Portabella Pizza
Pizza remains a popular meal in this house. With two teenage sons it’s not hard to understand why and it makes for a relatively simple prep job for me too so I’ve got no issues with pizza…except that I’m trying to make lower cal, more nutritionally dense food for myself. The portabella pizza fits into that category plus it’s super easy and fast.
This pizza sports a big fat portabella mushroom cap as the crust. I piled it high with diced zucchini, onions, and a heirloom tomato. I tossed some Italian turkey sausage in, just about 1/3 cup, then I added some Penzeys Pizza seasoning and salt, tossed it again. The secret to loading the caps is to use your hands…that way you can press it firmly into the caps and really pile it on high.
Portabella Pizzas
(printer-friendly version)
3 portabella mushrooms, stems removed, caps wiped off
1 largish zucchini, weird, seedy middle scooped out, diced
1/2 medium red onion, diced
1/3 cup cooked Italian turkey sausage
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, grated
Penzeys Pizza Seasoning
Olive oil
Salt
Preheat oven to 350°.
Place the 3 caps on a small baking sheeet, sitting up like cups. Combine the zucchini, onion, sausage, seasonings, and a slosh of olive oil. Toss them together well. Load the mushrooms with the filling, top with the cheese and put in the oven to bake for about 20 minutes or until the cap is tender and the cheese is golden brown.
Free Tibet Chicken
Over 2 years ago I wrote a post about a meal I referred to as Chinese Chicken, named as such because I didn’t have an actual name for it and because it’s vaguely asian in flavor. However, I’m dissatisfied with calling this chicken by it’s old name and so I gave it a new moniker, Free Tibet Chicken. Other than that this meal hasn’t changed much over the years and it’s still a family favorite and it still has the power to nourish your belly, heart, and soul.
Begin by cutting a chicken into pieces, remove the skin if you like or leave it on. Bring 4 quarts of water to boil and drop the chicken pieces into the water along with 2 or 3 cloves of peeled garlic. Once the water comes back up to a boil turn the temperature down and poach the chicken on a low temp for 30 minutes or until cooked through. Once it’s cooked remove the chicken from the pan, and debone it. Throw the bones back into the poaching liquid and place the chicken in a serving dish and spoon some of the poaching juice over, splash it with soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine, and chili oil.
Stir fry some veggies over incredibly high heat. I used leeks and …
cabbage. This step only takes a few minutes. Arrange the veggies alongside the chicken and add a spoonful of poaching juice over the chicken again. Serve with a medium grain white rice like Nishiki if you like but if you’re a South Beacher you can be totally Phase 1 with this meal as long as you serve it up sans rice..
Replenish yourself with this meal; it will nourish your belly, heart, and soul.
Be sure to save the bones and poaching juice; they’re still full of flavor and can be thrown in the pot with other chicken carcasses to make stock.
