Today was, of course, Zumba day! I was so excited to go! I'm finally getting the hang of most of the routines, and the instructors are so motivating. They have so much energy - I wish I had that much energy! I haven't seen my stomach/ab area in years, but I can so feel the pain in that area clearly. Maybe one day I'll be able to see that area again, but that is a long time coming. I feel like Zumba works everything from the hair on my head to my tiny, little pinky toe. I'm always a sweaty, gross mess at the end, which means I was working hard for that 60 minutes. I would do Zumba 5 days a week, if I could. I may need to look in to buying the videos for at-home use.
Again, cravings suck! I've been wanting pizza...and breadsticks...and wings, but I would just settle for pizza. So I get the bright idea to make healthy, whole wheat pizza with low-fat toppings. Let's just say that this food experiment needs a lot of tweaking for the next time, but I'll take you on my dinner journey last night.
First, you start with the dough. We bought pre-packaged pizza dough mix from our local grocery store. It was called Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Whole Grain pizza dough, and it even came with the yeast packet. So this dough didn't form like your usual pizza dough, and this is what it looked like after rising:
So, we figured this was enough dough to make two small pizzas since the hubs and I do NOT like the same pizza toppings. The dough was very, very sticky and also very hard to form into a pizza shape. The hubs eventually gave up and had a square blob of pizza dough. I, on the other hand, at least tried to shape mine like a pizza. We had a healthy range of toppings including: Homemade Sauce, Fat Free Mozzarella Cheese (which I'll elaborate on and do not recommend), Canadian bacon, fresh mushrooms, minced garlic, and banana peppers.
To make the sauce, use: 1 large can of crushed tomatoes, 1 small can of tomato paste, half of a large onion-minced, 4 garlic cloves-minced, 1 or 2 tbsp of Italian Seasoning Mix (or basil, oregano, parsley), salt and pepper to taste.
I usually make a big double batch of this sauce, and store the extras in the freezer. I also sautee the onions and the garlic together prior to adding in the sauce for more flavor. If you feel it needs more seasoning, add an extra dash or two - it all depends on how you like your sauce to taste. Remember: You can always add more if it needs it, but you can't take away if you add too much!
After forming the pizza and putting on my toppings (excluding banana peppers), I was ready for the oven. Notice the weird pizza shape - it was the best I could do!
After 15 minutes of baking at 450 degrees, the top of the pizza was nowhere near being done. So under the broiler it went. I like to see the cheese bubble and brown, because I like really melty cheese on my pizza. After the final few minutes on broil, this is what the finished product looked like:
So, as I was getting ready to dig in, I notice that the cheese has formed some type of helmet over the pizza. Fat Free Mozzarella Cheese must have a really high melting point, because this cheese was not melty at all. It was, however, hard and crusty layered over the pizza goodness below. The crust has a different texture than normal pizza. It's more dense and not as light and fluffy, and it takes a few more chews to break it down. I will make this pizza again, but only with regular mozzarella cheese. I may also try adding a sprinkle or two of all purpose flour, and see if that helps cut the sticky-ness of the whole grain dough. I may also try some whole wheat pizza crust recipes I've found online. That's what recipe experimentation is about, right?!?
I will say that this meal DID NOT satisfy my pizza craving. It took a lot of will power to keep on track last night, but I DID IT! One successful recipe attempt this week, and one not so successful - I'm sure there will be many more in the future.
Until next time, I leave you with a quote from Winston Churchill: "Never, never, never, never give up."
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