Radicchio Pizza and Kale Salad

A little over a year ago I bought Alicia Silverstone's Book The Kind Diet. No, it is not a dieting book. One of the first things she emphasizes is that the word "diet" used to mean lifestyle. The book is essentially a guide to omitting all animal based products and "nasty foods" from your diet. This includes dairy, honey, refined sugars, processed or bleached flours, or anything that our bodies aren't made to digest. The book has three levels: Flirt, Vegan, and Superhero.

A year later, I remain a flirt - I dabble in the vegan pool, seeing if veganism and I could be a good match, but I've made no commitment. As a superhero, one would follow a macrobiotic diet. It seems complicated, but Alicia (we're on a first name basis, duh) swears it just takes a bit of planning and getting used to. I loved this book because it's encouraging and presents the facts to you, but it doesn't make you feel like a bad person for only being a vegetarian or even for eating meat. Her claim is that if you try it, you'll feel a million times better and you want have the urge to go back. Along with factual information on digestion, and the meat and dairy industries, Alicia has a ton of recipes classified as vegan or superhero. There is also a companion website called The Kind Life which is kind of like a blog, but it focuses on user interaction.

Crunchy, soft, tangy, and sweet.

Crisp, crunchy, yummy!

Anyway, I passed the book along to my friend Ashelen who was interested in becoming a vegetarian. She was just as excited as I was to read the book for the first time. It's always easier to make a change like this when you have someone doing it with you. We decided to make one recipe a week from the book. Did it work? Well no, we are college students and we're really busy. But we did make the Radicchio Pizza from the book (with our adaptations) and my Aunt Stacy's Kale Salad. It was a lovely vegan meal.

Radicchio Pizza alla Alicia Silverstone

Kale Salad 

Radicchio Pizza
Serves 2

1 package of pizza dough (I buy mine from the Pizza counter at Whole Foods)
1 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 head of radicchio
1/3 cup olive oil
handful of fresh basil leaves
1 large garlic clove
Pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 415 degrees

1. Roll out pizza dough and place on a cookie sheet lined with a silpat or foil.
2. Prick dough with a fork a few times. Place in the oven for 10-15 minutes or until crust is golden brown.
3. Place balsamic and brown sugar in a heavy bottomed sauce pan. Bring to a rolling boil then reduce heat to a simmer. Allow to simmer until reduced by half - it should be syrupy and thick.
4. Meanwhile, chop radicchio into thin ribbons and place in a large bowl. In a blender, combine olive oil, basil, and salt. You are not making pesto, you are just making a basil flavored olive oil.
5. Pour basil oil over radicchio and toss to coat.
6. When pizza crust is lightly browned, pull out of the oven. Top crust with dressed radicchio and return to oven for 4 minutes. When the radicchio is slight wilted and warmed through, remove from oven.
7. Drizzle radicchio with balsamic reduction. If you want, you can top the pizza off with diced roma tomato and some chopped basil. Serve immediately.


Kale Salad

1 bunch curly kale
6 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoons brown sugar (usually honey, but we're trying to be vegan here)
1 handful craisins, or golden raisin
1/2 cup toasted almonds


1. Wash and dry kale. Cut away it's tough stem and rip kale into bite sized pieces.
2. Whisk vinegar, oil, and brown sugar together in a pyrex measuring cup or a bowl. Add craisins or raisins to the dressing and let it sit for 10 minutes.
3. Pour dressing over the kale in a large salad bowl and let sit for about 5-10 minutes (the vinegar will help brake down the toughness of the kale).
4. Top with chopped toasted almonds. Yum!

Baked Eggs with Spinach and Goat Cheese

Last weekend I made a delicious recipe I'd found that very morning for two very sophisticated and special people... my best friend Sara and her boyfriend Nick. They'd up come to visit for the weekend from LA. I couldn't decide if I wanted a sweet or savory breakfast (but, when don't I have this problem, really?) so we made a little bit of both. I came across an index of brunch recipes on Oprah's website and one of them was for baked eggs with goat cheese. They were great; soft but with texture, savory but not salty, and filling but not too heavy. While our banana oatmeal cooked we got started on the baked eggs.

Simple, delicious, and so flavorful!

If you have individual ramekins, this is a great brunch recipe for entertaining because it looks a lot more complicated than it really is. It's also pretty easy for a regular morning, but it does take about 15-20 minutes from start to finish. The first time making these we made them in a regular cereal bowl and to my delight the bowls did not crack in the 450 degree oven! Since then, (I've made them two other times in a week) I've been making them in a bowl designed to make baked apples in - a birthday gift from my friend Drake (Thanks, Drake!). It's been working perfectly.

They go great with some toasted sourdough!

Reppin' Caty's C teacup. See you in 4 hours!

Baked Eggs with Spinach and Goat Cheese
Serves 1

Ingredients

2 large eggs
A handful of loose leaf spinach (about a cup)
1 tablespoon softened butter
1 clove garlic
1 oz. goat cheese- crumbled
1 oz. shaved parm, romano, or other hard cheese.
Basil for garnish

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
1. Chop spinach into 1/2 inch squares. Mince garlic. Spread butter at the bottom of ramekin. Sprinkle minced garlic over butter and place spinach on top of butter. Place dish in the oven for about 5 minutes (don't worry if the oven isn't to 450 yet, it's fine).
2. Take dish out of the oven and stir around the spinach so it is all coated in a bit of melted butter. Crack eggs over spinach. Sprinkle goat cheese and parm over raw eggs. Place dish on top rack of oven for about 11 minutes.
3. When the eggs are done, they should look white, but still jiggle a tiny bit. I like to broil mine for 45 seconds to get a crust on top.
4. Take eggs out of oven and let them sit for a minute or two. Don't forget that the dish is going to be extremely hot. Sprinkle chopped basil over the top and eat immediately!

Whole Wheat Apple Cinnamon Pancakes

Continuing on with the breakfast theme... more than a month later... I want to share a wonderful recipe with you all. I've made these about 4 times now and each time they are absolutely delicious. I had an intense craving for apples and cinnamon in a pancake about a month ago. It's funny because I used to hate cinnamon, but now I love it! I googled "whole wheat apple cinnamon pancakes" and this is the recipe I found on food.com. Below is a version of the recipe with my tweaks. Enjoy!!

Don't mind my veggie bacon :)

Whole Wheat Cinnamon Apple Pancakes
Serves 6

2 cups whole wheat flour (I recommend King Arthur

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 ½  teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon salt

2 eggs, lightly beaten

2 cups nonfat milk (I used almond milk, I don’t drink cow’s milk)

2 tablespoons honey or brown sugar

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 medium apple, grated (I used granny smith)

1.       1. Combine dry ingredients (flour through salt) in a large bowl. Whisk through to get rid of lumps.

2.       2. Combine ingredients egg through apple in a medium sized bowl. Mix thoroughly.

3.       3. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until well combined. Let batter sit for 5-7 minutes.

4.      4.  Heat a large nonstick pan over medium to medium-high heat.  The pan is hot enough when water sprinkled on it scatters and disappears within seconds. When the pan is hot enough, spray a scant amount of nonstick cooking spray.

5.       5. Pour batter onto the griddle using a 1/3 cup measure. Tilt the pan around to evenly spread batter. When bubbles start to form around the edges, the pancakes are ready to flip (about 4 minutes). Flip and cook on the other side for about 3 minutes or until the pancake has reached a desired color.

6.       6. Serve with maple syrup or a sprinkling of powdered sugar and cinnamon.