Monday started bright and early (well, if we are being technical about it, I never went to bed Sunday night…sooo…I guess it started at the stroke of midnight?). Whatever. I got home around 8 am and immediately showered, put on my PJs, and started some oats on the stove.
I added a chopped gala to cook with the oats. By the way, this was a pretty hefty batch (in the 2 cup range).
Can you believe this bowl was only half the yield? I was feeling crazy so I decided to bust open a brand spankin’ new jar of nutbutter to add in.
Drumroll please…
I can’t even tell you how thrilling this was to find. I randomly stumbled upon this company’s booth at Expo West, and after seeing Sunbutter throughout the blog world, I couldn’t help but try a sample (or three). I tried creamy, natural, and natural chunky and (obviously) wound up licking the spoon full of natural sunbutter clean.
And that, my friends, is how sunflower seed butter found it’s way into my life. I am determined to try every single flavor now. It is so good! I can’t really think of a good way to describe it – it tastes like ground up sunflower seeds.
Sunflower seeds are packed with Vitamin E, which is the body’s primary fat-soluble antioxidant. By neutralizing free radicals, it’s anti-inflammatory effects can result in reduced symptoms for chronic conditions like asthma, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis (read: conditions where free radicals and inflammation are the key causes). The antioxidant properties of Vitamin E have also been shown to significantly reduce the risk of atherosclerosis. I don’t want to get too scientific on you, but Vitamin E prevents free radicals from oxidizing cholesterol (and cholesterol can only adhere to blood vessel walls after it’s been oxidized).
Cardiovascular disease prevention AND delicious flavor?! Win win.
I love healthy food that tastes like it’s sinfully good.
After my second bowl, I found my eyes drooping. Somehow I never made it to the bedroom though, and an hour later I woke up to the ladies of The View screaming. Yikes. I can’t imagine a worse alarm clock.
For second breakfast (because I always wake up from naps feeling jittery and hungry), I had a bowl of Love Grown cocoa goodness.
Kyle got home around noon and all hopes of getting more than an hour of sleep went out the window. He studied quietly while I organized the apartment.
Then I snacked my way to the bottom of this hummus. Serving sizes shmerving schmizes. I thought an afternoon jog would pep me up, but my run was pretty uninspired. I’m bored with my running music.
Because I worked night shift the previous night, I was ready for dinner at 5 pm. Early bird special? Sure why not. I asked Kyle if he wanted pizza and he was all about it.
His and hers.
The crust was made of these three ingredients.
Bud light pizza with 3 cups flour, 1 can of beer, and 1 tsp baking powder.
And voila! Dough! Mix and form into crust.
Unlike last time, I decided to make two personal pizzas rather than one HUGE pie.
Doughy.
These were pretty massive for the term “personal pizza” to still apply, but you know how my appetite is. I baked them at 350 for 15 minutes, after which they were nicely browned and had risen a bit.
Kyle suddenly changed his tune about eating dinner at a senior citizen hour once he smelled the hot-from-the-oven dough.
To start, I added red sauce, fresh tomatoes, and bell peppers to each of our pizzas.
A good solid red and orange colored base.
After this, our pizzas went in pretty different directions…
His went cheesy, while mine went noochy.
Cheddar & parmesan.
Baked eggplant & nutritional yeast.
Back in the oven for another 10 minutes.
Ding!
Dinner time :) His was perfectly melted.
But my pizza wasn’t quiiiiite ready.
There we go! [Nothing is complete without hummus]
Now doesn’t that look yummy!
Kyle was pretty stoked on his too…a meal well worth the study break.
Would you believe me if I said we both cleaned our plates? Because that’s exactly what happened.
Taking photos only slowed me down momentarily…and then I was back at it.
Chowing piece by piece.
Sorry for the insane number of photos…it was so pretty and the lighting was outstanding. Daylight savings has me loving the extra sunny time.
Post pizza beer belly left me feeling perfectly satisfied.
More than anything, I wanted to go to bed right then (despite the fact that it was 6 pm and still light out). My body wasn’t into it. I think my body and I have differing opinions on what’s considered a proper amount of sleep. Ideally, I’d like 6 hours. My body, on the other hand, considers 3-4 hours a perfectly fine amount of snoozing. WTF!?! So infuriating.
To help soothe myself into a sleepy mood, I made a big mug of ginger tea. I tried this stuff at the Natural Foods Expo this last weekend and loved it. However, when I went to make it myself from the sample packet, I obviously jacked up the ratio of water to mix.
It was SO effing strong, I thought my nose hairs were going to singe off just bringing the mug to my lips. No joke. I choked down a couple of sips before pouring the rest out. Oops!
I turned to a Nana’s ginger cookie instead.
I like the purity of the ingredients, although I’m getting a bit tired of seeing tapioca flour in all gluten free foods.
I ate half of it and saved the rest for later.
KIDDING!!!! Ha. Like I could ever. Nana’s are the most deliciously soft cookies on the planet. It would be against every fiber of my being to not finish the entire thing.
Unfortunately, this cookie didn’t quite quench my sweet tooth, but rather awakened it from it’s slumber more drowsy state (I think my sweet tooth suffers from insomnia as well).
My little plate of sweets included dried tropical fruits and various Sunspire chocolate goodies.
With a satiated tummy, I was finally able to get my zzzzs on.
How many hours do you sleep on a typical night? Weekends?
[I think your answers are going to make me feel really bad about my sleep habits]
When I work day shift, I average 4 hours, but night shifts get me all crazy out of whack so there’s no real pattern. Eventually I catch up on weekends with a nice 8-10 hour block though.
sunbutter
beer in dough
nooch and veggies on pizza
nana’s cookies
those are all things i LOVE!!!!!
nana’s rock. and so does SFSButter. Beyond words 🙂
Sleep. 4-5 hrs a nite. I work, im a mom, i provide for my family. I blog, workout, etc.
Sleep….when Im dead Ill do more 🙂
I sleep around 7 hours during the week and 8-10 on the weekends. I need my slumber! I get sick if I don’t get enough
I absolutely love sun butter. Trader Joe’s has a great one, too!
Why is tapioca flour bad news bears?
Bahahha…when you said you ate 1/2 that cookie, I was like OOHHHH COME ON NOW!!??? hahah I should know betta ;D
I aim for 8 hours- otherwise i do NOT function….but I know once I start school full-time again that will be more unlikely!
my man and i had the same dinner monday night…his and her pizza…mine had olives…artichoke hearts…onion, mushrooms and daiya…his had manly stuff on it…haha! never would have imagined to put beer in pizza dough…amazing!!!!
i need to get a lot of sleep or else i am a zombie…i need at least 7 hours…if i don’t get it, i don’t function. i truly felt really badly for you while reading this…hope you’re able to sleep better this evening.
its not bad news bears, its just an extra thing that could be unnecessary…i do prefer it to cornstarch though.
the beer has yeast which acts a an agent to help it rise. pretty cool. and definitely adds a beer flavor to it.
Your blog always makes me crave hummus like a crazy and your pizza looks amazing. I usually/ideally get 7-8 hours of sleep a night if my insomnia isn’t active. If it is, I will get anywhere from 1-4 hours. I can deal on 5-6 hours if I have to, but anything below that and my body is totally out of whack.
That beer dough sounds delish! And sunbutter is soo addicting. By the way, the people at sunbutter told me at an expo that they make the Trader Joes brand, it just has a different label!
what a cool idea! never heard of beer in pizza dough, we do ours the old fashioned way and it takes hours to rise! very cool. as far as sleeping, i’m pretty sure my patterns won’t make you feel badly.. on weeknights, i’m lucky to get about 4-5 hours. on weekends, my inability to sleep in (SUCKS) usually wakes me up after about 6-7 hours.
SunButter is somewhat sacred to me–I love it, seeing as I can’t have PB and almond butter can wonk out my gut as well. However, I just found out my grocery store discontinued it, so then I needed to by beer to ease the blow (kidding–kind of.) I am now a woman on a mission!
I will make you feel bad about sleep. I love it. I try and get around 7 hours during the work week and weekends are a free for all.
Hahaha my favorite part was the whole “I ate half…” KIDDING! Hahaha I could never eat just half! I also hate when companies do that! OK, maybe not “hate,” but it annoys me!
My Kyle will love that beer crust. I MUST make it. I don’t know why I haven’t yet. Oh yea, because I’m lazy.
I get about 5 to 7 hours a night. Mostly in the 6 range.
Isn’t Sunbutter amazing?! I was devastated when I realized nuts were one of the foods making my tummy so upset all the time, so finding Sunbutter was like a Godsend!!
P.S. You pizzas look amazing!
i get the same amount of sleep 🙁
Love. Is there a substitute for the beer in the dough?
I do not envy your sleep schedule!! I need like 8 hours a night to be normal ha, but on weekdays I usually get around 7.
That sunbutter looks delish! Added to my never-ending grocery list. 🙂
Love the his and hers pizzas–great idea. As my bf is not a vegan, I always like ideas on how we can share meals while satisfying both of us…
Okay, I officially NEED to try the beer pizza crust. It looks so easy and delicious!!
I get 7-8 hours every night. I’m a creature of habit, and I hate getting off schedule!!
That pizza looks amazing. I need to try making it soon!
I definitely require 7-8 hours of sleep. 6 or less and I start acting like a zombie.
Sending this post to my BF as an easy pizza recipe with ingredients he most definitely has on hand:)
I get around 8 hours of sleep each night. I can’t function without it.
I have a jar of Sunbutter in my fridge — it’s delish. But then I decided to make my own. I bought roasted, no salt, sunflower seeds in a bulk bin, tossed them in the food processor and whirled away. So easy. So delicious. No sugar. (My jar of Sunbutter has a little sugar in it.)
i feel like i’m going to have trouble sleeping tonight thinking about your huge bowl of oaty apple goodness haha. also the expo west looked AMAZING and i googled when expo east is but its so friggn expensive or else i would totally make the tripe to baltimore! boo to that right?
I typically get around 5-6 hours of sleep, I think I need more though! I’ve been so tired and sluggish lately!
What an ingenius way to make pizza dough, that’s on my list now!! As well as that sunflower butter!!! OMGOSH! YUM!
Ugh, I haven’t been sleeping much either lately…it makes me act like a 5 year old. I need a good 6 hours to be functional, but on weekends I get more than that just because I can. 🙂
Also, I overdosed on sunbutter for weeks a few months ago (okay, almost a year ago), and I haven’t been able to touch it again. I hope my tastebuds forgive my OD soon because I really loved the stuff!
LOVE YOUR PIZZA CRUST!! dang that looks so dense!! ahh bliss!! i usually sleep about 7.5-8 hours!
So I LOOOOOVE sunbutter! I just wanted to tell you to try a few of my favorite things 🙂
Buy the seeds at whole foods for cheaper than the jar
I like to mix coconut flake with the nutbutter
Sometimes I add chia seeds for crunch, and a packet of truvia…You should totally make some amaze balls with sunflower seeds (roast em first ) and with coconut it’s just amazing!
Thanks for these recs!! Sounds so good I need to try asap 🙂
I think that’s common for most of TJs products – they just get the rights to the ingreds and relabel it with their own brand. Fine by me!
Glad to teach you the yeasty beer trick 🙂
Ditto. I mean really? HALF a cookie? Spare me.
Well beer seems a fine alternative to me 😉
Yes! I looove it!
I guess just yeast and water.
Boo!!
Your pizzas look amazing! I love nutritional yeast but haven’t tried it on pizza yet. I also LOVE sunflower seed butter although I’ve only seen it with added sugar. It’s super delicious but I try to buy it only once in awhile!
Delicious!!! Those pizza’s look incredible. Now I am hungry all over again 🙂
Sunbutter is pretty awesome. There was a time in college when I would eat it by the spoonful while I studied:)
I sleep about 8 hours- but I really like getting 9 or 10!
ah the good ol days….all 6 months ago?
yeah, there are a few that arent as ingredient pure, but the natural and organic ones are good.
1. I LOVE
Apologies.
1. I *love* Sunbutter. It’s so freaking amazing. One of my favorite (if not my ultimate favorite) nut butters!
2. Beer in pizza dough!? I keep seeing beer in baked goods and it looks delicious. I really need to try this… Does it make the dough rise? (I thought so initially but then why add the baking soda?)
3. I do not understand how you can LIVE on so little sleep. I mean, seriously, power to you, but I would be a Z-O-M-B-I-E *all the time* if I couldn’t get my 7-8 hours…daily. lol!
pizza with hummus. suchh a good combo! both pies look delish.
and nana’s cookies are the bomb.com. another reason why barcelona needs to jump on the healthy bandwagon and find itself some vegan dessertage!! hahaha
i’m kind of with you on the sleep thang! while abroad, i’m either sleeping 8-10 hours, or hardly 4….depends on the night’s festivities! 🙂
Glad to spot that the sun butter serving size is 2Tbsp, much better than the pathetic little tsp serving on the coconut peanut butter!
haha, i know!
word. enjoy the 4 hour nights because i miss those days like CRAZY now. they were the time of my life. seriously. its a once in a lifetime opportunity so LIVE IT UP!!
I made the beer pizza tonight! It came out great and tasted amazing – thanks for the recipe!
Yeah!!! Glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Hi Elise,
MMMMMMM. I love your posts like you like SunButter! Of course it helps that I blog for SunButter, but I so appeciate your creations, recipes and especially your perspective. Thanks!
hi elizabeth! thanks 🙂 its my pleasure!
the yeast makes it rise to be more bread like…i think the baking soda alone wouldnt be enough? it may be more like flat bread without it? not sure actually!!
ps i feel like i am a zombie much of the time.
Pingback: Winter in March « hungry hungry hippie
I successfully made the beer pizza dough tonight! I made several little pizza crusts in my toaster oven because i have no idea how to turn on my big gas oven lol. Does the crust have to be baked right away, or do u think some dough can be saved for baking later?