Weekending at its Best

Dare I say…Spring has arrived? *crosses fingers*  Two gorgeous weekends in a row, plus nice days in between…it looks promising!

A couple of posts ago, I told you about Evening, the formal event at my school.  Evening was great, but it basically served as a kick-off to a fun and relaxing weekend.  Photo montage……and go!

Our first (major) stop was Millersylvania State Park.

“Millersylvania State Park is an 842-acre camping park with 3,300 feet of freshwater shoreline on Deep Lake. The park, filled with trails, is abundant in old-growth cedar and fir trees. Millersylvania was constructed almost entirely by hand in 1935 by the Civilian Conservation Corps.” (source)

This was our lunch view.

And this was our lunch!

We took pictures of each other taking pictures…

…and drew on our Montana roots to make sure we didn’t get lost on the trail where we saw…

…lovely flowers!  Mom, are these some type of lily?

 

After wandering the trails for a bit, we decided to head back North.  After a quick stop by my apartment, we were off to…

source

Tortilla chicken soup and green salad for me,

BBQ chicken wrap for Ron!

I may or may not have stolen fries. 😉

By this time, we were still bursting with energy tired like old people, so we headed for some dessert, then Ron took me back to my apartment.  Oh, and I had homework.  But whatever. 🙂  Any guesses on dessert?

Sunday morning, Ron came bright and early to pick me up to head to church, and then, we were off to the Tulips!  If you’ve never been to the Tulip festival…go.  You won’t regret it!

After a quick stop for lunch (that I forgot to photo), we were off to Roozengaarde, a very popular tulip destination.

The colors and variety are breath taking.  Don’t believe me?  Scroll down.

Aside from the fields, there are decorative gardens.

The obligatory in-the-tulip-row shots…

And don’t forget the daffodils!

Oh, and here’s my favorite tulip variety sign.  Ever.

Apparently there’s a tulip called “Ice Cream”.  Too bad it wasn’t blooming yet!

After wandering the tulips for a while, we decided to make our way back south.  And we were feeling some pizza!

Zeek’s to the rescue!

They have about a million pizza’s to choose from, but we decided to design our own.  Only after munching on some cheesy bread sticks, though.

Salad was involved, but alas.  I forgot to take a picture.  It was tasty, though!  I mean, it doesn’t get much better than greens piled with tomatoes, cashews and gorgonzola!

But the pizza.  Ohhhh man!

Marinara, mozzarella, chicken, tomatoes and basil.  Simple and delicious.  The best!

Any guesses on dessert? 😉

Shocker, I know!

Did you notice: My bad friend, ED, wasn’t invited…and he didn’t show up.  🙂

Well folks, that sums up my weekend!  It was a nice little break before the madness of finals sets in.  By the way, finals are the week after this.  Oy vey!

Coming soon: a recipe or two, another lovely weekend recap, and some big news!

Blessings,

Beth

Pizza Pizza!

Who likes pizza?  This girl!  And probably most of you, too 🙂  I made this pizza a couple of weeks ago, and just had to share.

In the past, a meal like this may or may not certainly would have struck fear in my heart.  “Carbs and cheese and FAT, oh my!”  While I still struggle with allowing myself to eat enough, I’m not nearly as scared of that pizza anymore.  Guess what!  Carbs = energy.  Cheese = calcium.  Fat = healthy in proper quantities.  Take that, ED! 😛

The other day, when this pizza craving struck, I took stock of my groceries: I had some leftover sauce and cooked ground turkey to use up before heading out on Spring Break, and what better way to use it than this?  Not only did it fulfill my pizza craving, but it kept me from wasting food, AND it fed me dinner for a couple of nights!  Oh, and did I mention how easy it was to throw together?  ‘Cause it was a piece of cake…er, pie.  😉

First, I mixed up a quick Bisquick crust – and I do mean quick.  Bisquick + water, people.  That’s it!  I tossed that in the oven for a little pre-bake while I rounded up the rest of my toppings.

Some mushroom pasta sauce…

…precooked ground turkey…

…shredded cojack cheeeeeeese…

…and some chopped up roma tomatoes, and we were in business!

A quick 12 minutes in the oven gave me enough time to throw together a quick salad, and then *ding-ding-ding*…it was dinner time!

Ohhhhhhh yeah!  Look at that lightly browned crust, the melty cheese, the CHEESE!  The crust definitely didn’t taste like a traditional yeast crust, more resembling a biscuit (huh, imagine that!), but it still tasted great.  The sauce soaked into the crust just a bit, and the toppings worked together quite well.  Can’t beat oven-roasted tomatoes!  Or homemade pizza, for that matter.

Serve it up with a green salad and a tall glass of water, and you’ve got it made.  College-kid dinner, for the win.

Extra Easy Pizza

Adapted from Betty Crocker

The Goods

1 1/2 cups Bisquick mix (I used the “heartsmart” variety)

1/3 cup very hot water

Your favorite pizza/marinara sauce

toppings of choice

CHEESE

 

The Method

1. Heat the oven to 450* and grease the pizza pan.

2. Stir together the bisquick and hot water (beat about 20 strokes) until a soft dough forms.

3. Press dough into the pan, then bake for about 2 minutes.

4. Carefully remove the pan from the oven.  Cover with sauce, then arrange toppings as desired.

5. Bake 12-15 minutes more, until cheese is melted and bubbly and crust is lightly browned.

 

This pizza couldn’t be easier!  And as far as creativity in toppings goes…you’re limited only by your imagination.

Go forth and make pizza!

Blessings,

Beth

P.S. Don’t forget, you can now keep up to date via Facebook!  Just click here to “like” Make Food Not Body War 😀

 

 

Pizza and Roomies

SNOW DAY!!  Yep, that’s right, classes were cancelled today due to dangerous roads and snow, and with the severe weather alert (have you seen this article!??!), I’m not certain as to how much schooling we’ll actually have this week.  *knock on wood*

I mentioned in my snowy post that the roomies and I would be making pizza, and promised to write a post about it…and since I make a habit of keeping my promises……..here’s the pizza post!!!

First, I must thank my dear roommate, Nikki, for being our faithful photographer and sharing her pictures with me.

THANK YOU, NIKKI!!! 😀

And also, may I say…Betty Crocker Pizza crust recipe, for the win!

First, we measured flour, salt, sugar and yeast, then mixed them together in a large bowl.

This was my first attempt at cooking anything with yeast that WASN’T in a bread machine.  Yikes!

Style is a must in our kitchen.  Coordination is especially key.  Notice how the red floral pattern compliments the purple plaid pants.  Perfection. 😉

Look at the aprons!  That’s also a must for our kitchen (Elizabeth, we missed you!!!!)

Ok, back to the cooking!  We added oil and water to the dry ingredients, then mixed them with a hand mixer for awhile before adding more flour, then mixing by hand.

Then, our oh-so-strong roomie, Marisa, got her knead on.  And she showed that dough who was boss!

I gave Nikki a break from the camera ’cause she needed in some of these shots!  And she wanted to properly cheer on Marisa’s kneading endeavor and show her overall excitement for pizza 🙂

Back in the bowl the dough went to rise in the oven…

…except it didn’t rise very much.  Oops.  Hope that doesn’t cause problems…

But we kept calm and carried on!  Dividing our dough into two sections, we flung skillfully tossed our dough.  Except nothing really happened.  So we took to the safer route and patted them onto our greased cookie sheets.

Yep, much safer!

While the crusts pre-baked, we gathered our toppings!  Ohhhh yum.

We got a little ansty waiting…

But finally it was time to make pizza!  Nikki expertly sauced the crusts.

Next came the cheese and salami (just cheese on the other) and then…….

…..and then they were DONE!  Hooray!

We had salad and bread with our pizza-pies…sound weird?  Then just pretend the bread was bread sticks 😉

So there’s our pizza adventure!  The crust turned out quite tasty, and all in all, we thoroughly enjoyed the fruits of our labor.

And now I’m hungry.  Better go find some dinner!

OH MY GOSH!  HOW COULD I FORGET!!!  Make Food Not [Body] War is now on Facebook!  Hop on over there a click like, if you please 🙂

Here’s a link, for your convenience.

Blessings,

Beth

It Snowed!

Yesterday, around mid-morning, it started snowing.  Big huge flakes.  I didn’t think it would stick, but it did.  Then it started raining.  Then the sun came out!  And seeing as it was sunset and I was SUPER antsy from the endless pile of homework I’ve already accrued, I decided to seize the moment and go for a walk with my camera.

And then it snowed more today.  And kept snowing and snowing and snowing.

And after a little convincing, I decided I could actually manage to go play for a bit.  What fun!

Marisa had the brilliant idea to make a snow man doing a hand stand.

The third section fell off…so we went with it 🙂

What a lovely Sunday!  Tomorrow is a holiday, and with more snow predicted, well…perhaps this week will be even shorter than expected!  Which would be great for homework purposes since today the roomies and I watched a movie (Strictly Ballroom) and are in the process of making homemade pizza (rather than doing homework).  My first shot at making something with yeast!  Post will show up eventually 😉

And with that, I’m off!  Almost time to finish the pizza!

Blessings!

Beth