Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Fresh Mozzarella and Tomato Pizza (lowfat)

I am taking a cooking class on BYU Independent Study and I have had so much fun trying lots of new recipes. We were required to pick a dinner recipe from the Betty Crocker cookbook and I chose the Fresh Mozzarella and Tomato Pizza. I love fresh Mozzarella and it is only 90 calories per slice so I just had to try it out and see if it was good! It was SO delicious... I recommend it. Stephen said it tasted like Pizza in France which is his favorite so it deff was a success. The key is to use fresh mozzarella... not the kind that is already grated for you at the grocery store. Buy it fresh and grate it yourself... it makes the biggest difference!

At the bottom of this post will be the recipe for this delicious pizza!!!

Here are the ingredients:
Fresh basil leaves, salt, pepper, fresh mozzarella, 2 Roma tomatoes, and pizza sauce. (Sorry the pizza sauce was not pictured).
Ingredients for pizza dough: warm water, flour, sugar, active dry yeast, and salt.
I also made another recipe from the Betty Crocker book called Savory Cheese bread! YUM!
Here is the pizza right before I place it in the oven... just looking at this makes me want to go eat some leftovers. ;)
topped with mozzarella, tomatoes, basil leaves, salt, and pepper.
The finished product. Make sure you use extra virgin olive oil... I used regular olive oil and the pizza stuck to the pan like crazy. It was so hard to get it off.

Here is the recipe:
Fresh Mozzarella and Tomato Pizza (Lowfat)
Prep: 35 min Rise: 20 min Chill: 2 hr Bake 20 min 1 pizza, 8 slices

Italian style pizza dough (recipe below)
1/2 can pizza sauce
4 oz fresh mozzarella cheese, grated
2 roma tomatoes, thinly sliced
1/4 tsp salt
Fresh cracked pepper to taste
1/4 cup thin strips fresh basil leaves
1 T oregano leaves (I forgot to add this)
1 T small capers, if desired
1 T extra virgin olive oil

1. Make italian style pizza dough.
2. Move oven rack to lowest position. Heat oven to 425. Grease cookie sheet or 12 inch pizza pan with oil. Press dough into 12 inch circle on cookie sheet or pat in pizza pan, using floured fingers. Press dough from center to edge so edge is slightly thicker than center.
3. Pour pizza sauce on dough and smooth around with a spoon. Grate mozzarella cheese. Place cheese on dough within 1/2 inch of edge. Arrange tomatoes on cheese. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, 2 T of basil, the oregano and capers. Drizzle with oil.
4. Bake about 20 minutes or until crust is golden brown and cheese is melted. Sprinkle with remaining 2 T basil.

Italian style pizza dough
1 package regular or quick active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1 1/2 to 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar

In large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Stir in half of the flour, the oil, salt and sugar. Stir in enough of the remaining flour to make dough easy to handle. Place dough on lightly floured surface. Knead about 10 min or until smooth and springy. Grease large bowl with shortening. Place dough in bowl, turning dough to grease all sides. Cover and let rise in warm place for 20 minutes. Gently push fist in dough to deflate. Cover and refrigerate for at least two hours but no longer than 48 hours. (If dough should double in size during refrigeration, gently push fist into dough to deflate.)

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Thanksgiving!

We had a great Thanksgiving. We spent it with the Jett family and it was DELICIOUS! We were all stuffed on all the yummy thanksgiving food we had... not to mention all those pies!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoyed spending time with their families.
I have SO much to be thankful for!!!!




Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Back in the day!

I was looking through old photos and found these of Stephen and I while we were dating.
We always had so much fun... he was about to run us through that water!



Sunday, November 20, 2011

Bow Holder

Yay... I finally finished the bow holder I have been sewing for the last month for Savannah. It was a lot of work because the vinyl always stuck to the presser foot and I wanted the bias tape on the edges to look nice and straight which isn't an easy task for a beginner sewer. I am glad it is finished and I love the way it turned out. Now instead of throwing all her bows in a little bucket I can see them all!

Here is the front with all her clip on bows...
and here is the back with all her headbands.
Now on to my next sewing projects which is making fabric covers for my bowls!
I am loving my sewing machine!!!!

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

5K & Savannah

Stephen and I ran a charity run at his work and had a lot of fun. It was a 5k which is about 3.2 miles. We had so much fun doing it together and I was pretty proud of myself for being able to run the race without stopping at all to walk. It was quite the accomplishment for me because I am not the best runner! ;)

Here is Stephen getting ready to run!
All sweaty and tired after the run.
Friday night my little brother opened his mission call. He is going to the Fort Lauderdale, Florida mission. He will be speaking Spanish and is leaving December 21st. Ahhh we are SO excited for him. He will be such an amazing missionary and I am so proud of him! I LOVE YOU SPENCER!
My little Savannah is not so little anymore. She is growing up so fast it is crazy. Sometimes I just want to stop time so she can be this little forever.
We love reading books together and she has started picking up books and turning the pages herself. So cute.. melts my heart every time!
We bought this little Santa hat for Savannah and didn't think she would keep it on her head. We put it on her all the time and she just leaves it on her head and doesn't seem to mind one bit. I love it!
She is now pulling herself up on everything... her crib, the bath, the couches, our legs.. its so fun to see her figure new things out everyday!
Just hanging out!
Such a happy girl. I am so lucky to be her MOM!
I put shoes on Savannah for the first time to try and keep her socks on and she wasn't so sure about what to think of them. Eventually she would just kick them off her feet!

As you can see... Our lives revolve around our sweet girl... we just can't get enough of her!

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Happy girl!

Savannah is such a happy baby! The minute she wakes up in the morning she has such a big smile on her face. (Don't get me wrong she does have her moments of crankiness too;).
Her new things is laughing where ever we go. When we are in line at the grocery store she laughs at the person behind us, she laughs at the cashier, she laughs when she sees other babies... haha people get a kick out of it.
She is a happy girl and we love her so much!
Here is a little video clip of her laughing at her daddy... she sure loves him!