Easy Homemade Pizza Using Fresh Pizza Dough from the Grocery Store Bakery

I used a ball of fresh pizza dough from Publix and since I was making spaghetti, I used Ragu for pizza sauce and added cooked ground beef, cooked peppers and onions, a few slices of raw onion and an entire half pound bag of shredded mozzarella cheese. I accidently ripped the bag and cheese spilled out onto the counter so I decided to use all of it instead of taking the time to get a baggie.

The dough instructions said to let dough come to room temperature for an hour but I only had time to let it sit for maybe 10 minutes and it was fine.

I patted it out on a round pan coated with olive oil.

Top with sauce, hamburger, a little cheese, peppers and onions, fresh onion and the rest of the cheese.

Bake in a 450 degree oven until browned and let it sit for a couple of minutes for easier slicing.

Pan Toasted Pecans

Ingredients:
Pecans
Olive Oil
Butter
Sugar
Salt

Heat oil and butter over medium heat and add the nuts.
Stir often avoiding too much heat. If pan starts to smoke, remove it carefully and allowing time for the pecans to cool down while the pan cools down. Turn the heat down and return the nuts to the pan.
When they start getting darker, add a sprinkle of white sugar if desired. Keep stirring and when they are golden brown sprinkle with salt and remove from pan. Let cool before eating. Store in an air tight container.

Tips and Ideas:
Using fats help the nuts brown but using less fats or even no fat is possible, just watch the nuts closely for burning.
A sprinkle of coarsely ground Sea Salt is a nice touch.

Baked Tostitos Scoops with Weight Watchers Santa Fe Style Rice and Beans

I needed an appetizer today...it's one of those hungry days and this tasted great and doesn't add too many extra calories to my day.

I cooked the bean dish in the microwave and then filled ten scoops to the top with it and had a little avocado on the side and I was happy.

Even with ten full scoops I only used half of the rice and beans dish. We'll use the rest on the side and I may add some chicken to dress it up a little.

The baked Tostito scoops are 120 calories per 15 scoops and the Santa Fe Style Rice and Beans says it serves one for 310 calories and I had half so I had a nice afternoon snack for around 250 calories including the avocado.

Kids may like this for an anytime snack or an after school snack too.
It's filling, tasty, has many good nutrients and is low in sugar.

Tips and Ideas:

Add seasoned, cooked, cut up chicken to the dish.
Add extra rice, beans and/or cheese for a more substantial meal.

A Fun List of Some of My Favorite Easy Vegetable Dishes

1. Zucchini Bread with Nuts

2. Sweet Potato Pie

3. Sweet Potato Souffle' with Pecan Praline Topping

4. Pumpkin Pie

5. Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Each of these dishes has a vegetable and fiber serving and also the nuts add good oil, fiber and protein and cream cheese is a dairy product which adds protein too. Using less sugar to make these or sugar substitutes will make them even healthier.

Chicken Breasts in Onion Milk Gravy

A neat trick I've learned is to cook the flour in the pan drippings for a short while before adding the milk. It keeps it from tasting gummy or pasty.

This picture shows how much creamy gravy I made using only one tablespoon of all purpose white flour, very little fat and over a cup of low fat milk.

I added one half of a large sweet onion, salt and pepper.

Undercooking the chicken and then adding it to the gravy to finish cooking made the breasts extra tender.