Delicious (Almost) Homemade Pizza

Yes, I do love Trader Joe's. I served this pizza to guests with kids and everyone went nuts. They even liked it better than the pizza on the grill I make in the summer. You can make it with three ingredients, but it really shines if you add a few more. This recipe packs the goodness of whole grains, no rBST cheese, and cooked tomatoes, a great source of lycopene. Most importantly, it tastes great. I served it with an arugula salad topped with shaved Parmigano Reggiano and dressed it with Balsamic vinaigrette (all from TJ's too).

Ingredients: (double to make two pies if serving more than 4)

• 1 Trader Joe's whole wheat pizza dough
• 1 bottle Trader Joe's fat free Pizza Sauce
• 1 bag Trader Joe's shredded Quattro Formaggio (blend of Parmesan, Asiago, Fontina & Mild Provolone)
• dried oregano (optional)
• good olive oil (optional)
  

Preparation:

1. Place dough on counter to warm up 20 minutes before cooking.
2. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place pizza stone or heavy duty baking sheet large enough to fit a 12 inch pizza in oven. You will be placing the prepared pizza on the hot stone or baking sheet to get the crust to set.
3. Liberally flour work surface, preferably a wooden or metal pizza peel.
4. Turn dough out onto work surface by turning bag inside out and begin to flatten and widen it with your fingertips or a rolling pin, making sure to not let it stick to the work surface. Flip dough over to get flour on both sides. When you can't get it to stretch anymore using your fingertips or a rolling pin, pick it up and use the tops of your hands to rotate and stretch it, just like you see the pizza chefs doing in pizzerias. Your goal is to make a 12 inch pie.
5. Make sure peel is liberally floured under prepared dough, top with sauce leaving 1/4 inch crust, top with cheese, sprinkle with a pinch or two of dried oregano and drizzle with olive oil.
6. Transfer dough to hot pizza stone or baking sheet. This is where technique is important and you may want to ask for an assistant. If you have not liberally floured the peel it will stick like mad. Gently transfer dough using short jerky movements. Don't worry if it's not a perfect transfer.
7. Cook for 7 minutes or more, depending on your oven. You want the cheese to bubble and start to color around the edges.
8. Remove from oven and allow to cool for a minute or two, otherwise the cheese will run. Cut into slices using a pizza wheel and serve. Leave it on the stone or baking sheet to keep it hot.

Enjoy!

Chicken Mole

One of the things I like most about Trader Joe's is their authentic sauces from around the world. Their red mole sauce (which is mole rojo in Spanish) is decadent and tastes like authentic Mexican mole. I have made mole from scratch and it is quite a production, so this product is a huge time saver.

I created a complete TJ's dinner using the mole sauce, chicken breasts, brown rice and green beans (their #1 selling product I'm told). Even my four-year-old like the chicken and he usually skips the protein unless it's vegetarian. Let me know how you like it. Here are the recipes:

Ingredients:

• 1 bottle TJ's red mole sauce
• 1 package TJ's boneless, skinless chicken breasts (4)
• 1 bag TJ's brown basmati or Jasmine rice (or buy the premade pouch of brown rice)
• 1 bag TJ's frozen French green beans
• 1 bag TJ's toasted sliced almonds (optional)
• good olive oil (my favorite is TJ's Extra Virgin California Estate Olive Oil)

Preparation:

1. Prepare brown rice on stove or rice cooker (see my November post on using rice cookers). Use 1 part rice to 2 parts water. This will take 45 minutes. Rice cookers can hold the cooked rice warm indefinitely (huge convenience).
   
2. When rice is done, prepare mole according to bottle directions. Heat in a medium saucepan with a lid that will fit sauce and chicken.
3. Cut chicken breasts into large chunks, maybe 5-6 pieces per breast.
4. Poach chicken in mole sauce by placing in saucepan, covering and keeping heat low so that there is only a tiny movement in the sauce. Do not boil or you will overcook the chicken and murder the sauce.
   
5. Cook green beans by putting in a saucepan with a cover and adding a few tablespoons of water. Bring to a boil and use tongs to flip beans as they defrost to ensure more rapid and consistent cooking. These are delicate beans and they cook quickly once defrosted. Do not overcook or they will be tasteless, lose their color and shred. Remove a bean every minute or two and taste it so you can catch them at their best.
   
6. Cook until chicken is firm to the touch, about 7-10 minutes. When in doubt, take out a piece and cut into it to make sure it's done.
7. Drain beans, place in serving bowl and dress with almond slivers, olive oil, salt and pepper.
8. Serve chicken with sauce in a bowl; serve rice separately.

Que aprovechen! (Bon appetit in Spanish).

Harkin Tries Again to Reform School Lunch Via an Amendment to the Farm Bill

You gotta love Senator Tom Harkin (D Iowa, Charman of the Agricultural Committee) if you are a better school food activist. He has been trying for umpteen years to improve the nutritional profile of foods served in school cafeterias across the nation. This time around he worked with the food and beverage manufacturers and CSPI (Center for Science in the Public Interest) to address limiting unhealthy foods other than the standard school lunch and packaged it as an amendment to the farm bill. Here's the NYT article link http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/us/02school.html?em&ex=1196830800&en=ad6345970eafea98&ei=5087%0A. Hot lunch (reimbursable meals in food service lingo) which is governed by the Department of Agriculture, would therefore not be impacted. Too bad.

But some are not lovin' this amendment because it would preclude individual states from passing stricter legislation, although individual districts could. In a pig's eye they would! So we in Connecticut for example would see our stricter legislation superceded by the amendment. What exactly does this mean? Well our current law bans the sale of soda and sports drinks in schools but the amendment provides an exemption for flavored low-fat milk in elementary schools and diet soda and sports drinks in high schools, albeit in smaller serving sizes.

So this is a classic example of how well-intentioned efforts to make sweeping changes for the betterment of society get compromised. There are so many players, each with a finger in the pie, so the pie just can't get smaller without one crying foul. (Gosh, does this conjure an image of pigs feeding at a trough?)

I feel obligated to point out that the fat, sugar, sodium and calorie limits this amendment would impose on so-called a la carte and snack foods is a welcome relief. In Connecticut we have an optional provision to our state law which awards financial incentives to limit fat, calories and sugar in snack foods, but not all districts adopted the new standards. So you still see 300 plus calorie snacks and super-sized snacks in many districts. This would eliminate that ongoing issue, hopefully once and for all.

So, the way I see it, it boils down to a tradeoff between allowing diet soda and Gatorade in high schools and finally eliminating super-sized snacks and excessive fat, sodium, and sugar in a la carte foods across the board. And if you don't like that tradeoff, start lobbying your local board of education to set stricter guidelines. As they say in Spanish, "Cuando el chancho vuela" (When pigs fly).

Oh My, It's Pumpkin Pie Time Again

Looking for a way to make baking pumpkin pie with my two boys a little easier, I decided to try Trader Joe's frozen pie crusts. They're really frozen pie dough already rolled out - no pie tin. This is not your supermarket's pie crust! No, no, no. This is the real deal. It is not lowfat but there's no hydrogenated oil and no HFCS - they use real butter and sugar. I do wish it were made with whole wheat flour though.

The dough defrosts in an hour on the counter. All you do is unfold it, lay it in a 10" pie pan, tidy up the excess crust and crimp. Fill with prepared pumpkin pie filling (I use the Libby's recipe but substitute Trader Joe's organic pumpkin for Libby's, dark brown sugar for white sugar and add 1/4 tsp. of freshly grated nutmeg.) Here's a link to the original recipe. http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/detail.aspx?ID=18470

So everything went well until my four-year-old decided to taste the ground ginger. He took it pretty well although I nearly ripped the sleeve of his sweater while trying to pry it out of his mouth. He'd bitten onto the closest thing he could to relieve his scorching tongue and wouldn't let go! A cup of water later, we were on to the next problem.

So, I'm sure I'm not the only one who discovers, a bit too late, that they're brown sugar has fossilized. I decided to chop the solid, dried out mass it into smaller pieces with a chef's knife, dump it into a microwave safe bowl and cover it with a damp paper towel. I microwaved it for 30 seconds and voila, it was just like new. I couldn't believe it. It was gorgeous.

So we were able to finish preparing our pies, baked them off, and the boys shared a ramekin of leftover filling for dessert. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

My Trusty Rice Cooker

I love my rice cooker! It sure has seen a lot of action over the last 12 years. It was a wedding gift from my mother-in-law, who is Korean, and who has probably used one every day of her life. It was a great gift because I use it several times a week. Not only is it a huge time saver, it's incredibly convenient and easy to use. You can cook just about any grain in it; all you have to do is add the right amount of grain and water and the cooker does the rest. When it's through cooking, it holds it in warm only mode indefinitely. You will never ruin a pot of rice or quinoa again. On super busy cooking days, that's one more empty burner you can use for something else.

One piece of advice, make sure the steam vent is directed away from your wood cabinets and never reach over the steamer while it's running or you'll get a nasty steam burn. Obviously, keep it away from kids. You can buy a rice cooker at Asian grocery stores and just about any other retailer that sells small kitchen electronics.

The basic recipe for brown rice or quinoa is 1 part grain to 2 parts water. It comes out perfect every time. Koreans let rice rest for a little while in the cooker after it's done to "jim" or "set". At first I was skeptical, but it's true. It is much better, both in flavor and texture, if you let it a rest at least 10 minutes after the lever flips to "done".

I recommend immediately unplugging the unit after filling the serving bowl and leaving the lid open so any leftovers can cool off. Or, if you're sure to be serving seconds, leave it plugged in with the lid closed and you'll have nice hot rice when you return.

Quesadillas on the Fly

It's cold outstide and everyone wants something warm and filling for lunch before venturing outdoors. How about a quesadilla? It's nothing more than a tortilla filled with cheese and vegetables. Here's how I make my very simple and fast yet yummy and healthy quesadillas. The kids love them.

Ingredients:

• 1 package whole wheat tortillas (Trader Joe's brand shown)
  
  
• 1 bag no rBST (Recombinant Bovine Somatotropin aka growth hormone) shredded Lite Mexican Blend cheese (Trader Joe's)


• 1 package fresh bell peppers, red yellow and orange (Trader Joe's or supermarket). Or Trader Joe's prepared broccoli slaw if you're too rushed to slice the peppers.
  

Preparation:

1. Wash and slice peppers into thin strips.


2. Preheat cast iron skillet over medium heat or broiler over low.


3. Using one tortilla per person, lay tortillas on cutting board and fill half with cheese, then layer on pepper strips. Fold empty half onto filled half and place directly in skillet or under broiler on a sheet pan lined with foil.


4. Heat until crispy and golden, then flip using a spatula to heat and crisp the other side.
   
5. Remove from heat and place on cutting board. Allow to cool for at least 30 seconds and then slice into wedges.


6. Serve with guacamole (Trader Joe's is excellent and can be frozen) or avocado wedges, tomato salsa, and sour cream (Breakstone's lowfat tastes great).

Enjoy!

The Skinny on High-Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)

Corn, corn, corn. I never realized how much corn we were all eating until I sifted through Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma". According to the author Japanese chemists figured out a way to transform glucose into fructose, which is much sweeter. Pollan writes "HFCS is a blend of 55 percent fructose and 45 percent glucose that tastes exactly as sweet as sucrose." HFCS attained mainstream status in the 1970s after the corn refining process was perfected. The sweetener replaced sugar in many of the sweetened drinks and foods found in supermarkets including soda, baked goods, frozen desserts and condiments like salad dressing and ketchup. Today it is omnipresent.

So, why is HFCS an ingredient we should avoid? Scientific evidence now supports what many doctors, dietitians, nutritionists and healthy food advocates have been saying for years. It's bad for you and your kids! Here's a link to an article discussing the findings, which I will summarize below: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2007/08/corn_syrup.html.

According to Professor Ho, a professor of food science at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, lab tests he conducted on HFCS-sweetened carbonated beverages found high levels of reactive carbonyls. These "undesirable and highly-reactive compounds associated with “unbound” fructose and glucose molecules are believed to cause tissue damage." Ho pointed out that "elevated levels of reactive carbonyls are found in the blood of diabetics and linked to complications of that disease. Reactive carbonyls are not present in table sugar, whose fructose and glucose components are “bound” and chemically stable." Ho recommended reducing or eliminating HFCS from our diets.

Just one more reason to become a box turner! Just to let you know, every time someone says something negative about HFCS, the Corn Refiners Association sends them a very impressive press kit rebutting the negative press. Don't believe it.

Halloween Hangover

How long will the candy last? Tonight I purged the bedrooms of hidden candy and hid the bags still quite full of goodies. I'm hoping they forget how much they had. It's either going to the gingerbread decorating fund at school or a neighbor's mother's office for donation to the needy. Needy of what? How can anyone be needy of candy? I can't in good conscience give it to the needy. Then I'll become part of the problem.

One solution I heard to the everlasting Halloween candy problem is to schedule a visit from the good witch. She trades candy for money or toys. All the children have to do is leave it with a note to the witch requesting an exchange. Great idea. Wish I had thought of that sooner.

What will you do with your children's candy hoards?

The Daily Dilemma

Every morning I pack lunch for my third grader to take to school. Knowing what I know about the industrial food that's served in school, it's better to play it safe and make it myself. I know a mom with four kids who does this every day. She's a nutritionist and knows better. As local activists for better school lunch, we dream about the days we won't have to prepare sandwiches or pack last night's leftovers in hot thermoses. Mostly, I hate answering the question "When can I have hot lunch mom?" with "Not in my lifetime."

So the Thermos brand milk thermos and hot food thermos are going on year four and still holding strong. I picked mine up at Target, where you can still get them for about $15 each. Thermos calls them Funtainers. Unfortunately they have to be hand washed. Ditto for the Thermos cold snack cup. I wish I could say the same for the poor lunch boxes. I haven't found one yet which can stand up to being flung around and sat upon by a little boy. Maybe Army surplus?

Clementine's are in season. If you start to peel them, you're kids can finish the job and pop them in their snack cups. They're sweet and juicy and perfect for a morning snack. Don't forget to pack a few for yourself!