Pita Pizzas with Red Pepper and Spinach

Busy week so far. Every time my boss is out the day flies by and I never seem to get everything done in a day. But I always learn a lot because it's sometimes a sink or swim. Today I was editing down a long video clip for the web for the first time. Exciting stuff.

And now my cat Bella is monopolizing my lap.

These Pita Pizzas are a great weeknight meal after a long day at work. They're light, but pretty tasty and there's not a whole lot faster. It's also built-in portion control. What's better than that?

These have spinach and red pepper and provolone cheese. They originally called for dill Havarti, which would actually probably be better, but I wanted to use what I had in the fridge.

I don't normally like nontraditional crusts with pizza. I like regular pizza crust. Anything else just felt diety and reminded me what I was missing. But somehow, this time it worked for me. Maybe it was the unique toppings. It wasn't trying to be a pepperoni pizza. You know?

Pita Pizzas with Spinach and Roasted Red Peppers
Adapted from Everyday Food. Serves 1

1 small pita
1/2 cup baby spinach leaves
1/2 cup or so roasted red peppers, sliced
1/4 cup shredded provolone
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 425.

Layer the spinach, peppers and cheese salt and pepper. Bake 5-6 minutes until the pita begins to brown up and the cheese melts.

Veggie Pizza

I continue to make ugly meals. Actually, last night's was just plain terrible. I threw most of it away. I'd like to end this cooking funk pronto. It was a pretty crummy cap to an equally cruddy day.

At least today was better — even though I only ate scrambled egg whites and toast. Some nights that's perfect, for tonight, it was. I also learned tonight that my cat, Bella, loves crackers. If Kashi ever needs a spokescat she happily volunteers — she only requires a lifetime of TLC original crackers as payment. Also acceptable crackers — graham crackers and cheeze-its.

Anyhow, since I don't have a recent meal to share I'll share my veggie pizza I made a week or so ago. I don't know how I missed this. It was delicious!

I saw this pizza dough on a blog recently, and that's what started my craving. I immediately started day dreaming about veggie pizza.

After I graduated college, I went out a lot with one of my coworkers from the movie theater I worked at part time. After a long night of drinking we usually needed some food to soak it all up, so we found ourselves at a late night pizza shop. She's vegetarian so it was always a veggie pizza. Our favorite? Broccoli and feta cheese. If you've never had broccoli on a pizza — try it. I thought she was crazy at first, but it totally works.

From that time on I've been hooked on pizzas loaded with veggies. Another favorite is loaded with roma tomatoes, fresh mushrooms and green peppers. So all of the above went on my version. For the sauce, I used this quick recipe I saw on another blog.

And it didn't disappoint me. Maybe not as good as what I can get at my local shops, but probably the best at-home version I've made so far.

Even Bella agrees. She looks agreeable, no?

Garden Tomato and Basil Pesto Pizza

Right now, I’m finding very difficult to stay on track. One night this week, I found myself digging in to leftover and munching on them cold while I was in the process of making dinner. And this was after I had raw veggies dipped in white bean dip and a whole-grain granola bar.

What the heck is my problem?

I’m up to my highest weight ever and for some reason getting back on track seems overwhelming. It’s as though I can only get my act together when something is going wrong in my life. Last time I was at my goal weight it was because I spent 5 days a week in the gym post break-up with a guy I dated for more than a year.

Now I’m in a stable, loving relationship, generally like my job, occasionally see my friends, and I even love my apartment.

I like to blame it on my eating schedule: Breakfast around 8:30, lunch at noon, and dinner around 7-ish. Six hours is a really long time to go without food, and even though I try to eat a snack in between, I get over hungry and find myself continually munching from the time I get home at 5:30 until when the boyfriend finally gets home at 6:45.

I’m in need of a snacking intervention. So, I’m making a mid-year’s resolution — to tackle the small stuff first. In a way I already have. I’ve stopped snacking on fake sugary yogurts and swapped for nonfat plain yogurt, and I’m now regularly taking vitamins (children’s chewables.. they are not as tasty as I remember them). And I must be doing something right for my body. The boyfriend has brought home several viruses (one persistent cough and the flu) from the kiddies at the daycare he works at and I haven’t yet gotten sick (knock on wood).

But in order to get back to my healthy weight I need to do more. So here’s the plan:

• Get some sort of activity for at least 30 minutes, three times a week. I’m starting small. Don’t judge.


• Cut back on the booze. I’m not a boozer and I can’t remember the last time I was actually drunk. A beer a night may not be unhealthy (supposedly women can have a drink a day without harming our health), it’s certainly not helping me lose any weight.


• Continue the healthy snacks and vitamins.

Anyways, in honor of my favorite nightly beverage, I’m offering up beer’s best buddy — pizza. I posted about this pizza before, but this time I made it with homemade pesto and a homemade whole wheat crust. I’m not including the dough recipe because it’s not worth making again. Need to go back to the drawing board on this one.

Pepperoni Pizza

Ok, so this is nothing all that special. It's just a pepperoni pizza. And it isn't Core, but I've been craving pizza and have been on Flex this week because my schedule is seriously insane. When I don't have control over what I'm eating or I'm not up to fussing much in the kitchen, flex is the way to go. But it'll be back to my regular Core postings next week.

I know this *looks* like an ordinary pepperoni pizza. But it really is homemade, crust and sauce. I stop short of making my own pepperoni.

And if you have a breadmaker it's even easier. It was mixing, kneading, and letting the dough rise while I exercised. Talk about zero effort. The sauce was also simple, mix the ingredients and let simmer away. The dough is the basic dough recipe from Cooking Light and the sauce recipe follows.

Tomato Sauce
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 (8-ounce) can no-salt-added tomato sauce
1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley

Heat a small saucepan coated in cooking spray over medium heat. Add the minced garlic and saute 1 minute. Add the oregano, salt, crushed red pepper, and tomato sauce. Bring to a boil then turn down the heat and let simmer about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in parsley.

Two-Cheese Tortilla Pizza

Part of being successful on Weight Watchers is learning what foods are your trigger foods, or foods you have trouble controlling yourself around. Pizza is mine.

If I have one slice, I'll end up eating four. I love pizza. LOVE IT. I've tried find alternatives, but it hasn't been easy. I've made low fat pizzas with homemade dough. They're great, but I still end up eating 4 slices. Better than full-fat pizza, but still not good.

I've tried making them with English muffins. Those didn't even taste like a pizza. I also tried pitas, but they just weren't that great. Frozen light pizzas offer portion control your choices are limited. Most have cheese, pepperoni, or a combination pizza. What if I want mushrooms, green peppers and tomatoes? Plus, the toppings are skimpy.

So when I saw a recipe using a tortilla I hoped this would be the answer. I could customize it, it tastes almost like a pizza, and it's built in portion control. In theory it would work. But I was disappointed with the particular recipe. Not a fan of the canned tomatoes. I would definitely go with fresh tomatoes or regular old pizza sauce. But the tortilla idea -- I liked it. I'll have to do it again sometime.

Two-Cheese Tortilla Pizza with Arugula Salad
4 whole-wheat tortillas (8-inch)
3 tsp olive oil
2 cans (14.5 oz each) diced tomatoes drained
3/4 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella
1 oz. percorino romano, shaved with a vegetable peeler
1/4 cup pitted kalamata olives, halved length wise
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
kosher salt and ground black pepper
2 bunches arugala, torn
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Set racks to upper third and lower third of the oven. Place tortillas on two baking sheets brushed with a teaspoon of oil. Top each of the tortillas with the tomatoes, cheeses, olives, and red pepper flakes. Bake until tortilla is brown and crisp, 13 to 15 minutes, rotating half way through cooking time.

While the pizzas are cooking, whisk together the vinegar, remaining 2 tsp oil, and salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Once the pizzas are done baking, toss the arugala with the vinaigrette and top pizzas with torn basil.

Nutritional Info: 310 calories/13.9 grams of fat/3.3 grams of fiber

Pizza cravings...

A month ago, I had a pizza craving. And last night I *finally* gave into it. I made my favorite summertime pizza, the Garden Tomato and Basil Pesto Pizza from Cooking Light. Of course, this takes a lot of shortcuts with a premade crust and jarred pesto. Last night I took the short cuts, but in the height of summer, I do make my own fresh pesto. By the way, that's a whole wheat Boboli crust. I didn't burn it that much, I swear. Which leads me to my inability to make a crust. I can't seem to make a crust that's not soggy in the center and hard and burnt on the edges. And don't get me started on how dumb I am with a rolling pin. Maybe I should take lessons from my dad, who grew up working in my grandpa's pizza shop.