Friday, July 29, 2011

New Food Adventures

Recently, my amazing mother-in-law gave us a bunch of wheat flour. I love anything wheat pretty much because of the nutritional value it has and it just tastes so good. So I've been trying to find some new recipes that we can use with wheat flour. I found this great recipe for whole wheat pizza crust. We decided to try it and it is really delicious. So I thought I would share the wealth and spread the word about this great crust recipe. It's really healthy and very filling.



1 teaspoon honey
1 1/2 cups warm water 
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour*


*(you can use the all purpose flour or just use all wheat flour)



  1. In a large bowl, dissolve sugar in warm water. Sprinkle yeast over the top, and let stand for about 10 minutes, until foamy.
  2. Stir the olive oil and salt into the yeast mixture, then mix in the whole wheat flour and 1 cup of the all-purpose flour until dough starts to come together. Tip dough out onto a surface floured with the remaining all-purpose flour, and knead until all of the flour has been absorbed, and the ball of dough becomes smooth, about 10 minutes. Place dough in an oiled bowl, and turn to coat the surface. Cover loosely with a towel, and let stand in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
  3. When the dough is doubled, tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and divide into 2 pieces for 2 thin crust, or leave whole to make one thick crust. Form into a tight ball. Let rise for about 45 minutes, until doubled.
  4. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Roll a ball of dough with a rolling pin until it will not stretch any further. Then, drape it over both of your fists, and gently pull the edges outward, while rotating the crust. When the circle has reached the desired size, place on a well oiled pizza pan. Top pizza with your favorite toppings, such as sauce, cheese, meats, or vegetables.
  5. Bake for 16 to 20 minutes (depending on thickness) in the preheated oven, until the crust is crisp and golden at the edges, and cheese is melted on the top.

Uncooked dough with alfredo. 

I made my alfredo pizza with veggies.
I also have a great whole wheat cookie recipe. I have to give the credit to one of my old roommates. She made these cookies one time for us and we loved them. She got the recipe on the back of the Gold Medal Whole Wheat Flour bag. It's funny because every time I make these, they turn out different but a good different. This last time I tried to lessen the butter amount by doing half butter and half shortening. It was horrible but it made the cookies more crunchy and not as chewy.

Whole Wheat Cookies
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
2 cups of wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 bag of chocolate chips (we have tried both semisweet and milk chocolate chips and we all like milk chocolate chips better)

Cream together sugars, butter, vanilla and egg. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt (dough may be stiff). Stir in chocolate chips. Place in an ungreased pan and cook for 8 to 10 minutes at 375 degrees.

Sadly, I don't have any pictures to show for this recipe but I promise it's really good.
Happy Eating! :)

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Falling Behind

Man, I am falling behind on my blog. Well, I have a few minutes before work so let me tell you all about the excitement we've been having. Two weekends ago, my family on my dads side had a family reunion in Bear Lake. It was a blast! Dan got to meet pretty much everyone for the first time and of course they loved him. We played games, eat amazing food (thanks again Kac and Ryan), played in the sun, went to some really cool caves and went boating. Here are some pictures of the awesome caves.

Some of the many stairs we had to climb


There were bats sleeping in the ceiling



Here are some pictures from boating and the moose we saw next to the inn we were staying at.

Dan and my cousin Ethan. They were maniacs. 




We also had an excellent 4th of July weekend. I have wanted to go swimming for a long time and I decided that we had to go the 4th of July weekend. Well I got my wish times 10. First I have to mention, on Friday we were invited to go roast hot dogs with Durk and Mandy, some friends of ours in our ward. So we went out and built a campfire. Then we ended up coming back to our apartment and played Mario on the Wii. We really get into it and it's a blast. Alright back to Saturday, we got invited to go to Egin Lake and after a small adventure we ended up floating the river instead. I got a terrible sunburn on my shins. My shins of all places! It was not a fun night for me. 
On Monday, we planned to go to Egin Lake (for real this time) with Dan and Sarah. We got Paola and Brock to join us and had a blast.
Sadly the only picture I got from the whole day.
After Egin Lake, we had a very delicious BBQ. It was so good probably because we were all so hungry but that's beside the point. For the rest of the night, we went to Idaho Falls for the fireworks. Idaho Falls has the biggest fireworks show west of the Mississippi (that's what they say). I don't know if that is true but they were amazing. I love the music they play to go along with the fireworks. It's the cherry on top of the patriotic feeling cake.