I stole this recipe from a friend of mine and fellow recipe blogger Jacy . Check out her recipes here.. Everything I have tried of hers has been delicious so far.

... and I totally borrowed (stole) her picture as well... thanks Jacy! ;)

We made this the other night and everyone LOVED it.


1 store bought pizza crust. I used Presidents Choice flat bread, but the thin crust pizza crust or anything you like would be fine. We use pita's on occasion.
Olive oil
1 Tbsp butter
6oz mushrooms (whatever kind you like, we used crimini)
2 leeks, green tops removed
2 sprigs of thyme
Tomato pesto (I used PC Tomato Pesto)
Fresh mozzerella
1 plum tomato
Salt and pepper

You can attack this pizza a number of different ways: do it on the grill...do it in the oven (on a pizza stone, the back of a cookie sheet, a pizza pan, or right on the rack). I used my flat grill sheet for my BBQ. Its basically like a cookie sheet with lots of holes in it. I like my pizza crust a little crispy on the bottom, but not crunchy.

Crank the oven to 350, put in the stone.cookie sheet/pizza pan, whatever. Heat a skillet on the stove, adding a tbsp of both olive oil and butter when the pan is hot. Add sliced mushrooms (we like them sliced thinly) and sliced leeks to soften and brown. When they are almost done, strip the leaves off of the thyme sprigs and toss them in there as well.

Let me divert your attention to something you may or may not know...leeks can be dirty veggies, and just rinsing them under the tap isn't going to get all the sand out. Get a bowl of cold water and, as you chop the leeks, place them in the bowl to float. You might need to give them a swish to break up the rings because that's where the dirt and grit will be hiding. The leek slices will float on the top, and the grit will sink to the bottom. Scoop the ones off the top and throw them into the pan. Add a bit of salt, pepper, and the thyme leaves.

Ok, back to this pizza. While the mushrooms and leeks are browning, I pulled the hot pizza stone out of the oven, oiled the bottom of the prepared pizza crust, put it on the stone, and put it in the oven to warm.

Once the crust is warmed, pull it out of the oven and smear on some tomato pesto. Distribute the mushroom/leek mess over the pesto, add slices of roma tomato, cover with rounds of fresh mozzarella. Finish with a drizzle of olive oil (optional), salt and pepper, and slide back in the oven to melt the cheese.

Yummus hummus

Yummus -a lower fat and calorie hummus.
From Eat Shrink and be Merry


You can easily dress up the boring looking hummus by serving it in an interesting dish, or creatively arranging the dunkables.
Hummus is also delicious on wraps and sandwiches.

1 can (19 oz) chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup light sour cream
2 TBSP tahini (sesame seed paste)
2 TBSP freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp grated lemon zest
1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil
1/2 tsp each of salt and granulated sugar
1/4 tsp each of ground cumin and ground coriander 

Place all ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and whirl until smooth. Serve with warm whole wheat pita wedges, breadsticks or crisp veggies for dunking. 

Makes about 2 cups
Nutritional info per serving (1/4 cup) (just dip, not including the pita or veggies)
calories: 104
total fat: 3 g
saturated fat: 0.4 g
protein: 4 g
carbs: 16 g
fiber: 3.1 g
Cholesterol: 1 mg
sodium: 229 mg

Caramel Apple Cream Cheese and Skor bits = yummeh!!

Recently I had to improvise because I was at a cottage and didn't have a nice shallow dish to serve this in, so I spread it on an aluminum pizza pan and used a spatula to shape it into a circle in the middle and arranged the apples around the outside. It looked like a sunflower :)

I think from now on I might just arrange it like this.

Caramel Apple Dip

Fast, easy and always goes over well.

1 brick of cream cheese (a tub of spreadable cream cheese works well too) at room temperature
1 container of caramel dip (usually found in the fruit section)
Part of a bag of Skor bits (found in the baking section) or a few Skor bars crushed up.
gala or granny smith  apples

In a shallow dish, spread softened cream cheese covering the bottom of the dish. 
Now spread the caramel on top.
Sprinkle a few handfuls of the Skor Bits over top or break up the skor bars into small chunks and spread that over top.
Slice up the apples dunk then in the dip and enjoy.


If you aren't going to be serving it right away, put the sliced apples in a large ziploc bag with a few tablespoons of water and lemon juice to stop them from browning.


If you plan it right, you will run out of apples before you run out of dip and you will have to scrape the rest of the dip out of the bowl with your finger.  Take the hit for the team :)

Taco Casserole/ flaming cheese dip.

I just kind of throw thigs together so all amounts are a guess

Cook some noodles, what ever you have really. Set aside
Brown some ground beef, with some red peppers, onions, jalepeno peppers, whatever you have. I have used fresh and jarred with equal success.
Add a packet of taco seasoning and a jar of salsa. Season to taste if you need it. You could add cummin, cayene, chili peppers, green chilis, salt and pepper, garlic, whatever. I usually find it doesn't need much else. Shred up some cheese. I use cheddar, but you could use monterey jack, mozzerella, whatever you have on hand. I use about 2 cups maybe? Throw that in the pan and mix it all up to melt it, and add the noodles and give is a good stir. At this point it is ready to eat, but you could also put it in the oven to keep it warm, or mix up the flavours or whatever. I serve it with a dollop og sour cream and sometimes some chopped up green onions on top.

** this also makes a great party dip if you eliminate the noodles and up the cheese content, and maybe make it a little hotter on the spicy scale. Just serve it with cut up baguettes