Luke here. About a month and a half ago I was reading my favorite blog, Mark’s Daily Apple, which I read…daily. I’ve been on the lookout for healthy alternatives to our favorite foods, and when Mark put a link to this recipe from one of my other favorite bloggers, Justin Owings of  Birthday Shoes, I knew we had a winner.

Birthday Shoes is a Vibram FiveFingers fan blog – definitely not where I typically turn for new food ideas, but buyoff from two of my favorite bloggers is enough for me to give it a shot.

Liz makes some amazing pizza, and one of our favorite restaurants in Chicago is Pequod’s, but we’ve been shunning most refined carbs for quite a while now. The big selling point of the recipe I had found was that it was for a pizza recipe with no bread – and we’re not talking about some cheese and pepperoni heated up in a bowl either. This was a MEATza.

A meatza is a vegetarian’s worst nightmare. It is a pizza where the crust is literally made out of ground beef. A LOT of ground beef. Like 8 quarter pounders worth. In other words, it was perfect.

I immediately recommended it to Liz, but she had other ideas…and more ideas…then a few more ideas…then some final ideas…and 6 weeks later I still hadn’t had any meatza. So last weekend, after spending all day Saturday and half the day Sunday with Liz stressing over placecards, programs, table seating, etc., etc., I knew this was going to be my big chance to finally feast on some meatza.

I gently asked, “Honey, why don’t you let me handle dinner for your Sunday Supper Series.” I took her dejected grunts as confirmation of her desire to also enjoy some meatza.

I picked up two pounds of 90/10 free range ground beef, an onion, garlic, green pepper, pepperoni, mozzarella cheese , and Trader Joe’s pizza sauce. In total, I spent about $20, although I already had the rest of the spices and parmesan cheese to follow the recipe.

I basically followed Justin’s (BirthdayShoes.com) recipe exactly, so I won’t repeat it. You can find the recipe here. The only differences:

• I didn’t have nearly as much grease as to drain off as Justin describes, which might be from using 90/10 ground beef rather than the 80/20 that Justin uses. I think 90/10 was perfectly sufficient though because you add a lot of spices to the meat already so it is still packed with plenty of flavor.
• I nixed the garlic salt since I had already added 3 cloves of minced garlic as toppings.
• Liz hates fungus, so no ‘shrooms.

Liz and I each had a piece and a half of the pie, which seems pretty weak until you consider that we each ate about 3 quarter pounders worth of beef (+topppings). From that perspective (and the fact that even Liz went back for seconds) testifies to the deliciousness of the meatza.

This weekend Luke and I went to Ohio for my bridal shower. It was so nice to spend time with our family and friends, and we got a TON of great presents off our registry (I’ll never get sick of opening presents!).

One present in particular was used to create this week’s Sunday night supper- a food processor! I’ve been dying for a food processor since so many great recipes require one- pesto, salsas and even homemade granola bars.

I was craving Black Bean Burgers for some reason. I really love the spicy flavor, unique texture and filling qualities of these vegetarian burgers. I also wanted to test out my new processor, which is needed for this recipe.

Basically you just mash up a 16 oz. can of black beans so most of the beans are “mushy.” Then I threw 1/2 a green pepper, 3 peeled garlic cloves and 1/2 and onion into the food processor until they’re finely chopped.

In a separate bowl I mixed one egg, 1 tablespoon each of chili powder, cumin and hot sauce. Then I added 3/4 cup of Italian bread crumbs to thicken it a bit.

I strained the beans and onion/garlic/pepper mix to get rid of the extra water before mixing everything (beans, onion mix, and egg/breadcrumb mix) together.

While my grill pan heated up to medium/high heat, I formed patties out of the mixture. It was a bit sticky/soft, so don’t be alarmed if you can’t make perfect patties. Once I threw them on the grill that held together fairly well.

We topped ours with whole-grain flat bread buns, onion, cheese, mustard and ketchup.

For a side, I whipped together a Mexican salad with iceberg lettuce, Mexican cheese, tomatoes, canned corn and jalapeno peppers.

I also used my processor a second time to make homemade chipotle dressing. This dressing is really easy and delicious with a ton of chipotle kick. I like to make a batch of it and keep it around all week for salads.

 All it takes is 1/2 a packet of Ranch dressing mix, 1 1/2 cups light sour cream, pureed chipotle peppers (this is where you need the food processor),  juice from one lime and 1 tablespoon cumin. Just mix, refrigerate for a 1/2 hour and enjoy!

This meal was a great way to mix in some vegetarian eating into our diet. The burgers were crisp on the outside and soft on the inside with lots of onion, garlic and spicy flavor. The chipotle dressing also had a nice kick to off-set the cold iceberg lettuce.

I definitely recommend you guys try this recipe out! If anything, it would be a nice offering at a barbecue this summer.

Once a month in Chicago there is a farmers market in the a nature museum near my place. Luke and I stopped by the other week and picked up some goodies including farm-made butter (to DIE for!), fresh milk, aged goat and cow cheese, veggies and this giant hunk of bison meat.

That’s 6 lbs of farm-raised bison meat. If you’ve never had bison before, it’s the leaner, softer, healthier verson of beef. In fact, I was really surprised to see how healthy bison is:

Since 6 lbs is enough to feed an army, I had my personal butcher (Luke) cut it into steaks. As you can see, bison has very little fat on it.

I cut up some carrots (check out those white ones!) and onions I got from the farmers market for the roast. You can also put in potatoes, but since I’m doing South Beach, I opted out.

Next I mixed two cans of beef broth, two tablespoons of sugar, a package of dry onion soup mix, salt, pepper and some cayenne to give it a kick.

Then I placed the bison, veggies and a bay leaf in the crock pot and topped with the broth mixture.

Everything cooked on low heat for 8-10 hours. If you can’t cook for that long, cook it on low for at least 6 hours and then turn it up to high for the last hour- hour and a half.

The result isn’t the prettiest thing ever, but it sure was tasty!

We couldn’t get over how tender, flavorful and juicy the bison was. It was just as good and regular beef roast, with no where near the amount of fat and calories. I think I’ll be choosing it over beef whenever possible.

Have you guys tried bison? Do you agree that it tastes pretty darn good?

I hope you all had a great weekend!

Luke and I treated ourselves to an extra-large, all-you-can-eat, brunch buffet yesterday, so when it came time for dinner I wanted to make something light and refreshing while sticking to the South Beach Diet rules.

A small sandwich shop by my old apartment made the best curry chicken salad that I decided I wanted to attempt to replicate. It includes purple grapes, celery and lots of curried deliciousness.

Because I really can’t stand the taste of plain chicken breast (it’s sooo boring and dry!) I opted for a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. The meat is so much more flavorful and tender. It broke apart with just a fork.

I added some diced celery (three stalks) and halved grapes (about 1 cup) to the chicken. There are many things you can add to chicken salad- almonds, raisins, water chestnuts – but I like the simple mixture of the crunchy celery and sweet grapes.

Finally I added one package of plain yogurt, a half cup of light mayonaise and two generous teaspoons of curry powder to bring it all together. Just stir, season with salt and pepper and it’s all ready to go onto your bread of choice.

To round out the meal I made some caramel peanut butter dip to go along with some freshly slices apples. This dip is super easy and really yummy.

Just combine 1/2 cup natural peanut butter, 1/2 cup caramel ice cream topping, 1 teaspoon cinnamon and two tablespoons of milk.

And finally for dessert I concocted a sugar-free parfait that delivered on taste.. I made some sugar-free fudge pudding, added three scoops of sugar-free Cool Whip and smashed up four sugar-free chocolate chip cookies.

I topped them with some more Cool Whip and a couple more sugar-free cookies. I just can’t go without dessert on Sundays!

All in all, I’d say this was a great meal for a night when we didn’t want to stuff ourselves. Very light but packs a lot of flavor.

Have a great weekend everyone!