Ground Beef Barbecue Pizza

Before we decided to go on a more gluten-free diet, we really were big Pizza lovers and we still are though we make it more of an occasional treat nowadays. This particular recipe is a favorite of my little boy - William. He was only about 4 or 5 years old (he's 7 now) when I first made this pizza recipe but even at that young age this already became his favorite. Mind you, he's been eating curry too even at that age so his taste buds are quite use to diverse taste and textures! This picture tells you a lot about how much he loves this pizza! Surely, his favorite!

The inspiration for this recipe came from a cook book which I have read once at Barnes and Noble. We often go there as a family as my kids love reading so naturally that's a place for us to hang out during Friday afternoons, after class hours. My kids will check out the books they love (Sophie heads to the Princess' section as usual and William to any corner with books about Lego or robots - every little boy's favorite nook  I am sure!). Me? Of course, I always browse the Cook Book section, not so much to buy but just to get inspiration for new recipes to try, perhaps learn a thing or two about new ingredients and even check the latest culinary trends. Now I found this book, and I cannot recall what the title is (otherwise I would have heartily given credit to the author/s)  - perhaps it's a book about ground beef recipes (that's the most I can remember) and this particular recipe which I discovered there I cannot forget. It was not difficult to recall because the recipe was pretty easy to do and with only a few ingredients to remember. So armed with whatever was left on my memory bank, I tried to re-create this simple but quite delicious Barbecue Pizza Recipe. Am pretty sure your family will enjoy this and especially MOM! - after all, the ingredients are pretty much pantry staple (well, if you keep pizza dough at hand all the time!). So here's a quick  Barbecue Ground Beef Pizza for those nights when you fancy Pizza but want to make one at home. I use the store bought pizza crust for this but no one will stop you if you want to make your own too! :-)

 

Ingredients

1 lb / 1/2 kilo ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
2 (10-12 inch) pizza crust, store-bought or homemade
1 cup barbecue sauce (your choice)*
2 cups of grated cheese (mozarella or sharp cheddar or a combo of both - this is good for 1 pizza crust)
*I often use Sweet Baby Rays but you can use your favorite barbecue sauce or make your own.

Procedure

Preheat the oven according to the pizza manufacturer's instruction.

Spray some non-stick cooking oil on a heated frying pan. Brown the ground beef. Crumble with a fork as you brown it to separate the meat. Stir in the chopped onion and cook for about 2-3 minutes. Add the barbecue sauce. Stir it in to ensure that all the beef are coacted with the sauce. Simmer on low heat uncovered for about ten minutes. Drain the beef if necessary.

Divide the beef mixture into two (if using two crusts). I usually freeze half of the sauce for later use and only do 1 pizza since we are only a small family of 4.

Spread all but 3 tablespoons (set it aside) of the beef mixture on the pizza crust. Sprinkle the cheese all over the sauce. Use the left over beef as topping for the pizza.

Bake in the oven according to the pizza manufacturer's instruction (approximately 10-12 mins with a temp range between 400F - 450F).

Enjoy a slice or two! Lovely with some salad on the side!

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Baked Spinach and Eggs

Have I already mentioned that I love hot cooked breakfast? Perhaps just a million times! I am a creature of habit, that's why. I grew up in our island of Marinduque having cooked breakfast all the time. Everyday. It was the norm. We had rice for breakfast everyday - almost always accompanied by eggs and with some meat cooked in a variety of  ways (pork tocino, beef tapa or perhaps even some left-over fried chicken) and yes, even fish - whether smoked (Tinapa) or fried (Daing - first comes to mind)! Of course, I should not forget the Ma-ling (Chinese Spam) or the more expensive Spam! I won't mind having them everyday though I will probably gain a few pounds if  I do so. :-)

But that's just the way it is, I assume, in most houses in the Philippines. Breakfast is almost like dinner in the sense that people still eat together whenever they can. Kids have to be up early for school and parents need to prepare for work so it makes sense for everyone to eat together. Well, at least it was like this in our house when we were growing up. There's only one cook - whether it was my mom or a helper who makes breakfast so it's impractical to cook each breakfast dish on piecemeal basis. If you want to eat a later breakfast, you may, but it would be a cold one. We usually gather at a certain time and though we would leave some food for anyone who wakes up later than usual, the food would have gone cold. My brother can attest to this! When we were young we didn't have a microwave so nuking the food to reheat it was not an option. Even nowadays, not many people in the Philippines use the microwave though already readily available.

Anyway, talking about hot breakfasts and eggs - here's a very easy dish that you can prepare in minutes. Love this breakfast anytime!

Ingredients

6 cups firmly packed baby spinach or 1 (10 oz or up to 1 lb) bag fresh baby spinach*
4 eggs (can increase to 6 if you are using more spinach)
Salt and freshly Ground Pepper, to taste
1 Tbsp crumbled Feta Cheese for 1-2 eggs (about 2-3 Tbps in total)   
Baking spray or a little oil for greasing

*You may use frozen spinach too.

Procedure

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Lightly spray or grease with a little oil individual ramekins or other small oven safe dishes that can accomodate 1-2 eggs. See photo above. Set aside.

Place the spinach in a deep skillet or a large frying pan. Add a little water (2-3 Tablespoons). Using medium heat, cook the spinach just until wilted, roughly 3-4 minutes. Use either your hand or a spatula to pack in the spinach. Drain the excess water well especially if you are using  frozen spinach.

Distribute the spinach evenly among the prepared ramekins or oven-safe dishes.



Crack 1-2 eggs on top of the spinach. Season lightly with salt and pepper - lightly because Feta cheese is pretty salty on its own. Sprinkle the crumbled feta cheese on top.

Place the baking dishes or ramekins on a cookie sheet and bake for about 15-18 minutes or until the eggs are set/cooked (whites are set and yolks look firm on the edges) to your liking. I like mine well-done but some like eggs that are a little runny. Whatever you like as long as the eggs are susbtantially cooked inside, it's fine.

Serve with some toasted bread or rice on the side and tomato juice! A healthy breakfast that will keep you going for hours! Enjoy!

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Peanut Butter and Banana Smoothie

I love peanut butter! In the Philippines, one of my mom's co-teacher make homemade peanut butter ever so often and we always made sure that we place an order so we get a jar or two of this favorite spread of ours! It's the  kind of Peanut Butter that I always imagine Peanut Butter should be - creamy, a little sweet and of course with the peanut oil floating on top to characterize its genuineness. For me, that's still the best peanut butter I have ever had and will always crave.

I have never thought though that the day would come that I would not only use peanut butter as a spread or for cooking (which is pretty common in the Philipines and most of Asia) but as an ingredient for a beverage. I can't drink peanut butter. Sounds awful, doesn't it?

But I have seen quite a few Peanut Butter Smoothies around and I have been intrigued ever since. So today to finally put this doubt (as to whether you can use peanut butter in a beverage or not) aside, I made my very first Peanut Butter Smoothie. I love texture in food so I used the crunchy Peanut Butter and yes, the kind with the floating oil on top!

My reaction - how could I have waited this long? I thought the only good smoothies are the pure fruity ones - mango, bananas, strawberry, avocado, soursop or a combo of any of these, just to name a few. Now this Peanut Butter smoothie has truly gone up the list and has knocked down one or two fruit smoothies in the process!

Of course, Peanut Butter is not complete without its sparring partner - the banana which add to the creamy flavor and gives it the smooth finish!

What a delightful smoothie! Use this recipe as a guide and then adjust as you please. I usually never measure a smoothie and depend on my taste buds for taste and texture.

Ingredients

2-3 ripe bananas (fresh or frozen)
1/4 cup  Crunchy Peanut Butter (or to taste, I ended up adding more!)
Milk (begin with 1/2 a cup and then add more as needed)
1 Tbsp Agave nectar (or your favorite sweetener)
Ice (eyeball it)
1/2 tsp vanilla (optional)

*If your bananas are frozen, you probably don't need ice or only a few cubes. Just chop the bananas first so it's easier for the blender to break it down.

Procedure

Combine all the ingredients in a blender. If bananas are frozen, I place them on the bottom of the blender just like I would put ice (if using) on the bottom too. Process till everything is smooth and to your desired texture or consistency. I use the Smoothie/Milkshake button on my blender. Adjust the sweetness to your taste. Enjoy!

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Almond, Coconut and Choco Chip Cookies (Gluten and Egg Free)

These gluten-free and grain-free cookies were inspired by the Indian ball-shaped sweet treats called Laddoo/Laddu. When I looked at the ingredients for this - Almond Chocolate Laddu - I was thrilled to discover that they were gluten-free. Perfect! My hubby is on a gluten-free diet and to ensure that he doesn't miss out on sweets (which are almost always a gluten-fest) I always try to experiment on new gluten-free desserts! 

So I made the Almond Laddu based on the recipe and I actually fell in love with it! It was really yummy! Looking at these sweet balls they reminded me of cookie dough (although these ones you can eat right away) so, guess what? That gave me the idea of baking them and treat them like a true cookie dough and then see what happens.

I was not very optimistic at first. After all, there was no flour in it, not even eggs! How can this work? Yet, it was chewy and gooey enough and I thought it may be worth a try!

Boy, am I glad I tried it - it was even better cooked! Most of all - it's not only gluten-free, it's grain-free too! My hubby was very pleased and this has become one of his favorite treats - how can you not like it - almonds, coconuts and chocolate chips all rolled into one delicious treat! I can have this anytime!

By the way, the inspiration came from this lovely site - Simply Delicious - Almond Chocolate Laddu. I converted her measurements to American and used ingredients that I had available. I used almond meal and didn't make it from scratch. I can't remember exactly how many cookies I made 'cause half of them I made into Laddus while the other half I baked into cookies. I will note next time. I just know they are cute little nibbles that are oh so delicious! I will probably increase the measurement too so I can get more cookies out of it. In the meantime, here's the basic recipe which you can tweak to your heart's content! :-) 


Ingredients

3/4 cup  Almond flour/meal  (like Trader Joe's)
1/4 cup chocolate chips (I like the dark chocolate variety)*
1 /4 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 Tbsp regular milk

1/2 cup grated coconut (I used the unsweetened variety)

A few extra choco chips

*Use a gluten-free brand if you wish a completely gluten-free version otherwise, regular chips will do.


Procedure

 

Place the almond flour into a mixing bowl. Add the grated coconut and mix well.  Set aside.

In a small sauce pan combine the chocolate chips, condensed milk and regular milk. Melt the chocolate and mix well with the milk on low heat. Stir constantly until the chocolate melts.

Pour into the almond mixture and mix well with a wooden spoon.

Set aside to cool. When cool enough to handle, mix again by hand and shape into balls. While you are shaping the dough into cookie balls, preheat the oven to 350F.

Place the cookie balls (I did flatten them a little bit with a fork) in a cookie sheet (greased or lined with parchment paper). You may want to place a few chocolate chips on top for that extra chocolate flavor!

Bake for approximately 6-8 minutes.They're pretty small so they don't need a lot of time to cook, depends on how chewy you want them to be. Just do not overcook it unless you want a crunchier cookie. I think it's perfect at 8 minutes but since oven heating and temps vary, adjust the time accordingly.

In fact, if you want to stick with the original Laddu concept - you don't need to bake them at all - you can eat them as is and they're so yummy too!

Enjoy!

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Red and Blue Berry Pie Bars

First, I need to warn you all that this kind of treat is not for the faint-hearted! :-) Three sticks of butter in one recipe? Is this for real? Yes, that was my initial reaction when I first read this recipe. I immediately thought of reducing the butter/fat content in half - but then I had second thoughts - how can I adjust a recipe I haven't even tried? So, I set on doing it as faithfully as I can based on the original recipe. I thought to myself, I'd adjust, if necessary, after I have given it at least one chance to prove itself worthy of all the calories loaded in it!

The Verdict! It was worth every single drop of butter in it! Honestly, this is one of the most delicious dessert recipe I have ever tried. Pie in a bar form? How can you ever go wrong? Besides, more or less 20 people agreed when I brought this yummy dessert to a friend's birthday party! It was gone like the wind. I thought that would be the ultimate test and it passed on all levels by a 100 %.

The major plus in this super-delicious dessert is its fruit content - forget the butter - it's all about the fruits now! Nearly 2 lbs of fresh fruits (about 6 cups) - mega-foods blueberries and raspberries! I won't got into the details of  how nutritious berries are, for you already know that, don't you? You see, I made this in the summer when these fruits were in season in Michigan, hence, relatively cheaper than when they are out of season. Of course, if you cannot find the fresh ones or they are too expensive (especially during winter time) then it is fine to use the frozen ones (just thaw them and drain well before using). Shall we say then that the fat content is balanced by a tremendous amount of fruits used in making this? I leave it to you my dear friends to decide!

All I'm saying is, do not be turned off by the amount of butter here! As with anything the key to perfect enjoyment is moderation! If you do so, you'll enjoy the food and not feel guilty afterwards. Will you promise to eat just one serving of this? :-)

Now, let's go to the recipe itself.

The recipe is adapted from Joy the Baker (so glad to have found this!) and it was based upon the recipe in the book - The Pastry Queen by Rebecca Rather. Wow, it has really come a long way, and has now reached the Philippine Islands via Manila Spoon! Blackberries were used for the original recipe but when I went to our local grocery what I found were lots of blueberries and raspberries so I used them instead. I opted for the multi-colored effect - Red raspberries and Blueberries. I thought it would look lovelier than a monochromatic approach. See the effect below on our finished product!

I will note below what my observations were when I made these. So when you make this yourself - you'll know more or less what to expect. Overall, I think it's a great recipe and I will make it again for our Summer entertainment with noting the adjustments I need to make. Enjoy!

Ingredients

For the Crust/Topping

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar (I used white)
3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) unsalted chilled/cold butter, cut into 1/2 inch-cubes
1/4 teaspoon salt
Zest of 2 Lemons*

*I didn't have any Lemons the first time I made this but it still came out good so it's up to you if you wish to add these, too. Am sure they will add some extra tangy yumminess. :-)

For the Filling



4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup sour cream (ok you can go low-fat on this! I used the light one)
3/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 (16 oz.) packages frozen berries (raspberries and/or blueberries or a combo), thawed and drained*

*I used fresh berries - if you want to use fresh berries use about 6 cups in total of either or both berries.

Procedure

For the Crust/Topping:

Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease a 9×13-inch pan or baking dish with butter or cooking spray. Set aside.

Combine the flour and sugar in a bowl. A stand mixer with a paddle attachment would be handy for this. Add the chilled butter cubes and beat on medium speed until the butter is evenly distributed and the mixture is crumbly.

Since I didn't have a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, I used a pastry blender to incorporate the cold butter with the flour and sugar mixture. It was not a problem at all!

Mixture should look crumbly like this. 



Set aside about 1-1/2  cups of the mixture for the topping. Press the rest into the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Bake the crust for 12-15 minutes until golden brown.

Note: Mine never really turned golden brown despite the extended cooking (up to 20 minutes). My suggestion would be to not obsess about not having a truly golden brown crust, like I did! The filling will go on top of it anyway and if you already overcook the crust at this point - note that it will be baked again for another hour or so in the oven - it would harden, and though no one complained, I wasn't very keen on it. Just bake it between 12-15 minutes but don't expect it to be golden brown as the recipe stated. It would still look pale but hopefully, it won't harden too much when you re-bake it with the filling on top.

Remove from the oven and cool for about 10-15 minutes.

For the Filling:

Whisk the eggs in a large bowl.  Add in the sugar, sour cream, flour, and salt and combine. Gently fold in the berries.

Carefully pour the mixture over the crust. Distribute the berries evenly on top.



Sprinkle the reserved crust mixture on top of the filling. Distribute well.

Bake for 60-70 minutes, or until the top is lightly browned. Mine needed about a little over an hour. Oven temperature and heating capacity vary so adjust accordingly. One of our readers noted that the berries bubbled over - because the fruits are fresh and juicy this may happen so you can prevent this by using a cookie sheet for any spill-over.

I wanted a crumblier and crunchier crust so I placed it under the broiler for 1-2 minutes to achieve this. Watch out so that the top doesn't burn!

  

Cool for least 2-3 hours before cutting into bars. Wait until it's fully set so when you cut it it doesn't drip unless you can't wait and don't mind that it crumbles - and that's perfectly understandable! I actually imagined this more as a fruity crumble  (rather than a Bar cookie) reminiscent of the ones I had in England. So if you wish, you can serve it warm with ice cream on top!  Pure dessert heaven! Can anything be better than this as a summer dessert? I would have to think hard 'cause for now this is on top of my list!

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