Year in Review - 10 of My Favorite Things from 2011

I got to do a lot of exploring around town this year, and I thought I'd share some of my favorite things from this year. (but I'm not Oprah, so I'm not giving anything away - you'll have to check these things out on your own!)  Here are my 10 favorite things/places/etc. for 2011. (in no particular order)

Recipe: Christine's Beets & Sweets Pizza

I've taken a little bit of a hiatus from blogging because my boyfriend suffered a pretty bad mouth injury last week.  Taking a line drive to the face in softball is bad news, as we've learned.  All I'm cooking up right now are things that can be stuck in a blender or are soft enough to be sucked through a straw, so I'll leave the recipes up to other folks right now.

My friend Christine sent me her recipe for a beets and sweets pizza - a pizza made with beets and sweet potatoes.  (Q: What do you want me to call your pizza recipe, Christine?  A: Stan or Beets & Sweets)  I personally preferred the "Stan" pizza, but I doubt anyone is searching for how to make a Stan pizza.  It's loosely based on a calzone she had at The Root Cafe awhile back and although I haven't tried it, it seems pretty amazing.

Take it away, Christine!

Note: These directions are for use with a ready made pizza crust that only requires 8 to 10 minutes in the oven.  If using a different kind of crust that requires longer baking time, it might be a good idea to cook the veg a little less since they will continue to cook on the pizza…but I haven’t tested that theory. 

 

Ingredients:

•  1 beet – peeled and sliced into uniformly thin rounds.  Mine were about ¼ inch. 
• 1 sweet potato – done up the same as the beet.
• Olive Oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• 1 Pizza Crust – I used Boboli Whole Wheat cuz I’m a lazy cook.
• Pizza sauce – I used red sauce from a jar.  The ingredients list looked all natural. You could also use marinara or make your own.
• Blue Cheese – 2 – 3 tablespoons, depending on how much you like it.
• Shredded Mozzarella/Provolone mix – or whatever cheese you like on your pizza.

 Method:

1.  Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Place the rounds of beets and sweet potatoes on a cookie sheet and coat with olive oil salt and pepper.  Toss them around on the sheet to make sure both sides are coated with oil.
3. Place cookie sheet in oven and roast for approximately 30 minutes.  (Longer if you used thicker slices.)  Flip them half way through but keep a close eye on them. You want them to be soft and slightly caramelized but not burnt and crispy.
4. When the beets and sweet potatoes are done, remove from oven and change oven temp to whatever the direction on your pizza crust tells you to use. 
5. Spread a layer of pizza sauce on the pizza crust.  Use as much or as little as you want.
6. Place the rounds of beets and sweet potatoes in whatever pretty pattern you want on top of the sauce.  You will have some veg left over that didn’t fit on the pizza (I only used 6 beet rounds and 6 sweet potato rounds) but luckily they are tasty on their own.
7. Sprinkle with blue cheese and shredded cheese.  Again, use as much as you want. 
8. Bake according to the pizza crust directions.  It’s done when the cheese on top gets a little bit brown and bubbly. 

 

Note from Roxanne: Thanks to Christine for sharing her recipe and for saving me some time blogging! 

Raw Night at The Root Cafe in Lakewood

There's something about raw food that I just can't get enough of.  Maybe it;s the flavor.  Maybe it's the freshness.  But whatever it is, I try to eat raw as often as I can.  (which is difficult because I work a lot, rarely grocery shop, and don't live near any raw restaurants)  That's why when I heard about raw night (every Thursday) at The Root Cafe in Lakewood, I had to give it a try. 

If you're not familiar with The Root Cafe, it's a pretty amazing little place.  Part coffee shop, part vegetarian eatery, part art gallery, they eclectic place has something to offer just about everyone.  I love going there just to drink a coffee, read a book, and people watch. 

On the night I visited The Root Cafe for raw food night, they had a smorgasboard of delicious sounding foods.  It seems like they try to offer at least two appetizers, entrees, and desserts.

I love nachos more than any person should, so I had to try their raw nachos with sour cream (I've never had raw, vegan sour cream - it was amazingly good), cheez, salsa, and guacamole.  (pictured)  Maybe not the most amazing presentation, but the nachos were SO good.  Wish I'd had more of the salsa...had a balsamic kick to it.  I also tried out some raw celery soup which was pretty tasty.  I'm normally not a fan of celery or cold soup, but I can't complain about it.

For my main meal I got raw lasagna - cheeze sandwiched between thinly sliced zucchini noodles and basil.  It was good, but I found the basil to be a little bit much.

They were offering up a chocolate Carmel cake concoction for dessert.  I don't think you can ever go wrong with a fudgey, chocolatey, almost mousse-y cake.  Yum-o.

If you haven't checked out The Root Cafe in general, it's a great place to get vegetarian food any day of the week.  And if you're a raw food enthusiast like I am, you should definitely check out raw food Thursday nights!