#national pizzaday

Medical update

John has now lost 25 pounds and several sizes in his jeans. He is now 175 pounds! His shirts all hang on him. I keep trying to talk him into shopping for new clothes, but he refuses.  He has moved into a smaller pair of jeans we already had, but even those are hanging.   He jokes about just adding holes to his belt until it wraps around him twice.

I wish he would let me take a pix of him, but he won't.

sigh....

I am now down to 114 pounds and loving it! I am wearing size 4 suits with great ease, and the working out has helped these clothes hand just right.   I am very happy about this!  In total this has taken several yeas for me as my weight has yo-yoed up and down, never really saying in one place.  To the left is a pix of me at my heaviest and the day this post was published....

Plant-based eating and daily workouts have really worked for both of us!

National Pizza Day!

We have missed pizza....not the gastric distress that accompanied it, but the taste...... So I have been experimenting and wanted to share our favorite pizza recipe with you...oil-free, whole foods, and vegan!

 So here goes....

I am combining pizza crust from the Real Vegan Housewife, caramelized onions from One Green Planet,  then added a store-bought oil free pizza sauce (Delallo Pizza Sauce), and our favorite fixings!

Robin’s E2 Approved Pizza Crust

Ingredients:

1 cup lukewarm water

1 Tablespoon of raw Turbinado sugar  (Sugar in the Raw)

1 envelope of yeast (not fast rising!)

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 Tablespoon wheat gluten

1 teaspoon fine sea salt (if using table salt, you might want to cut the amount in half)

Directions:

Mix the sugar with lukewarm water until somewhat dissolved.  Add yeast and mix.  Wait 10 minutes.  During this time the yeast will "proof" and once those 10 minutes are up, you should notice a bit of foam on top on the mixture.  If there is no foam, your yeast is probably dead (or expired) and you will have to repeat again.  This is vital!!!  In a large bowl, combine the wheat flour, wheat gluten, and sea salt.  Then add proofed yeast mixture to dry ingredients.  I prefer mixing with your hands because your hands can give you a better idea on whether or not your dough is too wet or dry.  The dough should feel somewhat grainy but have a little (not like regular pizza dough so don’t get too picky here!) stretch to the dough (probably due to the added wheat gluten).  

Place a wet towel over your bowl with the dough and let sit for an hour until the dough has doubled. I place this on my gas stove as I feel my granite countertop is too cold.

While the dough is rising, I make my caramelized onions:

Ingredients: 

3 medium-sized sweet yellow onions, sliced fairly thin

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

 Since we do not use oil, we add the onions to a pan and saute in water for about five minutes on medium-high heat. Add the salt and continue to saute until the onions begin to turn golden-brown, about 15-20 minutes.

Next add the sugar, turn the heat down to medium, and continue to saute until the onions are deeply golden and very sweet. This should take about 20 more minutes. Turn off the heat and set aside.

Now it is time to check the dough to see if it has doubled yet.  If not, give it more time and pull out your sauce and other pizza favorites to get to room temperature.  During this waiting time I slice my olives and roma tomatoes, paper towel pat the pineapple, pat dry the black beans, spinach, fresh basil.....

Once the dough has risen, stretch/roll/press (whatever suits your fancy!) the dough into a standard size pizza pan (not the jumbo one!).  Let the dough rest in the pan for 10 minutes.  This will allow the dough to rise slightly again which is what we are looking for.  

From there, you want to add your sauce, toppings, and any herbs you might want to use. 

Bake the pizza at 425°F for roughly 15 minutes (check the crust every 5 minutes or so to prevent the potential of burning!). 

Fix a tossed salad on the side and you have a healthy way to celebrate National Pizza Day!

 We can do this!