Make It Monday - Sweet Potato Crust Quiche

Make It Mondays are usually reserved for some sort of craft/DIY project, but this week I just couldn’t resist a recipe..you CAN “make it,” after all! My mom passed along a similar recipe she had come across recently, and it was right up my alley. I love recipes that use a vegetable alternative in place of carb/bread components…my beloved cauliflower crust pizza and cauliflower fried rice just to name a few…and this fits right in!

Feast your eyes on a “crustless” veggie quiche! The “crust” is made of sweet potato, and it is HANDS DOWN my favorite recipe of all time. I have been known to say that before, but mark my words that THIS.IS.IT. The easiest, quickest, healthiest and MOST delicious recipe out there!

Sweet Potato Crust Quiche

            Ingredients

                        Cooking spray/coconut oil spray

                        One large sweet potato

                        1 Tbs olive oil

                        Minced garlic

                        ¼ onion

                        5 larger baby bella or white mushrooms

                        One box/bag baby spinach

                        ½ cup reduced fat milk

                        4 large eggs

                        ¼ cup egg whites

                        Salt/pepper

                        Paprika

                        Italian seasoning

                        6-8 cherry tomatoes, quartered  

                        ¼ cup crumbled feta cheese

1.     Spray a 9-inch pie plate with coconut oil spray (or cooking spray).

2.     Peel sweet potato and slice with mandolin into 1/8” slices.

3.     Layer sweet potato slices along bottom and sides of pie plate, attempting to get the best “seal” possible.

4.     Spray a very light layer of coconut oil spray/cooking spray over the top, and bake at 350 degrees for 18 minutes.

5.     Add olive oil to skillet over medium heat, and sauté garlic.

6.     Add onions, and sauté until almost tender. Add mushrooms and do the same, followed by spinach until just wilted. Remove from heat and set aside.

7.     In a large bowl add milk, eggs, salt, pepper, paprika and egg whites, and whisk until combined.

8.     Remove crust from oven, and spread spinach mixture evenly into crust. Add egg mixture. Top with tomatoes and feta.

9.     Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes

Serve for breakfast, lunch, brunch or dinner with freshly sliced avocado, fruit and/or quinoa. And of course, feel free to add or sub your favorite ingredients! EVEN MEAT (I’ll look the other way!).  Happy Monday, foxes!

Top Twosday - Pizza and Prosecco

That four day week last week was killer. I’m still not sure what day it is or which end is up.  I’m going to go ahead and trust my gut that today IS Tuesday, in fact, and move forward with this week’s Top Twosday. My top two at the moment:

1.     Prosecco. That’s all.

2.     With my list of injuries that keeps growing and knocks me out of the running game too often these days, I have had to be very careful about my calorie intake. And with my added obligations and dwindling time, I am also looking to build a rotating menu of quick, easy, delicious, budget-friendly (and of course healthy and veggie) recipes. I finally tried out a cauliflower crust pizza today, and I can safely say this will be on our menu at LEAST once a week from now until….forever.

I experimented a bit and changed up some recipes I had seen in the past to ultimately end up with the perfect texture and consistency…way closer to a pizza crust than I could ever have imagined! And I added some of my favorite toppings that I had on hand (including a white/pesto sauce rather than traditional red sauce). But there are SOOO many awesome topping combos I can’t wait to try!

The pizza wasn’t mushy and didn’t fall apart when picking up each piece, and in a way I was almost disappointed by how little cauliflower flavor there was! BUT, this made it feel like we were truly eating REAL PIZZA…but we could each have SIX pieces with almost ZERO guilt!

I can’t wait to put together a special tutorial for the recipe, but since several people are asking I thought I would share it here on the blog for now.

Holly’s Favorite Cauliflower Crust Pizza

     Makes one 12-inch pizza

Ingredients

       Crust

            1 large head cauliflower, coarsely chopped and washed

            1 egg

            ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese

            ¼ cup shredded mozzarella cheese

            2 tsp salt

            2 tsp pepper

            1 tsp Italian seasoning

            1 tsp garlic powder

           

       Sauce/Topping

            ½ cup alfredo sauce

            1 Tbs prepared pesto

            1/3 cup shredded mozzarella

            A few handfuls of baby arugula

            Balsamic reduction, drizzle

1.     Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2.     Add about two inches of water to a large pot and bring to a boil.

3.     Add chopped cauliflower, cover and boil on high for 6-7 minutes.

4.     Strain cauliflower and immediately transfer to a food processor.

5.     Alternate 2-second pulsing and stirring until a coarse rice texture is achieved (not a paste or puree).

6.     Spread a cheesecloth or thin dish towel on the countertop and spoon cauliflower onto it. Let cool slightly for 3-4 minutes (will still be hot/steaming).

7.     Wrap the cloth tightly and wring over the sink to get rid of excess moisture. Keep going until towel stops dripping. Use a second towel or food prep glove if it is still too hot to touch directly.

8.     Transfer cauliflower to a large bowl and add egg, parmesan, mozzarella, salt, pepper, seasoning and garlic power. Stir or knead with hands to combine.

9.     Press (don’t roll) your “dough” onto a sheet of parchment paper to about ½ inch thickness. Build up the outer edges to be slightly thicker to prevent burnt crusts.

10. Transfer the parchment and crust onto a baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes or until just browned around edges and very lightly bubbling.

11.  Remove crust from oven and set aside.

12. Combine alfredo sauce and pesto in a small bowl, and spread evenly over pizza crust. Top with mozzarella and arugula. Drizzle desired amount of balsamic reduction over entire pizza.

13. Return to oven for 8-10 minutes.

14. Remove from oven and let cool on parchment/baking sheet for 5-10 minutes to allow crust to “set” further.

This is seriously one of my new all-time favorites! We could not believe how close to a traditional pizza it was (but WAY healthier), and I can say with 100% confidence we will never go back to a bread/dough crust again!

Keep your eye out for a super fun and detailed tutorial on this in the next few weeks, but until then I hope you enjoy! Let me know how your cauliflower crust turns out and what you top it with!

Thrifty Thursday - sell, sell, sell!

Thursday already?! Four day weeks are the devil/best thing ever. I hope everyone’s savings jars are going well so far! We would love to hear how you are doing!

As I said last week…saving money is always a good idea. But let’s not forget making money.  We lived on a golf course when I was a young child, and my brother and I would collect all of the stray balls that landed in our backyard and sell them back to the golfers through the chain link fence for a decent profit. When the course ranger put a stop to that, we disguised our little business as a lemonade stand. And I have always been a garage sale girl.  I have vivid memories of holding garage sales in almost all of my extended family members’ driveways growing up. My own one-year-old and three-year-old have probably already participated in more yard sales than the average American!

While I firmly believe that the most money can be “made” by simply saving and not spending, there is certainly something to be said for turning seemingly invaluable possessions into cash. You may not have a backyard full of golf balls, but I can almost assure you that you have a few thousand dollars of potential cash sitting around your house.

Around the summertime of last year, I really started to adopt the less-is-more mentality and lifestyle. I combed through closets and cupboards over and over to find out what I truly needed and/or valued. We turned our dining room into an “eBay room,” and I went to town. In just two weeks, I had made over $400! A car payment.. month’s worth of groceries…a plane ticket…a credit card bill…a full month of Mother’s Day Out tuition…..$400 was just SITTING around in the form of…extra stuff. I had always heard the eBay advertisements and testimonials of friends and family but never thought that I had anything of value to sell.

WRONG.

Newsflash: People will buy anything. People will buy everything. An old stuffed animal sitting in your child’s closet may be the EXACT one some poor kid has lost somewhere across the country (true story…we sold a random Target bear for $40). Once-worn Halloween costumes in the attic? List them in September/October and make a killing.  The random graphic t-shirt you bought at Old Navy five years ago might be someone’s favorite. LIST IT. I hoarded my favorite Bath & Body Works 2014 Fall candle (bought at $8/each), and it turns out that a lot of other people loved the scent also. I ended up selling those bad boys (that had been sitting around in a cabinet for over a year) for $39 EACH.  THIRTY-NINE EFFING DOLLARS. EACH.

You never, ever know what people will buy.  It takes one iPhone pic and two minutes (or less) of your time to list these items. There is nothing to lose, and I can ALMOST guarantee you will sell MOST everything you list.  Besides the extra income, the greatest benefit is the extra space, weight off your shoulders and freedom you will feel from unloading possessions. Live simply, friends. It is the greatest happiness there is.

Here is a list of some of my best-selling, most unexpected best-selling and most profitable items from the last year on eBay.

-          Brand name baby clothes: We all splurged (or received) a few Baby Gap/Peek/Hanna items when we were pregnant or celebrating our little one’s arrival. Some of them might even still have tags attached.

-          Misc. Baby Gear: We had about five Skip Hop Zoo bags/diaper bags/rolling backpacks, etc. Breast pump tubes that had never been opened. Nursing covers. Baby Bjorns. Etc. The markup on these items is incredible, and they are used so rarely and for such a short period of time that they are usually in excellent condition.

-          Craft Supplies: Cricut cartridges and paper punches are hugely popular on the secondary market.

-          Stuffed Animals: I have to say, I would NEVER have considered buying my child a stuffed animal on eBay. But when your kid becomes attached to a discontinued Pillow Pet or random 2012 department store stuffed animal that is no longer available, you will get desperate for a backup/replacement and turn to eBay in hopes that someone has that exact one to sell. Promise.

-          Costumes: Any seasonal item, especially Halloween costumes, sell wildly if you have the patience to wait and list it at the appropriate time. Again, because the retail markup is so crazy and because “used” items in this category are SO gently used, selling them on eBay is a breeze.

Those are just a FEW of the categories. Really and truly, no exaggeration, EVERY item I have listed in the past year has sold within 18 days. I was a skeptic, but I finally tried it and now my only regret is not having done so sooner.

Finally, a few tips:

-          Take decent photos: You don’t have to be a professional photographer. iPhone photos are fine. But invest in a $2 white foam board to lay your items on, and try to take advantage of natural light. Use PicTapGo (especially the “Lights On” feature to brighten things up. And if you’d like.. include a few stock photos of the item in its original state, but beware that some companies police this and will petition to have your listing removed.

-          Don’t lose money on shipping: In the very beginning, I underestimated the weight of an item and lost money on the fixed cost or free shipping I offered to customers. From then on, I always selected the “charge actual cost” option which I highly recommend. This lets you invoice the customer for the actual cost of shipping their item to their actual zip code once they have agreed to the purchase and completed it.  If you want to charge a fixed cost or offer free shipping wrapped into the cost of your item, make sure to weigh your item (with packaging) first and calculate the potential shipping cost based on a zip code furthest from you. I like to use Seattle, for example. And I just weigh things on a regular food scale...a great (and inexpensive) investment if you are going to be shipping lots of things.

-          Finally, time your listings and research similar items for sale if at all possible. BUT, at the end of the day…just LIST IT. I sold a Halloween costume twenty minutes ago (in mid-January). And I sold a pair of road bike shoes for $20 more than an identical pair in the same size was listed for. Those may be flukes…so please research….but again, you just never know. It costs nothing to list an item, so do it.

Happy selling and saving to you, foxes! Until next Thursday!

Festive Friday - Valentine's Day Gift/Favor Printable

Every Friday is festive around our house…because…hey, it’s Friday! But this week is extra special because I am getting in the Valentine’s spirit a bit early with a festive printable! You may remember the “Merry Kissmas” Chapstick gift printable I shared last month…the perfect last-minute, inexpensive, fun little treat for teachers/classmates/neighbors. After all the candy (calorie)-consuming and budget-blowing that happens between Halloween and New Year’s, I thought it would be nice to have an even cheaper and non-edible option for Valentine’s favors. Just like the Chapstick favors, you can do this on the fly (shoutout to you, 24-hour Walgreens!), but even better is the fact that you can theoretically spend all of ONE DOLLAR for a set of 24 of these babies! I know you’re on the edge of your seats..

If you have ever spent any time with a kid two years or older, you will totally understand the Band-Aid obsession. Band-Aids are my kids’ love  language, and after spending a completely absurd amount of money on Band-Aids over a couple of months, we boycotted the Target pharmacy section and headed to the Dollar Tree where you can score a 24-pack of truly badass character (or plain) Band-Aids for ONE EFFING DOLLAR.  And in the spirit of the 2016 weekly savings jar, I thought this was appropriate.

I used a tiny smear of glue stick to attach each Band-Aid to the cardstock squares and printed out “to/from” stickers for the backs using regular address label sheets. I know a lot of Valentine’s cards use the “I’m stuck on you!” line, but I thought I’d make this a little more personal and true to my voice. I like to let everyone I love know…pretty often…that they are stuck with me!

Hope you enjoy the printable...download here.