Homemade Pizza

This is what I have been doing for pizza.

3 1/2 cups flour
1 cup warm water (between 95° and 115° F.)
2 T yeast (2 tablespoons, I like my dough a little yeasty. You can use less)
2 T honey
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp. salt


after you roll the dough out, I usually stab it with a fork a few times. the sauce gets in to the holes, and the crust doesn't bubble up.

I have done two variations with this.

Rather than pizza sauce, I have used pesto. Amazing. If you do this, don't put any olive oil on your crust once you have rolled it out.
I have also done a tomato sauce with stewed tomatoes (there are directions for this in my chili recipe) and a can of tomato paste. add some oil, honey, and some spices... perfection

as far as the toppings go, i have done broccoli and spinach and soy feta with the pesto. And I have done bell peppers and mushrooms with the tomato sauce.

This recipe is so basic. You can sway from it as you please.

*** Save your left over pizza sauce. I added a little heavy cream to it the next day and tossed it over some pasta. Yummy.

we cooked again last night. Marty mentioned that we have yet to have an unsuccessful meal. The next one will probably taste awful. We made some sort of stir fry, white rice, steam fried white asparagus, and new potatoes. the stir fry was awesome. we combined tofu, one red pepper, some green beans, snap peas, squash, zucchini, and onion. all of this was put in to a wok. The tofu was cooked delicately in the wok first. we cooked them using a Thai peanut sauce and some coconut oil. The tofu kind of fell apart but we were actually okay with that. this, over rice = great. the potatoes were just boiled. the white asparagus was just in a small frying pan with some red pepper and some green beans. I believe marty cooked them using a little butter.

we kind of just went at it. and because of that, we were successful.
we also made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and those were great.
the recipe was not vegan, but i just substituted apple sauce for eggs and it turned out well.

i might try to cook some acorn squash tonight.

jessica

So far

I have been a vegetarian for almost a year now. I don't eat eggs and I rarely drink milk. I recently decided to make the decision to become a vegan. I knew it was going to be hard, but I know I would feel so much better. My friends and I cook often. It makes cooking cheaper and a lot more fun. I decided to document some of my successes and failures.
So here goes it.

Vegetarian Chili:

This is easy and amazing. Use this as a base. Add more or less of whatever you like depending on your tastes. I have found that being experimental is what makes the best.
Tomato Sauce (I used two boxes or a can)
Equal parts water
2 Tomatoes
1/2 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup water
1/2 onion
1 zucchini
2 Squash
2 carrots
2-3 cloves garlic
Mushrooms (I use roughly 4 large slices of portabello Mushrooms)
Chili powder
Salt and pepper

Start by stewing your tomatoes. Cut them in small pieces. Simmer them in a medium sauce pan with 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup of sugar, Some onion, and some salt and pepper. Let them sit, covered, for about 30 minutes. I do this at the beginning and add it to the chili at the end. In a large pot, add your tomato sauce and water. bring it to a boil and add your vegetables. I cut them up in decent sizes. Your zucchini and squash will get smaller as it cooks longer. You can choose to roast your garlic if you like. I don't. Drain your tomatoes a little and add it to your pot. Season with the chili powder and some salt and pepper. I usually add a little garlic salt or garlic powder.

HINT: You can do this all in the morning and let it sit on low in a crock pot all day. I usually don't have that kind of time.


Stuffed Peppers:
Very easy. Honestly all we did was add some rice, soy feta, mushrooms and pepper to the peppers. Let it cook on about 350 for 25 minutes.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies:
This was an experiment. I had a recipe that called for eggs and milk. I veganized it myself. They are very good. Kind of a funny shape, but I don't really have a cookie scoop, so that may help.

1 cup Pumpkin
3/4 cup Raw Sugar
1/2 oil (I use sunflower oil)
1/4 cup apple sauce
2 cups wheat flower (I am partial to it)
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. soy milk
1 cup chocolate chips (or more if you like. *BIG SMILES*)
1 tsp. Vanilla

Dissolve the baking soda in milk and set aside.
In a large bowl, add pumpkin, sugar, oil and applesauce. Stir well.
Add flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda mix. Stir very well. It gets kind of thick.
Stir in chocolate chips and vanilla.
Bake on 375 for 10-12 minutes.