The weather has officially gone from acai to oatmeal season and out with the Quaker box comes fruit, honey, and all the other traditional toppings that sweeten up your morning bowl. But if you want to avoid oatmeal fatigue (and keep your breakfast low-sugar) there’s another way to go: Add in something savory.
If anyone has perfected the oatmeal bowl it’s plant-based chef and nutrition expert, Liora Bels. One of her go-to meals on crisp fall mornings: tahini overnight oats with banana, maca, dates, cinnamon, and vanilla. It’s just one of the standout recipes in her stunning new cookbook, The Mix.
Tahini may be an unconventional breakfast ingredient, but Bels says the digestive benefits of the nutrient-dense paste make it the perfect addition to an otherwise traditional breakfast. “Tahini is a Middle Eastern flavor I truly enjoy,” she says. “It’s [full of] minerals and fiber which work together to boost energy, brain function, aid digestion, and support heart health and the immune system.” says Bels. That’s a heck of a lot of benefits in one bowl.
Bels likes to top off her savory oats with bee pollen, goji berries, and a little shredded coconut for an extra help boost, but if you don’t have those ingredients on hand it’s still just as delish without the topping.
Ready to seriously upgrade your morning? Keep reading for Bels’s tahini overnight oats recipe, below.
I've always considered myself something of an L.A. pizza connoisseur (I've never met a carb I didn't love), so when I heard multiple friends talking about Pizzana, a buzzy new pizzeria in Brentwood, I knew I had to try it. Turns out, the hype was worth it—as soon as I bit into my pizza, my previous long-time L.A. favorite had been dethroned. The crust was perfect—which is hardly a surprise considering Chef Daniele Uditi's background.
Born in Naples, Italy, Chef Daniele comes from a long line of bakers and began working in a pizzeria himself at 12-years-old. When he moved to Los Angeles in 2010, he began making pizza for private parties, which garnered a dedicated following until catching the attention of actor Chris O'Donnell and Sprinkles owner Candace Nelson, who partnered with him to open Pizzana. His pizzas feature a mix of California produce with old-school Italian recipes. A few weeks ago, I shadowed Chef Daniele as he made one of my favorites—his Amatriciana Pizza. Here are his top three tips for upping your pizza game at home, and recipe:
Have you ever noticed that when you make a pizza at home, it takes up the shape of an amoeba (just me?)? According to Chef Daniele, improperly stretching dough is the number one mistake people make when baking pizza at home, but it's easily avoided with a simple technique. It all has to do with the way you push the air pockets out of the dough and stretch it. In the past, once I'd made my dough (don't worry—we've included a recipe at the end!), I'd stretch it by pulling from the edges, but it would bounce back, as if elastic. Instead, put your pizza dough on a heavily floured surface andflatten it with the palm of your hand. Be liberal with the flour, since the dough won't absorb it—it'll fly right off as soon as you toss it.
Then, use the pads of your fingers to outline the crust and push the air outfrom the center of your dough. This ensures that your pizza will cook evenly, and creates air pockets that will puff-out the crust once it bakes. Once you've done this, hold the circular dough in the palm of your hand and toss it back and forth to the other hand, like a towel, rotating slightly as you go so it doesn't stretch into an oblong shape. You'll notice that it doesn't bounce back, and if you've made a strong dough (which you will if you follow the recipe below), it won't tear. At this point, you'll have a roughly 9-inch round of dough, which you can stretch slightly by pulling at the edges once you've added your toppings.
A perfect crust has a lot to do with how many toppings you add to your pizza. A good rule of thumb is: The less moisture, the better. For a standard 12-inch pizza, you should use 1/2 cup of sauce, at most. And while piling on the cheese sounds like a good idea, the same idea is true here. Use it sparingly and opt for a drier cheese, so instead of using fresh mozzarella, use a store-bought cubed mozzarella since it's often drier.
When it comes to using vegetables as toppings, consider roasting them before adding them to the pizza so that the moisture doesn't sink into the crust, and when using a vegetable with a high water content like tomatoes, use them sparingly. Rather than adding whole cherry tomatoes to pizzas, Chef Daniele cuts them into thin slices, as you would a large tomato, so that more of the water has a chance to evaporate while baking.
Yes, a pepperoni pizza is unequivocally fantastic, but there are so many other ways to add meat to a pizza to up your at-home game. In the recipe below, Chef Daniele adds prosciutto both to the sauce, so that every bite has a briny kick from the meat, and on top for crispy, salty bites. You can also add sausage, though be sure to cut it into small pieces or pre-cook it, or other cured meats which flavor the pizza without the need for additinal salt.
In Naples, pizza is a tradition that Chef Daniele says, many of his friends and family don't believe in messing with. But pizza is the perfect medium to customize, "If you like chicken on your pizza," he says, "who am I to tell you that isn't good?"
Growing up, some of Daniele's favorite dishes were the pastas his mom made, many of which he's translated to pizza, "Pasta is a carb and pizza is a carb, so why not??" he said. While traditional Amatriciana includes Pecorino cheese, tomato, and onion, Chef Daniele adds cream for a "protective layer of fat" to keep the sauce from sliding off the crust, and prosciutto, which reminds him of weekly Sunday ragouts with neighbors in Naples, where meat was cooked until it became fall-off-the-bone tender.
In a large pot, warm the olive oil. Once hot, add the onion and prosciutto and let cook over medium heat until the onions soften.
Add the San Marzano tomatoes, lower the heat, and let simmer for 30 to 40 minutes.
Reduce the heat and add the heavy cream. Let it cook over low heat for another ten minutes.
Let cool, then blend, using an immersion blender or traditional blender, until smooth and spreadable on a pizza. Set aside the amount you'll need (1/4 cup per pizza), and freeze the rest for up to three months.
Note:Instead of heavy cream, Chef Daniele uses Panna at his restaurant, an Italian cream that's slightly thicker and has more acidity than American heavy cream. Because of its wider availability in the States, Daniele suggests using heavy cream here, but you can purchase Panna on Amazon if you're curious to try it! You can also replace San Marzano tomatoes with any canned tomatoes, but Daniele prefers to use the variety for their unique flavor. They're sweeter than most tomatoes because they're planted in a field where persimmons are grown in other seasons, and have a mineral taste from the volcanic soil where they're from, at the base of Mt. Vesuvius. They're available at most grocery stores, but you can purchase them online here.
In a bowl, mix half of the flour and all the water with a whisk. Add the yeast and keep whisking. When there are no lumps, add salt and the rest of the flour and keep kneading with your hands, folding the dough over itself, until smooth and elastic, for about 15 minutes (you can use a Kitchenaid with a dough hook attachment, but I prefer to do this by hand since the friction from the metal bowl creates warmth and can "cook" the dough).
Let the dough rest in a warm area (around 70° F) for six to ten minutes and mix again to obtain a smooth surface. If you were to cut the dough open (see GIF below), you'd be able to see layers created by the folding, which are what make it strong enough to stretch into a pizza without risk of tearing and create air bubbles for it to puff out while baking (think: like pockets of butter in a pie crust).
Let it rest for one hour and divide the dough into nine-ounce portions (you should have ten to 12 rounds).
Place into a tray and let it proof at room temperature for four to six hours, in a tightly-sealed airtight container (like Tupperware). Either bake or freeze at this point.
Note:The ingredients for the pizza dough above yields roughly ten to 12 pizzas, but we've kept it at such a high yield because the more dough you make at once, the more likely it is to turn out well. But the good news is that you can freeze it! After proofing it, add each portioned round of dough to the freezer, and simply thaw at room temperature before baking. You can also use the dough to bake a ciabatta-like bread. If you do end up halving it, halve all the ingredients, but keep the yeast the same.
October is probably my favorite month of the year. It’s the time of the month where it’s not too cold, but not that warm. It’s the ever-changing color of the leaves and the crispness of the air. But, it’s not just the Pumpkin Spiced Lattes and wooly jumpers that make this season the best. It’s the eeriness that follows. The nights get darker, the streets get less busy and the anticipation for Halloweenbegins. Right now, I’m looking for creepy books for October that set the scene for this month but are still worth curling up with on the couch.
It’s the spooky month, where anything can happen. And ever since I was a child, I’ve dedicated this whole month to all things creepy and that includes my reading list too!
I think anything by Stephen King is relevant, he is the king of creepy! And I’ve read almost everything he has written. So choosing one that is the scariest is quite hard to do! Especially when he’s written books like The Shining and Misery! But, I’ll recommend you to read IT, if you haven’t already. I’m personally staying away from the movie and sticking to the real terror. Because isn’t it Stephen King’s fault we’re all scared of clowns anyway? The book follows seven teenagers who accidentally stumble across horror, years later they still can’t escape the nightmare. Buy it here.
2. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis available here
Of course, this one has to make the list, because it may not terrify you but if there’s one thing this book is, it’s creepy. You get to delve into the mind of a psychopath and with the way it’s written it feels like you are him. You experience his darkest thoughts and experience every murder and Ellis doesn’t skip any gory detail! There’s a reason it’s one of the most talked about and controversial books of all time – trust me, you won’t be disappointed. Buy it here.
First of all, this book is a little bit of a weird one, it’s not your conventional story, but somehow it works. It follows an ordinary couple who are living in South Korea, Yeong-hye, the wife is pestered by terrifying nightmares that force her to become a vegetarian. And in South Korea, where vegetarianism isn’t really a societal norm, Yeong-hye’s decision isn’t taken lightly. Her family turns against her and it gets creepier and weirder from there on out. When I read the plot synopsis I wasn’t sold but honestly, this book sold so well and Han Kang’s writing is incredible. Buy it here.
This isn’t your typical ghost story. Women are going missing, but with no clues or bodies, it is hard for the detectives to know where to begin. But they have a lead, a witness who will only speak to one woman, FBI Special Agent Kimberly Quincy. The book is creepy because it brings fiction together with reality – the thought that it could happen to you is enough to creep you out! And it is literally one of the most suspenseful novels I have ever read! Buy it here.
5. Confessions of a Sociopath by M.E Thomas
Confessions of a Sociopath by M.E Thomas available here
This book is quite out of the ordinary. Thomas is a sociopath. But a non-criminal one. And in this book, she delves into her characteristics, describing how when talking to her, you may not realize that she is picking out your flaws and manipulating you. She is a successful woman, who is charismatic, but who has no empathy and never feels guilt or regret. In this book, she is completely honest about her life, exposing that one in twenty-five of us are sociopaths. But is that a bad thing? Buy it here.
