{Living Simply 2013}
Earlier this week I asked what you have done, are doing and/or hope to do to live more simply in 2013. I will be featuring a different response in the upcoming weeks/months so we can all learn from each other. Feel free to email me at simplylife1@gmail.com or leave a comment on the post with your response to be featured (you don’t need a blog to participate)!
To start us things off is Emily from A Cambridge Story: My husband and I have become much more home focused in recent years, prioritizing simple nights together in the kitchen or on the couch to pricey nights out. Sure, we still love our friends and local restaurants but pressure to be on the go can be taxing. More and more, I try to do the things that really make me happy, but I’m sill a simple living work in progress!
I love this response. This is something my husband and I have also tried to do more of as well. Since we started dating, we’ve always done a “date night” once a week. When we were dating, this usually meant going out to dinner. One of us would pick a restaurant and surprise the other person. We fell in love over Afghan appetizers, Moroccan entrees and French desserts.
Then we got married, moved across the country, got new jobs, returned to school…and looked closely at our budget. Fine dining and school loans don’t really go hand-in-hand. When we looked at what expenses we could cut, eating out was definitely one of the first things to change.
Our first year of marriage, we reduced the amount of eating out we did and increased the cooking, but our “rotation” of meals looked something like this: premade pizza crust with various toppings, chicken tacos, spaghetti, turkey sandwiches. Over and over. And over.
Our second year of marriage we moved again, and this time I returned to school. We were still trying to stick to minimal eating out. We started looking through our cookbooks more often and finding recipes online. There were a lot of kitchen disasters along the way, but soon, we both began to look forward to our “date night in” where we would try a new recipe together. We quickly found more satisfaction in cooking our own meal than we had anticipated!
While we still love a good meal out and trying new restaurants, we both now look forward to cooking an exciting meal together and simply enjoying one other’s company in our home just as much.
These Cheese-Stuffed Everything Pretzels are a perfect example of this. While it’s not exactly fit for meal, it’s a fun snack that kept us wanting to stay inside our warm apartment together in the afternoon rather than heading out in search of pre-made foods.
These pretzels are way too fun to eat. Stuffed with cheddar cheese, and topped with poppy seeds and sesame seeds, they are full of flavor and remind you that the simplest ingredients can often produce the best results.
Thank you, Emily, for the inspiration!
Cheese-Stuffed Everything Pretzels
by Simply Life
Adapted from Food Network Magazine
Keywords: bake appetizer dessert snack vegetarian cheese Super Bowl
Ingredients (12 pretzels)
- 1 1/2 tbs. dry active yeast
- 1 tbs. honey
- 2 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp. sea salt
- 2 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
- 1 tbs. poppy seeds
- 1 tbs. sesame seeds
Instructions
Mix 1 1/2 cups warm water with the yeast and honey in a bowl. Set aside for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, in stand mixer bowl (or large bowl if working by hand), mix together whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour and salt. Add 1 egg and then yeast mixture. Knead for about 2-3 minutes then place on lightly floured surface and shape into a ball. Cut the dough into 4 equal pieces, cover with a cloth and let rise in warm draft-free space for 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 475 degrees. On floured surface or silicone baking mat, roll out one piece of the dough into a rectangle (I was able to get mine to about 7×9 inch rectangle).
Sprinkle cheese in center of dough.
Fold over one third of the dough, starting with the short-end, to cover cheese.
Sprinkle more cheese over the folded part. Fold over the remaining third of dough.
Pinch edges together and roll dough into a rectangle. Cut into 3 even strips.
Take one strip. Pinch the long edges together and roll into 12-14 inch rope. Shape into pretzels by crossing left end over the right end, then twisting once and pressing bottom edges into dough. Lightly beat remaining egg and brush over top of pretzels. Sprinkle generously with poppy seeds and sesame seeds.
Bake in preheated oven for about 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown.
Serve and enjoy!
~Have you ever tried to cut-back on eating out? What was the experience like for you?
