Clean Homemade Crock Pot Pizza Sauce

Mmm, I am a saucy kind of gal, are you? Extra sauce the better!

Have you ever noticed that most people eat pizza on Fridays? They usually take out the phone and call some major pizza chain and it makes a HUGE dent in your pocket. Not cheap, not good. 

I love to make extra sauce to freeze - makes pizza making a breeze. 

Organic pizza sauce in a jar can be a little pricey. Have you ever looked at the ingredients in a non-organic jar of pizza sauce? Man, those ingredients are scary. Very scary. Have no idea what the heck they are, but I am putting them into my body. No thanks. :) Sorry, rant. 

Ingredients

• 1, 15 oz can of tomato sauce (organic preferred, if you can)
• 4, 6oz cans of tomato paste (organic preferred, if you can)
• 1 cup of water
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 3 tbsp EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)
• 1 tbsp raw honey
• 1/3 cup of fresh basil, chopped
• 3 tbsp Italian seasoning

Directions

1. Toss everything into the crock pot.
2. Mix everything together and cook for 4 hours. 
3. Stir occasionally. 

When my Husband came home yesterday, he immediately went to the crock pot and said that looks amazing. Of course, he had to taste it. Like always... :)

Easy, right? If you want you can freeze the rest in individual bags.

Clean Pizza Dough

Yesterday, I was craving pizza so badly! When you walk out our house you will find a Domino's and a Pizza Hut within 2 blocks!!! Not good at all when you just craving pizza like crazy...all those crappy, non-food ingredients. Gross.

Why choose either of those pizza companies when you can make your own homemade, real food pizza dough for pennies. Yes, pennies. :)

Did I mention it is so easy to make? Well it is. Yes!

Ingredients

• 3 1/4 cups of white whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 1/4 tsp yeast (one small package - if you buy yeast that way)
• 1 tbsp coconut palm sugar
• 1/4 cup of EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)
• 1 1/4 cup of water

Directions

1. In a separate small bowl mix the yeast, water, and coconut palm sugar together and let it sit for 10 minutes (until it starts to get foamy).
2. In another bowl mix the rest of the ingredients together and pour the wet yeast mixture together. 
3. Stir everything together and knead the dough for 3 minutes.
4. Cover and let the dough sit until it rises, roughly 30 minutes. I put it in the oven. 
5. Divide the dough into two portions and freeze if you are not making a pan pizza - like I was. 
6. Roll out the dough to fit in the pan.
7. Bake pan for 5 minutes at 450 degrees. 
8. Add clean homemade pizza sauce and toppings. 
9. Bake for 15 minutes at 450 degrees. 
10. Slice and serve!

HOW TO: Can Chicken Stock

There is something about things being homemade - the taste is so much better and you know you took the time to make it. You appreciate it more.  You can catch up here on how to make chicken stock from a whole chicken.

Have you looked at the prices of organic chicken stock lately? It is not cheap at all. Why not make your own, if you can?

Out of one medium chicken I canned 7 pints. That is about 7 different meals for my family! Awesome. :)

Pssst, hey, it's organic too!

As always, sterilize your jars, lids, and bands. (Oops, I misspelled sterilize in the photo - sorry!!)

I always heat anything up that I am putting in glass jars because I am so afraid of breakage. Before you ladle the chicken stock into the jars you can heat it up. 

For step by step picture instructions you can catch up on this post. 

Pressure can the chicken stock for 90 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure. After the 90 minutes wait until the canner completely cools. 

That's it! Very easy for frugal, organic chicken stock!

Clean Eating Turkey White Lasagna

Lately, I have been craving lasagna so badly! Boy...this was delicious. The only thing that was missing was the non-clean items. :)

Trust me, you have to make this. Oh my word.. Remember to let it sit in the pan for a little bit - it broke apart on me because I couldn't wait to dig in. 

Click HERE to find the recipe. Sometimes I change up the ingredients in recipes, but this one I have to give her credit. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

By the way, you will have loads of leftovers if you are just a couple. Yes! :)

Spicy Clean Shrimp Patties

With living on the east coast you usually love all kinds of seafood. I know we do! When I was living in Maryland as a small child I loved to have crabs and crab cakes. Oh my word....

Buying a bushel of crabs can leave a pretty big dent on the checkbook, of course, that is not frugal. I know I can get a pretty good deal every now and then on shrimp, so we can shrimp patties. :)

They are delicious with a little bit of a kick. 

Ingredients

• 1 medium sized jalapeno, minced (for spicy, leave in the seeds)
• 1 pound of shrimp, peeled
• dash of salt
• dash of pepper
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 2 tbsp cilantro
• 2 tbsp whole-wheat breadcrumbs
• 6 lime wedges of topping (optional)

Directions

1. Peel the shrimp and dry off with a paper towel or towel. 
2. Place the shrimp in a food processor as well as the jalapeno, garlic, cilantro, salt, and pepper.
3. Form 6 shrimp patties and place on wax or parchment paper. Makes it easier to slide off. 
4. Add shrimp to a cast iron grill pan or a large pan. 
5. Cook each side for 4-5 minutes. You will see nice grill marks. 
6. Serve with lime wedge.

Our Journey of Clean Eating (Amazon Order)

When I hear a knock on the door and I greet my UPS man, boy, I am one happy girl. I love to receive packages! Don't we all? I love packages that are great for you as well. :) I think I may be a tad bit strange..haha.

One thing you do not see in this picture is a pressure cooker/canner. I already have one, but I wanted a better one. By the way, I got an awesome deal on this stuff!!

When I went to go check-out on Amazon I received an offer to sign-up for an amazon credit card with rewards. Usually I say no to these types of things. If we got approved then we would receive a $50 gift card. Oh yeah...I am in now! :)

Here is the breakdown:

Bob's Red Mill Whole Wheat Pearl Couscous, 16-Ounce(Pack of4) - $11.57

Coffee Bean Direct Sencha Green Loose Leaf Tea, 2 Pound Bag - $21.03

Muir Glen Organic Tomato Sauce, 15-Ounce Cans (Pack of 12) - $20.88

Bob's Red Mill Pastry Flour Whole Wheat, 5-Pound (Pack of 4) - $13.91

Presto 1755 16-Quart Aluminum Pressure Cooker/Canner - $69.00

Total: $136.39 -$70 gift cards ($20 previous gift card in the account)
Final Price: $66.39!!! The price we paid was lower than the actual canner by itself!!!!!

Our Journey of Eating Clean (Shopping Phase)

My husband and I have always had a pretty good diet. We do not buy any processed foods/snacks well because they are just loaded of crap and are pretty pricey. 

I never finished planning the last week for the menu so we can try and focus on switching our pantry to a clean pantry. I have done a lot of research and some people just throw out all of their "dirty" food, but I cannot see myself throwing out food. We can been trying to finish it all up and have a clean, fresh start in July. 

Our grocery budget in the past has been $166 and this month we changed it to $300. I say $300 because we really wanted to stock up on a lot of the clean basic and next month we will not have to do that. After this month our budget will go down to $200. 

Some say you cannot have a clean, organic lifestyle on a budget...I will show you how you can! 

So let's start this journey together and become healthier! :)

Yesterday the hubbs and I went grocery shopping. I will give you the breakdown as well. We went to BJS (like Costco), Wegmans (like Whole Foods), and Walmart. 

Boy... we got a lot of stuff! The photo above doesn't even begin to describe how much stuff we purchased. I always like to put the perishable items in the fridge pronto. 

BJS

At BJS we stocked up on a lot of grapefruits, apples, organic pure maple syrup, agave, organic spinach, organic romaine lettuce, kale, almonds, honey, vanilla extract, olive oil, salmon fillets, whole chickens, and peppers (boy he can go through a jar of those in a day!). 

We really did a lot of stuff there and bought a lot of things in bulk. 

Total: $136.25 (wow)

Wegmans

We purchased organic hemp protein powder, organic tomato paste, molasses, organic salsa, white whole wheat flour, and organic flaxseeds. 

I love this store! Some of the products are so neat looking! Dork moment..haha! :)

Total: $29.30

Walmart

Some people hate to shop at Walmart because of the views and so on, but on a budget we have to shop there for some things. They even have some organic items! YAY!

We bought a lot of things: tuna, plastic baggies, toilet paper, quick oats, lemons, vinegar, red wine vinegar, unsweetened applesauce, low sodium soy sauce, raisins, almond milk, clean butter, stir-fry veggies, jalapenos, garlic, and more! 

Sometimes the receipt is hard to read because they don't spell everything out!

Total: $50.62

We also have a order from Amazon coming pretty soon. When it arrives I will show you all when we purchased. I got a great,great deal on it!!!

Final Total: $216.17 ($5.48 is tax)