paleo hamburger buns

We've been slowly trying to cut out grains in our diet: I  generally feel better when I'm not eating them, and Mr. Bama, who was introduced to Crossfit last year, has been learning more and more about Paleo.  My Sugar detox last year also helped kickstart an interest in a grain & dairy free diet.  So began the voyage of finding alternatives, and while it's been slow and gradual, it's been full of more surprises than disappointments.

One big thing I had a hard time with was hamburger buns. The only American version of buns available to us are the nasty Wonderbread psuedo-"wheat" buns that are pretty gross and filled with a lot of mystery ingredients. So I set off to find a good alternative that nixed wheat, tasted good and could handle the task of taking a hamburger from my plate to my mouth without crumbling. After wading through recipe after recipe of cauliflower and meat based bun recipes (come on now...)  I finally found this gem, which did the trick and turned out to be super tasty.

So without further ado, I present:

Paleo Hamburger Buns 

(original recipe found here)

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs
• 4 tbs almond flour
• 4 tbs coconut flour
• 4 tbs coconut oil (melted)
• 1 tsp baking powder 
• 1/2 tsp sea salt

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. In a large bowl, mix coconut flour, almond flour, baking powder and sea salt together with a fork.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs and coconut oil.
4. Pour egg mixture into flour mixture and combine completely.
5. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and grease the paper lightly with coconut oil.
6. Pour the batter onto the oiled parchment paper to make eight (3-inch diameter) pools.
7. Bake for 10 minutes.

Each "biscuit" if you will, serves as a top or bottom for the burger.
Serves: 4

say cheese

Did you know Amsterdam has a Cheese Museum?  We haven't made it there yet, but this may have convinced us.

Happy Friday (may it be as yummy as ours was)

(please don't) pour some sugar on me

Mr Bama and I have been MIA, but it's been because this month has been a little hectic. Adding to the craziness, we decided September would be "Sugar-Free September."  This means:

• no carbs
• no sugar-based anything
• no sweeteners (ie, honey, molasses, maple syrup, etc)
• no fruit (!)
• no starches
• no alcohol (unhappy face)
• lots of meat and happy, healthy fats
• I can still drink coffee!!

Thanks to the 21 Day Sugar Free Detox, via Balanced Bites my eyes have been opened to just how much sugar most Americans eat.  Even if you're like me, someone who doesn't drink soft drinks, really doesn't have a sweet tooth, and isn't a fan of baking, you eat amazing amounts of sugar in your bread, your fruits, and even in some of your veggies.

image via

I thought this would be a breeze, but boy was I wrong. I can't find a ton of the ingredients used for many of the 21- Day recipes either at our tiny commissary or on the German economy (apparently Germans don't like coconut flour?) so it's been particularly frustrating.  We've ordered coconut and almond flour from Amazon, but their estimated delivery times are in October, after the detox is over. And I really didn't think this through before dedicating September as THE month to do this.  Because our anniversary falls during the detox and I MAY have to break it to have the customary celebratory champagne.

image via

14 days in and here are my pros/cons list

Pros:

• I'm eating more veggies than I ever have before.  I actually like squash and avocados!
• Bacon is not your enemy, it's your friend
• coconut butter smells so much better than olive oil.
• most 21-day detox approved recipes are insanely simple, 5 ingredients MAYBE.  My kind of cooking.

Cons:

• no real weight loss, but no weight gain. 
• total lack of energy.  I have no desire to work out.  AT ALL. I'm exhausted, un-enthused and find that any energy I do I tend to think about my chocolate or popcorn cravings and how much i miss them.
• Going out with friends can be uber- frustrating, as in Germany most stuff is breaded and fried or potato-based.  When I ask for items without "brot" or "kartoffolen"I get the oddest looks.

Here's hoping that as I start my third and final week of the detox I get a little kick in energy and the benefits start to show up.  Otherwise I'm afraid that come day 21 I will just bury my head in a mound of croissants and never look back.

UPDATE (9/17):  So this weekend I went to Ramstein and bought the commissary out of their coconut and almonds flours just to tide us over until the Amazon orders arrived.  Then I go to the mail room this morning and what do I find?

Thats 5lbs of almond flour there baby, bringing truth to the saying of "it's either a feast or a famine."  That should make crust for oh, about 10 paleo pizzas.

I'm back, but that's not the point of this post.

This is:

(photo court of agrarian by Williams-Sonoma, found here)

Williams-Sonoma recently launched their new DIY home horticulturist and farmer line.  It's official, getting your hands dirty and growing your own stuff is now chic. This agrarian line allows you to order a mushroom growing kit,  purchase canning supplies, even buy yourself a W-S approved chicken coop for your back yard (that is, unless you live in Virginia Beach, VA).  My mom's reply when she saw this in the most recent W-S catalogue was "What?  This is like depression-era tech"  No mom, it's recession-era tech, and it's very "in" right now.

Anyways,  the thing that really gets me excited about this new line are three words: DIY Kombucha Kit.

While in the states (more on that later) I drank a whole bottle of kombucha almost every day I was home.  I knew my precious time w/ my favorite fermented drink was numbered, so I made sure not one bottle went to waste.  I even emailed GT Dave's to inquire about overseas sales (No dice.)  I began to accept that the rest of my stay in germany would be yummy and healthy Kombucha free.

Now, this changes everything.

GOODNESS I hope they ship here...

clean and simple potato and leek soup

As a pre-Christmas / post-Thanksgiving gift, my mom bought me the Clean Eating 2 cookbook along with the "Clean Eating: Classic Comfort Foods" special edition magazine.  The recipes are absolutely amazing and I'm planning on working my way through each of them in coming months.  Since its been snowing here a bit lately, its been perfect soup and stew weather - and since I also have a huge bag of potatoes lying around (don't ask...) I decided to dive in and whip up some potato and leek soup to last me a few chilly nights!

my cornucopia of ingredients with the strategically
placed original recipe in the background.

Potato & Leek Soup with Cheddar Topping (via  "Clean Eating: Classic Comfort Foods")
serves: 6 | Hands on time: 10 mins | Total Time: 30 mins
 Ingredients:

• 2 tsp olive oil
• 3 lrg leeks, white and light green parts only, rinsed and finely sliced into semicircles
• pinch each of sea salt & fresh ground blk pepper
• 3 yukon gold potatoes, peeled and diced
• 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth (veggie broth works too, for our vegetarian friends)
• 2 cups low-fat milk
• pinch ground nutmeg or allspice
• 1/2 cup grated low-fat sharp cheddar cheese

Method:

In a large saucepan, heat oil over medium-high.  Add leeks, salt and pepper and cook, stirring frequently, until very soft - about 5 mins.

Add potatoes, and broth and bring to a boil.    Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until potatoes simmer, 8 to 10 mins.

Using a ladle or a large spoon, carefully remove 2 cups soup and transfer to an upright blender; puree til smooth, about 2 minutes.

its so pretty and bright green

Return puree to saucepan and then add cheese and stir until cheese melts.  

Ladle into serving bowls, dividing evenly.  You can garnish with some Italian parsley and/or additional nutmeg.  

I had a hearty loaf of Volkorn (whole wheat) Baguette lying around, so I used that to accompany my soup.  The outcome?  It's not as thick or creamy as I've had in the past, but thats kind of what made it great.  It's really light tasting, but also pretty filling.  All-in-all I would have to rate this a 3 on a scale of  1-10, with 1 being "pop-in-microwave-and-watch-easy" and 10 being "lock-yourself-in-the-kitchen-w/ a-bottle-of-wine-because-you-ain't-going-anywhere-for-a-few-hours" easy.

if you do decide to make this, please comment below and let us know how it turns out!

do you know what it means to miss whole foods?

Goodness I miss this store... if you've ever visited the uptown New Orleans location and their teeeny tiny parking lot, you get it.



"I've been on edge since they took Kombucha off the shelf."  Gosh I miss Kombucha...

Beautiful Cooking

Forget the floral, kitschy rick-rack trimmed aprons of yore.  I am lusting over COOKie's apron collection -

carla

julietta

lukrecja

All aprons are 100% cotton (made from the same fabric used to make chef jackets) and made in Poland.  Truly for the chef who still wants to feel pretty - or for the dinner party hostess who wants to look fabulous in both her kitchen and her dining room.

all images court of looklikecookie.  (all prices are in Polish Ziotych [zt].  As of today, 1zt = $0.30 USD)

Quick and Easy Salmon

I've been cooking for one a lot lately (sadness...) so I have to admit I haven't been too terribly creative with my cooking -- it's far more fun to try new and exciting recipes when you have someone else who will enjoy it as much as you do.  So I've been falling back on some of the tried and true favorite recipes that are easy and have never failed.  It means I can have a meal within 20 mins (only 5 of which are for prep), which is great at the end of a long day.

So today I share with you the easiest and tastiest Salmon recipe I have found (courtesy of Real Simple mag).  All you need is the following  to serve 4:

• 4 wild Alaskan coho salmon filets
• 4 tomatoes on the vine, cut in half
• olive oil
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 2 garlic cloves, sliced
• 1 tsp paprika
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme, removed from stems and chopped (dried thyme can be substituted, but it's not as tastey in my honest opinion)

- Set your oven to broiler (or if you're like me and don't have a broiler, just turn it up as high as possible).  Start with a broiler-proof pan (something with a rim) and drizzle a little olive oil on the bottom (approx 1 tsp).  Take a paper towel and spread oil to cover bottom of the pan.  Place each filet, as well as the tomatoes, cut side up, on the pan.  Very lightly use salt and pepper to season the filets and the tomatoes.

- Dust just the salmon filets with the paprika.  Then place the slices of garlic and sprinkle the thyme all over the salmon and tomatoes.  Finish with drizzling a little olive oil over the top of everything.  Then pop into the oven and broil for 8-10 minutes

- While the salmon & tomatoes were cooking, I decided I needed to add some color to my meal. So I pulled some kale out of the freezer (haven't found fresh kale yet over here) and started sauteing up some of that as I waited (just add olive oil, garlic and some red pepper flakes to your kale as you steam / saute for 10-ish minutes.  Couldn't get easier.).

- 8-10 minutes later, pull out your pan - note: It will be insanely hot, but the aroma will be mouthwatering.

 - Then plate your food and voila!  Incredibly easy, healthy and tasty meal with minimal work!

can you tell I've been watching a lot of episodes of Kitchen Nightmares
recently?  Too much emphasis on presentation.

I think the best part of this meal is that you get your Omega-3s from your Salmon, your Lycopene / beta-carotene (among other nutrients) from the Tomatoes, manganese and vitamin B-6 from Garlic, and if you add Kale like I did, you get valuable antioxidants, as well as Vitamins K, A & C.  I may not be a nutritionist  but basic research shows that this is a tasty, healthy, low calorie meal loaded with nutrients that is also EASY!  So happy cooking!

When Good Food Goes Bad

I'm sure this isn't news to you if you've even glanced at a newspaper lately, but Germany's going through a *small* health scare.  It's not just "oh, gosh! I got food poisoning, was sick all night, but felt good the next morning" kind of food poisoning, but the scary "organ failure, you may die" kind of nasty E.Coli food poisoning.  While it's primarily an issue in North Germany (think Berlin), many places down in Bavaria have pulled lettuce, cucumber and tomatoes from their food offerings as a safety precaution.  While I appreciate the proactive approach from restaurants and grocery stores, it has turned salads and anything else green and normally "healthy" into being characterized as unhealthy and dangerous. It also has resulted in slightly less desirable food.  I was standing next to a girl in a sandwich shop and she ordered a BLT sandwich.  The result was a piece of bacon between two slices of bread... yeah.  So this normally healthy green loving girl has resorted to trying out the less than healthy delicacies of Germany.

First - the Pork Schnitzel

Breaded and fried pork with french fries.  Kind of like a pork chop, but the seasoning makes it delectable.  It's actually pretty light for a fried food, but still it's fried and not something that should be eaten daily.  But boyyy is it tasty (especially mixed with a local Hefeweizen).  PS - The famous Jaegerschnitzel is when they add a mushroom sauce to the schnitzel.  Germans LOVE their mushrooms, not so much for this non-fungi fan.

Second - The Döner Kebap

(source)

Turkish immigrants brought with them to Germany the Döner Kebap and it has became as big a part of the German cuisine as the Schnitzel. The bare hunk of meat rotating on a pike seems kind of scary at first, but trust me, it is amazingly tasty.  Usually you add tomato and lettuce to your döner, but since that ingredient is currently hard to come by, döner and onions with garlic sauce it was!

Döner macht schöner ( Döner makes you beautiful).

YUM!  Sidenote: I got the "small" size.

Third - Anything from a backerei

(source)

 The French have their croissants, the Belgians have their waffles and the Germans have their pretzels.  And trust me, you haven't had a pretzel until you've had a German pretzel.  Ohmygoodness.  Even if you aren't a pretzel fan, the options avaliable at any backerei around Germany are enough to send you into a carbohydrate coma.

(source)

So now I know why everyone warned me about how hard it was to avoid the "Bavarian Bulge" when you live in Germany.  Here's hoping we get veggies back soon, otherwise my waistline doesn't stand a chance against this amazing food!  On the flip side, it is better than contracting a deadly strain of E. Coli.  Oh the sacrifices...

Onion Soup for the Stressed-out Soul

Yesterday was one of those days where a full day of running around "getting things done" actually resulted in nothing getting done.  The result was such a feeling of defeat (especially after the news that the move will NOT go as planned) that I just wanted something super comforting to make and eat for dinner.  I've been in the process of transferring my recipes to my new fancy schmancy recipe book (thanks mom!) and I found one of my favorite long lost recipes:  Spring Onion Soup. It's the Spring, and I still had yet to initiate my Le Creuset Christmas present, so I figured heck why not!

Spring Onion Soup (makes 6 1-1/2 cu servings)

• 1tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 large sweet vidalia onions, sliced
• 2 cups chopped Spring onions / leeks
• 2 tbsp chopped garlic
• 1 tsp chopped fresh thyme
• 1/4 cup sherry
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
• 3-14 oz cans low sodium beef broth
• 1/4 minced scallions/ chives
• 6 slices country whole wheat bread
• 1 cup shredded Gruyère cheese

Here's where we start:

onions galore!

this is the hardest part of the entire recipe for me.  Onions and my eyes
do NOT get along

lots o' leeks

1.  Heat oil in large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add sweet onions and stir to coat. Cover, reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring often until soft and starting to brown ; approx 6-8 mins.

saute-ing onions are one of my fave kitchen smells

2.  Add spring Onions/ leeks, garlic and thyme.  cook uncovered, stirring often, until starting to soften, 3-4 mins.

yum yum

3.  Stir in sherry and pepper; increase heat to medium-high and simmer.

got to use up the contents of our well-stocked bar since we
cannot take any of it overseas with us.  

Cook, stirring often, until most of the liquid has evaporated, 1-2 mins.

4.  Stir in broth and bring to boil.

Reduce heat to simmer and cook until veggies are tender, about 3 mins.  Remove from heat and stir in chives/scallions

5.  Meanwhile, toast the bread and divide among bowls; top bread with cheese.

Ladle soup over bread and cheese.  Serve immediately

absolutely simple and amazing!

Instant stress relief, at least for the moment.  Here's hoping for a less stressful and much more productive day today. Have a spectacular Tuesday!

RAW-rrrrrr

That's my healthy food growl.  We actually, its my "hey, I'm sick of feeling puffy, out of shape, and oh my gosh is that ME in the mirror!?" statement.  Its a funny thing that happens when you get married (or when you live in New Orleans...), you kind of let your nutrition go to the birds.  The food here is SOOO good (an understatement), so its hard not to pick up the phone and order something when you're exhausted from a long day & don't feel like cooking.  I hardly ever ate out growing up, so I consider New Orleans a treat - we're not going to live here forever, right?  So enjoy the food while you can!  Then that leads to also drinking, which also leads to sleeping in, being lazy and forgoing that whole working-out thing.  Bah, I played sports in college and I've worked out almost every day since I was a wee summer swim team-leaguer back in Virginia, I'm in great shape, so surely a few days not working out won't matter....

...a few days, that turn in to weeks, which turn into, well you get it.

It wasn't until I saw myself in the mirror the other day and almost screamed outloud "What the!? Is that cellulite!????"  Yeah, no good.  That plus I'd been feeling insanely sluggish, tired and just all-around BLAH.  It wasn't till my little mirror revelation that I examined my options:

1. workout and still eat what I'm eating.  Gross in, gross out, but at least I'll be maintaining my weight
2. clean my diet up, work out and kick in the butt once and for all those stupid last 20 lbs that I have never ever been able to get rid of.
3. do nothing and just balloon, becoming the larger version of an oompa loompa

source

I choose option 2.  Yeah, in the middle of wrapping up my design projects (oh.ver.welm.ing) and planning a move to another continent, I'm going to squeeze cleaning up my diet into the mix.  Oye vey.

So this past weekend I had one of my best friends visit NOLA with her husband.  During her stay, she mentioned that she had been trying out a raw food diet for the past few weeks.  My friend has two kids, so if it takes too long to make or if it's too difficult, then its a no go recipe wise.  She explained how everything is in smoothie form or very simplified, so in a sense it's actually almost an easier diet than a western diet.  There's a whole science behind it (I'm sparing you the details) but essentially its a diet that cleanses and tries to balance the acidity and alkalinity in a body .  Now, I'm not one to go whole-hog raw, because I'm way to much of a carnivore.

collageOrama Cow Cuts of Beef Diagram on etsy

But what's nice about the raw diet is you can choose to go 50%, 75% or 100% raw. I'm placing my bets low and aiming for 50% - so I can still slip in my sauted chicken and grilled beef Filets into my diet.

So last night I planned my first raw meal:  Lettuce Wraps.

Strike one: WFM didnt have hemp seeds.  I subbed golden flax seeds.
Strike two: I love spinach, but its hard for me to eat it raw.  I also noticed there was no lettuce in the recipe (even though it's a recipe for Lettuce Wraps) So I swapped that part for Romaine Lettuce.
Strike three: do you know how hard it is to cut a mango?  Yeah...... I didn't either until last night

So long and short if it, here's my bounty:

A little bit of mango (finally figured out how to slice that one), some cabbage, some ginger, basil, cilantro and a carrot cut down into matchsticks.

Then you make your sauce, which i didn't snap a picture of, but its essentially lemon juice, ginger, red chili powder, almond butter and honey.  After blending that, it goes with shredded cabbage in a bowl

Then, you take your cabbage mix, put it on your lettuce leaf, then add mango, basil, cilantro, and sprinkle some flax seeds on top.  Then voila!

my lettuce wrap unwrapped

Result?  actually really yummy!  It was very very light, but after two wraps both Mr. Bama and I were comfortably full.  I usually find myself an hour after I eat back in the kitchen trying to find something else to eat, but not last night.  I think Mr. Bama retracted his statement of "yes, please make those again someday!" after he was stuck cleaning almond butter off of all the dishes, but otherwise, a lovely home run on day one of raw foods!  Next up, my new raw drink find.....

Im-Pressed

Yesterday I set out to start cataloging all of the electronics in the house in preparation for the move.  My goal is to have everything so well documented, so that if the movers break anything, I'll have an exact description to give them for compensation.  In this house, you break it, you buy it... again.  So yesterday was picture taking day -  full of unhooking, unplugging, dusting off and making everything look as nice as possible for its photo-op. I also was armed with a stack of sticky notes so I could mark anything that wasn't compatible voltage-wise.  After moving from A/V equipment onto haircare tools I realized "hey, most of our stuff I can actually use in our new country!  Yippee!"  A sense of calm fell over me as I thanked manufacturers for making electronics that can easily switch from one voltage to another.

My tune quickly changed as I entered the kitchen and started going through my kitchen appliances.

By the end of my rounds, my kitchen looked like it was a victim of a sticky-note explosion.  Every single kitchen appliance we own is incompatible -- our amazing Kitchen Aid Mixer, our over-used popcorn maker, our too-small but perfect food processor- all 120v.  Then, it was with fear I approached my coffeemaker and turned it over to look at the manufacturer information.  Sadness fell over me as I stared at the hard, cold facts printed right in front of me: my beloved Kuerig was 120v compatible.  As I stuck my damning sticky note on its cover, a sense of panic came over me - it's going to be stressful enough without having a permanent place to live for almost a month, what the heck am I going to do without my soothing ritual of my 10 morning cups of coffee (ok, maybe not 10 cups, but its definitely not 1)

It wasn't until later in the day when was wandering around World Market that the answer hit me.  Actually, to be precise, it hit my foot, as in the little labels they use to advertise prices of products fell on my foot as I was standing in front of a display.  I picked up the label, which advertised a sale on Bodum French Presses, and I almost said outloud "Ah HA!  Screw electricity!"  I picked up the press and made my purchase, marching home with a smile on my face for my smart buy.

(source)

Then I got home and realized "I have no idea how to work one of these things."  Yes, I've drank French press before, but I've never made it myself.  I sat analyzing the directions, thinking "this seems easy enough, but still easy enough to screw up."  I've designed intricate building systems, but yet I was intimidated by a simple French press.    So this morning I went to work experimenting.  Coarse ground coffee?  Well I had my French Market Coffee w/ Chicory, which looked coarse, so I went with that.  8 scoops.

Next: Fill it up with water and stir -- heres where I got nervous because I ALWAYS get the ratios off, hence why my coffee often tastes like jet-fuel.  The Keurig fixes that problem for me, but non-the-less, time to learn again.

Then I stirred my brew, put the cap on and let it sit for 5 mins.  

I pressed down the plunger and poured.  I said a little prayer before taking a sip, and the result?

It was the best cup of coffee I've ever drank.

Seriously.  

So smooth and perfect -- I automatically thought "what the heck have I been drinking the past 6 years?"  Even with chicory, this coffee was perfect.  I'm in love.

Do you use a French press to make your coffee?  If so, what caused you to make the switch?

My "Naked" Obsession

Confession -- I love junk food.  Well, not technically junk food, but delivery.  I try to eat organic and clean most of the time and I adore cooking.  But, then theres the undeniable fact that at times I can be mind numbingly lazy.  Major meal-creating hurdle.  It's made worse that whenever someone suggests to get food delivered, my guard shrinks and I'm all in, no holds barred.  I ignore the grease, the MSG, the fattiness and I become a normal, non-health conscious American.  Then, after the damage is done and my Chicken chow mein has been devoured, I feel this sense of fullness (physical) and shame in the fact that I strive so hard to eat well, and then with one moment of weakness and a phone call, it all goes down the drain.  I'd always wondered why someone couldn't muster up the idea of creating healthy, tastey, guilt-free and affordable delivery.  It felt like it was a wish that would never come true

Until about 2 months ago, when Naked Pizza came into my life.

(source)

I'd received some fliers from this New Orleans-based company in the past and didn't think much about them - they were in a shady part of town (yes, I'm an Uptown NOLA snob...so what) and it just didn't seem appealing.  That was until right before the Superbowl I got another flier from them toting their SuperBiotic Pizza.  While the toppings on the pizza weren't appealing to me (I'm a cheese pizza kinda girl), the fact that it toted its presence of probiotics was intriguing.  While I know probiotics are a buzzword of sorts now, it still tickled my interest that pizza company would make a point to advertise that fact.  So I sat down and did some research on the company -- and I was surprisingly thrilled by what I read.  Fun facts:

• New Orleans owned and operated.  They currently have 13 franchised locations all over the country (and in Dubai!!) and are expanding with 19 more locations by year's end.  An additional 8 locations have been awarded, meaning they will be opening within the next few years.  Check to see if you live near one here!
• started by an anthropologist, the idea of the pizza is to get to the root of human digestion.  Apparently grain has been absent from our diet for a huge chunk of humanity, so its a shock to our bodies when we eat highly processed, single grain breads high in sugar.  The amount of insulin released to deal with and flush out basic dough (and most highly processed bread) is unnatural and unhealthy.  Naked Pizza uses dough, called their "Ancestral Blend" that has 10 grains, plus prebiotic agave fiber and probiotics.  They don't use sugar to season their dough, just agave (yup, same stuff used to make tequila.).  The simple ingredients and heft of the bread Naked Pizza uses makes it tougher for our bodies to digest, which is actually a good thing.  

(source)

• All of the ingredients used as toppings are all-natural.  Now theres a huge debate about using organic vs all-natural in the company, but thats for another blog post.  The basics are that their tomato sauce has no added sugar or citric acid. Their cheese is 100% natural, rGBH-free, real Wisconsin mozzarella. Their vegetables are all-natural, no additives and their meats are real pork, chicken and beef—free of growth hormones and antibiotics.  Nice and simple.
• How can they expand with the speed they're moving without a national presence?  Well, it helps to have the backing of Mark Cuban (of Dallas Mav's fame) and the Kraft Group (No relation to the cheese).  
• They are the nicest company to order pizza from - the guys on the phone seem insanely happy to be working for their company and the delivery guys are incredibly sweet.  Plus, I've never had a pizza be delivered in over 20 mins.  Lightening fast, I tell yah.
• $5.99 for a 12" cheese pizza!? yes - Yummy and affordable!
• Their social media is amazing.  I love following them on twitter (the deals rock and the links to great health conscious articles are awesome).  They joke about how they're a social media company that happens to sell pizza.  Hey, anything to get the word out about eating cleaner and having a healthier lifestyle is cool in my book.

So it's official -- my new food crush is a pizza company with a cute smiley face as their logo.  Love at first guilt-free bite.


check out more about this game-changing company here: http://www.nakedpizza.biz/

La Bella Lasagna (part 2)

My Grandmother calls Lasagna "the Poor Man's Italian" as in it's easy to make and hard to screw up.  However, I have met many a person who is incredibly intimidated by this actually very simple dish.  And this post will show you how actually its not as tough as it seems

The Lasagna!
So now that you have your awesome homemade sauce simmering on the stove top beside you, its time to break out the basics for your awesome lasagna.

1.  The Meat: In a pan take your ground beef and brown it up.  No need to use any olive oil or anything - the natural grease of the beef will help lubricate things.  Also a non-stick pan will help with clean-up (also, it helped alleviate me of the trauma from a week earlier where i burned meat so badly on our beauti-mus copper core all-clad saute pan that it took almost 4 days to just get it all off the pan.  Lesson learned: do not burn your beef.  That is bad.)


brown baby, brown.

 Keep in mind another gem of wisdom from my awesome Grandma (that she got from her mother in law): "Use the best ingredients you can find, or else don't bother cooking it all."  Don't use chuck, mediocre ground beef, use the best you can find - that goes for all of the ingredients you use for your lasagna.  The best part is that most ingredients for Italian food are ridiculously cheap to begin with and the recipes are simple, so you don't have to worry about busting your wallet just to cook a really good meal.  So many times people end up using sub-par ingredients and wonder why the lasagna tastes only okay or doesn't hold well over time.  It's the ingredients.

Next up - your sausage.  After the beef is browned, remove it from the heat and put in in a large mixing bowl.  Then add your sausage to the same pan -Sweet Italian sausage is the best.  I've used turkey sausage in the past, and while it wasn't bad, it just didn't taste as good in the end (and over time).

kinda gross, I know, but that's cooking for ya.

This might be the grossest part of the entire process, but alas, it is necessary.  You need to take the sausage and squeeze it out of its casing.  Yup - that means hands on!  I was grossed out by this the first time I helped my mom make this back in high school, but its not a problem any more.  Its amazing how well you adjust to gross stuff over time.

sausage chopped up to look like ground beef

You want almost the reverse of the ground beef - go from white-ish color to a pink-brown.  Once the sausage is browned, combine it in the bowl with the ground beef and then set to the side.

2. The Cheese: Now onto the non-meat part of the recipe.  In another mixing bowl, combine some more basic ingredients:  Ricotta, beaten eggs, pepper, garlic salt and some more parsley. 

Mix til combined and then set aside.

3. Play Architect!  A few months ago Mr. Bama bought me two awesome Lasagna pans to a - encourage me to cook him some lasagna, and b- alleviate my other lasagna trauma (last year my stupid aluminum pans kind of imploded, with the lasagna still inside.  so bad...).  These pans are amazing, heavy duty, and best of all, were on sale at Home Goods (yippee!!).  Temporary ones are still fine, but i don't suggest the Wal-mart kind......

nothing says "I'm a serious Italian" like a heavy duty Lasagna pan

Any who, break out your pasta.  This is tricky, because when you think of lasagna noodle, the 9x3x3 box  from the super market containing the flat noodles with wavy trim comes to mind.  These are fine, but if you can manage to snag a few large sheets of flat noodles that you do not need to boil in water, then even better.   While I do have a pasta maker that can make lasagna sheets, I was slightly overwhelmed with the rest of the lasagna project, so I caved and bought some flat sheets from WFM.  I have to admit, this was the most expensive part of the entire recipe, but very worth it in the end.

Spread some of your sauce out on the bottom of your pan, then lay out your lasagna. 

Next up, sprinkle handfuls of your meat over the pasta and drop spoonfuls of your ricotta mix evenly over the meat. 

Fill the empty spaces with slices of mozzarella and then sprinkle with Parmesan (note: DO NOT skimp on the quality of your parmesan-regianno.  Nothing is worse then bad cheese.)

 Then cover your cheese/meat mix with sauce and continue the process three more times, ending with just a bare layer of lasagna (save the best pieces of your pasta for this layer.)  Complete by adding only sauce, and the cheeses. 

Do not worry if you run out of ingredients or have too much of something.  No matter how much you "plan" out your ratios, you will ALWAYS (yes, always) have too much sauce, not enough meat or too many noodles and not enough ricotta.  Its just the way it is.

Pop your lasagna in the oven (450 degrees) for about 40 mins, which just allows the cheeses to melt and combine everything together.  When done, let sit a few minutes, then slice up, serve on plates, spoon some of your leftover sauce and sprinkle with Parmesan.  Then enjoy your truly Bell'Alimento (beautiful food)!

nom nom sooooo goood

The best part is that your Lasagna can be frozen -- and believe it or not, this makes it taste better.  Cut up your lasagna into serving sized pieces and wrap with freezer paper.  Then pop in the freezer and take out, thaw and reheat when ready to enjoy in the future.  It sounds bizarre, but 6 month old lasagna is SOOOOO tastey (it sounds gross, but trust me).

If you partake in your own lasagna (or any other food) adventure, please share.  I'd love to hear your own twists on and stories behind your own family recipes!