Clean Eating Childhood Revamp! Skunkburger Pizza!

Yummy!  Skunkburger Pizza-Dilla

When I was growing up, my mom had a habit of renaming cuts of meat that she thought we might balk at eating.  We raised cows, pigs and chickens and butchered them ourselves, so we always had plenty of meat, even though we didn't have a lot of money.

We ate, or at least tried "snake" (beef heart), "Squid" (beef tongue) and we not only tried, but we loved skunkburger pizza.

Skunkburger pizza was such a hit, even with my friends, that one time we had my friend so thoroughly convinced that it was really skunkburger that her mom called our house to ask my mom where she could buy some!

My mom used a few things that I avoid now days, like Velveeta cheese and pizza crust mix, but since she was a single working mom when the tradition began, I can hardly blame her!  I also have the time & ability to make my own sauces now, too, so I don't even have to buy sauce in a jar.

Ingredients:
Whole Wheat Tortillas
Homemade Marinara
Mozzarella Cheese, shredded
Lean Ground Beef, cooked and chopped
Tad bit of Coconut Oil

Directions:
Lightly coat one side of a tortilla & place in a preheated skillet (Med-Low)
Mix together the Marinara and Ground Beef
Add the sauce & meat mixture to the tortilla
Top with mozzarella cheese
Top that with another tortilla (Even better, leave the top tortilla off and bake in the oven like a pizza!
If making the 'quesadilla' style, flip when lightly browned.

YUM!  

As I mentioned in the directions, I think next time I will definitely cook this in the oven with only one tortilla.  I was in too much of a hurry today!

However, it was still delicious, and there was enough to split with my son when he came in from raking leaves!

Do you have any fond childhood food memories or traditions?  Are you carrying them on with your family, or are you just working on making new ones?

And did I mention?  I cooked this on our 1950's Vintage Double oven-6 burner stove!

Grain Free Quick & Easy Breakfast Pepperoni Pizza

Grain Free Pepperoni Breakfast Pizza

I am currently looking into going grain free.  I have a long blog post explaining, but until I'm willing to put up a photo of my current weight, I'm not going to publish it just yet.  Suffice it to say that I have tried everything under the sun that I could think of, I have been to doctors and been tested for everything we could think of and my weight continues to creep up...

Well, I went gluten free this past weekend and my weight has dropped two pounds.  That's not necessarily saying a lot, but after a full year of a continuing climb, I'll take it!

I saw this super easy idea for pizza (one of my favorite foods ever!) when going grain free, so I tried it this morning.  Not bad!

Ingredients
1 tsp coconut oil
2 egg whites
2 eggs
pizza toppings of your choice
1 Tbsp pizza sauce (marinara or alfredo)
1/4-1/2 cup of cheese of your choice

Dab the oil from the pepperoni to get rid of a little extra fat

Directions
Melt coconut oil over medium heat
Whip the eggs & pour into skillet
Once the bottom is cooked, lift edges and let the uncooked egg run under (this is my hubby's favorite way to make omelettes... it makes them a lot fluffier).  After about a minute, flip the eggs.
Add pizza sauce, toppings and cheese
Remove from pan & stick under the broiler for just a few minutes


Eat it up!

Verdict:  Yummy!  It definitely won't replace "real" pizza forever, but it will hold me over as I go through this month of trying grain free!  Next time I'm going to try it with alfredo, spinach, feta and tomato:)

Clean Eating #123: PIZZA WEEK! Spinach, Zucchini & Red Bell Pepper Pizza w/Feta

Spinach, Zucchini & Red Bell Pepper Pizza

Onto tthe next pizza we had and I apparently forgot to post about.  I have the best intentions sometimes, but I'm obviously not the best at paying attention to things.  Anyway, here is one of the other pizzas we made.  DELICIOUS.

On somewhat precooked crust (I cook it half way first to avoid soggy crust issues)

marinara/pizza sauce

thinly sliced zucchini

baby spinach

thinly sliced red bell peppers

feta cheese

shredded mozzarella

I think this may been my favorite pizza thus far.  It was REALLY full of flavor!!

Want more pizza ideas?

Kale & Sundried Tomato Pizza

Taco Pizza

Crust Ideas

Tomato Mushroom & Caramelized Onions

Personal Pizzas

Clean Eating #122: PIZZA WEEK! Tomato, Mushroom & Carmelized Onion Pizza w/Feta

Pizza Week!

Tomato, Mushroom & Caramelized Onion Pizza w/Feta

In celebration of the fact that our home school co-op is finished for the year, I'm making clean versions of our favorite treat... varieties of PIZZA as well as some fun 'snack' type dishes that I've not thought to try until now.  Add to that the fact that I discovered the perfect pizza crust recipe, I must try it out with a variety of toppings!

Today I had Jaedin make the crust that I made the other day that my husband so dearly loved.  Then I caramelized some small 'stew' onions and added tomato slices, mushrooms, spinach, feta and the caramelized onions as toppings.  It looks mouth wateringly good.

Caramelizing the Stew Onions:

I cut them in slices, then sauteed on the stove on medium heat in coconut oil.  I had to turn them often, until they started to caramelize and I am SO glad I took the time to do it!  This was the BEST part of this pizza!!

I also added a little bit of marinara, then baby spinach, baby portabello mushroom slices, tomato slices and feta cheese.  I put some extra mozzarella cheese on the 'guy' side, since they like cheese even more than me.

Now I just have to wait for the call that Patrick is on his way home from work so I can pop the pizza in the oven for a bit.

Verdict:  

OH MY AMAZING CARAMELIZED ONIONS!  

The caramelized onions on the pizza were just perfection!!  Wow.  Just wow.  They were perfect.  I think I'd like to try caramelized onions with sun-dried tomatoes sometime, but for now, the regular tomatoes were plenty good.  Definitely another keeper!

So, what are your favorite toppings?  I am really enjoying spinach on my pizza lately, but I'd have to say that goat cheese and sun-dried tomatoes are among my favorites!

Clean Eating #118: Kale & Sundried Tomato Pizza

Kale & Sundried Tomato Pizza

Ingredients: *Click the links for my recipes*

Premade Crust (I used this recipe and made a crust, baking it most of the way)

Fresh Kale, chopped

"Sundried" Tomatoes/Pesto

Hearty Marinara Sauce

Optional:

Sliced mushrooms

Sliced onions

Sliced Bell Peppers

Directions:

Spread Sundried Pesto on the crust

Top with some Vegetable Marinara

Add Cheese

Top with chopped Kale, Fresh or Dried Tomato Slices

Bake at 375 for about 15 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbling.

The Verdict?  Well, my husband was sorely tempted to not tell the kids the pizza was done at all after he tasted his first bite.  He compared it to UNOs pizza crust, which is quite the compliment.

When the kids found out that the pizza was done, he MAY have tried to convince them that it tasted awful so that they wouldn't want to try it.

There also may have been one incident of a slice of pizza being snatched from the child who said, "Well, its okay, but I don't like the crust."

I'm not saying it DID.  But is MIGHT have.