Back Porch Pizza

This is one of the ways we use up our veggies! We pre-grill/roast a ton of stuff up and store in the fridge all week and add to pizza, sandwiches, omelettes/frittatas, and salads. The pre-grilling not only takes the extra moisture out of the vegetables - but makes their flavor stronger, richer, and sweeter. So, everything you use them for will be that much better.

I posted our dough recipe with a bunch of tips a few months ago. We have recently converted from cooking in our gas oven at super high temps to the outdoor gas grill. It is AMAZING! You have to fool around with your grill to get it all perfect. We put our stone directly on the grill and heat up all four gas jets as high as they will go for 5-10 minutes, then turn the middle two (that are directly under the stone) down to low and keep the outside ones on high. Pizza cooks in about 7 minutes and your house is not heated up. This will be my lunch all summer!

grated carrots

This is a staple in French delis for a healthy snack/salad/lunch. It keeps for a few days and is a great way to get loads of carrots into your diet. Here is our version - but it really lends itself to customization.

3 thickly grated carrots (we use the mandolin for this so they are crunchier)
oj (juice from one orange)
sprinkle of cumin
s/p

a bit of smashed and chopped garlic and a glug of olive or walnut oil are great additions.

Tabouli

from Moosewood Cookbook

1 cup dry bulgar wheat
1 1/2 cups boiling water
1 t salt
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 c olve oil
2 cloves of garlic, smashed and chopped
black pepper
4 scallions chopped (white and green) - or use some sweet onion
1 packed cup finely chopped parsely
10-15 fresh mint leaves (if you have it)
2 tomatoes, seeded and chopped (or a few handfuls of grape tomatoes)

think about throwing in some seeded chopped cucumber, red or green bell pepper, or chickpeas

combine the bulgar and boiling water, cover, let set 30 minutes until tender

mix in the salt, lemon, olive oil, garlic, pepper - cover and refrigerate until cool - then add the rest of the ingredients. Eat cold for lunch. Enjoy!