home-made pizza

One of our favorite go-to meals is pizza. How, you might ask, can you eat pizza if you can't eat cheese? Glad you asked. Thankfully Trader Joe's carries lots of amazing ingredients including many different goat and sheep's milk cheeses.  Usually it goes like this, "sweetie I don't really feel like cooking, what should we make?" a very enthusiastic husband says "PIZZA!"

Stew for two... or four

So tonight I made this stew. I know, I know, it's from bon appetit.  I just love them right now and the last few magazines have had lots of quick and comforting winter meals.

As I was cooking I was thinking, if I made this in the summer I would roast the red bell peppers on the grill and it would really add some amazing flavor. But, then I returned to reality, where I live in  D.C. and there is no way I'm going outside to cook right now!! So I bought the peppers whole and in a jar to save a little money.

You might be asking, "Carissa where's the chicken?" So hears the thing, this recipe calls for chicken thighs BUT my husband is not a huge fan of dark meat chicken and we eat chicken almost every night (I love being a newlywed, just not my newlywed budget) so I used spicy sausage instead. I also substituted 1 cup of water for a cup of vegetable broth. I was worried that the stew might be a little flat without the juices from the chicken and 4 cups of water just sounded boring. 

So after all that, this was not my favorite. Sometimes you try new recipes and they just don't stand out. This is still a great recipe and the stew had good flavor, it's just not my favorite. 

Give it a try and tell me what you think. 

Cauliflower... who knew!

First I like to gather up all the ingredients.

Tonight for dinner we made this recipe from bon appetit. This was such a flavor packed recipe I could just add some good wheat bread and simple chicken breast, nothing fancy. I used a whole wheat loaf I found at my local grocery store to make the bread crumbs. If you don't plan ahead, like me, it's totally fine to chop up the bread day of and then you have some left over to add to your meal. I didn't want to get out the food processor for 3/4 cup of bread so I just gave it a good chop with a serrated knife.

      Then I measure everything out.

Here are all the components ready to combine. 

 

We loved this recipe and will definitely make it again. Try it out and tell me what you think.  

DAY 1

Welcome to Life vs Lactose! I've been living without lactose for about 10 years. I have always loved to cook and bake and have started to get creative with my lactose substitutions. I generally find recipes from magazines and websites such as COOK'S , bon appetit, and The Food Network . I hope you enjoy reading and cooking with me and visit again soon!