Healthy, low fat pizza is possible!

So obviously I try to fill up most of my diet with dark leafy greens and keep the carbs/fats at a minimum. But I will always absolutely love pizza. Fortunately me and my mother were able to find a way to enjoy pizza without the guilt of all the fat and carbs that your average slice of pizza has. Oh, and it still tastes really good.

                                    I think this is proof of how good it is.

                   So what we use can all be purchased at your local health food store.

        Middle East Bakery wheat flour pitas. We get them at Mrs. Green's in the bread isle, I'm sure they can be found in any other health food store as well. 

        One pita is only 70 calories!! When using them for a pizza, they're best when toasted.

         I know that almond cheese may sound a bit odd but it doesn't even taste like almonds, it tastes like a mild mozzarella cheese. This also can be found at Mrs. Green's or any other health food store. It can be bought in an 8 oz package and shred on a cheese grater.

       Other than the great taste, this is one of my favorite parts about this cheese:

        Cheese with only 50 calories and 1 gram of fat per serving is pretty miraculous in my opinion...

        Not only that but it also is a good source of protein and contains some fiber.

  

There isn't very specific instructions to making this, just toasting the pita, putting your favorite tomato sauce on, sprinkle the grated almond cheese on top, melt it and you have your own individual, healthy, low calorie, low fat pizza! 

                                          It does taste as good as it looks.

Kale salad with orange peanut dressing & some food facts

 Many Americans aren't aware of how significant leafy greens are in our diets. They are rich in micronutrients that are proven to prevent cancer. Diets that are high in vegetables, fruits, beans and nuts and low in animal products have been demonstrated in 15,000 studies to dramatically lower cancer rates. Not only are they amazing for your long-term health but they are great for weight loss. Since you can eat large amounts of it without gaining weight and if you are over weight it will help you lose excess pounds. A cup of kale is only 34 calories! Most Americans are also misled to believe that dairy is your only source of calcium when one 4 oz serving of steamed collards or kale has about the same amount of calcium as one cup of milk. Green vegetables also have calcium absorption rates of over 50% compared with about 32% for milk. 

 One problem I often see is people ordering a Caesar Salad thinking that they are going for the healthier option when you are probably eating just as much fat and saturated fat as you would if you ordered a cheese burger. One tbsp of Caesar Salad dressing has 8 grams of fat and has just about no nutritional value. 


My mother discovered an amazing Orange Peanut dressing that is one of the best salad dressings I have ever had and it is healthy. Dr. Fuhrman states that having nuts with your leafy greens enhances the absorption of the cancer fighting nutrients in the leafy greens which is why the peanuts in this dressing are an important ingredient. The Vitamin C in the orange helps to absorb the iron from the leafy greens as well. I was NOT a fan of salads or vegetables at all when first starting out this way of eating and this was the salad dressing that got me to actually enjoy my veggies. 

     I love to have the orange peanut dressing on raw kale and dried cranberries, it is absolutely delicious and so filling! 

        Not to mention that kale is the most nutrient dense food that you can eat.


Ingredients for Orange peanut dressing:

• 1/2 cup of orange juice
• 2 tablespoons peanut butter, unsalted
• 2 tablespoons raw cashew butter
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon Bragg Liquid Aminos or low sodium soy sauce
• 1/4 inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated
• 1/4 medium clove garlic, chopped

  Blend all dressing ingredients in high powered blender or food processor.

Healthy chocolate chip cookies!

I have always had a weakness for chocolate chip cookies, so it was so exciting to find a healthy chocolate chip cookie recipe that wasn't loaded with white flour, white sugar, eggs or butter. I kid you not, they were the best tasting chocolate chip cookies I have ever had.

The ingredients were really quite simple as well as making them.

Those are just about all the ingredients I used, only one missing is the low-fat vanilla soy milk.


Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup plus 1/2 cup oat flour (140g) 
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 4 tbsp coconut sugar (or Sucanat)
• 4 tbsp more coconut sugar is what I did instead of xylitol 
• 3 tbsp to 1/2 cup chocolate chips 
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp vegetable or coconut oil
• 3-5 tbsp milk of choice, as needed. (I used low-fat vanilla soy milk)

Preheat oven to 380 degrees. Combine all dry ingredients and then add in the wet ingredients. Mix very well. Then put into tiny balls on a cookie sheet and bake for 7 minutes. I was able to make about 15 good sized cookies with this recipe, I probably would have been able to make more if I didn't eat so much of the batter. :D

You will not regret making these at all!

Gushing over Grace

Since I've been on an awesome 2 week break from school, I've been kind of lazy with the recipe making, but I promise that my next blog entry will be of one or more great, worth-while recipes that I have recently made. That's one of my biggest goals on here. 

I know that every first-time parent thinks that every new thing their child does is the most amazing thing they've ever witnessed and they think their child is the smartest. Well, in their eyes that really is true to them. I know I'm biased because Grace is my daughter but, I am continuously impressed with how quickly she grasps onto the concept of things, her problem solving skills and how many words she has been attempting to say already. At 11 months she was trying to put her shoes on that she wore all day the previous day and I was just amazed. Also before she turned a year she had been watching me brush my hair and picked up her brush and tried doing the same. 

I took out her Fisher Price gum ball machine when she was about 9 months old, which is basically where they take a ball, put it in the top and then press a lever to release it out the bottom. She watched me do that only a handful of times and started doing it herself and it was the most incredible thing I had ever seen. I must sound crazy. I know that every parent can relate to this moment though, so that makes me feel less preposterous. 

  It's definitely a type of love I've never experienced before. The kind where you would literally do anything for that person. Kind of a juvenile example, but, I'm scared to death of bees, but when there's one slightly near Grace, I don't even hesitate to get that bee away from her. 

She's made me a better person in every possible way. No one in this world has been able to motivate me in the way that she has or give me the level of faith that I now have. Her name has such an intense amount of irony to it.  "It is understood by Christians to be a spontaneous gift from God to man - "generous, free and totally unexpected and undeserved" - that takes the form of divine favor, love and clemency." -The definition of Grace.