Artichoke Pesto Flatbread

I've recently discovered the joy of no-cheese pizzas. And I realize how crazy this sounds from someone who has previously rattled on and ON about the joys of all things cheese. I mean, cheese defines me.  Well, it DID at least. I haven't purchased cheese in 2 months. (Read: this is huge). I've had some sprinklings here and there, but nothing like I used to... and nothing like my childhood, when my parents would find string cheese wrappers like breadcrumbs in the wake of my dairy destruction...

Making pizza at home means topping it with whatever. I had a beet pizza a few weeks ago. But this one was the best, so here I am to share. Because sharing is caring!

Artichoke Flatbread Pizza

8 servings

1 can artichoke hearts packed in water

2 tbsp basil pesto

1 package whole wheat pizza dough

1/2 red onion, thinly sliced in rings

1 cup sliced mushrooms

2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

1/4 c. pitted kalamata olives, chopped

Preheat oven according to dough instructions (450F is usually on the money). Let pizza dough hang out on the counter to come to room temp and relax.

Pop open artichokes and drain. Quickly chop up with a food processor to a fine dice.

Saute over med-high heat for 5 minutes. This will help to evaporate extra water and soften up artichokes.

Remove from heat and stir in pesto. 

yeah, this pesto has parm in it. sneaky sneaky. but it was already in my fridge when i started this "no dairy" thing, so give me cred for not being wasteful, plz.

Roll out pizza dough on a floured pan using your fancy rolling pin (ikea glass).

Bake for 4-5 minutes, or until lightly brown. Sometimes it gets a giant bubble, just poke a hole in that to steam vent.

Spread artichoke pesto mixture evenly on crust.

Top with onion, mushroom, parsley, and olives.

And bake for another 10-15 minutes, or until onions are soft, crust is crispy, and mushrooms are shrivel-y.

Slice er up and serve with a big salad!

What cheese?

Grilled Buffalo Pizza

Today's recipe comes from Janetha over at Meals and Moves. This is one of the first blogs I started reading and my hands down favorite blog on the internet. When she posted this recipe a few months ago, I kicked myself and thought "why didn't I think of that?!"

Pizza. Buffalo sauce. Bleu cheese. Greek yogurt. Chicken.

Ummmm, how could you go wrong?

I modified Janetha's recipe a bit by using a red onion instead of white, and ditched the mozz cheese and opted for more yogurt sauce. Try her version or mine, your choice!

Also, I've been itching to grill pizza for months. It's a delicate process, but as long as you're organized with a pizza removal strategy, you should be good to go. Hopefully my instructions help.

Grilled Buffalo Chicken Pizza
adapted from Meals and Moves
serves 4


1 fresh whole wheat pizza dough
1/2 c. nonfat plain greek yogurt
1/2 c. buffalo sauce, like Franks, divided
4 oz. bleu cheese crumbles, divided
8 oz. cooked chicken breast
1 red onion
2 tbsp EVOO

First things first. Make sauce. Mix together yogurt, 1/4 c. of buffalo sauce, and 2 oz. bleu cheese crumbles. Set aside. Put dough out on the counter so it can relax.

Slice red onion and saute in EVOO until caramelized (about 15 minutes)

Prep your business. I got frantic and didn't catch a pic, but here's what you need to have handy by the grill: yogurt sauce, caramelized red onions, chicken (sliced into bite size pieces and tossed in remaining buffalo sauce), remaining bleu cheese crumbles.

Roll dough out. I used a flat baking sheet. This will be my grill removal strategy. Think of it like a ginormous spatula.

Heat grill to medium low heat. Spray it lightly with cooking oil. Carefully place pizza dough on grill. This is difficult. You can slide it off the tray, but you have to be careful not to fold the dough on top of itself. Don't be nervous. You could only screw up the entire meal, NBD. Turn heat back up to medium.

After about 3 minutes and you see grill marks on the bottom, you're ready to flip!

Reduce heat to lowest possible and layer up the pizza! Sauce, onion, chicken, bleu cheese.

Turn the heat back up to medium low, and close the lid. This will help warm the toppings and melt the bleu cheese.

Reduce to low low if your crust is done but you want more melty cheese. Once toppings start bubbling, you're donezo.

Carefully slide back onto baking sheet without burning your arm hairs off and transfer to a cutting board for slicing. 

Go make this now. Trust.

Pizzazz

Around these parts, Friday night is Pizza night. It never fails. Every Friday we order two medium pizzas from Ameci's - one vegetarian, one pepperoni. And because prior to pizza I have been boxing, I tend to over-indulge. Just add wine!

Well I felt like we should probably mix that up a little bit and improve the family's health karma, so I made my own version of pizza night, but healthified.

These were inspired by a pin that's floating around on pinterest. I made it better though.

Portabella Caponata Pizzas
 six servings

cooking spray
6 large portabella mushrooms, stemmed
1 tbsp each dried oregano and basil
1 1/2 cups of bottled caponata (eggplant, olive, caper mixture- I like TJ's - just use pizza sauce if this scares you)
1 1/2 cups part skim shreddded mozzarella
30 slices pepperoni of choice (I use Tofurky italian sausage, sliced into coins)


Preheat oven to 375F
Line a baking sheet with foil (easy clean up!) and spritz mushrooms with cooking spray

Bake in oven for 10 minutes. In retrospect I would have placed the mushrooms on a cooling rack on top of the foil, so they could drip down. They give off a ton of liquid.

Sprinkle mushrooms with herbs

Spread caponata evenly

Sprinkle with a mountain of cheese

And dot with pepperoni

Bake for another 12 minutes, or until cheese is melted and toppings are hot!
As these cool they will continue to drain of mushroom liquid. You could reserve this and use it as a broth in soups in the future!

 These were quite the upgrade from standard pizza dinner. Same flavors, minus the guilt. Also, these are very low carb, if you're into that sort of thing.

Have a lovely weekend!

Jalapeno Popper Pizza, Hold the Guilt

Ingredients for Jalapeno Poppers:

• Bacon
• Cream cheese and/or cheddar cheese
• Jalapenos...
• Batter
• Deep fryer
• Heart attack
• Extra 10-15 pounds of body fat

Yummmyyyy! Except those heart attack and body fat parts...

The notion of Jalapeno popper pizza was mentioned to me by Bobbie (shout out!), who follows What's Gaby Cooking on twitter, who pinned an image of jalapeno popper pizza from Heather Cristo Cooks. Did you follow that?

I immediately accepted the personal challenge to healthify that shit. 

Here ya go, peeps. Healthy jalapeno popper pizza. Eat your hearts out. But don't, cause that's gross.

Jalapeno Popper Pizza, Hold the Guilt

for 4

Ingredients

• 1 package whole wheat pizza dough from TJ's or Whole Paycheck (Whole Foods)
• 2-4 tbsp whole wheat flour
• cooking spray
• 1/2 c. light whipped cream cheese
• 3 jalapenos - 2 finely diced, 1 chopped into half moons
• 4 pieces turkey bacon, cooked until crispy and crumbled
• 5 oz. cooked chicken breast, sliced (optional)
• 1/2 c. shredded light cheddar or mexican blend
• 1/4 c. panko bread crumbs

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 450 F (or whatever the pizza dough package recommends)
• Cook turkey bacon in oven for 15 minutes or until super crispy

• Meanwhile, on a clean surface, sprinkle 2 tbsp flour
• Remove dough from package and place on counter or surface of choice

• Let it chill for 20 minutes. There's nothing more annoying than trying to roll out cold, elastic-y pizza dough
• This is a good time to do your prep work 
• Crumble turkey bacon
• Dice and chop jalapenos (be sure to remove white ribbing and seeds, or your face will burn off starting with your mouth)
• Chop chicken

• After prescribed time has passed, roll out pizza dough into a rectangular 12x18 shape using a rolling pin and a sprinkle of flour to keep the pin from sticking to the dough

• The dough will be thin. This is a good thing. It's called carb control.
• Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and transfer dough to sheet

• Par bake in oven for 4 minutes, or until dough is just barely cooked through
• Remove from oven
• Spread cream cheese on hot crust. The heat will melt the cream cheese and make it nice and spreadable.

• Sprinkle over diced jalapeno and turkey bacon. 

• Then add chicken slices big chunks of jalapeno. You know, for good measure.

• Sprinkle over shredded cheese

• Bake for another 6-8 minutes, or until cheese is melted, bubbly, and all toppings are sizzling hot
• Remove from oven and sprinkle over panko breadcrumbs

• Slice into 8 pieces and serve with a big salad or something with nutritional merit
• And tabasco, cause it's not hot enough

 Seriously, don't fear the jalapenos. If you're using fresh jalapenos and are careful to remove all seeds and white membrane, they really are sweet and like spicy bell peppers. It's not a bad idea to taste your jalapenos first to make sure you don't have a super spicy bunch. Also, DO NOT use canned jalapenos. You will experience the Colorado Rockies Nacho Disaster of 2011. I don't want to talk about it.

Also, I like protein and fear carbs, which is why I added chicken to my recipe. You can omit if you want a more classic jalapeno popper.

And the panko? Well, poppers are usually fried, so this recipe is missing that breading crunch. The panko takes care of that. But it can also be omitted too if it creeps you out. People are weird with food. If you're weird with food then you probably won't like this blog, cause I'm not afraid of any sort of food. Except eel. Ick.

But, hello! Light cheeses, whole wheat, thin crust dough, turkey bacon? All delicious things! You don't need that extra saturated fat! I promise you that you will love this pizza. 

And it is super good with tabasco, so don't be shy.

Side note! This is my 100th post! If this were the Ellen show you'd all get $100 or something like that. But since it's not, you can just make yourself some pizza and be grateful. 

Cauliflower Crust Pizza

If you know me, you know I'd do just about anything for cheese. And really, anything is an acceptable vessel for cheese transportation into my mouth. This is why I could never be vegan for more than one meal.

i don't know what this is, but i want it. source

My BFFFFFFFforever Ruchipants lives in NYC by a huge cheese shop, which is one reason I shouldn't ever go visit her. We'd never leave the cheese shop. 

Problem is, cheese usually pairs super well with straight-up-bad-for-you-no-nutrition carbs. Like cheese and crackers. Mac and cheese. Grilled cheese. Pizza. Pizza. PIZZA.

No no no no NO. You silly little white bread nutrition-less carbs aren't stopping me from eating pizza. 

Another problem with pizza is that no matter where you get it, you're never going to find a slice for less than 6 WW P+. Now for those of you with bodies that aren't soft and round (i mean those of you with self-control), I must explain that 6 points is a lot. That's like, a 1/4th-1/5th of my day. And come on, WHO just eats one piece of pizza. 

So I present to you: white-nutritionless-carb-less pizza that is TWO points per slice. You're welcome.

Cauliflower Pizza

2 WW P+ per slice

Makes 2 8-slice pizzas

Inspired by RecipeGirl

Ingredients

• Crust
• 1 head of cauliflower
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 c. light mexican blend shredded cheese
• 3/4 c. light shredded mozzarella
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp salt

• Toppings
• 1 cup marinara or pizza sauce 
• 1 cup shredded light mozzarella
• your favorite pizza veggies
• canadian bacon if you so desire

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 450F
• Rice or grate the raw cauliflower into a large microwave safe bowl
• I used a cheese grater and it worked great

• Microwave cauliflower on high for 8 minutes

• Remove from microwave and let cool, stirring occasionally to assist in the cooling process
• After 10 minutes, add all other crust ingredients to the bowl and mix well

• On two cooking sheets sprayed with cooking spray, divide cauliflower mixture evenly
• Form into 12" or so circle

• Bake for 10 minutes, switch the pans, and bake another ten (unless you have a really reliable oven and can do this without switching the pans. Good for you. )

i have white balance problems. oops.

• Remove crusts from oven, top with sauce, cheese, and veggies

one

two

three

• Bake for another 5 minutes or until cheese is melty and toppings are hot
• Slice with a pizza cutter or knife and serve! 

Pair two slices of this with a big caesar salad and you won't be missing that bread.  TWO POINTS each!