Cooking – Living My Best Life

Cooking with Natty

Knock off Lou Malnati’s Deep Dish Pizza (Lou’s Special)

July 22, 2020August 17, 2020by nattysbestlife2 Comments

I used a Lodge Cast Iron pan to make the deep dish pizza

Pizza dough ingredients:

4 tsp sugar
2 tbs active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water
4 cups all purpose flour (or bread flour)
3 tsp salt
5 tbs vegetable oil

Other ingredients:

1 1/2 shredded mozzarella cheese
Fresh mozzarella cheese
Colby jack cheese
2 1/2 fresh spinach (chopped up)
5 cloves of garlic (crushed/ minced)
1 cup pizza or pasta sauce (you can also make your own like I did)
Butter

1. Prepare the Dough

Mix together 1 1/2 cups of warm water, 2 tbs active dry yeast and 4 tsp sugar and and let it sit for 3-5 minutes until it foams up/bubbles (this means that the yeast has activated- if you don’t get foam/ bubble you will have to repeat this step or your dough will not rise). Once the yeast is activated, add 5 tbs of vegetable oil into the mixture- this is your wet mixture.

Mix the dry ingredients together- 4 cups of flour and 3 tsp salt. Slowly incorporate your wet mixture into your dry mixture until all the ingredients come together. Kneed the dough for about 10 minutes or until the dough is smooth.

Let the dough rise until the dough doubles in size- you want to place the dough in a warm dry area to rise or in a warmed oven (turn the oven on for a few minutes and turn it off).

2. Assemble the Pizza

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Once the oven is preheated, heat the empty cast iron pan (12″) in the oven for 3 minutes. Once the pan in heated, butter the pan. Take 1/2 of the prepared dough, form a ball and place it in the center of the pan. Slowly press the dough into the pan and up the edges until the dough is uniformly spread. Lightly butter and salt the open face of the dough, and put it back in the over for 3 minutes.

Remove from the oven, put down a layer of shredded mozzarella cheese, top with fresh mozzarella cheese, layer of spinach mixture (sautéed garlic, spinach, salt until the spinach shrinks and squeeze out excess moisture once it cools), add a layer of sauce, top with a mixture of mozzarella and colby jack cheese, at the end add thinly sliced tomatoes (lightly salt the tomato slices).

3. Cook the Pizza

Cook the pizza at 425°F for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Take the pizza out of the oven and let it cool before using a spatula to remove it from the cast iron pan- this should be very easy since he pan was buttered. Optional step: put the pizza back into the oven for 3-5 minutes to become crispy.

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Cooking with Natty

Fluffy Cloud Japanese Pancakes

July 8, 2020August 7, 2020by nattysbestlifeLeave a Comment

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/4 cups milk
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 large egg yolk plus 3 large egg whites
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
PAM- for cooking
Maple syrup- for serving

Special equipment:

four 3-inch-wide-by-2 1/2-inch-high ring molds: you can use any tall ring you have

This was my first time trying homemade Japanese pancakes and I was pleasantly surprised! They turned out amazing! The easiest way to make this pancake, start with THREE BOWLS!

Bowl 1: Mix together the dry ingredients: flour, confectioners’ sugar, baking powder and salt

Bowl 2: Mix together the wet ingredients: milk, melted butter, vanilla and egg yolk

Bowl 3: Mix 3 egg whites with a hand mixture until white peaks form (this takes about 3-5 minutes depending on the hand mixer

Mx together the contents of bowl 1 and bowl 2 in equal proportions, at the end fold in the contents of bowl 3

Heat up a pan on LOW HEAT- I had it on the lowest setting, spray the pan and the ring. Once the pan is heated pour the batter in 1/2 way into the mold, set a timer for 5 mixtures, flip and cook the other side for 5 more minutes.

Once it’s done pop it out of the mold and top with powder sugar ( confectioners’ sugar). Serve with fresh fruits, whipped cream, and maple syrup!

🖤

Cooking with Natty

Thai Salad with Air Fried Shrimp

March 28, 2019September 28, 2022by nattysbestlife1 Comment

We just got an air fryer and I was super excited to use it. The first thing we made with it was shrimp which turned out amazing! We have a GoWise air fryer, I linked the exact one we have.

To make the salad use the following ingredients, I just eyeballed how much of each ingredient I wanted to use and chopped everything up:

Napa Cabbage
Red Cabbage
Shredded carrots- I just bought a pre shredded bag to save time
Red bell pepper
English Cucumber
Cooked Shelled Edamame- I bought it frozen and cooked it in a microwave safe bowl for 4.5 minutes
Scallions
Cilantro
Peanuts- I used roasted unsalted peanuts

After you chop everything up, don’t add the dressing until you are going to serve the salad. You can also store the salad overnight and add dressing the next day. This is a great recipe for meal prep! I paired my salad with homemade peanut dressing. In a blender blend together the following ingredients:

1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
2 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
2 tablespoons lime juice
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 1/2 tablespoons sugar
2 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons fresh ginger
1/4 teaspoon (or to taste) red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro

I added some water to dilute the dressing, I also tasted it at the end, and ended up adding a little more ginger and soy sauce. I used the small attachment to my ninja to avoid having to clean the whole blender when I was done.

The last step is to air fry the shrimp. I peeled and cleaned the shrimp, I suggest fresh shrimp as opposed to frozen shrimp. I then breaded the shrimp in the following order: flour–> egg wash –> panko and stuck it in the air fryer. I sprayed the breaded shrimp lightly with avocado oil. The key things are time and temperature when cooking in the air fryer. I cooked it at 400 degrees for 8 minutes. About half way through, I pulled out the bucket and shook the shrimp around. This meal took about 20 minutes to make, the longest part was cutting the vegetables!

As you can see, the shrimp turned out crispy and delicious!

🖤

Cooking with Natty

Egg fried “rice”

February 28, 2019August 7, 2020by nattysbestlifeLeave a Comment

Today I decided to make egg fried rice without rice. I substituted the rice with Green Giant Riced Broccoli and Cauliflower mix. They have a variety of different riced veggie combos, just use the one you want. The whole bag of “rice” has 80 calories! That’s what makes this recipe so healthy and low in calories.

Ingredients:

Low sodium soy sauce
Sesame oil
3-4 eggs
1 package of microwavable frozen mixed veggies
1 package of riced veggies
1 onion
1 garlic clove

The prep time was about 15-20 minutes! Warm up the sesame oil in a pan, add the chopped onion and garlic and cooked it for about 5 minutes, turn down the heat right before the onion becomes caramelized. In a separate pan cook the riced veggies, this also takes about 5 minutes. Add the microwaved veggies to the onion/garlic mixture. Push this mixture to the side of the pan and use the other half of the pan to scramble 3-4 eggs (I used 3 this time). Once the eggs are cooked, add the riced veggies and add soy sauce to taste. I didn’t add salt to this recipe because the soy sauce is enough sodium for me, but if you feel you need to add salt, just salt to taste.

It is a very simple recipe and tastes amazing. We ate right away, but I am excited to make this again on a Sunday and use it as my lunch for a few days!

🖤

Cooking with Natty

Quiche Galore

November 19, 2018August 7, 2020by nattysbestlifeLeave a Comment

I have always been a fan of quiche, but have never tried making it myself. I read a bunch of different recipes before improvising and creating my own!

I started with Pillsbury refrigerated pie crust (you can always make your own pie crust, but I wasn’t feeling ambitious enough to do that). I think if you want to make a more healthy quiche, you need to make your own crust. I’ll definitely be experimenting with an oats/wheat based crust next time. I pushed the pie crust into a 9″ pan, made holes on the bottom with a fork, and let the crust cook for about 10 minutes at 425 degrees.

I made two different fillings:

Spinach Mushroom: 1 frozen slab of spinach (thawed and water squeezed out), half a container of fresh mushrooms (cooked on low heat for 3-5 mins), 1 cup milk (I used 2%, feel free to use a heavier milk if you want something more rich), 1-1½ cups of shredded gouda cheese, 2 eggs, 3 egg whites, salt and pepper

Veggie: 1 tomato, 1 white onion + 1 jalapeno (cooked on low heat for 3-5 minutes), 1 cup milk, 1-1½ cups of shredded cheddar cheese, 2 eggs, 3 egg whites, salt and pepper

I poured each of the mixtures into the cooled pie crusts and put them back in the oven at 350 degrees for 55 minutes. I took it out right before it started browning because I was taking it to a potluck. Then before they were served, we warmed them in the oven again. This made the pies a little crispy at the end, which was perfect.

There are so may different ingredients you can put in a quiche. I am going to try making my own version of the Lou’s Special deep dish pizza next time.

🖤

Cooking with Natty

Guilt Free Apple Pie

October 30, 2018August 7, 2020by nattysbestlifeLeave a Comment

I made an improv apple pie one morning without 2 key ingredients: flour and butter. Granted it wasn’t the best pie I’ve ever eaten, but it was definitely a healthy alternative!

Ingredients:

3-4 apples (honesty you can use whatever kind of apple you want)
2-3 cups of oat (whatever you don’t use to make the crust becomes the crumble on top)
brown sugar
sugar
cinnamon
nutmeg
lime juice
2-3 eggs
warm water

I first used my Ninja Blender to grind the oats into a fine powder. To the oats I added 3 eggs, a few teaspoons of water, and about a 1/2 cup of sugar. I then pressed the “dough” into an 8in pan and cooked it for 10-12 minutes at 375F. While the crust was cooking, I pealed and cut up 3 apples. Then added about 3 tablespoons of lime juice, a half a cup of both brown sugar and sugar, 1 tsp nutmeg, and cinnamon to taste.

When the crust came out, I filled it with the pie filling, and added the remainder of the oats as crumble on top. I baked the pie for about 30 minutes until it was slightly brown on top.

There were 2 great things about the pie: that it didn’t take long to make, and it was truly guilt free.

I definitely want to play around with this recipe and maybe try a different filling in the next few weeks!

🖤

Cooking with Natty

Overnight Oats

September 29, 2018August 7, 2020by nattysbestlifeLeave a Comment

I have been trying to make sure that we have breakfast every day, even on mornings I have work and have to run out of the house early. I think it is important to incorporate protein into breakfast and one of my favorite ways to do that is with peanut butter and oats. Overnight oats require no effort in the morning, not even a blender! I have been trying a lot of different combinations, but my all time favorite one is still blueberry.

All you do is put a cup of oats in a bowl, add almond milk along with your ingredients (I did blueberries, blanched almonds and cinnamon), and put your container in the fridge until the morning.

Some other ingredients that I love to add into my overnight oats include: banana, chia, coconut flakes, strawberries, dark chocolate chips, peanut butter, apples and much more!

Remember, there is no reason to skip breakfast, especially when it can be this easy!

🖤

Cooking with Natty

Vegan Gluten Free Pancakes

September 6, 2018August 7, 2020by nattysbestlifeLeave a Comment

I love trying new recipes, and this was a crowd pleaser. I love a good pancake breakfast, but its not necessarily healthy so I decided to take a healthy spin on pancakes, and it was shockingly amazing.

Ingredients:

2 cups of Oats (blend to flour consistency in ninja)
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (I tend to add more because we love cinnamon)
2 large egg
1 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 large banana

Just mix up all the ingredients, and cook them over the stove (1/4 cup of mix per pancake). Be careful though, they are harder to flip then regular pancakes, your first few may break.