Play Time

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Good day so far!  Slept very well, have felt decent all day thus far even though I haven't accomplished a great deal.  Planning on some cleaning, making another stew, and knocking out some extra laundry.  Easy stuff.  Oh, and I am playing in the kitchen.  Fun times!

Breakfast:  Breakfast sandwich -- the end pieces of loaf of white bread, 2 CF eggs fried in a bit of butter, 1.5 strips bacon, 1 slice sharp cheddar.  Coffee

Looks large because of the 2 eggs!

I really don't know what it is about bread that makes this better, but it does.  Oh well.  That was it for bread in the freezer.  When I buy it I buy the expensive super minimalist kind with nothing but flour, water, yeast and maybe honey or something.  It's just not something I eat much of at home and I should eat even less.

Lunch:  Homemade einkorn crust pizza with pepperoni

Hard to go wrong with PIZZA.

Yes!  I made my usual cracker crust recipe and it was even BETTER with einkorn.  Excellent flavor.  According to the packaging the 1/2C of einkorn flour is 200 calories and 36g effective carb, so it's a bit high for weight loss but not awful otherwise.

The basic recipe, in case anyone stumbles across it:

1/2 C einkorn flour (I used Jovial brand), ~ 1 t baking powder (I use aluminum free), ~ 1/2 t salt, 1/2 C parmesan, grated (Kraft in the can for this is fine), ~ 1 t italian seasoning.  Mix well in a large bowl by stirring with a fork.

Add 1 T olive oil (I like California Olive Ranch) and 3+ T of water.  Stir gently with the fork until a dough forms.  With 3T of water it resists grabbing the last bit of the flour/cheese mixture, so I usually add about 1/2T more.  Everything should be incorporated but not super wet.

The one change to my usual practice was this:  Cover bowl with a towel and let it sit for 5-10 minutes.  This makes it less sticky - in my 15 minutes of lifetime research on einkorn I read this somewhere, and it seems to work.

Preheat oven to 450F.  Grease or spray a pizza pan.  Spread dough into a crust -- you can do that with a rolling pin (might want to use a piece of parchment paper between the dough and roller to prevent sticking) or just pat it out with your hands to the desired thickness, which is what I did.  You can go super thin but I seem to like a 9 to 10 inch diameter pie.

Dock (poke holes in with fork) the crust and bake for 5 minutes.  Pull it, top as desired (mine had pizza sauce, pepperoni and mozzarella) and bake another 9 minutes or so.  Let cool 5 minutes before cutting so the cheese sets.

This is NOT your traditional chewy pizza crust.  It's a cracker crust.  The edges are crunchy like a cheez-it, the inside is softer and closer to a biscuit in consistency.   I cut mine into bite size squares.  Yum.

Snack:  A batch of coconut flour kinda peanut butter cookies.  I didn't have much peanut butter so they weren't real peanutty.  Other than that -- holy cow, coconut flour is where moisture goes to die.

Dinner:  Homemade stew, several (lol) glasses of cabernet sauvingon

Now actually featuring red wine for deglazing purposes

This batch wasn't as awesome as the last one, at least not thus far.  I think I added too much liquid.  Maybe I should, you know, measure next time.  Oh, well.  That's what I get for winging it.  Still tasty and will probably improve with a day or two in the fridge.

Exercise:  Sigh.  Nope.

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