Red Pepper, Spinach, Feta and Aspargus Pizza

One thing that struck me today was the fact that I have not yet stated my pizza allegiance. For those of you in the gluten free food blogging realm you know EXACTLY what that means. Dun, dun, dun..

The giant question is: Bob's Red Mill or Namaste? And of course, a homemade crust, but that's for another time.

Chances are that if you are a gluten free blogger, you've been around the block when it comes to trying out products, and pizza crusts are no different. For years, as gluten free products slowly began trickling into existence, there was no pizza crust product on the shelves. Then Namaste foods was born and they introduced all their mixes and more notably, their pizza crust mix.

Namaste's crust was around for a while and received mixed reviews from gluten free people around the country. Some people hate it, some people love it. I am of the latter.

It strikes me as funny that I've never mentioned how much I love Namaste's pizza crust. My family and I tried it out way at the beginning of our gluten free lives and we've never looked back. It just worked. I've never thought to mention it until just now. Namaste, consider yourself mentioned.

I am the "pizza queen" in my house and in my house, I don't think I've ever made a pizza the same way twice. This version is by far the best pizza I have ever made. Basically, any pizza with feta, spinach, and asparagus on it, in any combination, is wicked, WICKED good.

Red Pepper Spinach Feta and Asparagus Pizza

For the crust:

cornmeal - for dusting

olive oil MISTO - for spraying

1 1/2 cups Namaste pizza mix

1/2 cup warm water

2 tsp olive oil

For the rest:

sauce of choice - I like Bove's Organic Marinara sauce

baby spinach

spices:

garlic powder

onion powder

cayenne powder

sea salt

pepper

red pepper flakes

cheese (best if you can get them raw):

mozzarella

feta - a GOOD one, not Fage

parmesan

toppings:

asparagus chopped into 1-2 inch pieces

red pepper - diced

half vadalia/sweet onion - diced

meat of choice - I used browned ground beef

To make your pizza:

1. Prepare the Namaste crust. I put all the ingredients into my food processor with the dough blade and whiz into a ball.

2. Roll on to a pizza crisper - these are essential for a good GF pizza crust, dusted with cornmeal and sprayed with Misto. Don't worry, even with the holes on the bottom of the pan there won't be a mess on your counter top. Dough will be 1/4" - 1/8" thick.

3. Bake at 425 for about 8 minutes or until the pizza crust edges start to pull away from the pan and are slightly firm to touch. Remove from the oven and place on pot holder.

4. Spray crust LIGHTLY with Misto and rub in spices into the crust.

5. Spoon out desired amount of sauce and distribute evenly around the crust with the back of a large spoon. I have found that with GF crusts it is better to use less because of the wetness factor.

6. Layer spinach on top of the sauce.

7. Lightly sprinkle mozzarella cheese.

8. Crumble feta on top.

9. Sprinkle toppings evenly over the cheese, adding smaller vegetables first and meat last.

10. Sprinkle with black pepper, lightly with red pepper flakes, and lastly the parmesan cheese - don't be shy here.

11. Pop into the oven for the last time and cook until the cheese is melted and bubbly. Do not over cook or the cheese will begin to burn and gradually turn browner and browner..

12. Remove from oven, slice into 8th's and EAT!

We always do this as a family on friday nights. Mom and I make pizza, the boys anxiously wait, we pop in a Netflix movie and have movie night enjoying yummy pizza and popcorn. Sometimes we have ice cream later. We love love ice cream. Probably more than we do pizza. But pizza is so so good :)

My brother, who is still a wheat eater even loves this pizza. However, if you are looking for a yeasty, bready, pizza crust this is not for you. This pizza has a thin and crispy gluten free pizza crust. I will be experimenting to get a bready gluten free pizza crust in the future.. But for now Namaste is the order of the day.

Grain-free Coconut Flour Brownies.

I think I am the brownie queen. Try all of my brownie recipes and you'll see why. Or, just try this one. I can live with that.

The cookies that I looove so much I have turned into a brownie recipe. It was so easy. It was also effortlessly good. Seems to me there can be endless experiments with this recipe. The cookies are by far the best, and so are these brownies. They both take the cake in my book. Pun intended.

Grain-free Coconut Flour Brownies.

    makes one 8x8 or 9x9 pan

    1/2 cup  organic coconut oil or softened grass-fed butter - source

    3/4 cup  cane sugar or maple syrup (use grade B for best flavor)

    2  real pastured eggs

    1/2 tsp  vanilla extract

    1/3 heaping cup  cocoa powder of choice - source

    1/4 cup  organic coconut flour - source

    1/2 tsp  baking powder
    1/2 tsp  baking soda

    3/4-1 cup  chocolate chips or chopped chocolate bar of choice - source

    chopped walnuts for topping

To make your brownies:

  1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

  2.  In a medium bowl, use a mixer to cream butter with sugar, or use a spatula to mix maple syrup and coconut oil, until light and fluffy.

  3.  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each one.

  4.  Add vanilla extract.

  5.  In another bowl, sift cocoa powder and coconut flour to remove lumps. Add baking soda and baking powder.

  6.  Stir flour mixture into wet mixture and mix until combined. Stir in chocolate chips.

  7.  Pour into a greased/oiled 8x8 or 9x9 pan, depending on how thick you want your brownies. Sprinkle with chopped nuts if desired.

  8.  Bake for about 20-30 minutes or until center is slightly set and springy, and the sides are pulling away from the pan.

  9.  Cool completely on a wire rack (allows air to cool the bottom of the pan, and your brownie bottoms come out easier) and serve.

Look at the wonderful texture!

Please resist digging in right away, and give these brownies some time to cool. They are even better after a night in the refridgerator and warmed in the toaster oven. I like to top mine with homemade RAW milk vanilla ice cream, a recipe from Sally Fallon in her book, Nourishing Traditions. NT is such a great resource with tons of nourishing traditional recipes!

I won't neglect to mention that these brownies are low carb, delicious and healthy treat, especially when made with maple syrup, and grass-fed butter or coconut oil.

Enjoy!

Baked Oatmeal

I have remembered eating baked oatmeal ever since I can remember anything. At camp in the summer there was always a fresh batch one morning of the week. And every week when that certain day rolled around, we swarmed the kitchen when it was our turn. Going up to get one piece, go back, sit down, devour and go back for seconds. Ask for a third piece. Wish for a fourth piece. Get one if your lucky. It was that good.

Since going gluten free, I can't have the same baked oatmeal as everybody else since the camp stuff is made with tainted oats, but I can make my own. Oh, it is so easy and soo good. If you never have made baked oatmeal before, nows your chance. No excuses. None.

This recipe is different than all the other "baked oatmeal" recipes you can find on the internet. This recipe is tried and true. Passed down lovingly from baker to baker through the generations of summer after summer at camp. Even the self proclaimed "oatmeal haters" love this recipe. And you will love it too.

Brookwoods Baked Oatmeal

3/4 cup oil - you can use butter but it's never been done so I don't know about the taste, I use coconut oil

1 cup sugar - I use maple syrup

3 eggs

4 1/2 cup GF steel cut oats

2 3/4 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 tablespoons + 2 tsp milk or alternative - I use almond milk, coconut milk or a raw milk

1 tsp cinnamon - feel free to add more, I usually do

To make your baked oatmeal:

1. Combine oil, sugar, eggs, and beat until glossy yellow.

2. Add remaining ingredients.

3. Add cinnamon.

4. Pour into a 9x13 sprayed/greased pan.

5. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, until the top is golden brown.

6. Let cool at least 5 minutes before enjoying.

Baked oatmeal tastes great and will taste even better as it sits in the fridgerator waiting to be eaten. I make up a batch and use it for breakfast for the week. I think a 9x13 pan might be a little bit too big. The end result should be 2 inches thick, and mine has been a little thin lately. If you have a slightly smaller pan it might work better. The weird measures in this recipe are because the recipe has been scaled down from two large sheet cakes. I personally think the texture and taste is better from those huge batches, but that's just what I have grown up eating. This is a great way to get some nutritious oats into kids that don't like it! Be sure to warm it up in the microwave and top it with some nuts, peanut butter, berries, milk or yogurt. My all time favorite used to be baked oatmeal and Stonyfield farms vanilla lowfat yogurt. And of course, you can eat baked oatmeal intact, that is, still in the square form, or you can break it up with your spoon. Everyone has a certain way they do it each time.

But it's so much more than food. So much more than a recipe, or getting your kids to eat something they would rather die than touch. It's the cold camp morning and the anticipation of warm baked oatmeal goodness and wondering if I'll get a second piece. It's about a memory and the nostalgia I get when a warm bowl of baked oatmeal is nestled between my fingers.