Yummy Pizza Sauce

So here is my favourite pizza sauce recipe at the moment.  Very quick to make and very yummy.  Have fun changing things up with different herbs or fresh herbs if you have some on hand.  


1/3 cup olive oil
1 can tomato paste
2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1.5 tsp of dried rosemary
1.5 tsp dried oregano
1.5 tsp dried basil
salt and pepper to taste
water


Mix all of the above ingredients together in a bowl except water.  I like to crush dried rosemary in the palm of my hand before adding to help release the oils.  Add water to make mixture your desired consistency.  I like to mix this the morning we are making pizza or the night before to let the flavours mingle. Spread on pizza dough and sprinkle your favourite toppings on top!


UPDATE - here are a few pics of the Yummy Pizza Sauce in action. Combine this with some Pizza Crust and enjoy :)

5 minute tomato sauce

I have to share this recipe from the fantastic 101 cookbooks website by Heidi Swanson.  So simple and so tasty!  It is a bit on the spicy side, so cut back on the crushed red pepper flakes if that's not your thing.  But despite the spiciness, my 2.5 year old ate a bowl of it on spaghetti and asked for seconds.  I will give you the original link to her recipe but will post it here for you as well:


1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp sea salt
3 medium cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
zest of one lemon


Combine first 4 ingredients in a cold saucepan.  Stir while heating the saucepan over medium-high heat, saute 45 seconds or just until everything is fragrant.  Stir in tomatoes and gently simmer for a couple of minutes.  Remove from heat and taste it now to see if you need more salt.  Add lemon zest and serve over pasta or pizza or whatever tickles your fancy!  


http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/five-minute-tomato-sauce-recipe.html

Strawberry Jam Pictures!

Motivated by my first post I decided to make jam this afternoon.  The result was three full jars and a small bowl.  I'll be taking a peanut butter and jam sandwich to work tomorrow.  Yummy!

Strawberry Jam

Ok so perhaps jam is not exactly healthy but it is a breakfast staple in our house and it always irks me to see the high price when I know it is basically just fruit and sugar.  For some reason I was always hesitant to make my own jam, I got it into my head that it would somehow be difficult to make, but I now realize it is one of the easiest things out there to make and the ingredients cost about half of what it would cost to buy readymade.  Below is classic strawberry jam, my kids love it and by making it myself I know exactly what goes into it. 

What you need:
4 cups of crushed strawberries

4 cups of sugar

2 tablespoons of lemon juice

Basically just mix everything together in a saucepan and boil, boil, boil along with a lot of stirring!  I usually end up cooking it for around 20 minutes.  If you are not sure if it is ready or not put teaspoon on a plate in the fridge and you can see how it sets.