A Dose of Health

Turkey bacon or pork bacon, which one is healthier? Honestly, I’m not going to take sides in the debate. I used to eat turkey bacon because I believed it was healthier then I thought about it for a moment. They’re both processed foods so how healthy can either of them be?

Rather than stand in the grocery store comparing turkey bacon to pork bacon I decided to forgo the both of them and make my own chicken bacon instead. It takes a little longer to prepare than turkey or pork bacon, but I believe its worth the extra time.

Ingredients:

• Chicken tenderloin or chicken breasts
• Sea Salt (I prefer sea salt but any salt will do)
• Pure Maple syrup
• Cayenne pepper (we like spicy bacon)

Here’s how to make chicken bacon

1. Flatten the chicken breast or tenderloin as flat if you can get it. Remember, you’re trying to make bacon so the flatter you get the chicken the more bacon like it will appear. I don’t have fancy chicken flattening tools so I place the chicken on my cutting board, cover it with a little plastic wrap and then I pound it with my cast iron skillet until they are good and flat (this is not a meal to make when the family is asleep).
2. Season both sides of the chicken with the salt.
3. Drizzle the maple syrup over the salted chicken.
4. Pour a hint of oil in a heated skillet (just enough oil so the chicken won’t stick) and cook the chicken on high heat until done. The crispiness of the chickens depends on how flat it is before you put it in the pan.

The chicken bacon works just as well, if not better, when cooked on a grill. There’s something about the taste of food cooked on an outdoor grill.

This is a very forgiving dish.  You can control the amount of salt and the intensity of the maple flavor. In my family we tend to like things a little spicy so I add cayenne pepper to the chicken when seasoning it. It can get quite noisy flattening the chicken but its well worth it.

Time Saving Tip: Buy a few chicken breasts/tenderloins and flatten them all at one time. Freeze the chicken in portion sizes so you can quickly defrost, season and cook the ‘bacon’ when needed.

I happen to be a fan of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Often times I make my own peanut butter by grinding peanuts, almonds or even cashews in my Magic Bullet. I add a drop or two of olive oil for consistency and there I have it…peanut butter.

Although I knew the peanut butter was healthy, the jury was still out on the jelly. Organic jelly is nice, but I still would prefer something a little more natural.

Dr. Oz to the Rescue

I was watching the Dr. Oz show the one day and he suggested using fruit on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches instead of jelly. What a light bulb moment. Plain old fruit and peanut butter, what a nice combination.

After all, I love peanut butter and bananas, and my daughter likes putting peanut butter on her apples. Why go out and buy jelly when you can just slice fruit on a peanut butter sandwich?

Try it Out

So, to try it out, I packed my finicky daughter a peanut butter and sliced apple sandwich on whole grain bread for lunch. The healthy peanut butter and apple sandwich was followed by a healthy snack of peeled Clementines. I waited until she came home from school to hear the verdict. I wasn’t sure if she dumped the lunch and opted for school issued “hot fries.”

When she came home I asked her about her lunch. She said that she liked it and she ate everything I packed for her. Whoo hoo. I was so pleased to finally be able to prepare a healthy lunch that she would actually eat.

Isn’t it amazing how small things like peanut butter and fruit sandwiches can make a mom so happy?

Last night I wanted pizza, but I didn’t want to order pizza because I didn’t want the traditional white dough pizza, or the traditional thin crust white dough pizza or the Sicilian sliced white dough pizza. Do you notice a reoccurring theme here? I didn’t want the white dough pizza.

I was lazy and hungry and didn’t want to wait for the oven to warm up to make homemade pizza so I decided to make a fried pizza instead. I know, it sounds extremely unhealthy, but wait, listen to what I did.

Here are the ingredients

• Whole grain organic soft tortilla wraps
• Fresh tomato (organic preferred)
• Shredded mozzarella cheese
• Salt
• Pepper
• Garlic powder
• Basil (fresh preferred, but I only had the dried basil in my cabinet)
• Olive oil

Cooking utensils

• Bowl
• Skillet or frying pan

Here’s how to make healthy fried pizza:

• Slice the tomato paper-thin into a bowl and season them with salt, pepper, garlic powder and basil.
• Spread the tomato over the tortilla wrap. The tomato serves as the traditional tomato sauce.
• Sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top of the tomato.
• Heat the skillet and put just a hint of olive oil in it. You only want enough so that the tortilla won’t stick. If you prefer to use one of those oil spray things, use that (I personally don’t care for them too much).
• When the skillet is good and hot, place the pizza in the skillet. You want to leave it in long enough for the bottom of the pizza to develop a little crust and for the cheese to melt.

Melting the cheese without burning the crust can be a little tricky so here’s an alternative method:

Nuke the pizza in the microwave until the cheese melts. Then place the tortilla in the frying pan to crust up the bottom a bit. Once the bottom has a little texture, lift the skillet and slide the pizza out of the pan onto a plate and viola! Quick, easy and health fried pizza.

Variations:

As far as variations go, the sky is the limit. You can top your pizza with your favorite toppings. Not being much of a meat eater, my favorite toppings happen to be things like arugula, olives, sun dried tomatoes, spinach, banana peppers, onion, and so on.

More than being quick and easy to make, fried pizza is delicious. Unfortunately, I was rather hungry when I made the first experimental pizza so I didn’t stop to take pictures. The second and third pizzas were a goner too. My hubby and son devoured them.

Next time I make fried pizza, I’ll take pictures and post them here.