Nature and Pizza

I’ve got so many things I could share from the past few days that it’s hard to pick a focus for this post. I’ve settled on two things, an update on our new Vibram shoes and a new recipe we tried last night.

Yesterday we went for a nature walk/hike. We have been wearing our new shoes for short intervals this past week as we get accustomed to them. Yesterday was the longest time we’ve worn them and definitely the most terrain we’ve experienced in them so far. They really are quite an experience. It feels like you are walking barefoot but with a little barrier to protect against sharp edges. It’s a lot easier to walk on uneven ground and you really feel the ground under your feet. It feels very natural.

If you’d like to know more about Vibram and why we are so excited about these shoes, read their “Five Reasons To Wear.”

After our walk, we hit the grocery store to buy a few essentials we needed for the new recipe we wanted to try. It’s going to sound funky, but let me tell you it was A-mazing! We made a Primal Pizza using “The Perfect Primal Pizza Crust.”

First things first, we had to buy a food processor. It’s become glaringly apparent that a lot of the new recipes we hope to try required a food processor. We’ve always avoided this additional kitchen appliance but decided it was time to get over our issues about storage space and ease of cleaning. As most of you with food processors already know, the ease and speed at which it handled the shredding of our ingredients was well worth the little bit of cleanup afterwards.

On to the pizza. There are two parts to this. First, making the crust and then adding toppings to complete the pizza. For the crust, you need 1 pound of eggplant (shredded), 1/2 cup almond flour, one egg white, and 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese. Yes, I said eggplant. This was the first time either of us has eaten eggplant. It was yummy. (We also added a tbsp of red pepper flakes to give it that little kick we like to see in our foods.)

For our toppings, we used tomato sauce, cheese (mozzarella and sharp cheddar), peperoni, Canadian bacon, sausage, olives, and pineapple.

First we had to shred our eggplant. Then mix with the remaining crust ingredients.

Next, you use your hands to pat the mixture down into a crust shape about 1/4 inch think. (I do not advise using a silicone baking mat. The author of the recipe recommended parchment paper and we ended up switching to that partway through cooking because the silicone was too thick.)

After 15 minutes of baking at 450 degrees, you take the crust out and flip it, then return to the oven for another 5  minutes. We ended of flipping a third time due to our baking mat debacle and baking for closer to 30 minutes total.

Now it was time for toppings!

We baked for about 15 minutes at 350 and viola!

We cut it into fourths. We were worried that two pieces each might not be enough to fill us up, considering how much traditional pizza a person can pack away. Surprisingly, I could tell before I finished my first piece that it was plenty and that the two pieces were a perfect serving size. I cannot describe how wonderful it tasted. We were both beginning to worry just before it was finished baking that all the time and effort was going to yield something strange and inedible. We couldn’t have been more wrong. I didn’t miss the presence of traditional crust whatsoever. We could eat this weekly and we probably will!