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Whether you’re a starving college student or a hungry Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, the pizza is becoming one of the main food groups. With its delicious layering and appealing crust (thick or thin), who could possibly resist a good pizza when they see one?

Many Americans prefer to order their pizza hot and ready-to-go, or prepared to be cooked at their own convenience. However, with great pizza comes great responsibility, because the best kind of pizza is one you can cook yourself.

Although we all have our favorite pepperoni or cheese pizza recipes, this unique recipe adds a whole new twist to your favorite weekday meal. 50% nacho. 50% pizza. 100% healthy.

This tasty whirl of tasty vegetables will leave your taste buds screaming for more, without packing on the extra calories.

Black Bean Nacho Pizza

Cook Time: 40 min:

Ingredients

• 1 cup black beans (rinsed)
• ½ cup chopped red peppers
• 1 medium clove garlic (cut in quarters)
• 1 Tablespoon chili powder
• ¼ Teaspoon salt
• Yellow cornmeal (for dusting)
• 1 pound Easy Whole-Wheat Pizza Dough (recipe will be provided in next post)
• 1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• 2 medium plum tomatoes (diced)
• 4 medium scallions (sliced thin)
• ¼ cup black olives (chopped and pitted)
• 2 tablespoons pickled jalapeños (chopped)

Directions

1.: Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit
2. : Place beans, peppers, garlic, chili powder, and salt in a food processor. Mix until smooth, scrape down sides if necessary.
3. :Sprinkle cornmeal onto a large baking sheet (or pizza peel if you have one). Roll out dough and transfer to baking sheet. Be sure that dough is completely coated with cornmeal.
4.:Cook dough until lightly browned (about 3 to 4 minutes).
5. : Take the crust out of the oven, and flip the crust with a large spatula. Make sure the underside of the crust is completely coated with cornmeal before adding toppings.
6. : Spread the bean mixture onto the crust, leaving approximately 1 inch around the border. Then proceed to layer on cheese, tomatoes, scallions, olive, and jalepenos.
7. : Place pizza and cook until the cheese has melted and the bottom of the crust has turned a golden brown. (Approximately 12 to 15 minutes).

Final Thoughts

What more can be said than a simply, “pizza please.”?

After posting about desserts, it’s probably time to get back into the groove of things and find a warm and toasty meal for a chilly autumn day.

Sausage Ratatouille, made popular by Pixar’s movie, is a classic French dish with a healthy blend of fresh vegetables.

It can be served as the main dish or, if you’d like, as an appetizer with bread. This hearty recipe is sure to bring a smile to the dinner table, and it’s sure to become a family favorite.

Prep Time: 10-15 Min.
Cook Time: 40 Min.
Total Time: Less than an Hour

Ingredients

3-4 Links (about ¾ pound) Italian Sausage
4 ½ tablespoons olive oil
1 medium-sized eggplant, peeled and cut into ¾ inch dice
2 small zucchini, halved and sliced
1 large onion, quartered and thinly sliced
1 medium-sized green bell pepper, halved, seeded, and sliced
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups canned, diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon tomato paste
Salt and Pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley
3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

Directions

1. Heat medium-sized pot of water to a boil.
2. Puncture sausage links in several places, and then cook them at a low boil. Sausage should no longer be pink in the middle. Transfer the links to a plate to cool. Slice into ¼ inch-thick rounds. *About 14 minutes*
3. Next, add 3 tablespoons olive oil to a large skillet or Dutch oven. Bring to Medium heat then add eggplant and zucchini. Stirring frequently, sauté vegetables until lightly browned – do not overcook them because they will turn soft. Set vegetables aside on a plate *About 7 Minutes*
4. Warm the remaining olive oil in the same skillet, and then add onions and peppers. Stirring often, sauté vegetables. *About 3 minutes*
5. Add garlic and sliced sausage to the same skillet. Stirring often, sauté for an additional 3 minutes.
6. Next, add tomatoes, eggplant, and zucchini from the plate, and then partially cover skillet. Let the ratatouille gently simmer for 5 minutes, and then add tomato paste, salt, and pepper to taste. Continue to simmer for an additional 5 minutes. Stir in parsley and half the basil.
7. Sprinkle remaining basil.
8. Serve hot

This recipe should serve 6 people.

For those of us (and let’s not kid ourselves) that have a sweet-tooth, sometimes the street vendors we most frequent are those that sell God’s little wonders: Cupcakes.

Chocolate Mocha Cupcakes

(from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World)

Ingredients:

1 Cup rice milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 Cup sugar
1/3 Cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon chocolate extract
2 Tablespoons instant coffee
1 Cup all-purpose flour (I used whole wheat pastry flour)
1/3 Cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 350F. Put the muffin cups in your muffin pan and set aside.

Whisk together the rice milk and apple cider vinegar in a large bowl and set aside for at least 5 minutes. Add the sugar, oil, vanilla, chocolate extract and instant coffee and beat until foamy. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add in two batches to the wet ingredients and beat until no large lumps remain.

Pour the batter into the liners, filling them three-quarters of the way full. Bake 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

Mocha Ganache Topping

1/2 cup strong coffee 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped (or one bag of chocolate chips) 2 Tablespoons maple syrup

Bring the coffee to a gentle boil in a small saucepan. Immediately remove from heat and add the chocolate and maple syrup. Use a rubber heatproof spatula to mix the chocolate until it’s fully melted and smooth. Set aside at room temperature to cool. (Or if you’re impatient like me, you can put it in the refrigerator for a few minutes, but not too long, you don’t want it to harden, just thicken and cool.)

Spoon the ganache on top of the cupcakes and prepare to rock the socks off of everyone who is eating them.

Vegan – A diet consisting of absolutely no animal byproducts.

In this day and age, vegetarian and vegan diets are becoming more and more common. But it’s still difficult for the animal-friendly folk to find food out and about, usually a lot of research must be done first in order to truly partake of the cultural vitality of street food.

Falafel is a Greek dish that is a common vegan indulgence that can be found in authentic markets around the world. Falafel is comprised of fried garbanzo beans and egg-replacement (you can use flax meal, etc.) wrapped in pita bread with vegetables.

Here is the recipe to make your own:

Vegan Falafel

2 1/2 cups garbanzo beans, soaked
1 cup onion, chopped
3/4 cup parsley leaves
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
3 teaspoons sea salt
2 tablespoons egg replacer (http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=7678.0)
2 tablespoons whole meal flour
canola oil, as needed for frying

Directions:

1. Put the garbanzos in a blender and mince until you have a fine crumbly texture.Take out the beans and put the onion and parsley into the food processor. Blend until finely minced (but not puree).

2. Slightly roast the coriander and cumin seeds over a low heat in frying pan (just until they start to smell and brown ever so slightly), then grind them.

3. In a big bowl, place the garbanzos and mix in the spices, the onion with the parsley, and then the egg replacer and flour. Let sit for a while to let flavors blend. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F if keeping patties warm.

4. Make small patties and fry in medium-hot canola oil until brown on both sides (turning over a couple of times). Place on paper towels to let them drain.

5. Put them in oven so that they may finish cooking on the inside (just in case).

These little wonders will never break apart during frying because they have the egg replacer and the flour inside which binds everything together nicely. Also, the inclusion of any oil in any falafel mixture will make the water content and the oil to separate the ingredients and cause trouble, so no worries this time!

Makes: around 35 falafel, Preparation time: 1 hour.

Seafood is a common cuisine in countless countries, especially those on the coast. Some of the strangest combinations are normally associated with sushi where seaweed and raw fish are combined in different varieties. But here are a few that you probably never considered. Andrew Zimmern goes to Greece and discovers a handful of Greek seafood delicacies. Andrew has a motto: Try everything twice. He raves about the sea urchin, eating it at least twice, but his opinion the on sea squirt is quite different. Now Andrew likes a lot of different foods, even some most people would not touch—like fermented cheese and fried spiders—but this sea squirt is a little more than he even he can handle. Notice he does not try it again.