Harvest Alfredo Pizza with Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Pancetta and Broccolini

Today, we made this absolutely delicious pizza, using the new Autumnal Harvest Alfredo Sauce (which we are super excited about!). Also featured in this recipe is the old standard: the fresh whole wheat pizza dough. Topping things off with broccolini, pancetta, mushrooms, roasted Brussels sprouts and fresh mozzarella balls, this pizza is a delicious fall treat!

• Servings: 6
• Time: 30 min
• Difficulty: moderate
• Print

Recipe by Amanda Hibshman, RDN

Ingredients

• Whole Wheat Pizza Crust
• Harvest Alfredo Container (~2/3 of container)
• Pancetta (~ 1/2 container)
• 6 Mushrooms, sliced and diced
• 10 Roasted Brussels Sprouts, thinly sliced
• 3 Broccolini, thinly sliced
• 10 (small) Fresh Mozzarella Balls
• Parmesan Cheese

Directions

1. Remove whole wheat dough from bag, onto floured surface. Let come to room temp for about 20 minutes. In the mean time, prepare ingredients and pre-heat your oven to 450˚F.
2. In a small skillet or sauce pan, over medium heat, combine pancetta and mushrooms and cook until crispy, about 5 minutes.
3. Work the dough in your hands, knead a little bit and then let gravity do the work to expand your dough. I love using a silat (or a silicone baking mat) to spread my dough out on. Once you have your dough to the desired shape, spread out harvest Alfredo sauce on top, then layer the pancetta and mushrooms, roasted Brussels sprouts broccolini and then finally the fresh mozzarella balls. Top with parmesan cheese. Bake for 10-12 minutes. After 12 minutes, we turned the broiler on low and watched the cheese get a little extra crispy.
4. Remove onto a cutting board, slice into 12 pieces and enjoy!

White Chocolate, Raisin and Oat Cookies

 

My mother-in-law’s chocolate chip cookie recipe is something held sacred among her boys.

I, however, can’t ever get them right, even when I follow her recipe down to the most minute details. And trust me, have had lengthy conversations about her exact process, and I still really can’t figure out how she makes them so perfect each time. I have decided to stop beating myself up and attribute my past failures to the loss of 4.5K in elevation. But I still try! And, I tell ya, every time I make them, I always get a lack luster “yeah… they’re…good! But they just aren’t the same…did you change something in the recipe?”

At first…no, I wouldn’t change the recipe. But then after multiple failed attempts, I started to veer off and blaze a new trail.

Side note/Fun fact: I can never stick to a recipe. I always have to add a little this or a little that to make it more *me.* This aspect of my personality drives my other half absolutely bonkers.

Lucky for me, my daughter thinks it is super fun. If it were up to her, we wouldn’t use a recipe (or logic even) for anything we make.

Bless her heart, she just loves to be in the kitchen with me.

Most days of the week, my daughter asks if I want to make cookies with her. I know that she is ultimately asking because she is Cookie Monster’s mini-me, but I like to give her the opportunity to help out as much as possible in the kitchen and pass my knowledge on to her as often as I can. It’s a good life skill to have! So we usually make a little something together a few times a week.

Today, I had a container of oat bran staring me in the face (purchased to make Honey Raisin Oat Bran Muffins) My MIL’s chocolate chip recipe calls for oats, so I figured I would start with her recipe as a base and make a few…alterations.

First thing I did was swap out the Old Fashioned variety for Oat Bran.

Now, there isn’t anything wrong with old fashioned oats, it is just a little different than oat bran. Since I am super-pregnant at the moment, I need all the protein and calories I can get, I decided to opt for the bran (and here’s why…)

First, let’s have a closer look at oats:

When oats are harvested, their inedible hull is removed and you have Oat Groats. Groats are made up of three parts: the Bran, Endosperm and Germ  (Click here for more information on those layers). In a nutshell…The BRAN layer is the outside layer, rich in protein, fiber, antioxidants and B-vitamins. The ENDOSPERM is the large middle layer that is rich in starchy carbohydrates, and also contains some protein as well as small amounts of vitamins and minerals. The GERM is the innermost layer that contains lots of healthy fats and b-vitamins as well as some minerals, protein.

Old Fashioned Oats come from a processing technique that steams the oats and then rolls them flat, giving you all three parts of the groat, thus making it a whole grain. Oat Bran is not considered a whole grain, because it is just the nutty outer layer that is full of fiber and protein.

Looking at the nutrients side by side, Oat Bran provides significantly more fiber and protein, and has a texture closer to flour, so it works well in baked goods. Not saying one is superior to the other, they are just different.

Getting back to these delicious cookies…

Some other swaps I made were changing half of the flour to 100% White Wheat Flour, substituting honey for part of the sugar, and adding cinnamon.

The result was surprisingly delicious, probably the best luck I have had with this recipe yet!

• Servings: 26 Cookies
• Difficulty: moderately easy
• Print

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Cup Butter
• 1/2 Cup Shortening*
• 1/2 Cup Sugar
• 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar, Packed
• 1/4 Cup Honey
• 1 Egg
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
• 2 tsp Vanilla
• 1 Cup Oat Bran
• 1/2 Cup 100% White Wheat Flour
• 3/4 Cup All Purpose Flour
• 1/2 Cup (approx) Raisins
• 1/2 Cup (approx) White Chocolate Chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cream butter, shortening, sugar, brown sugar and honey in a mixer on medium-high speed for a few minutes, until light and fluffy.
2. Add egg, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and vanilla. Mix well.
3. Add Oat Bran and Flours until combined. Add Raisins and Chocolate Chips according to taste.
4. Space cookies at least an inch apart on cookie sheet, as they spread. Bake for 10-14 minutes (smaller cookies 10, larger cookies will need more time). With a spatula, transfer to cooling rack and enjoy!

 

*I really am not a huge fan of shortening, because most contain partially hydrogenated oils (trans fat) and other chemicals that don’t belong anywhere near our bodies. But I do seldom use it in some baked goods because it does create a superior texture for cookies. Trader Joe’s doesn’t have shortening (that I know of), so you can use 1 cup of butter as opposed to part butter/part shortening. OR if you have some lard on hand, try that.  I use All vegetable crisco baking sticks because they have no trans fat (the oil has been fully hydrogenated to saturated fat as opposed to partially hydrogenated to a trans fat), but they still aren’t the best option. I haven’t really found an alternative, so if you have any tips or tricks to replace shortening in cookies – leave a comment below!

Healthy Whole Wheat Pancakes

Here is the first video and recipe I shared with Nutrition Milestones, and it really is just too much fun to not post here as well. OJ and I were asked to make our favorite pancake recipe, which is basically just my father-in-law’s famous pancakes, with just a few healthy tweaks. Since filming this, I have also incorporated Non-Fat Vanilla Greek Yogurt to replace the buttermilk (not that there is anything wrong with buttermilk, it is just something I don’t normally purchase, and I am up to my ears with Non-Fat Vanilla Greek Yogurt!) I have also substituted honey for the sugar and added some cinnamon, added blueberries or chocolate chips, and all of them taste equally delicious!

• Servings: 10-12 silver dollar pancakes or 5-7 full size pancakes
• Time: 10 mins
• Difficulty: easy
• Print

Ingredients

• 1 cup whole wheat white flour from Trader Joes
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 cup low-fat buttermilk
• 2 large eggs
• 1 Tbsp canola oil

Instructions

• Mix together wet ingredients
• Mix together dry ingredients
• Then add wet to dry and mix until well combined.
• Meanwhile, pre-heat your electric griddle to 350 (or a griddle pan on your stove at a medium high heat). Once hot, place a dollop of batter onto the griddle (1 Tbsp for silver dollar, 1/4-1/3 cup for full size).

Favorite Topping: Fresh Fruit and a drizzle of Trader Joe’s Organic Maple Agave Syrup Blend

Featured Product: 100% White Wheat Flour

 

I love to eat healthy…but within reason. Veggies are wonderful, fruits are delicious, whole grains are great, lean protein is pretty tasty too. But some times, people take “healthy” food a little too far into the “in edible” realm (there is a reason it is sometimes called cardboard).

I have been perfecting my waffle recipe over the past year, trying to find the right mix of “healthy” and “delicious.” Often, whenever I would use oats or whole wheat flour, the final product would be too dense and earthy. Then, I discovered this 100% White Wheat Flour from Trader Joe’s. It provides the perfect backdrop for a healthy, yet flavorful dish. The perfect combination of white flour and whole wheat flour.

But don’t stop at waffles! I also use this for cookies, pancakes, pie crust, pizza dough…Possibilities really are quite endless! I actually find that now I rarely use traditional, white flour. The only thing I used regular flour for in the past 6 months has been for making cupcakes.

Here is a quick nutritional breakdown between the white flour and the white whole wheat flour: