pizza – The Cookbook Experiment

Zucchini Pizza Slices

We always eat our main meal on Sunday after our morning worship service. And we always have the same foods! There is something comforting to having the same big Sunday dinner each week. Our kids grew up with beef roast, gravy, rice or mashed potatoes, and broccoli with cheese sauce each week. It was something they looked forward to! They still do if they happen to be home on the weekend! I mean, really! Sunday dinner is just not the same without them!

Having the main meal in the middle of the day means that I don’t cook anything fancy after our evening church service. Often, I make flat bread pizza for the hubby and myself. Yesterday, though, I wanted to try something different. And I did have a zucchini in the fridge that needed to be used!

This is based on a recipe that I saw on a cooking video over on Face Book. Unfortunately, I can’t remember which group shared it! I thought it was from Tasty, but when I did a search on their page, it did not come up. I really do want to give credit to the creator of this amazing dish, but, alas, I can not!

We’ve been eating a lot from our garden in recent weeks…fresh tomatoes, hot peppers, figs, peaches, basil, green onions, and garlic…to name just a few items! I even got some tomatoes canned this afternoon! The zucchini has not been as prolific this summer as it usually is, but we did get a few. The most recent one was rather large! It was about 2 inches in diameter and about 10 inches long! Usually, the large ones don’t taste as tender and delicious as the smaller ones, but this one was fine for the pizza slices! I had my doubts as to whether the hubby would like this recipe, but he loved it! I had no leftovers!

As usual, I don’t have actual amounts for the ingredients. I just created the pizza slices with the pizza toppings that I had on hand. Use your own creativity to make yours! I love that it is THM-friendly!

Pizza Sauce
Pepperoni slices
Parmesan Cheese
Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
Onion and garlic powder
Oregano
1 large zucchini

Wash and slice the zucchini. I cut mine about 1/4 inch thick. Lightly spray a cookie sheet and place the zucchini slices on the pan. Spread about 1 tbsp. of pizza sauce on each piece of zucchini. Place one slice of pepperoni on top of the sauce. *The video showed the pepperoni being cut into tiny circles. That seemed like too much work for me! One large slice of pepperoni one each zucchini slice works well! Sprinkle each slice with the cheeses and the spices.

Bake for about 20 minutes at 400 degrees.

“There is no construction zone.”

Story first, then recipe. It was rather crazy.

Last weekend we had the opportunity to travel to FL to see our 2Lt. Since we were to be leaving early in the morning, I was looking forward to snoozing in the car on the way there. Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond my control, I ended up being a driver on the trip. The 2Lt was in need of a new-to-him car (the reason is another story for another day), and he had purchased one from a friend. A friend in NC. And of course, since we were already planning a trip to see him, he asked us to bring the car down for him. This meant a trip to NC to get the car and then the trip to FL. Thankfully son #3 made that drive with his dad.

Although we tried to stay together for the most part, we didn’t attempt to while we went through Atlanta which we hit during the early morning rush hour. I knew that we would come to the highway split where we would go to the right while lots of other holiday travelers would go to the left. I was watching very carefully for that split. Soon the traffic had thinned out and I was happily driving along looking forward to breakfast when my phone rang. The hubby had decided to stop a little earlier and needed to tell me where to meet him. “Oh, good,” I said. “How much farther is it after the construction zone?” After a pause, he replied, “Jan, there is no construction zone.” Sigh…I had totally missed that split in the highway even though I was carefully watching for it!! It took me 45 minutes to turn around and drive back to that split and finally make it to the restaurant! Thankfully, the traffic was not nearly as bad as it had been 45 minutes earlier!

Now for the recipe. Tonight for hubby’s dinner I decided to try something new. It truly was an experiment since I just created as I went along. It ended up being Skillet Pizza. I guess you could also call it Pizza in a Bowl. It tastes just like a pizza but without the crust, so it is low-carb!

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1 lb. ground turkey

1 jalapeno pepper, diced

1 small onion, diced

several mushrooms, sliced

1/3 cup or so of pizza sauce (just a guess since I didn’t measure)

1 tsp. Italian seasoning

1 tsp. garlic powder

1/3 c. Parmesan cheese

1-1/2 c. shredded mozzarella cheese

Brown the meat in a large skillet. Add the pepper, onion, and mushroom pieces and let them cook as the meat browns. Drain off any fat.

Add the pizza sauce, seasonings, and Parmesan cheese and stir well. Spread the mixture in the pan and sprinkle the mozzarella cheese on top. Turn off the heat and cover the pan. Let sit until the cheese melts. Enjoy with a green leafy salad. Makes 2-4 depending on how hungry you are!

Low-Carb Pizza Roll-Ups

Finally! Here is the first recipe that I promised when I posted on Monday!

We (the hubby and I) are fast approaching the first anniversary of healthier eating. We have been trying to follow the Trim Healthy Mama eating plan for about a year. Although we are not purists by any means, we do try to keep at it most of the time. The hubby lost at least 50 lbs, but he’s been cheating lately, so there is no telling what his weight is now. However, the health benefits are amazing! He no longer snores at night, his symptoms of sleep apnea have completely disappeared, and his acid reflux is gone. While I lost about 10-15 lbs, and flirt with 5 more, I have found that my joints hurt less and my lower back pain has all but disappeared. We are working at keeping this eating plan a way of life!!

One of the hubby’s favorite weekend foods is pizza. We all know how terrible processed pizza is for you even though the flavor is wonderful! A few months ago I created a low-carb pizza which has become his favorite. He enjoys it as a regular pizza and will even make his own!

This recipe makes one pizza. You can add whatever toppings you enjoy on your pizzas! Here is what I did for lunch today.

1 piece of flatbread (I use Aldi’s Fit&Active)*

1-2 tbsp. low sugar pizza sauce

12 slices pepperoni

1 handful of shredded mozzarella cheese

1-2 tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese

1-2 tbsp. ricotta cheese

Spread the pizza sauce over the flatbread. Arrange pepperoni over the sauce and the cheeses on top of the pepperoni. Bake on a cookie sheet at 350* for 10-15 minutes. Slice in half length-wise. Roll each half up when cool enough to handle. Serve with a salad!

Hubby enjoys diced peppers, onions, mushrooms, browned sausage, and/or bacon on his. Just remember that the more toppings you have, the harder it is to roll up!

*This flatbread has a total of 17g carbohydrates, but 8g of them are dietary fiber. This makes only 9g for counting the carbs.

Cauliflower Crust Pizza

Grandbaby update: Here is a 2-month family photo of my sweet darling and her parents! She is 11 weeks old today!

Today is the 2-month mark for having the hubby on the THM eating plan. While I often wish his weight loss would go faster, I do realize that slow and steady is the way to lose weight. He is down 13 pounds since September 21!

Last night I decided to try something very new. We really enjoy pizza here in our house, and since we’ve been eating the THM way, we’ve not had any pizza. Quite a few people on the THM FaceBook page have raved about cauliflower crust pizza. At first it didn’t sound too appealing to me, but I thought I would give it a try. It was rather good. And the hubby didn’t think it was too bad either!

The recipe I followed can be found here. I think that when I make it again, I will oil the parchment paper a little more because I did have trouble with the crust sticking to the parchment paper. Other than that, I had no problems. This is not the best picture, but it gives you an idea of what it looked like.