pizza | healthy laps

pear, pepper and arugula pizza

Posted on November 1, 2010 by Jen

I made one of the best pizza’s ever on Saturday night – Pear, Pepper & Arugula!

I wanted it to be a super quick meal, so I took a pre-cooked flatbread from Trader Joes and topped it with pizza sauce.

And a mix of mozzarella and cheddar cheese. Then baked it for 5 minutes until the cheese was melted.

Once melted, I topped the pizza with fresh arugula, red pepper and a sliced pear and baked for another 5 minutes, until the crust was turning golden brown.

Lastly, a sprinkled some stilton cheese with dried cranberries over the top and turned on the broiler for 1 minute until melty!

This pizza was delicious! Sweet and savory all at the same time. It was great heated up the next day, as well. Surprisingly, the arugula did not wilt too much!

Filed under: Eating Laps, Recipes | Tagged: pizza | 2 Comments »

a day at the big e

Posted on October 8, 2010 by Jen

I’m only a few days late with this post. 🙂

Last Saturday, we took a trip out to Springfield, MA and spent the day at the Big E! If you don’t know what the Big E is, it’s the Eastern States Exposition. A huge fair/carnival/etc that runs for 2 full weeks (3 weekends) every Setember.

This was my first time at the Big E and I was shocked as to how big it really was. We spent a good 9 hours there and missed so much stuff!

We started and ended our day at my favorite part of the fair – The State Buildings. Each New England state has their own building where they sell different foods and souveniers local to their state.

We started with cider donuts and hot apple cider from Vermont!

It was very fun to see what was inside of each state building, Vermont was by far the best with their apple cider, maple cotton candy, flatbread pizza, soaps, Ben & Jerry’s and t-shirts! But, other’s had fun things to offer too.

Massachusetts

This was my first time trying golden raspberries and they were delicious!

We took a detour from the State Buildings and toured the rest of the grounds…and stopped at the giant slide! I watched while my husband and friends took a ride.

We hunted for the giant butter sculpture!

And, found some piglets!

A giant pumpkin.

A talking veggie show. 🙂

(We also spent a lot of time watching the Vita-Mix demonstration which was awesome!)

Then, it was back to the State Buildings for dinner.

A Maine baked potato with cheese and chives.

And, another slice of Vermont’s flatbread pizza!

It was such a fun day! Can’t wait until next year. 🙂

Filed under: Eating Laps | Tagged: fair, local, pizza, The Big E | Leave a comment »

homemade pizza

Posted on September 30, 2010 by Jen

After my 30 minute powerwalk yesterday morning, I was craving cold cereal with milk. I made up a bowl with 3 different types of cereal and 1% milk.

Trader Joe’s O’s
Uncle Sam’s Flax Cereal
Bob’s Red Mill Museli

It was a good mix of cold and crunchy. Topped with a super ripe banana for potassium.

It was a crazy day at work, so all of a sudden it was 2 o’clock and I was more than ready for lunch!

Good thing I packed a salad from home.

CSA lettuce topped with tabouli, chopped raisins, sunflower seeds and feta cheese.

With a yogurt and apple on the side.

After a mid-afternoon snack of a Brownie Larabar, I was ready for our pizza party!

I chopped up some peppers, kale and chicken sausage for toppings. Cooked before makingthe pizza.

Dough and Pizza sauce from Trader Joe’s:

Whole wheat and my favorite garlic and herb dough!

Their dough and sauce are made with simple ingredients!

Pizza #1 – Whole Wheat dough with mozzarella cheese, chicken sausage, green pepper and feta cheese.

We cook our pizza on a preheated (in a 400* oven) pizza stone, which works great! I pre-bake the dough for about 5 minutes, add the toppings, then cook for an additional 7-10 minutes. They come out great everytime!

Pizza #2 – Garlic & Herb dough with mozzarella cheese, red pepper and sauteed kale.

I enjoyed a slice of each (minus the chicken sausage, which I removed) and they were both delicious!

Pizza really is a simple meal to make, especially if you use pre-made dough and sauce.

Filed under: Eating Laps, Recipes | Tagged: breakfast, larabar, pizza, salad | Leave a comment »

the waterfront & the gum wall – seattle, wa

Posted on September 9, 2010 by Jen

After walking around Pike Place Market for a few hours on Sunday morning, we finally found the famous coffee mug that is seen in pictures with the Public Market sign. And, it’s tiny!! Brant could hold it in the palm of his hand. 😉

We stopped in for a snack at Crumpet’s Tea Shop, right off of the market. It was packed, and delicious!

They offer a wide variety of crumpets, but I kept it simple: crumpet with raspberry jam.

Brant was a little more adventurous and ordered the green eggs and ham!! The eggs were mixed with pesto to give them the green color.

After our much needed snack, we explored some more. 🙂

We found a chocolate shop!!

Then, made our way down to the waterfront to get some views of the Puget Sound.

The waterfront had some great views and other fun stuff, too.

My crazy husband having fun! 🙂

After some gorgeous views of the water and of the city, it was time to eat!

We headed up the flights of stairs from the waterfront to Pike Place and came across this Gum Wall!!

We had no idea what is was, but there were tons of people coming to see it! Including, a wedding party taking photos around it. Yuck!

We looked it up at lunch and here is what we found from Wikepedia:

The Gum Wall is a local landmark in downtown Seattle, in Post Alley under Pike Place Market. Similar to Bubblegum Alley in California, the Gum Wall is a brick wall now covered in used chewing gum. The wall is covered several inches thick, 15 feet high for 50 feet. The wall is by the waiting line for the Market Theater, and the tradition began around 1993 when patrons of Unexpected Productions’ Seattle Theatresports stuck gum to the wall. Theater workers scraped the gum away twice, but eventually gave up after market officials deemed the gum wall a tourist attraction in around 1999. People initially stuck coins to the wall using the gum, and some people create small works of art out of gum. It was named one of the top 5 germiest tourist attractions in 2009, second to the Blarney Stone.It is the location of the start of a ghost tour, and it is a popular site with wedding photographers.

(Source)

Very interesting…

We enjoyed a great lunch at The Alibi Room! They have happy hour everyday from 12-6pm, serving beers and food at a discount. We have found that happy hour is a huge deal in Seattle! Even fancy restaurants take part.

The Alibi Room is a whole in the wall directly across from the gum wall. Apparently, it used to have an amazing view of the waterfront, but a building was built in between the two! The food was still delicious and the atmosphere was great.

Beer was about $3 and each of the food options were between $4 and $7 for happy hour. We were starving, so we took full advantage of our first lunch in Seattle!

Bruschetta

Spicy Mac & Cheese

Pizza!

The afternoon and dinner to come!

Filed under: Eating Laps, Restaurant Reviews | Tagged: crumpets, gum wall, pizza, seattle, waterfront | 2 Comments »

bbq pizza-dilla

Posted on August 19, 2010 by Jen

Last night after work, I headed out the door for a run around Southie. I love my morning workouts, but I have learned to love running at night as well. I think I like the mornings so much because you start your day off on the right foot and get your workout out of the way. But, now that I am not training for anything specific, I realized that it is ok if I miss a morning workout. In fact, sometimes running at night is just as good and allows you to release any stressors the day may have caused.

It felt great out last night. A cool breeze was coming off of the water and there were a lot of people out running and walking. I never see that many people in the mornings!! I ran for just over an hour and felt great! Refreshed after my day.

I came home to make a quick dinner. My first thought was a pita pizza, my next thought was a quesadilla. Then, I combined them!

A Pizza-Dilla!