Thanks to everyone who participated in this weeks BSI – Pasta! And double thanks to Veronica and her sister for donating the homemade soap as the prize this week.
In no particular order:
Suzie made Tortellini & Polish Sausage Soup:
Andrea made Pasta with Spicy Italian Sausage:
Brianne made Baked Spaghetti Squash with a spicy sausage tomato cream sauce:
Renee made Laughing Cow Mac N Cheese: (for some reason I couldn’t copy and paste your photo from your blog Renee!)
Sara made Meyer Lemon Pasta Salad with Asparagus, Almonds and Goat Cheese:
Kristina made Salty Sweet Pasta Salad:
Joy made Kugel – I have never heard of this before!
Jacky made Sweet Scallion Shrimp:
Jennifer made Tortellini Soup:
Veronica made Spicy Asian Noodles with Chicken:
And the winner is . . .BRIANNE with her spaghetti squash dish! I know it’s not technically pasta, but to people who have gluten allergies, it certainly falls into that category. Send me your mailing address to mybizzykitchen@gmail.com. Thanks again Veronica for donating the prize!
This week’s BSI – FLOUR!
Holy cow have I got the easiest bread recipe for you to try. Seriously, this one is no fail. It does take a bit of planning because you have to let the dough rise overnight, but this one is a keeper.
One problem – I can’t remember whose blog I got this from, but I do remember they got it from a New York Times newspaper article. I was a bit suspect at the only 1/4 teaspoon of yeast, but there was no need to worry.
Super Simple Crusty Bread
- 3 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon of yeast
- 1 5/8 cups water
Mix the flour, salt and yeast together. Pour in water and stir until combined. Don’t worry it will be sticky. Put a piece of plastic wrap on bowl and let it sit overnight on your counter.
The next morning my dough looked like this:
Then I put it on my counter and added about 1/2 a cup of flour just so it had some stability. I’ve never had dough be so “runny” before!
I do know the recipe said that after you shape the dough, let it rise another two hours. I really didn’t see the point. I heated my oven to 450 and put my dutch oven in the oven at the same time. So by the time my oven got to temperature (about 20 minutes) I transferred my dough on the foil (I was out of parchment paper, but the foil worked fine) directly to the hot dutch oven. 30 minutes with the top on, then 15-20 minutes with the top off.
I was a bit nervous because the dough was so flat, but I was rewarded with this goodness:
Look at all the nooks and crannies! Must have been the slow rise?
This one is definitely a keeper!
So how did Day 1 of my Operation Bad-Ass go?
Breakfast was eaten at almost 11:30! I was busy making soup and breakfast casseroles, I ended up eating an apple and a banana before breakfast of leftover steak, and egg beaters spinach and cheese omelet and a slice of that delicious bread.
In the early afternoon Billy Blanks gave me a run for my money – 45 minutes of strength training with the weighted stretch ball – I can definitely feel my back muscles this morning! (and thanks again to Helen for sending me these DVDs!)
Then after cooking and doing some more chores, I went on a 45 minute walk. When I got back my blood sugar was 70. It was around 4:00 and I didn’t want to spoil my appetite, so I had a small snack plate of 1 ounce of cheese, 1 serving of generic wheat thins and some sliced cucumber.
I ended up making this beef stew recipe for dinner. Totally planned on adding peas to the pot at the end but completely forgot about it. And while I don’t like mushrooms, I pureed the mushrooms so you just get a hint of flavor of them. Pure comfort in a bowl!
I ended up having:
- 1,446 calories
- 48 grams of fat
- 175 carbs (I went about 50 over my goal)
- 18 fiber
- 81 protein
- 30% of calories from fat
- NO WINE
Workouts:
- 45 minute Billy Blanks strength training
- 45 minute walk
Thanks for all your awesome comments to my post yesterday – I have the best cheerleaders! 
I am off to do 30 Day Shred. I can’t wait for breakfast though – I made a version of Helen’s Paleo Sweet Potato Breakfast Casserole. Um, I may have added chopped jalapenos to mine!
Make it a great day!
Good first day of your challenge!
Even before I saw the winner I knew I’d be making that spaghetti squash casserole! It looks great!
Glad you found some new muscles!
I’m checking out that sweet potato casserole too! It looks great!
I should have sent you the link when I first saw it Debbi, since you love sweet potatoes so much!
I am so excited! Thank you so much for picking me as the winner! I actually think it has been the most popular recipe on my blog so far! Can’t wait to check out some of the other entries.
OK- that breakfast casserole? GAH! Looks so good. I love BSI because it gives me the best dinner ideas. I’m all about that gnocchi. I made a similar spaghetti squash dish recently. It will be in my SRC post on Monday!
Great job yesterday – keep it up!!!
I’m excited about this weeks ingredient seeing as I make bread like other people light candles! I love the scent and have a bread machine so I make bread AT LEAST once a week and I just send it to work with Jim (I actually don’t like bread)
You are too funny Joy – you like to bake bread but not eat it?!
I do – its a smell thing… It started when my mom was on hospice the hospital smell was so sad to come home to so I’d bake bread in the bread machine
Good job on day 1!
That sounds like a bread that I can definitely make. I’m going to see what it can be made with this week
That breakfast casserole may end up being my most popular recipe yet! Hope you like it as much as we do.
I love homemade bread. In fact I love working with dough like that. I’ll have to give this one a try now that I have my fancy Dutch Oven that I got for Christmas.
Yes Helen – it was a winning dish! I brought a piece for my co-worker who is doing Cross-Fit and Paleo. She said “This is ah-ma-zing! “
I find that there’s a fine line between mushy and pecfert like I don’t really care for bread pudding but I love Thanksgiving stuffing. You’re right, it’s a texture thing. This looks like it falls into the right texture group.
That’s one of my favorite breads!! I have a pot that I use JUST for bread
You free next week for a sushi date?
Absolutely! I’ll send you an email – so glad you are finally feeling better!
That spaghetti squash casserole sure does look like a winner! I can’t wait to try this breakfast casserole, too!
Keep kickin’ ass, Biz!
Congrats on day one! The bread looks very good. Also, congrats to Brianne
Laughing cow mac and cheese? OH MY WORD AMAZING!
Great BSI round up!
Your new plan sounds awesome – sounds like you got some great exercise in, and that beef stew sounds fantastic. I am also a mushroom-hater, so I’ll have to try your puree trick next time I see a recipe that looks tasty but has chunks of mushrooms in it (I don’t mind the flavor, just the texture of big pieces). A great solution!
Yep, I’ve even used it in the base of pasta sauce too for a meaty taste – if I didn’t know I put the mushrooms in there, I would never even know!
Also, here’s my BSI: Flour entry! http://cupcakemuffin.blogspot.com/2012/04/whole-wheat-muffins-with-figs.html
The holes in your bread come from the high hydration level. Wet dough makes lots of holes. The overnight rise contributes to the flavor. Do you have Peter Reinharts book, The bread bakers apprentice? If not, I reccomend. Lots of information about baking and the science behind it. Plus, he has the most amazing bagel recipe. It has an overnight rise. I make a half recipe and I make the bagels much smaller. The dough is so stiff that I actually blew out my kitchen aid from making full recipes.
Nope – I’ll have to see if my library has that book. It was just such a sticky dough I thought for sure it wouldn’t work out – glad I was proved wrong.
Good first challenge day! Amazing bread, I made English muffin bread yesterday, so easy! The breakfast casserole looks great, what a way to start your day!
Have a great week!
I knew when I saw the spaghetti squash that it would win! I think I’m learning your tastes.
Plus, it sounds DELISH! I will get the prize mailed off to Brianne tomorrow.
Good job on your first day of OBA! Your bread looks so good! And Billy Blanks is the devil–he’s just sooo mean to me! hahaha–I know you must have got a good workout with him.
Yep, he spanked my ass!
I love pasta! Gorgeous looking recipes. Unfortunately my behind just grew two sizes by simply looking at the photos. So unfair.
My sister and I used to have a Billy Blanks Tae Bo video. It kicked out butts.
Great first day Biz!!
So many great recipes to try!!!! And such amazing looking bread. OOOH…I bet your home smelled amazing when it was baking! (not to say it doesn’t smell amazing at other times!!
)
Yay on your first badass day Vat!!! You so have this. Have a great week.
Thanks everyone!
In honor of Easter, here are some sugar cookies with a twist for BSI – Flour:
http://cupcakesandkalechips.com/2012/04/01/whole-wheat-lemony-sugar-cookies-with-strawberry-lemon-royal-icing-first-on-the-first/
Good job on day one! That casserole looks ridiculously good, I might have to try it next week for dinner.
Great first day of operation bad ass!!
I actually made it to the gym this morning and if all goes as planned, I’ll be doing Jillian Michael’s 6 week 6 pack DVD tonight.
Go Jen!! Great job!
Awesome first day of badassdom, Biz! No wine? Who are you???
That bread and the stew look so good, I wish I had those waiting at home for dinner tonight! And yes, I must try that bread recipe – I love that you just leave it out overnight.
Billy Blanks is a classic – no matter my fitness level at the time, he never ceases to make me sweat up a storm and have sore muscles the next day!
90 minutes of exercise?! Woooo! That’s amazing, Biz! *I* think your totals for the day look perfect…but you know my take on carbs
The BSI round-up makes me hungry for pasta at 7:18am, that’s for sure!!!
Here’s my BSI entry: http://veronicascornucopia.com/2011/09/23/chicken-noodles/
I made the bread using your recipe and mine did not turn out. :/ I think mine needed that second two hour rise. It had a nice crust, but the bread was too dense with a slight gooey element (no nooks and crannies-bummer). I am new to making homemade bread and you make it look so easy. I will have to try again. Thanks for the recipes.
I made microwave sugar free mug cakes this week (try them I’m told they’re great)
http://privatelyiamjoy.blogspot.com/2012/04/microwave-strawberry-lemonade-cake-bsi.html?m=1