I always used to think that just fancy cooks and Martha Stewart used parchment paper. I was ok with just using my cooking spray and foil. Now that we live in Germany, where cooking sprays are unavailable, I have started using parchment paper a lot. I wish I had started using it awhile ago!
Here are some of the things I love about parchment paper:
- You don't need to add any extra fat to keep things from sticking. Sometimes for baking though you do need to add some flour.
- Clean up is super easy and I don't have to clean the pan at all. I can reuse the paper or throw it away.
- I feel like food and baked goods release easier from the parchment paper than they ever did when I used cooking spray on a baking sheet, roasting pan, or foil.
- Parchment paper doesn't get any little holes in it like foil can, so no surprise leaks onto the pan or bottom of the oven.
- I don't have to worry about spraying chemicals into the air and my food like I did with cooking spray.
Here is what I normally use my parchment paper for:
- Roasting vegetables. This is probably what I use it for the most.
- Using it to like spring form pans.
- Using it for baking breads and cookies.
You can also use to it make packets in which to cook fish, veggies, and meat. I haven't tried this yet, but I will be soon.
You can buy parchment paper in a roll (like foil), pre-cut sheets, reusable sheets, and as cupcake liners. You can also cut it to size for lining baking sheets, cake pans, and spring form pans.
Steffen and I like pizza a lot. Quite often we would split a pizza at Lynnwood Grill in Raleigh, NC. We would always order it with "light cheese", usually add some extra vegetables to it, and substitute healthier items, like grilled chicken, for things like bacon. Ordering a pizza with "light cheese" just means asking them to put half of the amount of cheese that they would normally use. Sometimes we might even order a pizza with no cheese. The amount of cheese, some toppings, and portion size are the things that make pizza not so good for you.
The best way to eat pizza though is to make it at home. It is very easy and then you choose exactly what you want on your pizza. We prefer vegetables or fruit like bell peppers, artichokes, onions, mushrooms, eggplant, fresh tomatoes, squash, carrots, olives, fresh greens (basil or arugula), broccoli, cauliflower, pineapple, black beans, corn, jalapenos, potatoes, kohlrabi, beets....A healthier alternative to regular hard cheeses is Mozzarella, soft cheeses are generally lower in fat and are less acidic.
There are many recipes out there for pizza crust. We have a basic one that we like a lot. We used spelt flour to make it but you can also use whole wheat flour. (spelt and whole wheat are more alkaline then regular bleached flour)
Pizza Crust Recipe: makes enough for 2 medium rectangular pizzas
2 tbs honey
3/4 cup warm water
2 tbs olive oil, divided
1 ½ tsp yeast
1 tsp salt
2 ¼ cup flour (reserve some for mixing/kneading dough)
Mix warm water (about 110°F) with honey until it is dissolved and then add the yeast. Let sit for 5-7 minutes until it bubbles. Once it has bubbled then mix in 1tbs olive oil and salt. Then add the flour. I added 2 cups of flour at first and then more while I was mixing it with the mixer and dough hook until it wasn't sticky anymore. Once it is done mixing place it in a lightly oiled bowl and turn the dough so that it is coated.
Cover with plastic or a towel and place in a warm place. I usually heat 2 cups of water in the microwave for a few minutes, remove it, and put the dough in. Let it rise for 1½ hours or until it has doubled in size. You can use a pizza stone if you have one, heat it per directions. I don't have one anymore so I just heated up a cookie sheet. I set the oven to 450°F and let the pan heat for about 25 -30 minutes.
Once it is done rising you can divide the dough into two equal pieces. We just used one and froze the other. We rolled our's out onto parchment paper and then put that directly onto the cooking sheet.
Top the pizza as desired and place in oven and bake for about 10-15 minutes.
To make some variations to this recipe you can add herbs, cheese, or flavored oil to the crust.
Buon Appetito!
There are probably many good reasons why one should drink tea, I will focus on it's possible alkaline effects.
Since I have been having issues with heartburn, partially caused by drinking too much coffee, I was started looking into the actual reasons. As it turns out, typical western diets are rather acidic and can be mended by adding some rather alkaline goodies to the daily table.
I have switched from drinking a cup of coffee in the AM to a cup of tea. The variety of alkaline teas (herbal) is rather large, but some of them are harder to get to then others. Rooibos tea is one of the ones that is easy to get to. I personally prefer the natural flavor, but it comes with Vanilla flavoring for instance. I have noticed a huge a difference and have been able to stop taking heartburn medicine.Other alternatives are teas with berry or orange leaves, ginger, apple peel, fennel etc. One of my favorites there is orange leaf-ginger tea!
One of the most important aspects of the alkaline-basic balance in our body is that acids can only be washed out with bases. The acid (H+) needs to be bound by the bases (OH-). Water and herbal teas will help cleansing your body!
The Love to eat right lifestyle!
Enjoy your tea!
Steffen
