Cost/Time saving recipe #4: Pizza!

 Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I hope you had a wonderful time with your loved ones today. I made tonkatsu, as one does. I'll share a recipe for that at some point in the future.

A few hours after tonkatsu lunch, my son asked if we can have pizza for dinner. I, of course, obliged.

I have been making my own dough for a while, because it's super easy.

I basically follow this recipe on Fine Cooking.

Ingredients: 

1.5 cups luke warm water

1/2 TBS yeast

1 TBS olive oil

1/2 TBS sugar

2 tsp salt

4-5 cups of flour

In a standing mixer, pour water, yeast and sugar. Let yeast grow for a few minutes. After yeast starts bubbling, add flour (4 cups to start), olive oil, and salt. 

Mix at low speed. Add more flour as needed. Once incorporated, make into a ball, cover with a towel and let it rise for 45min. (Recipe says 2 hours, but who has time for that?). 

After it rises, divide the dough into 4 small or 2 large pizzas.

Preheat oven to 425F.

Make sauce. 

Ingredient:

6 oz tomato paste

15 oz tomato sauce

2 TBS each of oregano and basil

1/2 tsp each of garlic and onion powder

1/2 TBS salt

1 tsp sugar

Mix vigorously. No need to heat anything, which is nice.

Roll out the dough to your preferred thickness, add sauce, and any toppings of your choice. 

I usually roll it out on parchment paper, so counter top doesn't need cleaning, and the loose flour won't fall into the oven and cause the fire alarm to go off. (<= spoken from experience.) Place the pizza with parchment paper on top of a cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes, depending on your oven.

Pizza was eaten swiftly, so I didn't get a chance to take a good picture. 😅

You can portion off the dough and sauce and freeze them! Transfer them to fridge in the morning, and would be thawed out by the time you are ready to cook dinner. 

Buon appetito! 

Another cost/time saving recipes: Chicken!

 Happy Thanksgiving friends!

Today my students reminded me that I actually have a blog 😅

Here's another cost/time saving food prep idea. When I buy chicken breast from Costco (10-12 pounds?), I chop them up into bite sizes pieces, and marinade them.

Left: Salt, pepper, and sesame oil

Top Right: Salt, pepper, ginger, garlic, and sesame oil

Botton Right: Salt, pepper, oregano, basil, garlic powder, onion powder, and olive oil

I portion them and freeze.

You can transfer it to fridge in the morning, and usually it's thawed by the time you're ready to cook dinner. It feels less daunting to cook up a meal when chopping/seasoning is already done. Serve with a salad and rice/pasta/bread, and you have a nice balanced meal!

We're almost at the end of the semester, so let's keep going strong.

Have a lovely Thanksgiving!

KD