On Today's Plate: No-Flour Vegetarian Pizza

Hooooly crap! I just discovered how great zucchini is!! 

yum! I never knew how good zucchini really is!

I was really craving some pizza...really, really, bad...but I didn't want to deal with the bread, dough, and all the extra grease on it. So I took matters into my own hands. I googled like a lean mean googling machine (hey Google...I just said your name 3 times, I should get money for that :P lol) to alternatives to pizza dough. I came acrossa zucchini crust recipe, which I altered a bit. The one I found used 2 eggs. I think 1 is plenty, if not, it was gonna get too omelette/frittata-ish. I also added cheese and herbs to the crust mix.


And now without further ado.....This dish serves 1 or 2 (depends, really). I made it on a 9" springfrom pan.

No-Flour Vegetarian Pizza:

Crust:

1 whole zucchini (grated)

1 egg

1/4 c of grated mozzarella cheese (I wanted to use real mozzarella, but I'm kinda broke so I went with Sargento)

herbs/seasoning of choice (I used dried basil, powdered oregano, and dried parsley)

Pre-heat oven at 400°F. After you grate the zucchini, pat it dry with paper towels. Place in a bowl and set to the side. On a separate dish, beat the egg, and add your seasonings. Mix in the egg with the grated zucchini and add your mozzarella cheese. Put a little cooking spray on your pan, and press your zucchini mix onto the pan. When the bottom of the dish is fully covered, you can add more of your herbs to it. Once you're done, pop it in the oven for 10 minutes.

Pressed zucchini "crust" mix, before going into the oven.

After: what it kinda looks like after 10 minutes in the oven

Pizza:

cubes veggies -- of your choice. I used the following:

1 1/2 tomatoes

1/2 eggplant (I bought a tiny eggplant)

chopped spinach (I didn't really measure it)

3 tbsp chopped black olives

1/4 mozzarella cheese

herbs/seasoning of choice (again, I used dried parsley, dried basil, and powdered oregano)

virgin olive oil (to drizzle)

Cube/dice/hack all of your veggies. Since I don't like pizza sauce, I laid down the tomatoes first, but, hey, if you like your pizza/spaghetti sauce, use it. I bet this would taste really really really good with some pesto sauce....After I layered the tomatoes, I randomly tossed the veggies onto my pizza, drizzled a little bit of the virgin olive oil over the veggies and sprinkled some herbs over the veggies. Top it off with the mozzarella cheese. Pop it back into the oven again for 25 minutes (still at 400°F). While it's cooking, enjoy the smell of the vegetables and herbs coming together......

Topped pizza before going into the oven...

Pizza's ready!! Fresh and hot off the oven!

And here's another picture of the end result...

Yum!

Enjoy! 

On Today's Plate: Getting personal....

lol...ok, so that sounds a little bit dramatic, but I bet it caught your attention! It almost seems like I've abandoned the blog, but I haven't. I still cook and eat healthy, and I'm always thinking about things to write about. I just haven't been feeling confident in myself, and if I really can't stay positive to myself, how can I inspire others?

I've always been self-conscious about my weight. Funny thing is that, as a kid and through my teens, I wasn't a fat kid. But I always saw myself as fat person. When I was 18, I weighed about 150lbs (I'm 5'9"), and I played a lot of sports too. Like I mentioned before, my weight plummeted during college, and by the time I was 23, I weighed about 220-something lbs. Even though I've lost most of the weight I gained during college, when I look in the mirror, I still see my 220+lbs self. I don't feel comfortable in my one piece swimsuit, I don't feel comfortable in my clothes....sometimes don't even feel comfortable working out at the gym sometimes, or grappling with my (well) grappling buddies...I feel like I'm the fat chick trying to appear as if I'm working hard at lifting weights and running...I dunno....

I'm working to improve that. Above losing weight, and eating healthy, what I really want to change the most is how I see myself.