HI there blog readers – congratulations on making it through the first day (and night – almost) of the work week! I felt like I needed a pat on the back for making it through the day.

The weekend was a good one (although it went by waaaay too quickly, as they often do). Saturday was fun, but hot and I got a lot of reading done (I finally finished The Goldfinch – which I felt was a big accomplishment!) and errands (haircut and gym). On Sunday it was a beautiful day out – and the temperature was a lot lower, it was a comfortable day. Perfect for cleaning the house and my messy room. Cleaning, laundry and organizing myself took me nearly all day.

I had a yogurt in the morning for breakfast, and by 1 o’clock I was very hungry. I did not want to stop cleaning – and I quickly thought about ordering pizza. But then I got to thinking – could i make something homemade instead??? I looked around and found flour, eggplants, crushed tomatoes (canned) and shredded cheese… I realized I had the ingredients to make a flatbread pizza of sorts!

I found one of my Jacques Pepin cookbooks More Fast Food My Way (where I knew his great recipe for flatbread resided). This recipe is so wonderful and easy.

Jacques Pépin’s recipe for flatbread:

Ingredients:

1 1/2 C all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/3 teaspoon salt

1 cup water plus 2 tablespoons more for steaming the bread

1 tablespoon olive oil

Instructions:

combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Add the 1 cup of water and mix together with a sturdy rubber spatula to create a thick, gooey dough (it will be gooey!!)

Spread the olive oil in a cold 12 inch non stick skillet. Add the dough to the skillet. Dip the spatula into the oil in the skillet and use it to press on the dough to flatten it in the skillet, and spread it out as much as you can.

(The oil will prevent the dough from sticking to the spatula). Add the 2 T of water to create a bit of steam and get the bread cooking. Cover with foil and place over medium high heat for about ten minutes. The water should be gone and the dough should be frying at this point. Reduce the heat, and using a fork, turn the bread over. Cover and cook for another 5 minutes. Uncover and set aside to cool a little in the skillet.

Really – it’s that easy!

I cut up and salted some eggplant. Once the bread was done, I got out my grill pan and started grilling the eggplant:

I spread some crushed tomatoes on to the flatbread and turned my oven to broil (low if you have the option).

Once the eggplant was grilled until it was tender, I layered it onto the flatbread. I sprinkled everything lightly with cheddar cheese (because that is what I had!) and put everything in the oven. In five minutes it was ready to eat!

This “pizza” was delicious and I was kind of impressed that I made it on the fly!

Today was Monday. I did not sleep well, but some how managed to drag my tired butt out of bed this morning at 5:30 to start my day. I was well prepared for work – all of my healthy food was packed, and my clothes were laid out for an efficient morning. (that’s always a good thing!) I made it through my day, and I got to the gym. I came home, showered and got into the kitchen to start dinner.

Tonight’s dinner is thanks to Skinnytaste.com – one of my absolute favorite websites for healthy meals. Tonight we had Kung Pao Chicken with Zoodles on the menu. Do you remember zoodles?? Zucchini noodles – one of my favorites!! So instead of noodles or rice with the chicken you have zucchini noodles. Tonight was the first time I tried out my new spiralizer. Let me tell you – this is one of the best things I have in the kitchen now! It made these beautiful zoodles:

Everything came together so nicely and mom and I loved this dinner. You can find Gina’s recipe here .

Because we had more than 6 ounces of chicken and a couple of extra zucchini, we made more than two servings. I’m taking some for lunch tomorrow. This was a really great dinner. I timed how long it took us to get this from prep stages until we sat down to eat – one hour. I think next time it will take a little less – because this time I literally had to take the spiralizer out of the box and wash it before using it.

The final product was very pretty and really tasted just great and fresh. We loved it!

Ok, I must sign off for now – in hopes that tomorrow is a better day than today! Happy cooking everyone – and if you have not made zoodles yet – what are you waiting for!? 🙂