!
The recipe:
Tomato Sauce with Butter and Onions
Adapted from Marcela Hazan’s Essentials of Italian Cooking
28 ounces (800 grams) whole peeled tomatoes from a can
5 tablespoons (70 grams) unsalted butter
1 medium-sized yellow onion, peeled and halved
Salt to taste
Put the tomatoes, onion and butter in a heavy saucepan (it fit just right in a 3-quart) over medium heat. Bring the sauce to a simmer then lower the heat to keep the sauce at a slow, steady simmer for about 45 minutes, or until droplets of fat float free of the tomatoes. Stir occasionally, crushing the tomatoes against the side of the pot with a wooden spoon. Remove from heat, discard the onion, add salt to taste and keep warm while you prepare your pasta.
That’s it. I served mine atop half a roasted spaghetti squash, scooped out, and some sauteed mushrooms with a link of leftover sausage from last night. Please excuse the multitude of photos, as I was having fun with the new camera!
This was comfort food at its finest, and would’ve been great eaten with a spoon rather than on anything. There’s something delicate and yet still rich about this sauce, and I really can’t put my finger on it, but Julia Child was right: there’s something about butter!
Don’t forget to enter to win the amazing Organic Coconut Peanut Butter with a comment on yesterday’s post! Winner will be announced tomorrow night.
I wanted, also, to thank you all for your compliments on my openness and honesty with my “Ask Me Anything” questions. While there may be times I’ll post something cheery when I’m feeling anything but, 99% of the time, what you get on here is all me. I’m lucky enough to have truly supportive readers, and I’m grateful every day that I don’t have to field cruel comments… but if that day ever comes, you can rest assured that those commenters will be taken care of. Years of teaching have helped me grow a much thicker skin than I ever thought I’d have! So thank you all for reading, commenting, and supporting this little blog of mine.
Small and Stuffed (Giveaway Post)
Today, or rather, this afternoon, has been one of those that just needs to end. If I drop one more thing in the kitchen, I swear… ok, no more of that.
DINNER!
I got the idea for dinner tonight while looking over my post from the other day. I remembered that I had these micro-kabochas to cook up, and wanted to do something fun with them. Normally, kabochas are about the size of a small pumpkin. Mine are just larger than an apple
I cut the tops off of them and scooped out the seeds. There was a huge ratio of seeds to edible squash in them, but whatever…I had tiny kabocha bowls at this point. I made a filling of 3 de-cased Italian sausages, 1 egg, 5 chopped mushrooms, and 1/2 c. sharp white cheddar cheese. This isn’t really a recipe, I guess, but a process. I filled the kabocha bowls to the top with the sausage mixture, and baked them at 325 for about an hour, until the squash was soft and the meat was done. The result? See for yourself:
The squash was soft and sweet, the filling rich and spicy, and the combo together was downright dreamy. Just what I needed after an afternoon like today. Well, that and a super hot shower.
Do you buy organic anything? Have you seen the movie Food Inc.? I always feel like questions like these are so loaded. Yes, I saw Food, Inc. In all honesty, and call me heartless, it didn’t teach me anything I didn’t already know, nor did it change the way I look at food or what I buy. I knew about factory farms, and I know about GMOs, but I did think that how some of the companies treat their farmers was atrocious. I do buy organic when I can, but usually just beef when it’s available, and I plan on buying organic milk once Adam and I start thinking about having a family. And, even more honestly, I don’t have a problem not buying organic. Sure, if we had unlimited funds and a nearby Whole Foods, I’d probably buy organic a lot more. Right now though, it’s just not in our budget to buy organic most of the time. I buy what’s cheap. I buy what I like. I know a lot of people may judge me for this, but at least we’re living within our means.
ANNNNND the giveaway! The lovely folks at Tropical Traditions (who are dead set on making sure I never go without coconut anything) sent me a jar of their organic coconut peanut butter to try. Something about coconut peanut butter seemed a bit odd, yet a bit intriguing, so I agreed… man was I surprised! This stuff is absolutely to DIE FOR! It’s creamy and dense, with a light coconut flavor that’s just screaming to be used in oatmeal. I would recommend it to any of you… but only ONE of you can win a jar!
It’s simple to enter!
First and foremost, leave a comment on this post. Any comment at all, and you’ll be entered!
For additional entries:
- Subscribe to the Tropical Traditions Newsletter and leave another comment letting me know you did.
- Become a fan of What’s For Dinner? on Facebook and leave another comment that you did.
- Tweet the giveaway! “I entered to win @troptraditions coconut peanut butter with @imadedinner and you can too! http://bit.ly/9Fqg8l” and leave a comment that you did
Easy as pie peanut butter!
Good luck, and winners will be announced on Friday, February 19.
Have a wonderful night. I’ll leave you with another cute Ozzy picture
Mongo
Adam and I are a little obsessed with Shrek and Shrek 2. No, really. Our cake topper at our wedding was Shrek and Fiona. We cut the cake to “Accidentally In Love” from Shrek 2.
A period of time went by where we’d watch Shrek 2 almost every day! Don’t get me started on the crapstorm that was Shrek 3… ANYWAY, in Shrek 2, “Mongo” was the name of the enormous gingerbread cookie they baked to attack the castle.
So on Friday night, Adam made a fantastic suggestion. “Let’s go to the grocery store and get the stuff to make a REALLY good sandwich!” We are both fans of sandwiches in general, but sometimes there’s something special that makes a sandwich into something “really good”. We hit up the local Meijer store and got some fresh Italian bread, fresh roasted turkey, lettuce, tomato, avocado, and good Swiss cheese.
Upon arriving home, we prepped the counter: cleaned and dried the cutting boards, sliced the bread, sliced the veggies, washed the lettuce, smushed up the avocado, and then Adam got building. First the turkey, then cheese, then avocado, lettuce, tomato, and then a little Smart Balance mayo on the top of the bread.
Upon closing it, we realized just how enormous this sandwich was. Compare this sandwich to the 2-liter of diet Pepsi that we happily consumed (yes, I know, its all chemicals and caffeine and crap, but I like it and I drink it.)
I felt a little like Homer Simpson looking at this thing… MMMMM….. sannnndddwicchhh….
We did not eat this whole thing in one sitting. We had small pieces with some baked Doritos (yes, I know, more chemicals. Again: delicious and enjoyable)
Yesterday, I made the best chili I’ve ever made. Seriously… ever.
Usually, I make a quick chili or chili mac on a work night. I make it on the stove top with ground beef, cans of stuff, and about a half hour of simmering. Yesterday though, I made weekend chili. It was slow, took patience, lots of seasoning, and… you just want the recipe don’t you?
Chili Con Carne y Frijoles
Ingredients
2 lbs. beef, cut into 1″ chunks (I used top round)
1 32 oz. can crushed tomatoes
1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes with jalapeños, drained
1 6 oz. can diced jalapeños
1 medium white or yellow onion, diced
2 14 oz. cans dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
2 14 oz. cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp. garlic powder
3 Tbsp. chili powder
2 tsp. cumin
Directions
In a large slow-cooker, place the meat, tomatoes, and peppers. Stir well. Add beans, spices, onion, and vinegar. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Serve and enjoy.
I’m a chili snob, as is Adam, and we both agreed that this was the best chili I’ve ever made. I may have just gotten the proportions right, or it may have been that I used stew meat instead of ground beef, but it was wonderful. The flavors were more complex than normal, and my toppings of cheese, sour cream, and avocado just made the good thing even better. Don’t forget to Spring the recipe!
I didn’t want to wait until lunch to have chili… so breakfast today was an omelet made with spinach, chili, cheese, and avocado… and that breakfast lasted almost 7 hours!
OH! You probably want to know who won the iHerb.com giveaway, don’t you? Before I get to that, don’t forget that if you visit iHerb and use the special discount code SIF006 at checkout, you will receive $5 off your first order!
Onto the winner… using Random.org:
Comment number 149, which was…..
MORGAN from Live, Love, Eat, and Play! Congratulations! Send me an email with your preferred contact email for iHerb to get ahold of you, and I’ll pass it on!
Thank you so much for your interest in the iHerb giveaway! The next contest revolves around Cute Food Saturday: In honor of CFS’s one year anniversary, I’d love to present a reader-created CFS full of cute food YOU’VE made! You’ve got about a month and a half to get thinking and creating, and the anniversary post will be a contest! Please email me submissions by February 25! Readers will be able to vote for the cutest food, and the winner will receive a special cute food prize! So get thinking!!! I’ve already gotten a few submissions, and they’re ADORABLE!!
Have a wonderful Sunday night and a happy Monday!
Cute Food Saturday!
Welcome back!
In honor of CFS’s one year anniversary, I’d love to present a reader-created CFS full of cute food YOU’VE made! You’ve got about a month and a half to get thinking and creating, and the anniversary post will be a contest! Please email me submissions by February 25! Readers will be able to vote for the cutest food, and the winner will receive a special cute food prize! So get thinking!!! I’ve already gotten a few submissions, and they’re ADORABLE!!
Before I get to today’s Cute Food, I just have to link to someone… I’m a little obsessed with making my CrackBerry Blackberry cute. It has a pink case on it, and I always have fun backgrounds. This girl made a whole page of cute food wallpapers for me! I think they work with most bigger blackberries… Thank you for those!
Now, onto the cute:
This next one is for my good friend Bobby
That’s all for today! Don’t forget to email me your own cute food submissions by February 25!
…On Nosiness and Winning
I got nothing for you all tonight, except two little things:
1. The winner of the Tropical Traditions flaxseed giveaway:
which was…….
Lara (Thinspired) of this comment about her tweet:
Congratulations!! Send me an email with your shipping information, and I’ll get it to your benefactor!
2. Like oh so many other bloggers, I’ve decided to start an “Ask Me Anything” page. The link is up above my header, and it’s completely anonymous. I’ll do my best to answer all the questions (if any) honestly! I know its a total copycat move because everyone and their mother is doing one of these, but heck, I think they’re cool!
There’s rumor of some epic sandwich happening in our house later tonight, so you may get Cute Food Saturday and a sandwich tomorrow! Speaking of Cute Food Saturday, In honor of CFS’s one year anniversary, I’d love to present a reader-created CFS full of cute food YOU’VE made! You’ve got about a month and a half to get thinking and creating, and the anniversary post will be a contest! Please email me submissions by February 25! Readers will be able to vote for the cutest food, and the winner will receive a special cute food prize! So get thinking!!! I’ve already gotten a few submissions, and they’re ADORABLE!!
So I guess that’s 3 things. Happy Friday!
Spring it and Win It (Giveaway Post)
There are just good things happening like crazy over here at the What’s For Dinner “headquarters”! First, we had the iHerb.com $50 shopping spree contest (which you can still enter), and then the announcement of the opening of my OpenSky shop, and today even MORE cool stuff!
I’ll get to the cool stuff after I show you my quite boring dinner. It tasted fantastic, but really, it wasn’t anything exciting. At all.
That would be steamed brown rice, steamed broccoli, and pan “fried” cube steak. The cool part: I steamed the broccoli in the steaming basket of my rice cooker while the rice cooked! Very convenient! The cube steak was floured, egged, then bread-crumbed, and cooked in a couple teaspoons of olive oil. Delicious? Yes. Pretty? Not really…
Now comes the good part. While I was waiting for the State of the Union to come on, it became increasingly obvious that there was NOTHING on TV. Some of you would’ve taken the opportunity to get an extra workout in. Some of you would’ve found SOMETHING to watch. Some of you may have done what I ended up doing: cleaning the kitchen and then baking brownies.
If you know me at all, you’ll know that me cleaning ANYTHING is a huge feat. I’m a very very very messy person. I was always that kid in school who had the locker that exploded whenever it was opened. My roommates in my favorite college house (kindly known as “the Blue House” because well, it was blue) had to get me a separate Rubbermaid tub for my dirty dishes because if it wasn’t there, they couldn’t get to the sink! Adam and I are slowly working on getting our house looking like grown ups live here, and just the fact that I cleaned is miraculous.
You’re probably wondering now “WHERE ARE THE BROWNIES?!” Ok, ok, here we go. After the brownies I posted on Sunday, I have been bound and determined to make a relatively healthy yet still fudgy brownie. I believe I have succeeded. This started as a vegan recipe in my head, and realized that not only did I not have any non-butter fat besides olive oil, nor did I have enough applesauce to completely sub it out, I used the butter. So they’re vegetarian, but can easily be made vegan with a couple small substitutions (and not the ones you’re thinking!)
Fun Flax Brownies
Ingredients
1 stick of butter, softened
2/3 c. sugar
4 oz. unsweetened natural applesauce
1 1/2 c. water
3/4 c. cocoa powder (I used Now Foods organic)
1/4 c. milk (I used skim, but was out of Almond milk)
1/2 c. white chocolate chips (optional)
Directions
Pre-heat oven to 350*. Add softened butter and sugar to mixing bowl and cream until light yellow and no longer grainy. While that mixes, place flaxseeds in your blender. Grind thoroughly. Add the water, and blend for 2 minutes until the mixture is foamy and is of egg-white consistency. (This is a vegan egg replacement for 2 large eggs. Feel free to use real eggs) Allow to sit a few minutes while the butter and sugar finish creaming. Add the applesauce to the butter/sugar mixture and mix well. Add flax “eggs” and mix well. Slowly add in the cocoa, and mix well. Add flour, mix until incorporated then add the milk. Gently mix in the chocolate chips and spread into a pan. I used my brownie pan, but an 8×8 would’ve been perfect. Bake about 25-30 minutes.
Remember that fudgy brownie texture I was looking for? Oh yeah, these have it… the flax and whole wheat flour along with the applesauce makes these a higher-fiber and healthier recipe than your typical egg/white flour/lotsa fat recipe, and honestly, the flax makes a great little crunch in there!
Do you notice that cool little button up under the recipe title? That button will soon become your new best friend! See, that button is from SpringPad, a very useful website which, once you have an account, can save recipes for you with just a click of a button! A few of my recipes (the most recent ones) have already been entered and will soon have buttons too. SpringPad is FREE, and the best way I’ve found to catalog all those recipes I come across that I want to try, but don’t want to print out. Or those ones that I go “OOH! I want to try that” and then forget where I saw it. Now, I can add a Web Clip button to my browser toolbar, and click it when I see a recipe I like. A window pops up, I hit save, and then all the recipes are in one place.
Now for the giveaway part (I know you love these!) MONTHS ago, I got a bag of Tropical Traditions golden flaxseeds sent to me to try. I hadn’t been able to think of anything to make with them until now, so now’s your chance: You can win one 16 oz. bag of whole organic golden flaxseeds from Tropical Traditions!
Again, I’m going to go with the multiple entries thing! You MUST choose ONE of the options to be entered. Each additional method will earn you one additional entry. You must comment for each method. 4 methods = 4 comments = 4 entries. Get it?
Method 1: Leave a comment on this post about what you’d do with the flaxseed
Method 2: Tweet about the giveaway “I want to win flaxseed from @imadedinner and @troptraditions http://bit.ly/a9jk7f”
Method 3: Join SpringPad and Spring! my brownie recipe. I’m notified when you “Spring” but a comment is needed anyway 
Happy Springing and good luck! Winner will be announced Friday evening, January 29.
*Disclaimer: Tropical Traditions provided me with a free sample of this product to review, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose. Nor was I under any obligation to review or sponsor a giveaway in return for the free product.
Butternut In An OpenSky
*Have you entered to win a $50 shopping spree from iHerb.com yet? What are you waiting for? The lovely folks at iHerb have offered $5 your first purchase when you use the code SIF006*
When I started cooking a few years ago, there were quite a few things that I never thought I’d be able to make. Among those things are: homemade black molĂ©, tamales, tortillas, pasta, and gnocchi. See, I love all those things, and I’m a complete snob when it comes to those things, they have to be fantastic. I just never thought I’d have the skill necessary to make any of them!
I made tortillas last year at one point, and while they were ok, they were definitely not anything to be proud of. I’ve yet to conquer the other dishes, that is, until tonight. Yesterday at the grocery store, butternut squashes were inexpensive, so I got a nice big one (TWSS?) I had every intent of roasting it and using the flesh for something, but I didn’t know what yet. Then, Adam showed me a new game he got on his Nintendo DSi called Personal Trainer: Cooking. It’s not a new game, but new to us.
Anyway, we looked up squash recipes, and low and behold, since the game is from Japan, all the squash recipes featured kabocha (so I thought of a few of you). Since kabocha is sweeter than a butternut squash, I figured that any of those recipes would work for the big butternut sitting on our counter. One in particular caught my eye: squash gnocchi. I had my mind made up. That’s what I’d make tonight.
Of course, I couldn’t leave well enough alone and cook the recipe as dictated by the nice little chef guy in the game, I had to muck with it. What I did end up with though were sweet, garlicky, peppery, doughy little dumplings which I tossed with sauteed spinach and mushrooms and topped with some parmesan cheese.
Butternut Squash Gnocchi
Ingredients
1 large butternut squash (about 2.5 lbs)
3 c. whole wheat flour
1 egg
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
fresh ground pepper
salt
Heat oven to 375*. Cut the squash vertically, clean out seeds and fibers, and roast on a baking pan for about 45 minutes to an hour. When done, allow to cool slightly and scoop the flesh into a large bowl (I used my KA Mixer with the dough hook to do this). Allow to cool 15 minutes. Mix in garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Rub the thyme between your fingers to break apart, then add to the mixture, stirring gently. Gradually add in the whole wheat flour until the dough comes together and is no longer sticky. At this point, bring a large pot of water to boil. Take handfuls of the dough in lightly floured hands and roll into a log on a lightly floured surface. Cut into bite sized pieces, then drop them into the boiling water. When they float, remove them with a slotted spoon to a colander.
Now, to be completely honest, I think I overworked the dough. It was a bit chewy for my taste, but the flavor was fantastic! I do realize that it’s not that daunting to make gnocchi! I’m totally trying regular potato ones soon.
Now, for the big news. I alluded to this on Twitter earlier, and being the newlywed that I am, everyone assumed my “big news” was that I’m pregnant. MOST DEFINITELY NOT! I do however have an exciting announcement!
Last week, you may have noticed that I focused on many of the gadgets, appliances, and cool things I have going on in our kitchen…heck, I even called it “gadget week”! There was a reason behind this besides just showing off the cool stuff we have. I have decided that, along with many of my blogger friends, I’m opening an OpenSky shop! See, I was always one of those people who said “I wish I could make that but I’m missing (insert gadget or ingredient here)”. I’m hoping that my shop can be the place where you find the elusive gadgets, ingredients, and fun stuff to make your kitchen complete! Right now, I only have 11 items up, but I’ll be adding as I find new ones. I’m looking forward to working with OpenSky…they seem to be the COOLEST company! You can find my shop under What’s For Dinner on OpenSky. I hope to “see” you all there. Feel free to let me know if there are items you’d like to see, and I’ll do my best to get them on there. Happy shopping!
Holy Moly Stromboli! (Giveaway Post)
Last week, I decided that it was a great time to start exploring all the fun gadgets and small appliances that Adam and I were lucky enough to receive for our wedding. I coined it “gadget week” and started with the mandoline, then the rice cooker, the fancy schmancy blender, the immersion blender, and tonight…the piece de recistance: The Kitchen Aid stand mixer. We registered for the standard enamel 5 qt. stand mixer with the top that lifts up to allow access to the bowl and paddle. Much to my surprise, my mom was generous enough to get us the KitchenAid Professional 5 qt. deluxe super duper mixer with the lever that raises the bowl to the paddle. Just look how pretty it is:
I never in a million years thought we’d get the smaller mixer we’d registered for, let alone this one… so mom, again, THANK YOU!
I went a little mixer-crazy yesterday and today in preparation for this post, and you’ll see partially why when you get to the dessert at the bottom of this post, but trust me, you’ll want to see dinner too. One of the cool things about KitchenAid mixers is their ability to make dough. Now, I’ll probably still use the old school method for making challah, but the dough hook made tonight’s dinner that much easier.
Stromboli are kind of like calzones, but also kind of like a thin-crust pizza rolled up into an Italian-style burrito. I made this wonderful whole wheat pizza dough from AllRecipes.com, except I did the kneading in the KitchenAid. It was so much easier!
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon white sugar
- 1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
- 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Directions
- In a large bowl, dissolve sugar in warm water. Sprinkle yeast over the top, and let stand for about 10 minutes, until foamy.
- Stir the olive oil and salt into the yeast mixture, then mix in the whole wheat flour and 1 cup of the all-purpose flour until dough starts to come together. Tip dough out onto a surface floured with the remaining all-purpose flour, and knead until all of the flour has been absorbed, and the ball of dough becomes smooth, about 10 minutes. Place dough in an oiled bowl, and turn to coat the surface. Cover loosely with a towel, and let stand in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
- When the dough is doubled, tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and divide into 2 pieces for 2 thin crust, or leave whole to make one thick crust. Form into a tight ball. Let rise for about 45 minutes, until doubled.
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Roll a ball of dough with a rolling pin until it will not stretch any further. Then, drape it over both of your fists, and gently pull the edges outward, while rotating the crust. When the circle has reached the desired size, place on a well oiled pizza pan. Top pizza with your favorite toppings, such as sauce, cheese, meats, or vegetables.
- Bake for 16 to 20 minutes (depending on thickness) in the preheated oven, until the crust is crisp and golden at the edges, and cheese is melted on the top.
Then, after I allowed it to do all its rising, Adam and I rolled them out and put our choice of toppings inside. I chose Canadian bacon, mozzarella, red peppers, mushrooms, and spinach. Adam chose the same but left out the “fungus and peppers” as he called it. They got rolled up, sealed, and scored on the top and baked at 425* until they were done on the outside. They looked fairly boring at first (Adam’s on the left, mine on the right):
But upon slicing into them, we found some spiraled treasure:
We topped them with some pizza sauce and dug in. They were delicious! It was like eating pizza with significantly more toppings and less cheese, and the dough was nutty and delicious!
Now, on to the dessert I made yesterday. There was something special about it… it had ingredients in it that I wouldn’t have normally bought: almond flour, organic cocoa, and sunflower seed butter. Why did I have these ingredients? Well, the lovely people at iHerb.com offered me a $50 shopping spree to test out their website and sample some of their products and I happily obliged! I got an opportunity to sample some things that I haven’t tried before due to cost or availability, and their website is fantastic. Some things I knew I wanted to try, so I just typed them into the search interface. Some things though, I found through a category search, or an alphabetical search. They have over 18,000 natural products, so it was a bit overwhelming! I ended up with:
- 1 case PB&J Larabars
- agave nectar
- organic cocoa powder
- Bob’s Red Mill almond flour
- Bob’s Red Mill high fiber oat bran
- SunButter
I had something in mind when I picked these items, besides the fact that I wanted to taste them. I wanted to use this (from Adam’s mom):
to make some brownies! I found a recipe to adapt, and ended up with this result:
The recipe for SunButter Cocoa Brownies:
Ingredients
Directions
Preheat oven to 350. Beat eggs until slightly frothy, then add oil and mix well. Add sugar and cocoa and mix well, then add flours. Once the batter has come together, add milk and SunButter and mix well. Pour into pan and bake 22-26 minutes. Enjoy!
These were great, and it was so much fun trying out new ingredients! Do you want to try new ingredients from iHerb.com? This is your chance! For the low low cost of a comment below, you can be entered to win your very own $50 shopping spree from iHerb.com! To get extra entries, you can:
- Post about the contest on your blog and link back to this post. (http://www.imadedinner.net/2010/01/24/holy-moly-stromboli-giveaway-post) Then, leave another comment telling me you’ve done so.
- Tweet about this contest by saying “I want to go shopping @iherb with @imadedinner! http://tinyurl.com/iherb” then leave me another comment telling me you’ve done so.
- Visit iHerb.com and tell me the ONE item you’re dying to try! Then (you guessed it) leave another comment to let me know you’ve done so.
Only comments will be counted as entries, so if you just comment, that’s one entry. You will need to comment that you’ve posted, tweeted, or visited as well. Good luck! Winner will be announced next Sunday, January 31! You may have noticed that it looks a little different around here… what do you think? Can you read the posts ok? Let me know if you’re having trouble…
Have a great Sunday night, and a pleasant Monday!
