Mushroom & Onion Whole Wheat Pizza

Making a homemade pizza is a really great way to use up vegetables that are just sitting in your fridge that would otherwise go bad. When I opened my fridge this time, I had some red onion and mushrooms that needed to be used up, so onto our pizza they went! I had some of this whole wheat pizza dough in the freezer already, and I find that if the dough has been frozen, it actually rises again as it thaws, and is much easier to roll out, as compared to when I have just freshly made the dough. I have found some really good canned organic pizza sauces, and some brands, such as Muir Glen, use BPA-free cans. Canned and jarred tomato products provide more bioavailable lycopene, as compared to fresh tomatoes, which is great. But just beware of what brand you are buying so that you can be sure that it is not in a canned lined with BPA. Here is a link for a list of companies whose cans are BPA-free: 

http://bpafreecannedfood.wordpress.com/bpa-free-canned-food-brands/

Mushroom & Onion Whole Wheat Pizza

Ingredients

Whole wheat pizza crust (use 1/3 of dough and freeze the rest)
1/3 cup red onion, chopped
6oz fresh cremini mushrooms
1 cup organic pizza sauce (I used Muir Glen because their cans are BPA-free)
1 1/2 cups organic mozzarella cheese, shredded

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Grease rectangular cookie sheet with olive oil and roll out pizza dough until thin and in rectangle shape. Place dough on top of cookie sheet and remove excess dough around edges of pan with a knife.

2. Place pizza dough in preheated oven and bake for 4 minutes. Remove from oven and top with pizza sauce. Sprinkle with cheese and place vegetables on top. Place in oven and bake for 10 minutes, or until cheese is lightly browned and bubbling.  Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes before cutting and serving.

What are the nutritional benefits of this meal? Whole wheat flour is less refined than all purpose flour so provides more fiber and nutrients, particularly B vitamins, vitamin E, folic acid, calcium, phosphorous, zinc, copper, and iron. Canned tomato products contain more bioavailable lycopene compared with fresh tomatoes, and are high in vitamin C. Red onions are rich in quercetin, a type of antioxidant, as well as vitamins and minerals, including vitamins C, K, folate, thiamin, and minerals calcium, magnesium, potassium and manganese. Mushrooms  are an excellent source of minerals selenium and potassium as well vitamins riboflavin, and niacin, and are the only item you will find in the produce section that supplies some vitamin D!  Mozzarella cheese provides lots of protein and calcium.

Roasted Vegetable Lasagna

I like a good lasagna, and I tend to always make the usual traditional lasagna with ground grassed beef and cheese. This time, I wanted to try to re-create a roasted vegetable lasagna that was made for us by a friend when our son was born. I didn't have a recipe, so I loosely followed one I found on the Taste of Home website, and it turned out really great! We ended up freezing most of this because we knew we wouldn't have any opportunities to eat leftovers in the following days, so we have a future dinner or two waiting for us in the freezer!

To save some time, you can roast the vegetables ahead of time and toss them in the fridge until you are ready to assemble your lasagna.

Roasted Vegetable Lasagna

Makes ~9 servings

Ingredients

1 medium-sized organic eggplant, cut into 1/4-inch slices

8 oz fresh cremini mushrooms, sliced

2 small organic zucchini, cut into 1/4-inch slices lengthwise

2 organic red bell peppers, cut into 1-inch slices lengthwise

3 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp garlic powder

Salt and pepper, for seasoning

15oz organic ricotta cheese

1/4 cup grated organic parmesan cheese

1 organic free-range egg

26oz jar organic marinara sauce

12 lasagna noodles

8oz organic mozzarella cheese, shredded

3 Tbsp fresh organic basil, chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease 2 baking pans with olive oil. Place eggplant and mushrooms in a mixing bowl, and zucchini and red peppers in another mixing bowl. Combine olive oil and garlic powder and pour half of mixture in each bowl. Season with salt and pepper and mix until vegetables are evenly coated. Place eggplant and mushrooms on one baking pan, and zucchini and red peppers on the other. 

2. Bake, uncovered, for 30 minutes, turning vegetables over halfway through. Remove eggplant and mushrooms. Roast zucchini and peppers for an additional 10 minutes. Meanwhile, cook lasagna noodles as directed on package.

3. In small mixing bowl, combine ricotta, parmesan and egg. Mix until evenly combined. 

4. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees.

5. Spread 1/4 cup marinara sauce in a 13x9-inch baking dish. Top with 4 lasagna noodles, followed by half of ricotta cheese mixture, half of vegetables, a third of remaining marinara sauce, and a third of the mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle with half of fresh basil. Repeat layers and top with remaining 4 noodles, pasta sauce and mozzarella cheese.

6. Cover and bake for 40 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 10 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

(Recipe adapted from tasteofhome.com)

What are the nutritional benefits of this meal?  Eggplant provides fiber, B vitamins and folate. Mushrooms  are an excellent source of minerals selenium and potassium as well vitamins riboflavin, and niacin, and are the only item you will find in the produce section that supplies some vitamin D! zucchini is a good source of  fiber and vitamins A, C and folate. Bell peppers are one of the best food sources of vitamins A and C. Olive oil contains monounsaturated fatty acids, which have been shown to help lower bad cholesterol (LDL), raise good cholesterol (HDL), and aid in blood sugar control. Ricotta, parmesan and mozzarella cheeses are all excellent sources of protein and calcium. Jarred tomato products contain more bioavailable lycopene compared with fresh tomatoes, and are high in vitamin C.

Beef & Sweet Potato Pockets

This is another recipe from the Feed Zone Portables cookbook, and it was even better than I thought it would be! I changed the recipe a bit by making a 100% whole wheat pastry crust, instead of traditional white flour crust. Next time, I think I will use just partial whole wheat flour because it made the dough really dense and hard to roll thin enough.  And honestly, the filling was so good on its own that I may skip the crust altogether in the future, which would make this a really fast and easy dinner. Preparing the dough and rolling it out for the individual pockets took a good amount of time. I made this crust with butter because it seems that our son has outgrown his dairy allergy, which is awesome! But if you are looking for a dairy-free whole wheat pastry crust, click here. If you were to use these pockets for high intensity endurance exercise/activity, as the original recipe is intended for, using white flour and white rice would be a better option to have less fiber and a more quickly-broken-down source of carbohydrate.

I served these with some steamed broccoli, but they would be good with any green vegetable!

Beef & Sweet Potato Pockets

Ingredients

Pie Crust:
3 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2/3 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/2 cup cold water

Filling:
8 oz grass-fed ground beef
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cubed (~1 cup)
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 cups organic brown rice, cooked
~3 cups organic chicken stock (for cooking rice, instead of using water)

Directions

1. To make the pie crust: Pulse together flour, salt and cinnamon in a food processor. Add butter and blend until butter pieces are no longer visible. Transfer mixture to large bowl and add cold water gradually, using hands or spatula to turn the dough and mix. Add more water or flour, as necessary, until dough takes shape. Divide dough into 12 portions, forming into balls.  Wrap dough and chill (30 minutes in the freezer, or at least one hour in the refrigerator.

2. To make filling: Cook ground beef over medium-high heat until browned. Drain excess fat. Cooked cubed sweet potato in microwave until tender, about 3-5 minutes.  Combine beef and sweet potatoes in a bowl and add soy sauce, brown sugar, red wine vinegar, kosher salt, and cinnamon.  Mix until evenly combined and then fold in rice.

3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and coat muffin tin with canola oil.

4. Remove dough from refrigerator and roll out each ball of dough, on a lightly floured surface, until it is big enough to fit in the form and fold back over the filling. Transfer dough to muffin forms, gently pressing into place and letting excess dough hang over edges. Place enough of the filling mixture into the dough pocket to be level with the top of the muffin tin. Fold excess dough over filling and gently press together to form a seal.

5. Bake for 30 minutes, or until crust turns golden

(Recipe adapted from Feed Zone Portables: A Cookbook of On-The-Go Food for Athletes by Biju Thomas & Allen Lim)

What are the nutritional benefits of this meal? Whole wheat flour is less refined than all purpose flour so provides more fiber and nutrients, particularly B vitamins, vitamin E, folic acid, calcium, phosphorous, zinc, copper, and iron. Compared with conventional beef, grass-fed beef is lower in total fat, higher in omega-3 fatty acids and higher in vitamins, particularly vitamin E. Brown rice is unrefined, so contains it's original abundance of iron, zinc, manganese, selenium, antioxidants and fiber. Sweet potatoes are very high in vitamin A (one cup provides over 400% of the daily value!) and are a great source of vitamins C and B6, and the mineral manganese. Broccoli is packed with vitamins C and K, and is also a good source of folate and calcium.