Mini Pizzas or Tortilla Pizzas

I'm in the mood for recipes!! Actually, it's been a while since I wanted to have more ideas for simple meals, yet delicious and inexpensive too! So I thought about taking the first step here! I will share my meal planning, ideas, and recipes, and I would highly appreciate some others back from anyone who may want to do it. But it has to be home tested!!

So here is another weekend meal! More specifically, it's a dinner idea! We call it Mini Pizzas, but you would probably consider it as tortilla pizzas instead! I didn't came up with this recipe alone! My parents would do it a lot in Brazil for our whole and huge family and many times, for visitors too. The difference is that in Brazil the grocery stores sell a specific kind of mini pizzas dough and it's meant to be cooked in a frying pan! So, super quick and fun!

But I guess I take the credit for successfully substituting the dough we had in Brazil for flour tortillas that you can bountifully find in here! The fun part is that you can come up with many different toppings as you want and eat them as you make them! Because we can't wait until all of them are ready so the first ones wouldn't be so good and fresh and you can't leave the stove on either!!! So, yeah! It's super fun to eat by the stove, chatting with your husband and helping him, enjoying an iced-cold coke (by the stove, too!). But if you are the kind of person that must sit at the table in order to have a decent meal, this isn't a meal idea for you!

Back in Brazil, my parents would stay in the kitchen making the pizzas while we would be scattered around the house, watching tv, reading some books, enjoying each others presence while some of us would serve the pizzas cut into slices as waiters/waitress!! So fun and casual!!!! The only problem having a large family and having mini pizzas for dinner is that you would eat only little by little!!! But in here it's just D and I so it's a nonstop eating!!!

But here it go! I will share our "top notch" toppings:

Portuguesa (or portuguese, if you may!)
tomato sauce, turkey breast (deli), or ham (deli), shredded cheese, boiled egg (diced) and green olives (you can add onions if you like it too) and oregano

Sausage:
tomato sauce, fried sausage (or pepperoni) diced or sliced, shredded cheese, green olives and oregano

Pecorino Sausage Mushroom:
tomato sauce, fresh mushrooms, diced fried sausage and pecorino shredded cheese and oregano

Four cheese:
tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, provolone cheese, pecorino cheese (all of them shredded) and grated parmesan cheese, green olives and oregano. (or any kind of cheese you feel like eating, but I wouldn't go for cottage cheese, though!)

Marguerita:
tomato sauce, shredded mozzarella cheese and basil (dried or fresh)

Altogether:
Tomato sauce and everything that's left!

And for dessert:
Sliced banana with chocolate chips, or sliced strawberry with chocolate chips!! Sooo yummy!!

Well, the only things you should watch for is to prepare all the ingredients before, and to have everything together at hand if you want to use just one frying pan (non stick) continuously! Use a frying pan with a lid (to melt the cheese faster) and go for low heat (3 or 4 out of 9 for us!). Each pizza should be ready in 3 minutes or so. Have extra plates in hand too for the case when the pizza is ready and you haven't finished the previous one yet! We like to cut each pizza into 4 slices and eat as you go!

Here are some pictures!

The Ingredients

The Portuguesa (or portuguese!)

Pecorino Sausage Mushroom

Sausage

Four Cheese

Altogether

Marguerita

Banana Chocolate Chip

A recipe with Zucchini

This is not a very quick recipe! We had it for lunch on Sunday. As usual, we try to make more different and sophisticated meals on weekends! I wouldn't say this a difficult recipe! It's somehow easy but it requires lots of steps! D., my picky husband, loved it and congratulated me!

It's called Stuffed Zucchini. The filling, actually it's a basic one that can be used to stuff green peppers as well!!

Stuffed Zucchinis (serving two people)
- 2 Zucchinis (not the skinny and greener one), cooked in boiling water for 5 min, or so.
- 1/3 lb of lean ground beef
- 4 green olives, diced.
- 1 boiled eggs, diced.
- 2 slices of white bread.
- spices, salt, soy sauce
- pecorino cheese hand-grated
- grated parmesan cheese

Directions:
- wet the bread slices and with your hands squeeze all the water you can. (disgusting at first, but believe me, it will end up good!!)
- Cook the ground beef with some oil. Add your preferable seasoning. I used I little bit of soy sauce, garlic powder, salt and black pepper. Add the diced olives. Add the eggs and the wet bread and mix everything well! Taste the salt, the seasoning.
- Cut the cooked zucchinis into halves and with a knife and a spoon remove all the seeds in the middle. Sprinkle some salt on them. After this, add the filling. Be generous with it.
- Put them up on an oven pan. Sprinkle grated parmesan cheese and pecorino cheese and let it broil for some minutes until the cheese is melted.

And it's ready! Serve with white rice (we, brazilians, love white rice!) or mashed potatoes, or both, or a salad, or anything actually!! =)

Addiction and a recipe for Dinner!

Addictions....

probably everyone has at least one addiction but I'm here to talk about mine! I'm addicted to facebook, but also to computer in general. Good thing that this internet stuff wasn't around before I was twelve years old, or I could have gotten a different idea of what it's best for me! I'll explain it better. What I mean is that I grew up learning that my parents were my role models and even now I feel this way in almost every action I take, specially now that I'm also a parent!

My parents simply never showed us any addictions they could possibly have! Actually, they seemed to be addictions-free! They would never lose time in anything more than it should and they were always busy with good things! And even now, that they use computer and internet, that they have ipads, smart phones, etc, they are still not addicted to it! Which it's kinda impressive to me! I think it may be a little bit easier for them since they have so many things to take care of and worry about, so they simply don't have spare time for this. And the fact they were already much older when the world became digital it's also a possible explanation.

But still, it makes me think that I don't want to be different from them in this matter. I want my children to see that their parents are addictions-free too! I want to be a good role model too, because models we are - inevitably! It's good for them to see we have flaws and that we strive to fight against it, but I just don't think it's ok for them to have parents addicted to something, doesn't matter what it may be. But, the fact is, I'm addicted to internet.

So, right now, Dan and I are going through some really important things that we need to worry about! And I just thought I would give Facebook a break for a while and concentrate more on praying, do a better job as a housewife and a mother and get into a schedule (again!!!). So, on last wednesday night, I thought about deleting my FB account (even though I was thinking about retrieving it back again a while later) but then I just thought it wasn't a good idea and that I wanted something a little bit more low profile than this! And it just stroke me! I asked Dan to change my password for me, one that I didn't know of course, and logged off. The plan it's to only check FB for a short period of times on weekends or Friday night (like I did it today!), so Dan would log in for me when I want it.

On the next couple of days, I'll admit it, I woke up thinking of fb (shocking, I know!), and kept thinking about it almost all day long, although not continuously! Well, four good things came out of it, that I can record right now!

One, that I really realized how addicted I was! I mean, I always said I was addicted to it, but I wasn't really aware of how much!

Two, I discovered that dealing with addictions, there is no way you can get out of it by yourself, alone. Impossible! No way, Jose! If you are reading this and thinking you are able to do it yourself with your own addictions, you are mistaken, I'm sorry to break the news for you and it really doesn't please me if I look like I-know-it-all person, or an authoritarian person, but I have to say that I know I'm right about this. And I just want to share this with other people who may need to hear it too.

Third, things started to work out at home. I got into a successful schedule like never before!!! I was really impressed how clean and organized my home was, how everyone was fed on time, and how I could find time to pray more too!

And finally, number four! Every time I would accomplish something in these last couple days my first thought actually was sharing it on FB. So I really realized how I was replacing giving graces to God, or just talking to Him about the good and the bad things for - rather - sharing it on FB. So, I've been working on thinking more about God instead, and talking more to Him, and giving more graces and asking for more assistance. It's been good! And I'm much happier and smiling more at home! Like life should be!!!

BTW, I just want to share a quick and very simple recipe I made yesterday night for dinner. Actually, I prepared it on my slow cooker around mid day. It was an amazing discovery how doing like this can make cleaning and schedule MUCH more simple!!! (got the idea of cooking dinner in advance from my friend Maddy a couple weeks ago! Credits to her, that even with guests and baking 1000 cookies for us, she had dinner ready by 6pm!!) And let me add that this recipe turned out delicious! Rebecca - my pickiest eater - loved it too. So here it goes:

- Chicken thighs. (I used boneless and skinless) Cut into large pieces. I used three of them.
- green beans (don't cut them up!). (they ended up delicious!!! So be generous with it, taking advantage of its ridiculous cheap price).
- two small cloves of garlic, minced. (If you cooking more chicken, add more of it too) Don't replace it by garlic powder, it's just not the same!
- 1 chicken bouillon cube (melted on 1/2-1 cup of hot water). Use more bouillon if cooking more chicken.
- oregano, dried basil and dried parsley.
- 1/4 - 1/2 cup of wine (white or red).

Put everything together on the slow cooker evenly and let it cook for 5-6 hours on low.
I didn't put mushrooms (cut into halves) because I ran out of it, but I'm sure it would have been just superb too by previous experiences!! Serve with white rice or some good mashed potatoes (with some good butter and salt!) and enjoy!

If you have a good AND simple AND not very expensive recipe you make at you home, and your family love it, please share with me too!!

That's it and you all take care!!

3rd Wedding Anniversary

On Wednesday, January 18th, D. and I will be celebrating our 3rd wedding anniversary! I remember back to that day almost three years ago, waking up early and all the girls in the house (eight of us) going to the beauty saloon opened just for us on Sunday. I was so worried about what to eat that morning and wondering if I would pass out in church at the 12 o'clock wedding ceremony, Mass included, or whether cry my eyes out because of all the emotion of the moment. I ended up doing well! Didn't faint, didn't starve to death and didn't cry much, just a little bit when we were leaving, walking down the aisle. Managed to pay some attention to the homily, got to say all the words I had to pronounce, clearly and smiling, and didn't have any moment of doubt about the commitment I was about to seal.

At the party I was so tired, tense and hurting from my tight dress that I couldn't barely enjoy it! Some little things went wrong and I remember all of them. But, at the end, D. took the microphone and prepared to make a speech. I had prepared one myself too. But he was first! I was wondering if I could bare all the attention and self embarrassment for me and for D.. But, again, no problem, just over thinking again. D. did a great job on his speech. It was funny and smart at the same time, clear and loud and made me feel I was special and appreciated. Then my turn, and I did a terrible job, mostly because no one could hear me except for D.. But I think he enjoyed my almost silent words to him!

D.'s amazing speech

My terrible speech, face matching it!

But it's all right at the end!

I'm not gonna lie! Married life is not easy! At least not for me! We have discussed and argued so many times already regarding many things and seeing each other that much and living together can make you lose all the charm and smiling faces we would naturally throw each together all the time while dating!

I guess I have to agree with that song, "I'm feeling you" (Santana and Michelle Branch):

" Sometimes I imagine the world without you
But most time I'm just so happy that I ever found you "

But it's all worth!! The peace that only the true love can bring makes everything right and happy at the end! Having a baby together? Only makes it better and more true!