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I’ve put together TWO cheese tutorials for @tracfone, but anyone is welcome to try them. If you do I would absolutely love to see the results and hear about your experience. :D

The first recipe is for a basic farmer’s cheese, and the second is mozzarella. I consider these these two “core” cheeses for what’s quick and easy to make at home and impress house guests and family alike. Last night my parents stood around my pot of milk ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the separation process lmao

Aged hard cheeses like cheddar, swiss, provolone, etc can start their life from these processes, but require a whole setup I’m unfamiliar with to press and preserve them. I’m a huge fan of  the New England Cheese Making Supply Company, and they have even more recipes on their site entirely free! They should cut me a check for this plug, but honestly I just really love their site and have spent hours on it.

Okay,  surprise! This begins with a quick chemistry lesson. I’m sorry to spring it on you but it’s necessary for cheese-making. This is long but I promise you both of these recipes are very easy and come together in about half an hour or quicker once you get the hang of it. I'm just trying to be as thorough and descriptive as possible since I don't have very many process photos to illustrate with!

So very basic chemistry here: Milk is comprised of 2 parts, the solids (curd) and the liquid (whey). Milk typically wants to remain milk, so in order to get those delicious curds and make cheese of them, we need to introduce an acid to destabilize the protein bonds and separate them. The most common acids to use are white vinegar and lemon juice. I use vinegar because it's much more economical. They work the same way, and offer no additional flavor to the cheese since the acid will remain in the whey.

To make the most basic cheese we need: - A large pot with a lid, preferably stainless steel - cheesecloth (or even clean pantyhose lol) - milk (from dairy animal of your choice), preferably whole - acid

For the milk, you specifically want to look for a brand that isn't ultra-pasteurized. This process disrupts the protein bonds between milk solids and liquid which results in poor, or no, curd formation. Raw milk is best for cheese-making and will produce the best curd, but frankly is so difficult to get your hands on in some places unless you know someone with dairy animals. Regular pasteurized milk is fine, it's just the ultra-pasteurization process that messes us up.

Add the milk to the pot and turn the heat on to low. Stir gently with a flat spatula, making sure get the sides and bottom of the pot. This is to prevent any milk from scalding, which will make the final product unpleasant and bitter.

Bring the milk to around 170-180 degrees Fahrenheit or 82 degrees Celsius. At this temperature it should be beginning to froth slightly around the edges, but not truly simmering or boiling. Turn the heat off, and remove the pot from the stove. Add 1 cup of vinegar per gallon of milk at this time. Stir in gentle back and forth motions to combine, and then cover.

Some curds may form immediately, but we want to set this to the side for around 30 minutes to really set up. During this time, I like to set up my straining system which is just a sheet of cheesecloth over a strainer/colander. After 30 minutes, carefully pour the pot over  the cheesecloth-lined strainer, and let that sit for 5-10 minutes to make sure all the excess whey has dripped off.

Rinse them under cold water, and don't be afraid to get your hands in there to gently squeeze out any whey that remains. Whey is a yellowish liquid, so once the water is running clear you're good to transfer the curds into a bowl and season them how you'd like. Congratulations! You have farmer cheese, or possibly cottage cheese I don't actually know the difference. :D

If the curds are a bit big for your liking you can mash them with your fingers or a fork to make them smaller. After seasoning you can also add yogurt or buttermilk and mix this into a cream for creamy cottage cheese. You may need to adjust seasoning if you do this, especially salt levels.

The one thing I've realized with cheese is that it requires WAY more salt than you realize. I usually end up adding half a tablespoon of kosher salt to any cheese I make.

This is like THE recipe, the kooky grandfather of pretty much every cheese and you can tweak and adjust from it to make most others. But it's not a melting cheese. For something like mozzarella, you need rennet.

Rennet is a fermentation of milk taken from a calf's stomach after slaughter. There are vegetarian options made from thistle and they work just as well if that's gross! I use the vegetarian rennet, and the only difference I’ve noticed is cheeses made with it are just barely softer.

For mozzarella you need pretty much the same setup: - big pot - 1 gallon of milk (from dairy animal of your choice), preferably whole - 1/4 teaspoon rennet, or 1/4 tablet if using rennet tablet - 1/2 tablespoon of acid, traditionally lemon juice or citric acid is used

If you're using citric acid powder, dissolve it in 1 cup of water before beginning. If you're using straight lemon juice you can add it straight. In a different container mix your rennet into 1/4 cup of water, make sure the tablet is fully dissolved.

Now begin heating your milk over medium heat, and add your acid mixture/lemon juice. Mozzarella only needs to reach around 90 degrees Fahrenheit or 32 Celsius, so this is going to go fairly quick. Once this temperature is attained, turn off your heat and remove the pot from the stove.

Stir in your rennet mixture now, using gentle back and forth motions. You need to mix this for less than a minute. Now cover the pot, and let it sit for 5-10 minutes. If it still looks liquid-y let it sit longer. What you're looking for is a tofu-y looking texture. Now's the fun part!

Cut the curd with a long knife, doing your best to reach the bottom of the pot. I found that a filet knife works perfect for this! Cut it in a nice checkerboard pattern, and put the pot back on the stove. Turn the heat on medium, and warm everything up to 105-110F or 40-43C while slowly stirring. Try to move around the edge of the pot, without breaking up the curd too much. They'll start clumping together, which is perfect, and then fully separate from their whey.

Turn the heat off and remove the pot from the stove again, and stir for another 5 minutes. Now it's time to separate your curds and whey. Using a ladle or slotted cooking spoon is easiest but one of those deep-fry basket spoons might work too! You want to place them in a microwave-able bowl, because the next step is to microwave the curds for one minute, then drain the whey again.

It gets slightly tricky here because you have to knead mozzarella like a dough, thermal resistant gloves are nicest but rubber gloves work in a pinch. Fold the curds over on themselves. It's okay if they're still very loose, they tend to be at this point. Return them to the microwave at 30 second intervals until they've reached 130-135F or 54-57C. Once this temperature has been reached, salt your cheese. About 2 teaspoons of kosher salt is the sweet-spot for me, and it needs to be squished and kneaded in.

At this point it's just stretching and folding the cheese until it gets shiny, any remaining curds will melt as you work it. Once it’s shiny looking it's time to shape it which can be done by just folding/rolling it into a ball and giving it some firm pats. You can eat it super fresh and warm which is delightful with a bit of olive oil and sprinkle of salt, or toss it in the fridge to use later once it's cooled down. Store fresh mozzarella in enough whey to cover it, with an additional teaspoon of salt.

Whey from cheeses can also be kept as a by-product. You can add it to sauces and cooking stock to boost protein and rich flavor, deglaze other cooking pans with it the way you would use water or broth, make pickles with it, etc. There are a lot of different ways to use it, and how to use it is a big discussion point in the cheese-making community.  

That’s all folks! Cheese!

A bag of spinach feels impossible to eat but I’ve managed to consume the entire thing in 2 quesadillas and I’m putting my lazy recipe here for future reference and anyone who may want it I’m sorry there’s no exact measurements but it’s because respectfully I’m not doing all those dishes thank you for understanding

Things you will need:

Spinach

Cheese of choice

Minced garlic

Oil

Tortilla

Salt and Pepper

Hot sauce (optional)

Heat a little oil and minced garlic in a pan on medium for about 30 seconds to a minute (I don’t measure I’m sorry just use like a tablespoon of oil maybe and a spoonful or 2 of garlic measure it with your heart)

Add half a bag of spinach (basically enough to fill the pan but not overflow) mix it until it’s wilted down then put it into a bowl

Add a couple tablespoons of cheese to the bowl and mix it together (I used goat cheese because I don’t want it to go to waste otherwise I’d probably opt for mozzarella- for shredded mozzarella I’d probably add about a handful)

Optional but I added some habanero hot sauce to the bowl as well

Use salt and pepper to taste

Put a tiny bit more oil into the pan and place a tortilla on it, spread your spinach/cheese mix over half and then fold the tortilla (or if you’re using small tortillas you can cover with a second) and cook about 2-3 minutes each side until it’s browned a little

Favorite Snack Foods of the Soul Eater Main Cast

To accompany the one I made like a year ago about drinks

Maka

Tends to like snacks that are kind of staple snack foods but not most people's "favorite" like soft pretzels, popcorn, and assorted nuts. She is in charge of any and all trail mix bowls the group needs for parties and gatherings because she has a good sense of what will taste good together or not. One time she had these lollipops that were supposed to taste like chicken and were even chicken shaped, and she enjoyed them but cant remember where she got them. She has been looking for them ever since and doesn't get why people look at her weird when she says "chicken flavored lolipops". She's not even sure if the chicken lollipop was real or if it was a weird fever dream

Soul

Has the most Teenaged Boy TM taste in snacks ever. He will never say no to mozzarella sticks, pizza rolls, or tater tots. Ever. He is also secretly really into like, granny snacks. Like wafer cookies and those cookies you get in the tins and like saltine crackers or some shit. One time he went through a total hipster snack phase where he only ate cool pastries, artisan chips, and really weird kinds of locally made beef jerky. He went through another phase where he just made a shit ton of crepes

Black*Star

He literally loves all snack foods though and if you put something in front of him and tell him its edible he will try it. He's not too keen on overly sweet snacks and really likes funyuns and like all chips and like obviously slim jims. He makes really bad gay jokes about himself while eating said slim jims. He will also buy a bag of super spicy chips and eat like maybe half the bag before he starts tearing up and goes to grab the milk. He denies this and says he finishes the entire bag. (He does eventually get to a point where he can eat an entire bag through sheer willpower)

One time he found those weird chicken lollipops Maka keeps talking about, couldn't believe it was real, and was ashamed that he liked it. He has yet to tell Maka that they're real

Tsubaki

She is a lot like Black*Star in that she will really try any snack food even if she doesn't think she'll like it because she's really open to the new experience. She's a big fan of frozen treats. Ice cream, frozen custard, ice pops, gelato, you name it. She is a firm believer in waffle cones over cake cones and slightly judges Black*Star when he gets cake cones but doesn't say anything about it. Also loves jello and pudding cups- anything that's cool and refreshing. She really misses Soul's crepe phase though

Death the Kid

Simultaneously has the best taste in snacks and treats and the worst. He comes in to class one day with these super expensive, extremely dark chocolate truffles or something and then the next he has just a shit ton of black licorice. He also finishes Black*Star's half eaten bag of extremely spicy chips like it's nothing and actually really likes them. People are afraid to ask him to share his snacks because it's either going to be some super expensive gourmet shit, leftover spicy chips, or fucking licorice. He does not understand why people are afraid of him for this. He one time referred to hardtack and pemmican as snack foods and he cannot live it down

He is unironically interested in finding and trying these elusive chicken flavored lollipops that Maka keeps talking about

Liz

Waits the entire year for the Girl Scouts to start selling cookies and then buys way too many boxes of like every kind. Her favorite is the caramel delights. She also likes candy bars no matter how basic of a "favorite snack" that is but they haven't failed her yet. She insists that Toblerones are fancy, fine chocolates in spite of being around Kid's actual fancy, fine chocolates and refuses to accept anything else. She's also always chewing gum. She likes classic bubble gum flavor and cool mint.

Patty

Flaming hot cheetos? She loves them. Pop rocks? Absolutely the best. Do y'all remember when they were making that green ketchup in the 2000s? Well Patty somehow still has a bunch of it that somehow hasn't gone bad yet. Airheads? Jawbreakers? Sour patch kids? Pizza rolls? Tater tots? Patty has all of these and more in her pocket right now at this very second. She is the snack queen and she knows it. How does she fit all of those into her pockets? How is this smore she gave me still warm and gooey? We don't know and we don't ask

She is secretly the supplier of the mysterious chicken lollipops

Seminole County Bites Above the Rest

<a href=”http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/childhood?s_cid=healthyweight-007-bb” title=”September is National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month. 12.5 million U.S. children are obese. Join the conversation. Spread the word. Take action.”><img src=””http://www.cdc.gov/images/campaigns/dnpao/hw/hw-ncoam01-180×150.jpg” style=”width:180px; height:150px; border:0px;” alt=”Help your children play! Celebrate Worldwide Day of Play.” /></a>

Imagine, if you can. The year is 1989. You are in elementary school waiting in line for lunch. You grab your chocolate milk. Put it on your green tray and grab a fruit cup. The lunch lady puts a scoop of canned corn and a slab of rectangle pizza on your tray. Those were the days, right? School lunch has come such a long way since I was a kid, eating in my school cafeteria. I am here to tell you it’s not what it used to be and that is a good thing! The 3 reasons you should consider leaving your child’s lunch box at home are that eating at school can help to fight childhood chronic diseases, it is free for everyone right now and we service delicious and nutritious meals every day, here in Seminole county.

In the United States children and adolescents overall are not meeting the current nutrition guidelines. We are fighting an epidemic of obesity in adolescents in this country. The percentage of adolescents that are considered to be obese has nearly doubled over the last 20 years. Chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes, high blood lipids and hypertension are being seen in children younger and younger all the time. Eating meals at school guarantees a child has access to healthy balanced meals, twice a day. This sets them up to be on track to meet the nutrition guidelines, that so many adolescents are not meeting.

As a nation we are also battling food insecurity. In 2017, 11.9% of Seminole county was considered to be food insecure. Food insecurity is having limited or questionable availability of a person or family’s food supply. If one person in the family misses out on a meal through the day, because of availability of food, that is considered food insecurity. Food insecurity is a problem at every level, city, county, state, nation and the world. Which, has only elevated overall food insecurity worldwide.

So, what causes food insecurity? One of the biggest causes is poverty. Families living below the poverty line are at much higher risk to be food insecure. There are local, national and worldwide organizations, such as food banks that are there to help families in need of food. This year especially has put a strain on our government, communities and food banks. Causing many throughout our communities to stand up and help by donating food, time and money to organizations willing to help feed fellow citizens.

Some of our high schools have also partnered with a local charity to provide our school leftovers to those in need of food. This not only allows us to give back as a district, but lowers our food waste as well. Hopefully we can get more schools working to help more people truly in need. So, when you are supporting Seminole County Public School’s breakfast and lunch program, you are supporting people locally who are in need.

In Seminole county alone, 47% of our students are eligible for free or reduced lunch, regularly. Eligibility is based on the poverty level. Children in families with income at 130% below the poverty level are eligible for free meals. Those with incomes between 130 and 185% are eligible for reduced lunch, which is $0.40 for lunch and $0.30 for breakfast. So, for example a family with 4 members and with an income of $31,005 would be eligible for free meals and up to $44,123 would be eligible for reduced meals.

There are schools in the district that do offer school wide free breakfast. So, look into your specific school for details on your school’s eligibility. The application for eligibility is fast and easy. If you need assistance filling it out the school staff is happy to help you fill out the application. It is something that needs to be done each year. So, be sure to visit the cafeteria during your schools open house.

One thing the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has done recently to help out families through COVID-19, is they have made school breakfast and lunch free for all children. School Nutrition professionals have worked tirelessly through the pandemic to provide nutritious meals for breakfast and lunch 5 days a week. They have made many adjustments in order to serve as many families as they can. Being flexible and understanding every step of the way.

Allowing your students to eat at school will lessen your burden, as parents. Lowering the cost of providing nutritious fresh meals for 10 out of 21 meals each child eats every week. While students or parents do not have to worry about planning and packing a lunch box every day. Saving them money, time and aggravation.

In order for our meals to qualify for reimbursement through the NSLP, they must meet certain USDA regulations when it comes to nutrition. A district is required to increase the availability of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fat free and low-fat milk. They are also required to lower sodium and reduce saturated fats. The lunch menu must contain 1/3 the Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) for calories, protein, calcium, iron, vitamin A and vitamin C for recommended age of the students.

The School Breakfast Program has its own guidelines, too. These meals must provide a quarter of the DRI for protein, calcium, iron, vitamin A, vitamin C and calories. This program is offered at all schools within the Seminole county district. We offer a hot meal option, cereal or a breakfast bar in middle school and high school. Students can always have milk, juice or a fruit with their breakfast.

In Seminole county, we go above the minimum requirements. Setting the standard high for the quality of food we serve. We have many fresh fruits and vegetables daily. Many that are “Fresh from Florida.” We do like to let our guests know what foods we get that are local to our area. We use whole wheat pizza crust, using a recipe made specifically for our district. We use real tomato sauce and shred our own cheese. Our meats we choose are 100% antibiotic free and are a high-quality product.

Fresh from Florida is a state agency that was started in 1990. They provide up to date in season produce for the state of Florida. They offer recipes ideas using Fresh from Florida items. They also provide gardening tips for plants by Florida zones. In our service lines we like to show what we are offering each day that is “Fresh from Florida.”

There is a government program “Farm to School,” that help local schools access to fresh, local foods. They also help with educating kids by funding school gardens, teaching kids how to cook and farm field trips. Teaching kids about how food is produced and grows sets each student up for making healthy life choices. Utilizing this program helps us get a wide variety of local foods and support local companies.

In Seminole county we do not limit the number of fruits or vegetables a guest takes. We encourage the goal of 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Our nutrition team works very hard to provide balanced, nutritious and delicious meals for our students, teachers, staff and guests. We have Registered Dietitians, a chef and a full department working together to perfect our menu.

An example of a breakfast would be a chicken biscuit with a serving of fresh fruit of their choice, and a fat-free milk. For lunch middle and high schoolers can enjoy a burrito bowl. Which is Brown rice, their choice of beef crumbles or grilled chicken, freshly made pico de gallo, corn salsa, sautéed sweet peppers, and black beans. Along with a milk, and a fresh fruit or vegetable of their liking. We also offer a side salad as an option with any meal. We do offer a chicken sandwich and pizza daily in our middle schools and high schools and the kids take a fruit or vegetable to go with it. All schools enjoy our baked pasta. Made with real tomato sauce and our own shredded mozzarella cheese.

I love how ahead of the game our district is when it comes to feeding our children. It truly is a team effort to nourish our kids. With all the programs available to assist schools I would like to see more education brought into the breakfast and lunch process. School nutrition has a very unique opportunity because there are so many children eating in schools every day. If you feed them nutritious meals and teach them important life lessons on how to make healthy choices, you help them make these choices throughout their entire life.

We need to teach our children what healthy foods are and how to grow them. Incorporate basic nutrition education such as, food groups, RDA’s and how to cook and prepare these foods. Adding gardens to our schools and having the kids help maintain them, is a great way to add more educational opportunities. The state of Florida also offers grants and assistance setting them up. Creating cooking clubs and labs would be a fun way to get them involved.

So, as you can see, school lunch is not what you remember from when you were in school. Especially, here in Seminole county where our mission is to nourish and enrich the lives of our guests through an exceptional dining experience. We are not just any district when it comes to education and it is no different for what we feed our kids. We want you to feel confident in sending your children to eat because we know school meals can help fight chronic diseases in children, continue to be free through September and our meals are nutritious and delicious.

Submitted by: Jessica Tillmann, Food and Nutrition Student

Total word count:1621

Tofu Freaking Rules

Tofu Freaking Rules https://bit.ly/350TvUV

We need to talk about tofu. As Beyond Meat and Impossible Burger mania sweeps the globe, the OG vegan protein is getting left behind—and I, for one, hate to see it. If you’re serious about reducing your reliance on animal products, tofu has the potential to change your diet—and life—for the better.

To some extent, I get why so many people, particularly American meat-eaters, are resistant to the entire concept of tofu. Western culture has ruthlessly (and racist-ly) slandered the humble soy-based protein for as long as we’ve known about it, so a lot of us were basically programmed from birth to think it’s garbage.

I’m begging you to reconsider. When correctly prepared, tofu is a textural marvel, running the gamut from delicate and custardy to deep-fried and crunchy. Its unmatched flavor-absorbing powers make it a total chameleon; it truly can be anything you want it to be. I’ve loved tofu my whole meat-eating life, and I’m here to convert the naysayers. Welcome to my Tofu Manifesto.

You’re probably thinking about tofu all wrong

The biggest, wrongest tofu misconception is that it’s strictly a meat substitute. Sure, it can be that if it needs to—but tofu’s closest animal protein analog is actually the egg. On their own, eggs are bland; it’s their ability to morph into a staggering array of forms and textures that makes them so special. However you like your eggs—fried crisp with lacy edges, scrambled soft with lots of butter, or cooked into a puffy, tender frittata—I’m willing to bet your preferences come down to texture rather than flavor.

The same is true for tofu, which is why I’m skeptical when people insist they don’t like how it tastes. Soft and silken tofu has a more noticeable soy milk vibe than the firm stuff, but for the most part, it adds no flavor whatsoever to a dish. Tofu only tastes as good as the sauce it’s served in—texture is basically the whole point.

It’s embarrassingly easy to make tofu taste amazing

Contrary to popular assumption, delicious tofu takes barely any work at all. In fact, all the usual hacks try way too hard: Pressing takes forever (and freezing even longer); marinating often yields profoundly mediocre results; a cornstarch dredge too easily sogs out. None of these techniques work particularly well on medium-to-soft tofu, and with the exception of marinating, they also offer absolutely nothing in the way of seasoning.

For all of these reasons and more, the salt water trick is the only tofu hack worth knowing. Hot, salty water is a tofu prep triple threat: It dehydrates firm tofu so it crisps up quickly, sets super-fragile soft tofu so it doesn’t fall apart, and seasons everything through and through. It also adds as much work to your dinner prep as boiling pasta. I’ll get into the specific techniques in a bit; for now, just know that the salt water hack promoted tofu from something I’d buy occasionally to a legit, can’t-live-without-it staple.

If you remain unmoved, I’ve collected my favorite tofu products and preparations in one place, starting with the most hater-friendly ones. This isn’t a recipe post—it’s all about the technique. (Where applicable, I’ll link to specific recipes that I used and explain how I adjusted them to work with tofu, with the hope that you’ll soon be doing the same.)

Even hardline skeptics love fried tofu puffs

Tofu puffs are cheap, delicious, deep-fried flavor sponges that need zero prep; in other words, they’re easy to love. You can toss them whole into curries and stews for a fun textural element, but I strongly recommend taking 30 seconds to slice them in half. With their honeycomb-like interiors exposed, these puffy little nuggets soak up sauce like nobody’s business—without compromising their crispiness.

To show them off, I made my favorite Maangchi recipe—cheese buldak, or fire chicken with cheese—with halved tofu puffs instead of chicken breast.

Those two ingredients are obviously nothing alike, but the swap totally works thanks to the insanely powerful sauce. Red-hot both in color and spice level, surprisingly sweet, and with enough fresh ginger and garlic to put hair on your chest, it more than picks up the slack for something as bland as chicken breast or unseasoned tofu. Having made this dish with chicken dozens of times, I have to say—I prefer the puffs. Even when saturated with sauce, they stay light and puffy, which is the perfect contrast to the ultra-chewy texture of sliced rice cakes and melted mozzarella.

Pressed tofu does (most of) the prep work for you

As the name implies, pressed tofu has already been pressed to remove most of its moisture, resulting in a pleasantly toothsome texture. You can buy it pre-seasoned with soy sauce and five spice powder, but I like it plain so I can season it however I like.

Here, I whipped up a vaguely Spam-inspired mixture of roughly 2 tablespoons each of soy sauce and sugar, plus a teaspoon of garlic powder and a few shakes of smoky hot sauce (El Yucateco Black Label Reserve for life). I added some cubed pressed tofu and let everyone hang out about 20 minutes, flipping them around halfway through. You don’t need much marinade; a shallow layer is plenty.

I then used it to bulk up a super basic batch of fried rice with ginger, garlic, carrots, and frozen peas. The cubes got nicely crispy and charred on the edges, and were just what I needed to add some substance to a huge bowl of fried carbs.

Unseasoned pressed tofu also makes great vegan “paneer:” Cube it up and marinate in lemon juice with a few pinches of salt for 30 minutes, or longer if you have the time. As with regular paneer, you can pan-fry the tofu or leave it alone; either way, you’ll be surprised at how closely the marinated tofu mimics the texture and flavor of the real thing.

Medium-to-firm tofu needs a little TLC

This range of the tofu spectrum is the most recognizable and the least immediately appealing. I mean, just look at this:

In my experience, the variations between medium, firm, and extra-firm tofu are pretty meaningless, and I use them all interchangeably. Left uncooked, they all have a texture best described as “rubbery,” with no discernible flavor at all. Their highest calling is getting crispy in a hot skillet and doused in a flavorful sauce.

All you need to make crunchy pan-fried tofu is salt water, a good nonstick pan, and all of 20-30 minutes. That’s it. Here’s my usual procedure for a standard 1-pound block.

Before I do any other ingredient prep, I bring 2-3 cups of salted water and 2 teaspoons of table salt to a strong boil in a saucepan. Then I cut the heat, slide in my tofu, and let it sit while I prepare the rest of the recipe. After 15-20 minutes, I drain off the water and either pat the tofu dry on clean towels or leave it in the colander until I need it.

To get that crispy surface going, I coat my big cast-iron skillet with a thin layer of neutral oil and heat it over medium-high. I then add the tofu, spread it into an even layer, and leave it completely alone for at least 5 minutes.

Once the edges start to brown, I flip it over and do the same on the other side.

Boom. Done. Obviously, I used crumbled tofu here—it’s my favorite—but this works just as well with cubes, slabs, triangles, or any other shape you can dream up.

Don’t sleep on crumbled tofu

I know I said that tofu isn’t a meat substitute, but crispy tofu crumbles get really fucking close. In many cases, I prefer them to meat because they hold their shape—and a surprising amount of crunch—even when simmered for a long time. Sure, they don’t give you the specific richness you get with ground pork or beef, but with the right recipe you won’t miss it at all.

Speaking of the right recipe, Bon Appétit Test Kitchen director Chris Morocco’s spicy sweet sambal pork noodles are flawless—but, despite the name, I’ve actually never made them with meat. I only had tofu the first time I made them, and they turned out so well that I’m fine with never learning how they taste with pork.

I make the recipe exactly as written, except—obviously—I leave the pork out. Instead, I fry up soaked, crumbled firm tofu in a separate skillet while the sauce simmers, then dump ‘em in and toss everything together with cooked noodles. This cuts at least 30 minutes off the cook time without compromising on anything except porkiness, which I promise won’t even register.

You can also use tofu crumbles like ground beef. I usually throw in some minced onion and garlic in once the tofu is nice and crispy, then cook it down with a little tomato paste, taco seasoning, and cheap beer if I’ve got it.

It’s not beefy, exactly, but it tastes incredible in its own right—and makes a killer vegan-friendly crunchwrap filling.

You can roast tofu, too

Maybe you’d rather not spray your stovetop with oil in the name of crispy tofu. In that case, roasted tofu is for you. The results are directly comparable to pan-frying—they just take a little longer to get there.

Start with soaked, drained tofu, preferably cut into triangles or flat slabs so they’re easy to flip. Arrange on a clean towel and let them dry out while your oven preheats to 450ºF.

If you like, cut a vegetable of your choice into similarly-sized pieces and toss them with a tablespoon or two of neutral oil; I’m using kabocha squash here.

Place a sheet pan on the lowest oven rack. After about 3 minutes, add 2-3 tablespoons of neutral oil to the pan, put it back in the oven, and heat for another minute or two. Carefully transfer the tofu and vegetables to the hot oiled pan, return to the bottom rack, and roast for at least 20 minutes. Flip everything over and roast for another 15-20 minutes, until the tofu is super crispy on both sides and the vegetables are browned and soft.

You can eat the whole shebang straight off the pan—perhaps drizzled with spicy peanut sauce or chili oil—but I added mine to a quick curry made with Maesri panang curry paste, palm sugar, and coconut milk. (Maesri is the only brand I’ve found that doesn’t use shrimp paste or fish sauce; if you usually avoid prepared curry paste for allergy or vegan reasons, give it a try.)

To be completely honest, the kabocha was a miss—the flesh was too dry, and the skin was super tough. The crispy roasted tofu, however, slapped. They can’t all be bangers; such is the nature of experimentation.

When you feel ready, silken tofu is there for you

The next stop on our tour de tofu is the most controversial, misunderstood one yet: Soft or silken tofu. Yes, it’s bland. Unseasoned coagulated soy milk isn’t going to blow your mind with super-concentrated umami or whatever. But when prepared correctly, soft tofu is more than just delicious—it’s absolutely sublime. I will go to bat for it all day long, and I would love to tell you why.

The dish that changed my mind about silken tofu came from Biwa, a now-closed izakaya-style bar in Portland. It was deceptively simple: A whole block of chilled silken tofu drizzled with sweet soy sauce and topped with bias-cut scallions, fistfuls of toasted sesame seeds, and paper-thin bonito shavings. I ordered it every time, and my friends would always be like—“Cold tofu? Why?” But if I could convince them to take a bite, they’d understand. It was like eating a deeply savory panna cotta.

Unfortunately, my dearly departed Tofu Slab is no more—and my attempts to recreate it have been so unsuccessful that I’m forced to settle for the next best thing: Salt water-soaked silken tofu mounded on hot white rice and drowned in chili oil, soy sauce, and black vinegar.

I’m not complaining. The salt water, once again, is key: It turns a cold, slimy block of tofu into a piping-hot savory custard, which is the perfect canvas for condiments. Sure, there’s not much in the way of textural contrast, but the softness is so comforting and nice that I think a crunchy element would actually defeat the purpose. It’s a delicious, balanced, reasonably nutritious meal you can throw together in the time it takes to cook a pot of rice.

Putting it all together: All-tofu mapo tofu

Neglecting to mention mapo tofu in an article about tofu is basically journalistic malpractice. The iconic Sichuanese tofu dish is rich, meaty, spicy, funky, sour, and savory all at once—and slicked with lip-numbing Sichuan peppercorn oil for good measure. It’s a top 3 dish for me; I make it all the time, usually using Maggie Zhu’s recipe from the Omnivore’s Cookbook.

Being a big vegetable fan, I’ve experimented with using minced veg—eggplant, mushrooms, and even carrots—in place of the traditional ground meat. But this time, I decided to follow my vision and make a variant I’m calling “Oops! All Tofu.” I approached this recipe just like the sambal noodles, swapping crispy tofu crumbles in for the ground pork—but this time, I also soaked some cubed soft tofu in a fresh pot of salt water while the sauce simmered away.

This was one of the most delicious things I’ve ever made. The nubbins of soft tofu were literally melt-in-your-mouth tender, while the crispy crumbles turned downright meaty as they soaked up the spicy, salty, rich sauce. It made me even more certain of all of the (correct) tofu opinions I just laid out before you and, if you’ll let it, it has the power to convert you too.

Internet via Lifehacker https://bit.ly/2VwWgKq April 24, 2020 at 12:01PM

I love your writing so much! Can you write us a Hogwarts AU? I wonder what house everyone would be in! (Wanted ask before I forgot but realized you aren’t looking for anymore prompts so sorry for asking anyways!)

Don’t ask me how I picked. Half of it was just me thinking, “They’d look really good in these house colors, heehee.” 

The Magic of Calzones

104th Trainee Corps. Hogwarts AU. 

3623 words. 

Connie stands excitedly in front of the fourth years. To think that this Hufflepuff prankster has captured the attention of his peers for something other than a practical joke is surprising. To learn that it is because he’s here to give them a lesson is even more surprising. However, one may be less surprised upon learning that in order to give this lesson, he’s snuck into the kitchens after bribing the house dwarves with two baskets of dirty laundry and the promise of allowing them to clean up the kitchens after the students were done.

“Alright! I hope you all have paired up because we’re all about to make one of the most delicious things on the planet: calzones!” he says. His chest is puffed out, proud to be able to introduce this Muggle delicacy to their magical tongues. “Nikolo, you’re with me.”

“Me?” the young wizard splutters. He looks pathetically at Sasha, who is too busy laughing with Jean to notice him, and then back at Connie. “Why should I be working with you? I don’t know anything about these ‘calzones’ or whatever they are!”

“Aw, come on,” Connie says. He puts on the most horrendous face, thinking perhaps that an exaggerated face might be enough to sway Nikolo but it only repulses the other boy. “You know how to cook and stuff so you can give people extra pointers. I only know the rough basics to this. If we work together, I’m sure we could create the best calzone there is!”

“Ah, he’s right,” Sasha says, finally paying attention now. She leans on the counter with her elbows, giving Nikolo a charming smile. “You’re a great chef. I’m sure we’d all have an easier time if you helped Connie teach us.”

Nikolo’s face flushes at the small compliment and he stammers, “Fine, I’ll do it.” He grows even redder when Sasha and Connie cheer, happy that he’s agreed.

“Now,” Connie says, clearing his throat. He mimics the same strict expression of Professor Smith, the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, and deepens his voice when he speaks. “Who here knows of the great calzone?”

A few of the Muggle-borns and those with a Muggle parent raise their hands, but it is Eren, his hand extended higher than anyone else’s, who is called upon.

“A calzone is an oven-baked dish created by Italian Muggles,” the Gryffindor wizard replies with an equally serious expression. For some reason, he knows more about this than he does any of the subjects he studies for. One must think that he’s clearly planned this out with Connie beforehand or has a hidden passion for food that rivals Sasha’s. “The dish originated in Naples and is made from salted bread dough and stuffed with ingredients such as ricotta, mozzarella, salami, ham, and egg, although these can vary depending on the region. Essentially, it’s a pizza that’s folded over and baked in an oven.”

“Excellent! A bajillion points for Gryffindor!” Connie roars.

In the corner of the room, Annie rolls her eyes. The poor Ravenclaw was brought here against her will and it seems she has no energy to leave. At least she gets food after all this is over.

“First, we shall roll the dough!” Connie says in the same booming voice. He slaps a ball of dough down onto the countertop in front of him and takes the rolling pin at his workstation and begins to roll it out. “You should all have some dough and a rolling pin at your workstations. Unfortunately, we don’t have enough supplies for everyone, so you’ll all have to take turns.”

Jean watches as Sasha rolls out the door. She’s surprisingly careful, he finds, but he still says, “Don’t eat any of that.”

She’s scandalized at his suggestion, stopping for a moment to turn to him and say, “You’d think I’d eat raw dough? What kind of monster do you think I am?”

He rolls his eyes and takes the rolling pin from her. He frowns when he finds the dough to be more elastic than he thought. Even though he presses down and rolls the pin across it, it sees to revert to its original shape. Holding up the pin between his fingers, he says, “I think this is broken.”

Sasha snatches it from him and smirks. “It’s not broken. You’re just bad at cooking. Here, let me show you,” she says, proceeding to roll out the dough more and giving Jean pointers along the way.

Nikolo looks wistfully their way, wishing that he was the one at Sasha’s side, but someone else’s voice breaks him out of his daydream.

“Oh, I don’t think I’m doing this quite right,” Historia frets. For a Gryffindor, she’s always been surprisingly timid. Nikolo has wondered why she wasn’t sorted into Hufflepuff, although he’d never spoken about it with anyone lest word of it got to Ymir, Historia’s close friend (or bodyguard, more like).

Not wanting to have anything to do with this but at the same time not wanting to be glued to Connie’s side the entire time, he walks over to Historia to see what he can do to help. “What’s wrong?”

“Well, I’m not sure,” Historia says, biting her lip. She tries to roll it more, but it sticks to her pin and she frowns. When she attempts to peel it off with her hands, it only sticks to her fingers. “Why is it like this? Am I doing something wrong?”

“You’re doing absolutely everything right, Historia,” Ymir says affectionately. The Slytherin sits on a stool beside her. From her clean hands, it seems like she hasn’t even bothered picking up the dough. It doesn’t look as though she has any intention of cooking either. The girl reaches over to twirl a lock of hair of Historia’s ponytail around her finger. “You couldn’t do anything wrong in your life if you tried.”

“Well, that’s not really true,” Nikolo says, clearing his throat. He picks up a little bowl of flour and places it closer to Historia. She probably hadn’t noticed it when she first arrived and didn’t have any experience cooking or baking. He coats his fingers in the flour, rubbing some of it on his palms, and holds out his hand for the rolling pin. “You just need to add a little flour to the dough or else it sticks everywhere. Otherwise, I’d say you’re doing a fine job.”

“Oh, I see,” Historia says. She watches as Nikolo rubs a little flour on her rolling pin and marvels at him as he rolls out a little of the dough for her. When she takes the pin and begins to roll herself, the dough flattens easily beneath the weight of the pin. She beams at him, an angelic smile that stuns him for a second because he doesn’t remember seeing anything quite as pretty as her in his life. “Thank you, Nikolo.”

“Y-you’re welcome,” he stammers stupidly. He stands there for a second, still not believing that such a person could wield this much beauty, before Ymir waves her hand in his face and begins snapping.

“Hey, Nikolo,” Ymir snaps. “We don’t need you anymore, so run along. It looks like Connie is moving onto the next step anyway.”

Indeed, Connie is moving onto the next step. He orders the rest of the students to follow his lead as he slathers on a generous amount of tomato sauce on his little circle of dough, spreading it out with the spoon and following it up with a spinach-ricotta filling he had prepared for all them earlier. He’s a goofball, but he plans things out surprisingly well.

“Should we put as much as them?” Mina Carolina asks Marco, looking over at Sasha and Jean.

On Sasha and Jean’s calzones, Sasha had piled on a mountain of the filling. She either didn’t know it needed to be folded over afterward or just didn’t care. Or perhaps she thought herself capable of spreading the thin layer of dough over all that spinach-ricotta without breaking it. They hadn’t even added the pulled chicken that was leftover from lunch that day. Beside her, it seems like Jean has given up on telling her to restrain herself with the filling. He only scoops out the excess filling on his own calzone to ensure that at least one of their calzones is successful.

“No,” Marco laughs. “I think we’re doing fine.”

“Put more of the spinach in yours,” Mikasa tells Eren. She frowns at how much chicken he’s loaded onto his calzone. “You need to balance it out more.”

“It is balanced!” Eren insists even though it’s clear that it’s not. He had the thinnest layer of spinach-ricotta spread over his dough. It looks to be just a healthy layer of chicken all over his calzone. He looks at Armin, hoping that his friend will back him up. “Right, Armin?”

“Er,” Armin hesitates. The Ravenclaw looks away, trying to tend to his own calzone in the hopes of escaping this conversation but Eren fixes his intense stare at him and it seems he cannot ignore him any longer. Assessing the outcome of the answers he can give, he decides that it’s better to side with Mikasa than Eren. “She’s right. You might as well just eat a chicken sandwich if you’re going to stuff it like that.”

“Fine!” Eren grumbles, angrily stuffing more spinach-ricotta filling into the calzone. He’s too lazy to take off the chicken though and ends up just dumping a lump of the filling on top of the meat, not even bothering to spread it out so that it’s all even.

Mikasa and Armin, not wanting to make Eren more pissed than he already is, simply let him and his lopsided calzone be.

“Now fold it up, folks! I hope you didn’t fill up your calzones too much because you still need to press the edges down together too. You can press them down on your own or use a fork if that’s easier,” Connie says. He demonstrates for them, folding his calzone over easily and pressing at the edges with a fork. Carefully, he cuts open three little slits at the top to release steam when the calzone bakes in the oven. He finishes it off by brushing egg white over the outside to ensure a golden crust once it finishes baking in the oven. “If you need any help, Nikolo and I will be walking around to help!”

Some people’s calzones look better than others. While the final product will only be seen once they pull it out of the oven, it’s not difficult to see which calzones will end up a failure even without having to be put in the oven.

Connie nearly doubles over in laughter when he sees Sasha’s calzone. It’s full to bursting and the dough is pulled so thin at the edges that it looks like it might break. In the end, it’s Nikolo who has to come over and fix everything, spooning out excess filling while Sasha cries in the corner while Jean makes fun of her. Eren’s calzone undergoes a similar operation. While Nikolo scoops out the extra meat and filling, Eren mutters about how he was doing well before Armin and Mikasa began to tell him what to do. Others, however, do exceedingly well.

Marco and Mina, who followed Connie’s instructions down to the very letter, come out with two of the best-looking calzones to no one’s surprise. It is, however, Annie’s calzone, with its perfectly pressed crust, pleated to look like a skirt, that astounds Connie the most and he praises her so loudly without restraint that a rare blush flushes across the reclusive Ravenclaw’s face.

“What the hell is that?” Nikolo asks, pointing at the strangely-shaped calzone that sits in Reiner’s workspace. When he looks up, he sees Reiner grinning mischievously while Bertholdt just shakes his head.

“It’s better if you didn’t know,” Bertholdt mutters, but it’s too late.

“It’s an ass!” Reiner bellows. He smacks it and lets out a loud roar of laughter. “Bertholdt told me I could never make a calzone in this shape, but I sure proved him wrong!”

“No, I told you that you shouldn’t make it in that shape,” Bertholdt hisses, completely mortified. He looks at Nikolo, his expression miserable. “If you’d rather we just throw it away, I completely understand.”

“Is that a butt?” Connie cackles. He laughs so hard that Nikolo is afraid that he’ll fall onto the floor in a fit of giggles. When he finally composes himself, Connie claps a hand on Reiner’s shoulder. “You’re my star pupil, Reiner.”

“Well, you’re a great instructor, Professor Springer,” Reiner replies, giving Connie a thumbs up.

Nikolo rolls his eyes and collects all the calzones onto baking trays. He tries not to look too hard at Reiner’s. No matter what he does, it just looks like a butt. Although they’re fourth years now, it seems that Reiner – and Connie – still act like children.

After the calzones are loaded into the ovens, many of the students crowd around the oven to peer inside. The Italian dish looks so pale in the oven light and fifteen minutes seems too long to wait.

“Can’t we just, like, speed up the process?” Sasha says, whipping out her wand. She stares hungrily into the oven, watching the calzones with a close eye. She’s practically drooling as she imagines how they’ll look once they come out – their crisp, golden crust and the melted spinach-ricotta center paired with the tender pulled chicken all together with the thin layer of creamy tomato sauce.

“Put that away,” Jean says, looking at her wand warily. He knows she’s not a bad witch, but he’s seen her blow up too many things during Potions to trust her to use magic around food. “Just be patient.”

“You know,” Eren says, speaking up from the back. He’s leaning with his back against a counter. “There are calzones that are already made for you. You just need to heat them up for a few minutes and – boom – a plate of delicious folded pizzas on a plate already for eating.”

“A few minutes? So you don’t have to wait nearly as long as we’re doing right now?” Mina asks, curious. Like a good number of students in the kitchens, Mina is unfamiliar with Muggle technology after having been brought up primarily in the wizarding world where things like microwaves haven’t quite made their way into the hands of magical users yet.

“Microwaves,” Marco tells her. “Very useful for heating up leftovers.”

“Why can’t you just magic it into being hot again?” Historia asks.

“Because with a microwave you can just press a couple of buttons and be done with it,” Eren replies. “Actually, some meals you can just buy from the store and pop it in the microwave and it’ll be done for you.”

“Yeah, but those usually aren’t any good,” Connie says, wrinkling his nose. “It’s better if you make it yourself.”

“There is a kind of magic in making food yourself, isn’t there?” Sasha says as she stares dreamily at the calzones, the crusts a slight golden color now that they’ve sat in the oven for a while.

“Are all microwave meals the same?” Jean asks. He has a frown on his face like the idea of getting a meal so easily is more ridiculous than using magic to transport it from somewhere else. “How popular are they?”

“Popular enough to have a lot of variety,” Bertholdt says, remembering eating a microwave meal himself before. “I didn’t really enjoy that one I had.”

“Well, if there are a lot, maybe you didn’t eat one of the good ones,” Reiner tells him.

The young wizards and witches strike up a debate on whether or not microwave meals are any good, if they would try them or not, and how much taste they would sacrifice for time efficiency. A few students, like Annie, just hang in the background regretting having been dragged there in the first place.

When the timer dings, Connie pulls the calzones out of the oven. A few of the calzones look absolutely horrendous – Sasha’s has burst open, the filling spilling out, and Eren’s only looks slightly better than hers. Reiner’s calzone won’t even be discussed here because its appearance is far too vulgar. However, most of them come out quite beautifully; the crusts are a perfect gold color, the steam rising from them with the smell of chicken, ricotta, and spinach. It’s like a little Italian kitchen in that room.

“So good,” Sasha moans after she snatched her calzone off the tray, biting into it despite it being piping hot. Between chews, she opens her mouth to suck in more air, cooling off her tongue because of the hot cheese and meat inside her calzone. “I love it!”

“What do you think, Annie?” Eren asks.

“It’s alright,” Annie replies, but the multiple bites she’s taken of her calzone say otherwise.

“We should do this more often,” Historia says. She either doesn’t notice or doesn’t mind when Ymir reaches over to take a bite of her food. “This was really fun, Connie!”

“It was pretty fun,” Armin agrees. “And this time you didn’t even have to get in trouble.”

Connie strikes a pose, his chin between his thumb and forefinger. “Delicious fun for everyone, right? I’m quite the genius! The professors should definitely appreciate me and my brilliant mind more.”

“Oh, don’t think you’re not in trouble,” a voice drawls from the back of the room.

The students all turn around to find four prefects watching them. They had all been too busy eating and conversing to notice the prefects sneak into the kitchens.

“Students in the kitchen?” Eld Jinn, the sixth year Gryffindor prefect says, clicking his tongue as he shakes his head in disappointment. “You’re all smart students. You should know better than this.”

“But…you guys are students too. And you’re in the kitchen,” Connie points out stupidly.

Ymir jabs him in the ribs with her elbow to shut him up.

“Ten points from Hufflepuff for being mouthy,” Auruo Bossard, one of the Hufflepuff prefects, frowns.

“We really should inform the House Heads and the Headmaster,” Gunter Schultz says. “It’s worrisome that so many of you have snuck into the kitchen.”

Petra Ral, the other Hufflepuff prefect, comes forth with a gracious smile. “However, we’re willing to look over this infraction on one condition.”

The poor fourth years look at each other, wondering what sort of deal the prefects are about to propose. It’s Eren who finally steps up to speak.

“What is it?”

“If you give us the rest of these ‘calzones’ of yours,” Eld says, picking an extra calzone from the tray and inspecting it closely, “we’ll forget this ever happened. All you’d have to do is clean up the kitchens. We won’t even take off any more points.”

“But the house elves…,” Armin begins.

Eld raises an eyebrow, his expression intimidating the young wizard. In the end, Armin doesn’t say anything. He’s hardly ever lost a point for Ravenclaw and he doesn’t want to lose one now.

“Well,” Jean sighs. “Let’s all clean up.”

“These kids are better chefs than they are wizards,” Eld remarks as he takes another bite.

“Oh, don’t say that,” Petra says. She licks a speck of tomato sauce from her thumb. “Some of these turned out to look pretty terrible. If they’re worse than this, Hogwarts really needs to rethink its staff or at least the students that graduate from here.”  

“They do a decent job at cleaning though,” Gunter comments.

“For about twenty students, yeah,” Auruo snorts. He wipes a hand across a counter and frowns at the flour that sticks to his skin. It’s very little, but it’s definitely there. “If Levi were to ever see this, I’m sure he’d be displeased.”

“You’re right. This is hardly clean.”

“He’s right behind us, isn’t he?” Eld mutters.

“He is!” Hanji, the Head Girl of Ravenclaw says cheerfully. Although she should be scolding them, she’s prancing around the kitchen, looking curiously at the calzones. Going over to Petra, she plucks her friend’s food out of her hands and turns it in her hands. “Very strange things indeed. This is a calzone, you said?”

“Don’t eat that,” Levi snaps.

Mike Zacharias, the Head Boy of Hufflepuff, sniffs around the kitchens, eventually opening an oven and taking a good whiff. “Smells good.”

“Want some?” Petra asks. She wipes off her hands with a towel, looking carefully at Levi even though she knows what he’ll say.

“I want you to clean up these kitchens,” he replies. He frowns at the flour on the counters and on Auruo’s hands. “You’ve all been prefects since your fifth year. You should know better than to sneak into the kitchen for a meal.”

“But-“ Auruo begins.

“Right away, sir,” Gunter says, stepping on Auruo’s foot to shut him up. He’s smart enough to know that Levi won’t hear any excuses and Gryffindor’s Head Boy would be even more displeased if he were to find out about the students that had been occupying the kitchens before them.

“You think he’d go easier on us since you’re dating him,” Eld mutters to Petra as they scrub the inside of the oven together. Since Levi believes cleaning is more thorough when done by hand, they can’t use magic to clean things in front of him. Behind them, Auruo is hard at work washing the dishes while Gunter sweeps the floors. Mike and Hanji are busy sampling the few calzones left over and Levi glowers at all of them, making sure that every inch of the kitchen is spotless. 

“That’s what I thought too, but it turns out he’s a sadist,” Petra says glumly. “Or maybe I’m a masochist.”

“Maybe both are true,” Eld says, grinning.

“What was that?” Levi says, appearing behind them.

“Nothing!” the two prefects reply, scrubbing harder.  

Heartbreak Girl

Pairing: Peter Parker x Reader

Type: 5 Seconds of a Summer Series

Word Count: 2.6k

Warning: Fluff but Angst  So So Angsty, Talk of Drugs and Drug Use, Swearing.

Summary: The one where heartbreak is a bitch.

Note: All the lyrics are bolded & lyric inspired lines are bolded and italicized. Never heard the song? Give it a listen here! Here’s the main masterlist and the series masterlist and did you miss the last one? Here’s the previous chapter!

I love feedback! B xx

January 13

It had been 18 hours since Peter had to pick you up from the police station. It had been 20 hours since Cooper got you both arrested in the first place. You were pissed, embarrassed, and saddened. Overall, you felt stupid.

You had to sit back and explain to Peter how you snuck out to meet Cooper at a friend’s. You didn’t feel totally safe, but you knew Cooper would keep you safe. You convinced him to finally take you home because although you wanted to do and be somewhere exciting, you didn’t trust the people you were around. Of course, you figured Cooper was too high to drive, so you did.

You were upset, but that quickly faded away from saw the red and blue lights flash in your rearview mirror. You had never had an encounter with the police, so you weren’t nervous; you didn’t do anything wrong. It wasn’t until Cooper started talking; he did shit talking to get you both removed from the car for a search. The other police officer watched you vigilantly, Cooper still high as a kite.

You really wanted to go home, but you quickly knew that wasn’t gonna happen for a while when he pulled a box, pulling out little baggies of different pills and weed. Your eyes quickly went wide and your stomach dropped. Cooper was only laughing as you both got arrested.

You wanted to cry in the back of the police car. Cooper was everything but helpful. He only made the situation worse.

After being questioned and detained for almost two hours, you were embarrassed to call Peter; you felt worse when he picked you up.

“He just makes me so goddamn angry sometimes, Peter!” you admitted to your friend as you spun around in his desk chair. “But of course, Cooper’s dad swoops in and comes with a huge eraser to rid him of his charges while I had to talk my out of being released.” You tried not to angrily cry again for the second time today. “I’m such an idiot.”

“Y/N, you’re not an idiot,” Peter stated. He got up from his bed to drag the chair with you in it over to him, “You just...you just wanted to feel different and I get it.”

God, Peter was angry, but he bit his tongue. This wasn’t the time to try and win you over because you’re not ready and it’s so frustrating. Even though it still pained him, you just needed a friend and someone to listen. He saw the hurt in your eyes; it hadn’t left since he saw you in holding. You appeared broken.

“I almost ruined my entire future just for some dumb fun and I had an awful time,” you admitted, plopping onto the bed next to Peter. “I bet he was so ready to sell me out like I was nothing. I mean I was the one driving. The drugs were under my seat. And h-he—” you asked sitting up, your eyes turning red again from the hot tears forming in your ducts but the gates broke. You couldn’t slow your breathing as tears streamed down your face.

Peter didn’t say anything. He pulled you into his chest before kissing your forehead. If he had to hold you tight straight through the day, he would. You were hyperventilating his shoulder. He ran his fingers through your hair and rubbed your back, trying to calm you down.

You felt like such a mess. You hardly ever cried, especially not in front of others. You knew you had dampened Peter’s t-shirt on his shoulder and now you felt as if you were using Peter. You had avoided Peter all week just because of Cooper. You weren’t even sure why you listened to him in the first place.

“I’m sorry, Peter,”  you whispered against his chest. “We haven’t talked hardly all week and I’m here crying on your bed, and I feel like I’m being such a fake friend to you, Peter.” Little did you know, Peter was a sucker for anything that you did. “Cooper said he didn’t trust you with me and I’ve told him that you were my first friend in New York and I couldn't just abandon you like that, but I fed his dumbass ego and talked to you less.” You never felt more foolish. “I really should’ve gone to the movies with you,” you chuckled before sniffling.

Peter locked his hand with yours that was previously rubbing your back before looking at you, “Y/N, I only say this because I care about you, but...you have to break it off with Cooper.”

To be fair, that’s what Peter wanted all along, but now he wanted it more than ever; he was literally damaging you. It didn’t make sense anymore for you to be with him anymore.

“Well, he broke up with me before I left so…”

Peter’s brow furrowed, “Why didn’t you tell me that last night?”

“I know,” you whispered as you loudly sniffled before sitting up, “but I don’t want to bother you with this anymore; you’ve already helped enough.”

“Y/N, you literally could never be a bother to me,” he sincerely told you, his brown eyes looking deep into your puffy ones. “Look, May said you can stay as long as you want even if you want to spend the night and we can just watch some and I can just make some mac-n-cheese— the Y/N way.”

Your style of mac-n-cheese was basically macaroni noodles with butter and any cheese in the fridge melted on top. You smiled a little and nodded. You muttered an okay before following you into the kitchen. You went to over to the living room and sat on the couch. You tried looking for a comedy and not another reason to cry. You settled on The Office. You got a blanket from his closet and laid on the couch, starting to feel a little better as you laughed. You could smell the food when Peter came around the couch with a bowl and a fork.

“We had cheddar, mozzarella, and parmesan,” Peter told you as he handed you the warm bowl.

“No, that’s perfect,” you smiled before grabbing the bowl from him and starting to dive in. Peter sat down next to you, taking some of the blanket for himself. You started to feel a little better yourself.

Your mind still drifted to Cooper throughout the night. You wondered if he had already found another girl to wrap under his arm for the night. You wondered if he had already gotten over you and your relationship while you were still hung up on him. Peter could see you become upset again; you weren’t beginning to cry, but you stopped laughing at attics in The Office and eating for a while.

You felt Peter’s leg hit yours, snapping you out of your trance, “Y/N, you gotta stop thinking about him. He’s a complete ass.”“I know,” you whispered, looking down, “I’m just thinking about him already getting over me because he never truly liked me for me, y’know? I think he just liked me because I was new and he thought I was easy or something. I mean what you saw in the library was literally the farthest...” You noticed Peter’s uncomfortable face and you quickly held back, “I’m sorry. That’s probably too much information, but my mom is so busy, my grandma is so old school, and MJ would just tease me...”

“Uh, no I get it...kind of,” he chuckled. “But whoever Cooper is with tonight whether it’s some other girl or his friends, I know you make for better company.”

You smiled before putting the bowl on the table, “You also make great company, Parker.”

Instead of focusing on the TV, you and Peter just talked. You talked about Cooper for a little bit, but then it moved on to odd topics. Peter mentioned how he had lost up to seven backpacks throughout his high school career. This prompted you to mention how your backpack was stolen in Nice on your first day of school. It was refreshing to talk to Peter again.

The worst thing was avoiding him for most of the week. You craved dumb conversations about his and your childhood. Eventually, he broke out Scrabble after you had talked about placing 3rd in a spelling bee; he wanted to test your skills. Your competitiveness took over as did Peter’s. Neither of you even noticed Aunt May come home from work. You didn’t even realize that hours that passed. He really was your cure.

“Oh, come on, Y/N,” Peter whined, pointing at the letters you just placed down. “Prolly isn’t even a word; it’s slang!”

“It’s used as a slang word, but it’s in the Oxford Dictionary with a different meaning like 40s or something,” you told him, “Look it up and give me my 35 points, Parker!”

He rolled his eyes before writing it down, “I guess I’ll take your word...but don’t count on that later,” he jokingly sighed.

“Are you two still playing that game?” May asked as she made her way to the living room. 

“Yeah because I won the first one, and Y/N doesn’t know how to lose.” Peter shook his head disappointed. You scoffed before pushing him over onto the floor. But it was very true.

“Whatever!” you laughed as you looked down at your phone. You noticed your grandma texted and asked when you were coming home. She would freak out if she knew you spent the night at Peter’s. “I have to go, but this game isn’t over.”

“Oh, okay, Y/N. It’s freezing out there. Did you drive?” May quickly asked.

“Yeah, I just need my coat and boots,” you smiled as went to the front door to put on your coat.

“I’ll walk you down,” Peter offered as you stood up to put on shoes himself.

You slightly smiled and nodded, “Thank you, Peter, and thank you for letting me stay for so long, May. I hope I see you soon!” you smiled before waving off as you left with Peter.

You both entered the elevator both smiling, “You owe me one more game.”

The elevator began to descend and Peter just laughed, “Just for you to lose again?”

“Wow, you’re so rude.”

“You know I’m kidding,” he muttered as the elevator door opened on the empty lobby floor. You both exited. You faced the snow-covered streets before you turned to Peter.

“Thank you for the day, Peter,” you sighed as you took his right hand into both of yours. “Thanks for being a friend.”

After today, Peter couldn’t just think about you as just a friend. Yes, you always wanted to be there for you, but he had a love for you that you could barely describe. He couldn’t bear to be stuck in the friend zone again and again. 

“Y/N, I know you probably don’t wanna hear this now, but I...I feel like...”

Your eyebrows furrowed as you smiled up at him, “Peter, you can literally tell me anything, you know that, right? And after what I put you through today...”

He looked down at you and into your soft Y/C/E eyes. They didn’t have their red and puffy appearance anymore. They still shined in the bad lighting of the lobby. They were exactly the way he liked them. Your lips were pressed together, but they still formed a smile across your face. 

What took over Peter, he wasn’t sure. His hand swiftly caressed your cheek before his lips meet yours. You almost tumbled backward due to the force of the kiss. You didn’t know how to respond, but your instincts took over as your hand traveled around his neck. Peter was surprised to feel you respond. Your lips moved together perfectly in sync. 

Peter thought you could feel his heart rate quicken. He swore it was about to fall out of his chest. Your lips were soft and sweet against his; they were heavenly.

But a sense of guilt rushed over you. Were you accepting this because you still kind of felt hurt? Did it feel nice because Cooper didn’t like Peter as you pulled back from Peter, you both a little breathless, “Peter...”

“I’ve been wanting to do that since the week after I meet you,” he muttered as he interrupted.

And that was the thing. Peter had thought being with you since November and you never even considered it. But kissed you in a way you had never been kissed before. It didn’t feel like he was trying to satisfy himself or show off (the way Cooper did). He kissed you like he cared.

“Listen, Y/N.” Your head fully popped up, but you were still wary of looking into his eyes “I love being your friend, but I still cannot help but to want to care for you more and I know this is probably the worst way to tell you, but after being with you tonight...it’s not a petty crush.’

You were speechless. A part of you though Peter liked you when you first met, but you thought he stopped. You never anticipated this.

“I’m so sorry, Peter.” You took a step back as you felt more guilt ran over your shoulders. “If I would’ve known, I never would’ve put you through the last twenty-four hours, but I cannot do this.”

“You can’t be with me?”

“No —I don’t know.” You felt as if every word you were wanting to say were rushing past you, leaving you flustered and stuttering. “I just...I just can’t leave one relationship and get into another but especially with a guy that my ex had a problem with.” You could see Peter’s heart slowly break as you tried to explain yourself. “I don’t know if what I just felt was due to me wanting to make Cooper upset or being sad or liking you and now realizing it —I just don’t know, Peter.”

Peter nodded, his lips in a firm line. His arms were crossed as he attempted to distance himself away from you. He sighed through his nose before looking back at you, “I get it, but I know how I feel about you, Y/N.”

“And I know I like you enough to not use you as rebound, and I want to be sure because you’re my best friend,” you told him. “I never want to hurt you, Peter.”

“Yeah, but we all don’t get what we want,” he hissed.

“Jesus, Peter!” you almost yelled, “It’s not my fault! You’re being childish now.”

“I watched you be with a guy that treated so bad while I was good to you, and I’m sorry if I’m a little upset about it.” You had never seen Peter angry. Upset yes, but never angry. “I swallowed my pride and sucked it up because you were happy. Yeah, I should’ve said something sooner, but I end up telling you what you want to hear because seeing you smile made me happy until I saw you with him.”

“And I'm supposed to be with you because of that? You know that’s not fair, Peter! You’re acting no better than Cooper or any other guy I’ve been with.” This was the first time you fought with Peter, and you hated it. You wished you could go back upstairs and forget about now and just continue your game of Scrabble where the only problem was if your word as valid. You held back the tears the brimmed your eyes, “I cannot be what you want, I guess, so, I’ll just leave you alone.” Peter almost didn’t catch it, but he heard you loud in clear. “I’m sorry.”

Without another word or tear dropped, you quickly walked out into the frigid cold to your car. As soon as you closed the door, you finally felt your body break down. You couldn’t even find it in yourself to start your car; you just sat there.

Peter watched you leave, and immediately hated himself. He hated seeing you cry when you came over earlier, but now, it was his fault. No one else was to blame.

“Such a damn idiot.”

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Recipe Remix: Fathead Pizza

If you’re alive in the US of A, you’ve likely heard something or other about the “Keto Diet” in the last 6-12 months. I’ll save the bulk of the science, nutrition, and varying philosophies of eating Keto for another blog post, and keep this to a brief discussion of this easy, awesome recipe. 

The Fathead Pizza is an internet phenomenon and well-known #lifehack to those who “eat Keto,” but I feel like everyone should know that you can make an entire personal pizza with only 6 carbs in it...regardless of what diet they follow. Especially when it only takes 25 minutes to make! Of course, I altered the original recipe a bit – and so can you! The recipe below is my modified version, and here is a link to the original recipe, should you be so inclined as to compare them.  

Just to get it out of the way: Keto is short for Ketosis, which for the purposes of this post, is really just a re-vamped/re-branded Atkins diet or way to say “low carb.” Keto is like, extremely low carb. The (very) general idea is that your body burns carbs for energy before it burns fat. So, if you limit or reduce the amount of carbs, your metabolism switches to burning fat more quickly. That’s the basic concept. 

I personally follow a low-carb diet that I wouldn’t go so far as to call Keto, and I do intermittent fasting along with “cheat days” and working out– my diet is sort of a hodge podge of different techniques that have worked for me. I regularly allow actual pizza on my cheat days, and I was raised on my Sicilian grandma’s homemade pizzas...so I really wasn’t in a hurry to try some weirdo, low-carb, diet pizza dough. Which is why I did not try this recipe for so long. 

Well my friends, the regret is mine to bear. This was a very simple to make and filling recipe that was a savory, cheesy treat with zero guilt. However, as a Sicilian-American, I feel the need to caution that this DOES NOT TASTE OR FEEL LIKE REGULAR PIZZA. Don’t think of it as a pizza, think of it as a Fathead. It’s totally its own “thing.” If you go into this recipe expecting to come out with pizza dough that resembles bread, you will be sorely disappointed. But if you accept now that this is not pizza, it’s a delicious pizza substitute called a Fathead, you will be exponentially happier with the result. Have you ever had sauce and mozzarella on a base other than dough? Like putting it on Ritz crackers or matzo or toast? No, just me? Well, think of the Fathead dough as thin, soft, cheesy pita instead of regular dough. 

OK, enough lead-up. Here is my recipe, tweaked from the original: 

Ingredients: 

1/2 Cup Shredded Mozzarella

1 Tablespoon Almond Flour

1 Teaspoon Cream Cheese (plain/regular or low-fat) *let it sit out to soften before use

1 Teaspoon Ricotta Cheese (not in original recipe, added by moi) 

1 Whole Egg

Salt & Pepper to taste

Sauce + Any other ingredients you want for toppings! (I just used the standard parmesan & romano flavored marinara sauce I buy in the store from a jar for the sauce. If you want to be ambitious and make your own, it will dramatically increase the prep time. Use whatever sauce you normally use and whatever toppings you normally use.) 

Materials:

Microwave-safe bowl

Metal fork (not plastic/disposable)

Baking pan/sheet (any flat, oven-safe tray or pan will work) 

Parchment paper (NOT wax paper, PARCHMENT) 

Instructions: 

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2. Get all your ingredients out on the counter and ready to go with your measuring spoons, cups, and materials. 

3. Put the 1/2 Cup Mozzarella in a microwave-safe bowl, and heat it in 15-second increments until it is stir-able with the fork. 

4. Add in the other two cheeses – cream cheese and ricotta – and stir well with the fork, combining them together. If the cream cheese was left out to soften, this should go pretty smoothly. If it gets hard to stir or the cheese starts to re-solidify, just place back in microwave for short, 5 second intervals until it can be stirred smoothly together. ONCE YOU ADD THE EGG & FLOUR, YOU CAN NO LONGER NUKE IT! This is why you have to get the cheese right before putting the egg in.

5. Once the three cheeses are melted and stirred together, and while the mixture is still a little warm and malleable, mix in the Egg and Almond Flour. Quickly stir together with the fork. 

6. Add some salt, pepper, and any other seasonings you want in the dough without going overboard. (I threw in a little garlic powder.) Thoroughly stir and mix together. 

At this point, your dough should be a greasy/wet looking glob that looks like this: 

7. Now, dump that whole glob of cheese dough onto a sheet of parchment paper! Cover it with a second sheet on top, and just roll that sucker into a circle. (I do not own a rolling pin, I used a metal water bottle. You can use anything cylindrical and smooth - a plastic water bottle that has ridges will screw it up. Remember this dough is not really dough, it’s mostly cheese with a tiny bit of almond flour and some spices, so its going to move around very easily. I rolled it into a general shape that wasn’t a very good circle at first, but then just used my fingers on the edges to round and even it out.) Here is how this step looks: 

8. Peel the top piece of parchment paper off and put the bottom one directly onto your baking pan/sheet. Put in the oven for 7-10 minutes. Keep an eye on it and don’t exceed 10 mins on the first heating. (There’s a second one in store!) It should still feel pretty soft, but be solid enough to put sauce and toppings onto. Like this: 

9. Put on your sauce, toppings, and extra shredded cheese. If you want to keep this at ~500 cal, don’t go too nuts with the cheese on top. Remember, the base is already made of cheese. But of course it IS supposed to resemble a PIZZA, so just use a reasonable amount on top. I like to put my toppings on the sauce first, then the extra cheese on top. I personally used sliced veggie-hotdogs as pepperoni substitute, along with sautéed mushrooms, onion, and garlic. I cooked them all in a pan on the stove while the base was doing its first round in the oven. See: 

10. Put that mofo back in the oven for another 7-10 minutes, monitoring and taking out when it smells crispy and the edges of the “dough” are golden-brown. Add parmesan and seasonings to taste. 

If you used PARCHMENT paper and not wax paper, it will be completely non-stick. You should be able to just slide the Fathead from the parchment paper onto a plate pretty easily using a spatula to assist. If you used wax paper even though I explicitly told you not to, you already know you F-ed up because your kitchen smells like burnt candles and is filled with smoke. (I’ve learned from experience.) 

Finished Product: 

Enjoy this entire Fathead all to yourself! At just over 500 cals for the entire serving, you can GO FOR GOLD. For not being real pizza, this Fathead will satisfy any savory cravings. Plus, it takes much less time than actual dough! 

Let me know if you try my spin on Fathead Pizza out and what you think of it! Full process with videos will be added to my YouTube channel shortly =) 

And as always, remember these words of wisdom from Dennis Reynolds: “Don’t be a dumb, hungry bitch.”

Keto Breakfast Chaffles - VIDEO + Cookbook — Ditch The Carbs

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Keto breakfast chaffles are all the trend proper now, and for good purpose. They are scrumptious and can be utilized in many various methods as a low carb alternative for bread or waffles.  Almost ZERO carbs AND a fast 5-minute recipe. Below I'll train you every thing you must know to unlock the key to turning into a chaffle King or Queen!!!

Keep studying to learn to make a fundamental, however scrumptious chaffle for breakfast. In this Keto Breakfast Chaffle recipe – you'll study: 

FREE Chaffle Handbook

If you LOVE these Four simple chaffle recipes, in the present day I'm making a gift of 23 Sweet & Savoury Recipes in my Chaffle Handbook as a bonus once you be part of my FREE e-mail neighborhood.  GET YOUR FREE COOKBOOK – CLICK HERE.

What Is A Chaffle?

Chaffles are essentially the most versatile and straightforward to make keto/low-carb/gluten-free bread substitute, for sandwiches, as a pizza base, and even for desserts and candy treats. All the topping concepts are within the cookbook I'm making a gift of this week. CHAFFLE = Cheese + Waffle Super scrumptious breakfast chaffles are like waffles however as a substitute of normal sugar and flour (making a excessive-carb catastrophe), they're made with egg and cheese. If you might be new right here chances are you'll be questioning “what is a chaffle?” A chaffle is a cheesy waffle made out of cheese and egg. Chaffles are an excellent invention as a result of they're a sugar-free, gluten-free, low-carb, fluffy waffle that's extremely versatile as a result of it doesn’t style like cheese. 

GET YOUR FREE COOKBOOK – CLICK HERE. THE BASIC CHAFFLE RECIPE The base recipe is solely 1 egg + 1/three cup pre-shredded mozzarella cheese.  Each recipe will make two MINI chaffles or 1 LARGE chaffle. To see the preferred flavours and sorts of chaffles, take a look at this post.

What gear do you must make keto breakfast chaffles? If you will have been with me for some time right here at Ditch The Carbs, you’ll know I’m all about saving you cash wherever I can, so save your cash, as a result of don’t want a type of costly fancy-schmancy waffle makers. A mini waffle maker is an ideal dimension that can mean you can make 2 mini-chaffles for every recipe. A larger waffle maker will make one giant chaffle per recipe.  

Do gluten-free keto breakfast chaffles style tacky or eggy? There are some easy tips to make sure your chaffles will not be tacky OR eggy. You should a)  use delicate cheese PLUS b) flavour your chaffles properly. For a savoury chaffle recipe, be sure you add yummy herbs or spices equivalent to rosemary, chili or smokey flavours. For a candy chaffle recipe, add further flavours or sweeteners to ensure a candy chaffle style.  These low-carb pizza chaffles will simply move the kiddo take a look at, they’re a winner! LOW-CARB BREAKFASTS: Who else needs to begin their day the simple manner? There’s even an egg-free chapter for you too – CLICK HERE

GET YOUR FREE COOKBOOK – CLICK HERE.

Easy Keto Breakfast Chaffles with Eggs and Bacon

Chaffles are fast and straightforward to make and can be utilized in many various methods. This recipe is for making only a fundamental chaffle made with egg and mozzarella cheese.  You merely combine them collectively after which cook dinner them in a mini waffle maker. That’s it!

Mini Chaffles or Regular Chaffles? The finest approach to make a chaffle is with a mini waffle maker. I like to make use of a mini waffle maker over an everyday-sized waffle maker as a result of then I could make two chaffles and use them as a “chaffle sandwich”. However, if all you will have is an everyday-sized waffle maker don’t be afraid to make use of it. It simply means you’ll be cooking one chaffle as a substitute of two. Cooking Chaffles for Breakfast Before cooking the chaffles you wish to grease and preheat your waffle maker. I like to make use of an olive oil spray to grease the waffle maker as soon as it's preheated. You may use a bit of oil on a towel to grease the waffle maker earlier than it's preheated. Next, pour half the batter within the mini-waffle maker (or all of the batter into an everyday waffle maker) and unfold it round in order that the entire floor of the waffle maker is roofed. Close the waffle maker and let the chaffle cook dinner for two-Four minutes, or till you see no extra steam popping out. The longer you cook dinner chaffles, the crispier they turn out to be.

If you cooking for just a few individuals, this recipe can simply be doubled or tripled.  How to Serve Keto Breakfast Chaffles with Eggs and Bacon Eggs and bacon are the right sides in your chaffles. You can cook dinner the bacon within the oven whilst you make your chaffles and eggs.  When you might be finished merely put all of them on a plate and luxuriate in. To pump them as much as the subsequent degree, add some avocado too. The chaffles will also be used to make a breakfast sandwich. Place the eggs and bacon in-between your two chaffles, prime with some avocado and luxuriate in a scrumptious breakfast sandwich. To eat your the breakfast sandwich on the go, wrap your sandwich in a kitchen paper towel or parchment paper and eat it on the go.

LOW-CARB BREAKFASTS: Who else needs to begin their day the simple manner? There’s even an egg-free chapter for you too – CLICK HERE

GET YOUR FREE COOKBOOK – CLICK HERE. Easy Keto Breakfast Chaffles with Eggs and Bacon Chaffles are finest eaten contemporary as a result of they're fluffy and heat. However, they are often made just a few days prematurely and both saved within the fridge or freezer.  Your chaffles will likely be much less fluffy, however they will nonetheless be used for wraps, low-carb tacos, or breakfast sandwiches. Enjoy!

HOW DO YOU FREEZE CHAFFLES? Super simple low-carb and keto breakfast chaffles are excellent for making extras to maintain within the freezer. The fundamental chaffles are a SUPERB emergency healthy kid’s lunch box filler. Here’s easy methods to freeze chaffles: Let the chaffles to chill fully and all of the steam to flee In an hermetic container place layers of low-carb chaffles with sheets of baking parchment to separate every layer. Seal and freeze for as much as three months. Defrost by toasting, frying or microwaving for 10 seconds. Enjoy.  So sure, you may freeze chaffles, however bear in mind, you may make 2 scrumptious mini low-carb chaffles in lower than 5 minutes. GET YOUR FREE COOKBOOK – CLICK HERE. TOP TIPS FOR MAKING EASY BASIC SUGAR-FREE CHAFFLES Always combine the egg and cheese properly earlier than pouring into your waffle maker Make certain you unfold the chaffle combination out evenly into your waffle maker If you don’t have a waffle maker, you need to use a frying pan The longer you cook dinner chaffles, the crispier they turn out to be You could substitute any delicate cheese you want to instead of pre-shredded mozzarella.  Always examine your pre-shredded mozzarella for components equivalent to potato or rice starch which is usually added to stop the shredded cheese from clumping. Find a superb model with out these further pointless carbs.

Easy Breakfast Chaffles with Eggs and Bacon

A easy and scrumptious low-carb chaffles serves with a facet of bacon and eggs. They are keto-pleasant and gluten-free. Your complete household will take pleasure in them. Prep Time1 minCook Time4 minutes Course: Bread, Breakfast, Lunch, SnacksDiet: Gluten Free, Grain free, Keto, LCHF, Low Carb, No Sugars, Wheat FreeKeyword: Chaffles, Easy Breakfast Chaffles With Eggs And Bacon, How to make chaffles Servings: 2 mini-chaffles Total Carbs: 1g Fibre: 0.5g IngredientsBreakfast Chaffles (fundamental chaffle)1 egghalf of cup pre-shredded mozzarella cheesebaconeggs for scrambling or frying InstructionsCombine the substances for the essential breakfast chaffle in a small bowl or mug. Preheat your waffle maker. When it's sizzling, spray with olive oil and pour half the batter into the mini-waffle maker (or the complete batter into a big waffle maker). Cook for two-Four minutes then take away and repeat. You ought to have the ability to make 2 mini-chaffles per recipe or 1 giant chaffle. Serve with a facet or eggs and bacon. Enjoy! NOTES: Place your eggs and bacon between the chaffles to make a sandwich. Want to begin low-carb FAST?Grab your FREE 5-day meal plan, pantry information, procuring listing & tracker CLICK HERE Nutrition Facts Easy Breakfast Chaffles with Eggs and Bacon Amount Per Serving (1 fundamental giant chaffle) Calories 115 Calories from Fat 72 % Daily Value* Fat 8g12%Sodium 207mg9%Potassium 52mg1%Carbohydrates 1g0%Fiber 0.5g2%Sugar 1g1%Protein 9g18% Vitamin A 308IU6%Calcium 154mg15%Iron 1mg6% * Percent Daily Values are based mostly on a 2000 calorie food regimen. Make life simpler for your self.See my low-carb cookbooks & meal plans. All the sources you’ll ever want SHOW ME Tried this recipe?Check out my collection of ULTIMATE GUIDES that can enable you to select sweeteners, flours, oils, greens, fruit, nuts and even alcohol. What's your keto rating?See how NUTRITA PRO scores recipes from DitchTheCarbs. What's in my pantry?Check out my collection of ULTIMATE GUIDES that can enable you to select sweeteners, flours, oils, greens, fruit, nuts and even alcohol. Want some assist, suggestions & tips?Join our pleasant SUPPORT GROUP to assist help and information you and your loved ones to dwell low-carb for all times! © Copyright Ditch The Carbs. Please share this recipe with your pals through social media or e-mail. DO NOT copy/minimize/paste/screenshot the recipe directions to your web site or on social media.

   GET YOUR FREE COOKBOOK – CLICK HERE.

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Spicy Heirloom Tomato Pizza

Spicy Heirloom Tomato Pizza

Pizza, Quick and Easy, Summer, Vegetarian

Billy has been out of town this entire week so it’s just been me trying to paint on buttercream and catching up on a bunch of computer work, i.e., watching Lauren Servido’s videos on Instagram and editing photos. It’s been a glorious couple of days in my week, I have to say. Very peaceful!

You know what isn’t peaceful is Target, man. I walk in thinking I’m going to see summer outdoor patio furniture but instead it was a huge display of back to school drama that just stressed me out. I’m not even in school, haven’t been in years, but I’m stressed for the children—let them play!

I always went back to school in September so late July just seems a bit aggressive, don’t you think? Though, I always did love a some fresh new school supplies. They felt so nice and clean.

Let’s talk this pizza! This is a full summer time pizza. It’s a celebration of tomatoes and spiciness.

It’s very difficult for me to go to the super market or farmer’s market right now and NOT buy an heirloom tomato and a pint of cherry tomatoes. I eat them all the time.

I eat sliced tomato on the side with a bit of lemon juice and salt I eat cherry tomatoes in my tuna salad I’ll eat a tomato as a snack

I basically like tomatoes all the time.

On pizza they can be a bit tricky. You don’t want them to leech out too much water so I always salt them and put them on a bed of paper towels or linen first. I sauteed the cherry tomatoes first in a bit of olive oil and salt. Just to get them a lil cooked. But that’s it.

This is super simple.

I made a quick batch of pizza dough. You can obviously use store-bought if you like.

I like my pizza super thin so I rolled it out super thin and baked it on my baking steel. I got it a few years ago and it’s still on my favorite things. It makes the bottom of the pizza super crispy.

Spicy Heirloom Tomato Pizza

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

Yield: 1 small pizza

Serving Size: 2

Ingredients

1 tablespoon neutral-flavored oil

1/2 pint of tomatoes

1/2 heirloom tomato, sliced

1/2 pound homemade pizza dough or store-bought

2 tablespoons jarred tomato sauce

1 cup shredded mozzarella

1/2 fresno chile, sliced

Salt

Fresh basil leaves, as garnish

Directions

In a medium skillet, over medium-high heat, add the oil. When the oil is hot, add the tomatoes and cook until blistered, turning them over about half way through, for about 5. Remove and transfer to a bowl. Add a few pinches of salt. Add the slices of heirloom tomato to a paper towel or clean kitchen towel and sprinkle with salt. Allow to stand for about 5 minutes.

Place your pizza stone or pizza steel in the oven. If you don’t have one, you can place a baking sheet in the oven. It won’t be as crispy but it will still work.

Preheat your oven to 450 to 500 degrees F (some ovens only go to 450 degrees F so just go as high as you can). Dust your counter or cutting board with some flour. Roll the pizza dough into a thin round shape. I like to do a combination of pressing the dough down with my fingers, stretching it and rolling it out.

Transfer the dough to a piece of parchment paper. I like to add it to the back of a baking sheet or pizza peel.

Spread a few tablespoons of tomato sauce on the pizza, stopping about an inch from the edge. Sprinkle with the mozzarella and then arrange the cherry tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes and sliced chiles on top.

Transfer to the oven to bake for about 15 to 20 minutes. This time will depend on how hot your oven can truly get. Mine is about 450 and it took exactly 15 minutes.

Top the pizza with a few leaves of basil, and a sprinkling of crushed red pepper, if you like. Slice up and serve.

3.1

http://www.acozykitchen.com/spicy-heirloom-tomato-pizza/

July 31, 2018 by Adrianna Adarme

Adrianna Adarme

A Cozy Kitchen is a blog written by Adrianna Adarme. Adrianna likes corgis, pancakes and cute things.

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Hi! This is my lil’ corner on da internets called A Cozy Kitchen. I live in Los Angeles, California with my husband Joshua and my corgi Amelia.

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Source: http://www.acozykitchen.com/spicy-heirloom-tomato-pizza/

I'm making spaghetti and GIANT ASS MEATBALLS for dinner so in honor of that, my birthday, and the exactly zero fucks I have left to give, here's my personal recipe for spaghetti and meatballs for any and all folks who want to do it. Please bear in mind that, while I find this recipe to be low-spoons for me personally, there are definitely steps in it that will not be for everyone. Plan accordingly. Ingredients: (this list has been severely edited because I am shit at writing down my recipes and I literally just wrote the steps and then came back here and added in the ingredients list because fuck if I know what I'm goddamn doing) ~2.5 pounds of ground beef - this recipe may sort of assume you, like me, live within reasonable transit of a wholesale butcher's where ground beef costs $14 for a five pound bag. The good news is that there will be enough leftovers from this to keep you in dinners for a week, so blowing your entire meat budget probably won't lead to protein deprivation later on. ~1 pound of SWEET ITALIAN SAUSAGE, GROUND - I cannot stress enough how important it is that you not just get plain ground sausage, although my dead great grandma and I would be fucking thrilled if you picked a spicy tomato sausage instead of the sweet. ~a handful of Italian herb mix - how much is a handful? Exactly as much as it takes to make a middle aged Sicilian woman ask "are you sure that's enough oregano?" Probably. Try like 3 table spoons at first and then next time adjust to your specific tastes. If you want hard mode, instead of buying the container of dried flakes labeled "Italian" or "provincial", then buy fresh rosemary, thyme, sweet oregano, basil, lavender, and get ready to grate a goddamn lemon peel over some minced garlic. ~4 to 6 eggs. Do you like your meatballs soft and just a little squishy? 6. Do you prefer them to be solid enough that they don't feel like the slimed underbelly of a frog with phlegm when you're shaping them? Maybe stick with 4. ~bread crumbs. I like the Italian seasoned ones. Because that middle aged Sicilian lady was right and you ABSOFUCKINGLUTELY did not put enough herb mix in there. ~any combination of the following four types of cheese in frankly unreasonable amounts: mozzarella, asiago, Parmesan, and Romano. Hard mode is to mix these grated monstrosities into the meatballs themselves. Easy mode says drop into your bowl after it's all been heated and prepped and fucking stir. ~2 pounds of noodles. You're feeding people for a week, shut up and make it 4 pounds. I like those cheap ass 2 lb boxes of elbow macaroni from Aldi's, but sometimes I splurge and buy the fancy spinach flour pasta or the fucking wheel noodles because I'm a goddamn child. Hard mode says to mix flour, water, eggs, and herb mix into dough, let rest for 24 hours in plastic wrap, and then roll, slice, and drop in the pot to cook for maybe 7 minutes but probably 5. ~a jar full of pasta noodle marinade. This means that you mix together garlic salt, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, and those little red pepper flakes they give you at pizza restaurants along with some fracked black pepper. Fill your pot with water, dump this in, and let it come to a rolling boil before you ever introduce noodle to wet, or my great grandmother's ghost will personally haunt you for exactly two days to tell you that your cooking tastes like sadness. There's a reason my mother never cooked pasta in my house and it's mostly because great grandma Josephine is a fucking irritation. If you want her to haunt you except to say nice things, you can use fresh garlic, kosher salt, sliced lemons and bell peppers dropped directly in the water, and a splash of red wine vinegar because Josephine was a bit of a lush. ~pasta sauce, at least 16 oz of it. The reason I know so much about Josephine is because I refuse to take the mother fucking time out of my day to personally crush the dozen tomatoes and two bulbs of garlic, dice a sweet onion, chop the flowering herbs, and layer in the white wine vinegar and chicken broth that she insists is the appropriate way to make sauce. Store bought costs like $8 for a week's worth on a fancy day and doesn't make my kitchen look like the scene of a grisly murder. I'm pretty sure she only haunts me for this out of spite and loneliness though, so you shouldn't need to worry and can just use storebought as well. The recipe itself is as follows: get a giant mixing bowl, crack in your eggs, whip with the herb mix, then dump in all the meat (and cheese if you took hard mode - Josephine is so proud of you) and the bread crumbs (which should be at a ratio of about 2:1 of meat:bread crumb) and just fold and squish. If you're like sane people and hate the feel of raw meat under your finger nails, I recommend dumping all this stuff into a giant plastic bag instead of a mixing bowl, sealing it tight, and just squishing it around a lot until the texture feels consistent. If you're like sane people except you have children who are constantly under foot and in your way, this is a great part of the recipe to let them do as long as either a) they're not four, or b) you don't mind losing some of the meat mix into the floor. Once your meat is mixed, scoop and shape chunks of it into lil balls. Or if you're like me and want to scare people, into something roughly the shape and size of 1.5 baseballs. I like this version because it means 1 meatball per meal per person is usually slightly pushing it, and since the recipe can make 20 of them....... well, portions are really easy to judge and it feeds a lot of people. Put these balls into one of two containers. Either an extremely large baking pan or a crock pot. Whichever cooking container you use, pour in enough sauce to basically cover the meatballs as if you were going to boil them in sauce. Because you are. If it's a crock pot, put on your lid, set on low, and let them slow cook all goddamn day while you're at work. If it's the baking dish, cover with tinfoil securely, preheat an oven to 400 degrees, and bake for about an hour and a half. Maybe two and a half if you made the baseball sized ones. Once you're mostly down cooking them (15-20 minutes left) you put a pot of water on to boil with your noodle marinade in it. When it reaches a rolling boil, drop in your pasta and cook to your preference. Strain the noodles and - this is absolutely fucking critical - rinse them with cold water (removes starch and prevents your leftovers from becoming a slimy block-o-noodles in their container) and put them into a giant bowl before tossing lightly with like a quarter cup of your noodle marinade. Hard mode involves putting some asparagus in a frying pan with steak seasoning, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and red wine vinegar, and a little butter until they're soft and a little seared to serve with the pasta. Once you're done, you put some noodles, a giant (or a few smaller) meatball(s) with some sauce, and a healthy amount of shredded cheese onto a plate, microwave it for about a minute to soften the cheese, and mix thoroughly. Then enjoy. This looks like a lot of steps. And it is. But it also typically only takes me 10-15 minutes of prep time and since the cooking is all done without needing attention (besides maybe stirring the noodles two times while they cook or flipping the asparagus during hard mode) I tend to find this to be one of the lower spoon feed-an-Army-and-pretend-you-slaved-for-hours-to-do-it recipes in my book. Hopefully it'll work for a lot of you all too. See you next time on the "I am the literal worst at measuring out ingredients and honestly you should just assume you haven't put in enough garlic" cooking show.

Recipes with Pesto

A number of years in the past, I introduced you a spherical up submit with recipes with basil. That’s been a preferred submit, so I do know you guys love contemporary basil within the summertime! I’m proper there with you.At present I’m bringing you one other spherical up, this time it’s recipes with pesto! As a result of pesto is my favourite option to eat contemporary basil, I believed it could be nice to have a variety of completely different recipe concepts that use pesto.

Let’s begin by speaking about pesto slightly bit, after which we’ll get to the recipes.

Pesto Elements

The fundamental components for traditional pesto are as follows:

contemporary basil

pine nuts

olive oil

garlic

parmesan cheese

There are such a lot of completely different variations, nevertheless, and simple substitutions relying in your tastes and dietary wants. I at all times make my Selfmade Pesto with Spinach for that added enhance of diet. I additionally typically swap out the pine nuts and use almonds or walnuts, principally as a result of pine nuts are normally fairly expensive and I don’t at all times have them available. Pesto might be made vegan through the use of dietary yeast instead of the Parmesan Cheese.

I’ve just a few pesto variations we additionally love, like Solar-Dried Tomato Pesto (make this Salmon Pasta with it!) if you wish to stray from the basic.

Recipes with Pesto

The entire recipes right here use pesto. In. most circumstances, you need to use whichever variation of pesto is your favourite. This checklist ought to aid you burn up all of that contemporary basil you’ve gotten!

The Greatest Veggie Sandwich

This Veggie Sandwich is easy to make and has unimaginable taste from the roasted greens and pesto! That is one in every of my very favourite lunch recipes.

Pesto Pasta Salad

This Pesto Pasta Salad is a more healthy pasta salad and works simply as properly for dinner because it does as potluck dish! An extended-time favourite Completely satisfied Wholesome Mama recipe!

Parmesan Pesto Spaghetti Squash with Shrimp

Parmesan Pesto Spaghetti Squash with Shrimp options strands of spaghetti squash tossed with spinach, pesto, parmesan, and probably the most scrumptious seasoned shrimp! Love this recipe concept from Peas and Crayons.

Roasted Vegetable Pesto Quinoa Bowls

Roasted Vegetable Pesto Quinoa Bowls is pesto quinoa tossed with roasted greens. They’re a hearty vegetarian meal prep recipe! Nice concept from Taste the Moments.

Balsamic Portobella Caprese

It is an simple vegetarian recipe, is shortly flavored in a balsamic marinade, grilled after which topped with contemporary mozzarella, pesto, tomato slices and contemporary basil leaves. My mouth is watering! Recipe from Swirls of Taste. 

Simple Blackened Shrimp and Pesto Pizza

Blackened Shrimp paired with selfmade pesto on naan bread? Sure please! This simple recipe is stuffed with taste and 100% scrumptious. Nice recipe from Meals Wine Sunshine. 

Keto Salmon with Pesto

This simple baked salmon might be made in minutes and topped with any taste pesto. You may’t go mistaken with this wholesome recipe from Pleasure Crammed Eats. 

Low Carb Pesto Rooster & Spaghetti Squash Bake

This Low Carb Pesto Rooster and Spaghetti Squash Casserole is topped with mozzarella and tomatoes and SO unbelievably scrumptious! A one-dish Gluten Free, Keto Pal, and Child-Pleasant simple weeknight dinner! A must-try dinner concept from Prepare dinner at Residence Mother.

Zucchini Noodle Nests and Eggs

A one-skillet breakfast of Selfmade Herby Pesto and Spiralized Zucchini Egg Nests. It’s a giant, wholesome, veggie and protein packed recipe that’s good to your Gluten Free and Low Carb egg breakfast! One other welcome addition to our recipes with basil from Prepare dinner at Residence Mother.

Grilled Pesto Rooster

The recipe consists of directions for each grilling and baking, and pesto provides the most effective taste to any hen recipe! Wonderful concept from On a regular basis Eileen.

Pesto Roasted Potatoes, Carrots, and Asparagus

Scrumptious roasted potatoes and vegetable aspect dish that’s good to serve with your favourite protein. Potatoes, asparagus, and carrots are merely tossed in your favourite pesto sauce and roasted within the oven. Recipe from Will Prepare dinner for Smiles.

Pesto Spaghetti Squash

It doesn’t get a lot less complicated than this (that’s a GOOD factor!) and what superb taste so as to add to your bowl of spaghetti squash! An incredible vegetarian important course or aspect dish. Love this concept from Mae’s Menu.

Summer time Pesto Breakfast Stratta

This tremendous pesto laden strata is ideal for summer time brunches. Put it within the fridge in a single day and bake it within the morning! If we ever have visitors spend the night time at our home once more (you realize..when this complete Covid factor ends) I’m making this. Nice recipe from This Is How I Prepare dinner. 

Rooster Pesto Meatballs

These savory meatballs are made with floor hen after which cooked in a creamy selfmade basil pesto sauce which supplies them a novel twist on a basic. This must-try recipe is from Chisel and Fork.

On the spot Pot Pesto Rooster

Low Carb On the spot Pot Pesto Rooster with Mozzarella cheese and juicy Roma tomatoes is extremely scrumptious and prepared in 20 minutes. When you’re searching for a low carb dinner you may make in your On the spot Pot, do that one from This Previous Gal. 

Baked Vegan Zucchini Fritters

These vegan fritters have zucchini and quinoa, they’re baked and served with Pesto mayo. Scrumptious. Recipe from Brown Sugar & Vanilla. 

Let me know if you happen to attempt one in every of these recipes with pesto and what you thought!

The submit Recipes with Pesto appeared first on Completely satisfied Wholesome Mama.

Authentic supply: https://happyhealthymama.com/recipes-with-pesto.html

Healthy Diet

Easy Gluten-Free Lasagna Soup Recipe

This simple gluten-free lasagna soup comes along with just some pantry staples that I all the time wish to have available. It’s excellent for a busy weeknight meal!

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Today I’m coming at you with one other pantry staple one-dish marvel: Lasagna Soup! Remember the Baked Chicken Rotini from final week? That creamy, hearty baked noodle dish full of pesto taste and stuffed with nice vitamin from broccoli and chickpea pasta? This dish could be very comparable in that it medical doctors up some high-quality pantry staples by including taste and packing in vitamin with some key components. It additionally makes use of chickpea pasta – this time within the type of a lasagna noodle!

As an RD Ambassador for Banza Pasta, I used to be thrilled once they despatched me a pattern of their new chickpea lasagna noodles. I’m an enormous fan of pasta made with chickpeas. Not solely is it a tasty possibility for my family and friends members who want gluten-free pasta, but it surely’s additionally full of fiber, protein, and is decrease in carbs. I discover myself subbing it in for wheat pasta ceaselessly, as I get plenty of wheat in my food regimen already from different gadgets and consuming quite a lot of meals is my main vitamin aim!

I like this simple soup recipe as a result of it takes a number of of my favourite pantry and fridge staples and mixes them collectively to take advantage of scrumptious “semi-homemade” meal. It’s one which I flip to on busy days that I must shortly put together one thing nourishing and satisfying that may hopefully feed us for a number of meals in the course of the week. Let me present you methods to make it!

Lasagna Soup Ingredients

Italian Chicken Sausage – I all the time attempt to maintain Italian hen or turkey sausage stocked in my freezer. It’s a fantastic possibility for a pizza topping or a method so as to add a little bit of taste to dishes with floor turkey. I'll purchase it in bulk with out the casings once I can discover it, however raw sausage within the casing will work advantageous additionally – simply take away the casings with kitchen scissors earlier than browning the sausage.

Canned Tomatoes – the canned cherry tomatoes from Mutti are a DREAM and tremendous flavorful. I do have hassle discovering these, so I top off on them once I do. Fire-roasted diced tomatoes are nice as nicely and far simpler to seek out.

Tomato Soup – the Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup from Pacific is my favourite pre-made soup, and I like the way it makes a scrumptious base for including different components! Trader Joe’s sells low-sodium and common variations of this as nicely.

Chicken Stock – I all the time have both the Kitchen Basics Low Sodium Chicken Stock or the Reduced Sodium Chicken Bone Broth from Walmart in my pantry. If you don’t have time to make selfmade inventory, these have the subsequent finest taste and colour, for my part.

Kale – a giant dose of darkish inexperienced leafy veggies is an effective way to pack vitamin into soup, and I all the time appear to have kale available as a result of I like to make salads and kale chips in the course of the week. But I believe child spinach, swiss chard, and even collard or turnip greens can be scrumptious on this!

Lasagna Noodles – I exploit Banza’s chickpea lasagna noodles for this recipe. A complete-wheat lasagna noodle would even be a hearty and nutritious substitute.

Cheese – a sprinkling of part-skim mozzarella and Parmesan on high of the soup proper earlier than serving provides that factor of melty, tacky lasagna goodness with out the entire fats and energy in an everyday lasagna!

How to Make Lasagna Soup

Cook the lasagna noodles – I’ve not too long ago taken to cooking noodles individually every time I’m making a soup that requires pasta. Noodles soak up numerous liquid as they prepare dinner, and I discovered that cooking them within the soup took up an excessive amount of of the soup liquid and made the pasta gummy. So I boil the pasta individually, then add it in proper earlier than serving the soup. If I do know I’m going to have plenty of leftovers, I’ll add the pasta in parts as I reheat the soup.

Brown the hen sausage – this is step one in making the precise soup, and a step that ends in numerous taste!

Add tomatoes, soup, and broth – the acid from the tomatoes will break up any brown bits which have fashioned on the underside of your pot when the sausage was browned. Once all of the liquid is added, you need to carry the combination to a boil earlier than including the kale or greens.

Add the kale and simmer – the simmering time will rely upon the greens that you simply add. 10 minutes is ideal for kale and swiss chard, however you’ll want much less time for child spinach and extra time for collards or turnip greens.

 Stir within the cooked pasta – let it warmth up within the soup for a minute or two earlier than ladling into bowls.

Serve and high with cheese and basil – this can add colour and contemporary taste from the herb!

Possible Recipe Variations

Make it vegetarian – since chickpea pasta is already excessive in fiber and protein, you possibly can simply omit the hen sausage and nonetheless have a super-flavorful and satisfying meal. Maybe throw in a little bit of Italian seasoning and crimson pepper flakes to interchange the flavour that the Italian sausage supplies. You may additionally add in some meaty mushrooms for further vitamin or a handful of dried lentils that may simmer and prepare dinner with the greens.

Make it vegan – omit the hen sausage and substitute the cheese with vegan cheese shreds. Or nix the cheese altogether and maybe add a swirl of pesto to the highest of the soup!

Make it freezer-friendly – it is a nice simple recipe to make a double batch of and freeze for later. Just prepare dinner up by means of the step the place you add the soup and broth, chill, and divide into freezer soup containers. You can add contemporary greens and pasta when the soup is thawed and reheated.

Similar Recipes to Enjoy

Are you able to make this Lasagna Soup? I’m so excited so that you can do that recipe. Once you get the possibility to make it, please let me know the way it seems for you! Leave a remark and charge the recipe under. This will assist me with the creation of future recipes! I’d additionally like to characteristic your creation in my month-to-month e-newsletter, so you possibly can add a photograph to Instagram or Twitter with the tag @sweetcayenne5 to be featured!

*PLEASE charge and touch upon the recipe for those who make it! This helps others discover the recipe in engines like google!*

Lasagna Soup

Print Pin Rate

Course: Soup

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: simple lasagna soup recipe, gluten-free lasagna soup

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Servings: 6 servings

Author: Whitney Reist | Sweet Cayenne

Ingredients

12-16 ounces bulk Italian hen sausage or four hyperlinks, casings eliminated

1 (14.5 ounce can) entire cherry tomatoes (or substitute with fire-roasted diced tomatoes)

1 (32-ounce carton) Roasted Red Pepper Tomato Soup (I like the Pacific and Trader Joe’s manufacturers)

1 (32-ounce) carton low-sodium hen inventory

1 bunch (about 5 cups) kale, washed and chopped with stems eliminated (or different darkish leafy greens like Swiss chard, collards, or turnip greens)

eight items of chickpea lasagna, cooked for based on bundle instructions four minutes and damaged into items (I like the Banza model)

Optional for serving: shredded part-skim mozzarella, shaved Parmesan cheese, freshly-cut Basil

Instructions

Place a Dutch oven over medium warmth. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add the hen sausage and saute till brown and cooked by means of, about eight minutes.

Add the can of cherry tomatoes and use a picket spoon to frivolously break them up. Add the tomato soup and hen inventory, utilizing the picket spoon to scrape up the underside of the pot. Increase warmth to medium-high and convey to a simmer.

Add the kale and scale back warmth to a simmer, cooking for 10 minutes or till the kale is tender.

Stir within the cooked items of lasagna to warmth by means of, about 2 minutes.

Ladle into bowls and serve with sprinkles of mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses and contemporary basil.

Notes

Freezer directions: - Cook by means of addition of hen inventory. Cool utterly earlier than freezing in an hermetic container. Thaw within the fridge in a single day or run container underneath scorching water to loosen up earlier than including to a saucepan to thaw and warmth utterly. Increase warmth to medium-high and convey to a simmer. - Add the kale and scale back warmth to a simmer, cooking for 10 minutes or till the kale is tender. - Stir within the cooked items of lasagna to warmth by means of, about 2 minutes.

Pin this, fairly please!

The blog post Easy Gluten-Free Lasagna Soup Recipe was originally published to Weight Loss Fitness

from Weight Loss Fitness - Feed https://weightlossfitnesss.info/easy-gluten-free-lasagna-soup-recipe/

Easy Gluten-Free Lasagna Soup Recipe

This simple gluten-free lasagna soup comes along with just some pantry staples that I all the time wish to have available. It’s excellent for a busy weeknight meal!

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Today I’m coming at you with one other pantry staple one-dish marvel: Lasagna Soup! Remember the Baked Chicken Rotini from final week? That creamy, hearty baked noodle dish full of pesto taste and stuffed with nice vitamin from broccoli and chickpea pasta? This dish could be very comparable in that it medical doctors up some high-quality pantry staples by including taste and packing in vitamin with some key components. It additionally makes use of chickpea pasta – this time within the type of a lasagna noodle!

As an RD Ambassador for Banza Pasta, I used to be thrilled once they despatched me a pattern of their new chickpea lasagna noodles. I’m an enormous fan of pasta made with chickpeas. Not solely is it a tasty possibility for my family and friends members who want gluten-free pasta, but it surely’s additionally full of fiber, protein, and is decrease in carbs. I discover myself subbing it in for wheat pasta ceaselessly, as I get plenty of wheat in my food regimen already from different gadgets and consuming quite a lot of meals is my main vitamin aim!

I like this simple soup recipe as a result of it takes a number of of my favourite pantry and fridge staples and mixes them collectively to take advantage of scrumptious “semi-homemade” meal. It’s one which I flip to on busy days that I must shortly put together one thing nourishing and satisfying that may hopefully feed us for a number of meals in the course of the week. Let me present you methods to make it!

Lasagna Soup Ingredients

Italian Chicken Sausage – I all the time attempt to maintain Italian hen or turkey sausage stocked in my freezer. It’s a fantastic possibility for a pizza topping or a method so as to add a little bit of taste to dishes with floor turkey. I’ll purchase it in bulk with out the casings once I can discover it, however raw sausage within the casing will work advantageous additionally – simply take away the casings with kitchen scissors earlier than browning the sausage.

Canned Tomatoes – the canned cherry tomatoes from Mutti are a DREAM and tremendous flavorful. I do have hassle discovering these, so I top off on them once I do. Fire-roasted diced tomatoes are nice as nicely and far simpler to seek out.

Tomato Soup – the Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup from Pacific is my favourite pre-made soup, and I like the way it makes a scrumptious base for including different components! Trader Joe’s sells low-sodium and common variations of this as nicely.

Chicken Stock – I all the time have both the Kitchen Basics Low Sodium Chicken Stock or the Reduced Sodium Chicken Bone Broth from Walmart in my pantry. If you don’t have time to make selfmade inventory, these have the subsequent finest taste and colour, for my part.

Kale – a giant dose of darkish inexperienced leafy veggies is an effective way to pack vitamin into soup, and I all the time appear to have kale available as a result of I like to make salads and kale chips in the course of the week. But I believe child spinach, swiss chard, and even collard or turnip greens can be scrumptious on this!

Lasagna Noodles – I exploit Banza’s chickpea lasagna noodles for this recipe. A complete-wheat lasagna noodle would even be a hearty and nutritious substitute.

Cheese – a sprinkling of part-skim mozzarella and Parmesan on high of the soup proper earlier than serving provides that factor of melty, tacky lasagna goodness with out the entire fats and energy in an everyday lasagna!

How to Make Lasagna Soup

Cook the lasagna noodles – I’ve not too long ago taken to cooking noodles individually every time I’m making a soup that requires pasta. Noodles soak up numerous liquid as they prepare dinner, and I discovered that cooking them within the soup took up an excessive amount of of the soup liquid and made the pasta gummy. So I boil the pasta individually, then add it in proper earlier than serving the soup. If I do know I’m going to have plenty of leftovers, I’ll add the pasta in parts as I reheat the soup.

Brown the hen sausage – this is step one in making the precise soup, and a step that ends in numerous taste!

Add tomatoes, soup, and broth – the acid from the tomatoes will break up any brown bits which have fashioned on the underside of your pot when the sausage was browned. Once all of the liquid is added, you need to carry the combination to a boil earlier than including the kale or greens.

Add the kale and simmer – the simmering time will rely upon the greens that you simply add. 10 minutes is ideal for kale and swiss chard, however you’ll want much less time for child spinach and extra time for collards or turnip greens.

 Stir within the cooked pasta – let it warmth up within the soup for a minute or two earlier than ladling into bowls.

Serve and high with cheese and basil – this can add colour and contemporary taste from the herb!

Possible Recipe Variations

Make it vegetarian – since chickpea pasta is already excessive in fiber and protein, you possibly can simply omit the hen sausage and nonetheless have a super-flavorful and satisfying meal. Maybe throw in a little bit of Italian seasoning and crimson pepper flakes to interchange the flavour that the Italian sausage supplies. You may additionally add in some meaty mushrooms for further vitamin or a handful of dried lentils that may simmer and prepare dinner with the greens.

Make it vegan – omit the hen sausage and substitute the cheese with vegan cheese shreds. Or nix the cheese altogether and maybe add a swirl of pesto to the highest of the soup!

Make it freezer-friendly – it is a nice simple recipe to make a double batch of and freeze for later. Just prepare dinner up by means of the step the place you add the soup and broth, chill, and divide into freezer soup containers. You can add contemporary greens and pasta when the soup is thawed and reheated.

Similar Recipes to Enjoy

Are you able to make this Lasagna Soup? I’m so excited so that you can do that recipe. Once you get the possibility to make it, please let me know the way it seems for you! Leave a remark and charge the recipe under. This will assist me with the creation of future recipes! I’d additionally like to characteristic your creation in my month-to-month e-newsletter, so you possibly can add a photograph to Instagram or Twitter with the tag @sweetcayenne5 to be featured!

*PLEASE charge and touch upon the recipe for those who make it! This helps others discover the recipe in engines like google!*

Lasagna Soup

Print Pin Rate

Course: Soup

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: simple lasagna soup recipe, gluten-free lasagna soup

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Servings: 6 servings

Author: Whitney Reist | Sweet Cayenne

Ingredients

12-16 ounces bulk Italian hen sausage or four hyperlinks, casings eliminated

1 (14.5 ounce can) entire cherry tomatoes (or substitute with fire-roasted diced tomatoes)

1 (32-ounce carton) Roasted Red Pepper Tomato Soup (I like the Pacific and Trader Joe’s manufacturers)

1 (32-ounce) carton low-sodium hen inventory

1 bunch (about 5 cups) kale, washed and chopped with stems eliminated (or different darkish leafy greens like Swiss chard, collards, or turnip greens)

eight items of chickpea lasagna, cooked for based on bundle instructions four minutes and damaged into items (I like the Banza model)

Optional for serving: shredded part-skim mozzarella, shaved Parmesan cheese, freshly-cut Basil

Instructions

Place a Dutch oven over medium warmth. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add the hen sausage and saute till brown and cooked by means of, about eight minutes.

Add the can of cherry tomatoes and use a picket spoon to frivolously break them up. Add the tomato soup and hen inventory, utilizing the picket spoon to scrape up the underside of the pot. Increase warmth to medium-high and convey to a simmer.

Add the kale and scale back warmth to a simmer, cooking for 10 minutes or till the kale is tender.

Stir within the cooked items of lasagna to warmth by means of, about 2 minutes.

Ladle into bowls and serve with sprinkles of mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses and contemporary basil.

Notes

Freezer directions: – Cook by means of addition of hen inventory. Cool utterly earlier than freezing in an hermetic container. Thaw within the fridge in a single day or run container underneath scorching water to loosen up earlier than including to a saucepan to thaw and warmth utterly. Increase warmth to medium-high and convey to a simmer. – Add the kale and scale back warmth to a simmer, cooking for 10 minutes or till the kale is tender. – Stir within the cooked items of lasagna to warmth by means of, about 2 minutes.

Pin this, fairly please!

The post Easy Gluten-Free Lasagna Soup Recipe appeared first on Weight Loss Fitness.

from Weight Loss Fitness https://weightlossfitnesss.info/easy-gluten-free-lasagna-soup-recipe/