A little vacation...

June 30th. Have I really been away so long? I apologize!

In celebration of the holiday, I took a little break. I was feeling sort of "blah" - uninspired if you will. The joy of cooking is so much less when mixed with the joy of weight loss. I have to re-focus my efforts into low calorie, low fat, high flavor, foods. It's taking me a moment to re-center myself, but I do think I'm onto something.

I am enjoying the process of creating homemade salad dressings. My most recent attempt was a ginger-citrus that was "eh." However, I like the intensity of flavor in homemade dressings. I think I will start experimenting with ingredients in this arena.

The most recent healthy endeavor was re-creating my pizza recipe. I made a pizza that was roughly 7 points, or around 350 calories. It was filling, tasty, and wonderful! Made with wholesome bread flour, vegetables, and fresh mozzarella. When I say roughly - that means it ACTUALLY adds up to 6 (4 for the crust, 2 for the cheese, 0 for the veggies and sauce). However, for the small variances I added a point - just to be safe!

All I did was omit the oil (completely) in the crust. After I kneaded as directed, I placed the dough in the bowl and sprayed oil over the top . I let it rest, and then divided the pizzas into 8 servings (instead of 4). I carefully spread out each ball into a disk, and then I let it rise for around another 30 minutes before I put them on the grill. Confident of my pizza skills, I cooked four at a time. For my pizza, I sprinkled some diced tomatoes, mushrooms, green peppers, onions, and exactly one ounce of FRESH mozzarella cheese. I sliced this very thin so I could disperse it around the pizza quite carefully and evenly.

If you are wondering about how it turned out - my husband reported that it was the best pizza ever. Better than any I had ever made before. Apparently the oil and extra fats were not as necessary as I had thought.

SO, if you're watching your caloric intake - and want to try some excellent pizza, this is a good option.