Here’s That “Sneak It In” Post–AKA: “Food Post”

A few days ago I made a post about my almond cream cheese and using it to make a low-carb, gluten free pizza. I got the photos of the almond cream cheese (okay it’s just called almond cheese but it’s like cream cheese so why not call it that) and the crust for the pizza…but forgot the rest. Here’s the post to go along with the one where I said I’d just slip it in there.

My pizza:

It tasted really good. The kids even liked it (I didn’t even try to get dh to try it). I will admit that there’s cheese on the top and I used some mashed kidney beans in the sauce. Yes. Yes, I know; I’m weird. And…I did suffer for adding the cheese but for a pizza that tastes like pizza but doesn’t have the wheat (I’ll take the stomach grumbles from the cheese as opposed to itchiness, bloated gut and headache from the wheat), it works for me. The texture is not right for pizza unless you eat it cold, then it’s pretty close!

Here’s my grocery shopping for the week:

Oh, yes, and… miiiiine…

I can have cottage cheese for some reason and have no issues. I’d bought whipping cream and 1/2 n 1/2 the week before for my coffee because I was tired of making the almond milk but I’m going to go back to the almonds. It cost $3.48 for the milk-stuffs for one week as opposed to $4.29 for the almonds which last longer than a week. I prefer the taste of the milk-stuffs but my stomach doesn’t treat me well afterwards.

Anyway, the week’s total was $43.47 for four; a little more than I was hoping. The eggs, almonds, and apples went up in price and I bought parmesan cheese that’ll last for months. I also used to buy just 1 dozen eggs but decided we needed 2 this time.

Here’s our menu for the week:

Monday (today)

• Breakfast: Oatmeal
• Lunch: leftovers
• Dinner: Homemade mac and cheese

Tuesday:

• Breakfast: Cereal for the kids; oatmeal for me
• Lunch: Meat sandwiches with lettuce and cheese
• Dinner: Spaghetti (meatless? haven’t decided); cabbage ‘noodles’ for me

Wednesday:

• Breakfast: Eggs (with toast for the kids if they want)
• Lunch: Tuna sandwiches (no bread for me)
• Dinner: Beans

Thursday:

• Breakfast: “breakfast” egg and cheese muffins
• Lunch: leftovers
• Dinner: Talapia with veggies

Friday:

• Breakfast: Cereal for the kids, oatmeal for me
• Lunch: Salad with cheese
• Dinner: Sausage, cheese and olive pizza (making theirs ‘normal’; mine will be like I had before)

Saturday:

• Breakfast: Fruit salad (apples, pineapples, yogurt) for the kids, eggs for hubby and I
• Lunch: ??
• Dinner: Turkey kielbasa, grilled?, over rice and side salad or veggies

Sunday: (Father’s Day!)

• Breakfast: Eggs
• Lunch: Meat and cheese sandwiches with lettuce
• Dinner: Burgers (? this might change)

Monday:

• Breakfast: Scones (kids), oatmeal (me)
• Lunch: leftovers
• Dinner: Mac and cheese with hot dog bits for them, hot dogs with ? for me

I’m slowly trying to make the meals pretty much compatible for everyone. It’s a bit of a pain to make 2 different dishes for meals, not to mention a little more on the pocketbook.

And one other thing I’m doing is that I’m slowly incorporating into everyone else’s meals the THM way of eating. They just don’t know it. {*evil laughter*} I bought the ebook back in March I believe and at first I was {*very*} skeptical because it says you shouldn’t eat this, or shouldn’t eat that…yada, yada, yada. And I’m skeptical of elimination dieting. But the idea behind the book and meals is very sensical logical to me. You balance your meals a certain way to make the most of the fuels in the foods. But it isn’t always going to be the same exact balance each and every time. And it is a ‘diet’ in the same way any other time you eat a particular way is a diet- it is how you eat. It’s not a program to lose weight quickly and then go back to eating like before. {totally irrelevant side note: Apparently ‘sensical’ is not a word to my LiveWriter; yet nonsensical is a word. To which I say, “pshaw!”}

I prefer to call it THM because “Trim, Healthy Mama” just doesn’t go well in my head when I think of my dh, ds or dd eating the Trim-Healthy-Mama-way. I’m sure dh especially wouldn’t like it. THM is much easier and better  

One way to do this is for me to start making dh’s lunches again for him to take to work… Yeah, that’s on the to-do list.

On the Facebook group for THM someone so kindly created and posted a very helpful document that shows how to basically build each meal quickly, no matter what you have on hand (well, with exceptions of course). I printed this out in small form and make a ‘flip-chart’ that I can keep with me. Before I was trying to write things down in my handy-dandy poppin yellow notebook but still kept forgetting or getting things wrong when planning. Now, it’s there and easy to find.

I also put one, larger size, on my microwave so I can quickly see it. (lol right next to the Chinese take out menu ) It’s ‘flip-chart’ style also; I just taped the top of the page together lol.

Yeah, so that was my ‘slip it in there’ post for my pizza. And some other things.

Personal Pizzas - Lots of photos!

A few nights ago for dinner we had homemade personal pizzas. I think this is one of my favorite meals (I haven't gotten a unanimous vote on that yet...) and it really doesn't take much time or ingredients. 

Here's a step by step for my pizza:

To start with I use 1/2 lb of ground turkey and add in some yummy spices

This I make a little ahead of the rest so that it can set for a while in the fridge to hopefully absorb the spices.

Then I use 1 can of tomato soup and add spices to it to make the pizza sauce (by using one whole can, I have pizza sauce for at least 3 more times of having pizza). Mix it well and put in fridge to absorb the flavor, along with the turkey.

Then I cube some cheese to shred in my food processor.

I put the cheese in my gallon zip lock bag that I've been reusing for months now, in the fridge, until it is time to put the pizzas together. Oven is set to preheat @ 450*F.

Then I assemble the ingredients for the crust. I use Flax Seed Meal to give it a little extra flavor and texture. That gallon ziplock bag on the left is what is left of my white/red whole wheat flour. I'm mixing flours this time :)

I mix the one cup water with 1 'package' dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp) and one tsp sugar. And let it set for ten minutes.

Then I mix the 2 1/2 cups of flour with maybe 1/2 tsp salt.

By then the yeast is ready.

I add it and 1 TBS of oil to the flour and mix.

After it is mixed, it needs to set for 5 minutes. Then I brown the ground turkey.

I oil my cookie sheets and sprinkle a bit of cornmeal on them. Then I separate the dough into four semi-equal pieces, flatten them into rounds and place on cookie sheets.

Then comes the sauce, browned turkey (which now somewhat tastes like sausage but isn't sausage lol), olives and lots of cheese.

They get baked at 450*F for 15-20 minutes. When they come out I use a brush and oil on the edges to soften them just a bit. And wouldn't you know... I forgot to take an after photo... 

These are sooo good. You can put whatever you want on personal pizzas. Fox wanted Canadian bacon and pineapple but not this time- maybe next go 'round ;)

This post has been submitted to The Christian Home under the category Hospitality. Please stop by The Legacy Home for past issues.