Feeding my pizza craving

With Thursday being the last day of my work week, I started the day with only 6 1/4 hours left to work. That meant I was off early enough for a little adventure in the kitchen.

Like many—dare I say all—folks, I LOVE pizza. But now that I’m back on the low-carb wagon, I can’t just order from Domino’s … or even Rosati’s. That makes me a little sad. Rosati’s just opened in Prescott, and it has an awesome Chicago-style thin-crust pizza—cut in little squares with the tiny, crunchy edge triangles and everything. But that’s no longer on the table for me.

*Sad trombone*

The good thing is that there are plenty of low-carb pizza options. One of my go-to’s when my roommate and I went low-carb back in 2003-05 was pizza casserole: browned sausage and mushrooms, pepperoni, the lowest-carb sauce we could find and mozzarella cheese, baked until the cheese was brown and bubbly.

Voila! All the pizza toppings we both liked with none of the crust.

Pizza bites are another option (zucchini rounds or eggplant slices topped with a pepperoni and some cheese and then baked).

But sometimes you just want a good old slice of pie. You know, the triangle of crust topped with all the meats, veggies and cheese.

Enter Fat Head Pizza. I saw this recipe in the 90-day Low-Carb Challenge Facebook group I belong to.

It looked easy enough to put together, and I had all the ingredients on hand … so I decided to go for it.

Spreading the dough onto parchment paper on my pizza stone wasn’t quite as easy as I thought it would be. Probably would have helped if I’d used two sheets to cover more of the stone’s surface. (It seemed like a waste of paper, though.)

Ah well. Live and learn, right?

Another slight issue: My stupid electric stove doesn’t cook things evenly. One side of the crust was dark brown before the other side even got golden. Have I mentioned I hate cooking with electric? I learned to cook with gas, and vastly prefer it. My stove also doesn’t have any freakin’ temperatures on the knob … only Nos. 1-5. So I have no idea what temperature I’m using to cook anything.

No worries. My pizza survived.

Low-Carb Pizza!

It might be slightly misshapen, but it was seriously delicious! I skimped a bit on the cheese topping the crust because the crust itself is mostly cheese. The rest of the toppings included 1/4 cup sauce, 14 pepperoni (1 serving) and 1/2 cup thinly sliced zucchini.

I cut the pizza into quarters, and then each quarter into 2 slices. Each two-slice serving has 4.9 net carbs, according to the LoseIt app, which is where I’ve been tracking my eats.

I was a bit worried that two slices wouldn’t be enough. Usually, when faced with a  traditional pizza, I can eat a half or more. But I only dished up a quarter of the pie.

And you know what? It WAS plenty. I was amazingly satisfied with just two pieces. Adding a small side salad with blue cheese dressing would have upped the satisfaction factor, but it wasn’t necessary.

Chalk up another one for the power of low-carb, high-fat eating.

On another note, remember that snowstorm that was supposed to dump up to a foot of snow on Prescott Friday? I’d made plans to write at home … but when I woke up, there was barely a dusting in the yard, and the streets were fine.

Instead of camping out at my kitchen table, I headed to Starbucks.

This is my kind of snowstorm — flakes in the air, water on the ground.

I’ve gotten a whole lot of nothing done so far, but after I finish this blog post, I’ll try to do some actual fiction writing.

Wish me luck. If the snow starts to stick, I’ll have to vacate my Starbucks table and head home.

This isn’t the adventure I had in mind

When I said I wanted 2017 to be a year of adventure, this isn’t the kind of adventure I was thinking of having.

From the National Weather Service:

DEPENDING ON YOUR LOCATION WITHIN THE WARNING AREA, EXPECT 8 TO 16 INCHES BETWEEN 5500 AND 7000 FEET AND 12 TO 24 INCHES ABOVE 7000 FEET. IN GENERAL…ONLY LIGHT SNOW IS EXPECTED OVER THE LOWER ELEVATION AREAS OF PRESCOTT THROUGH FRIDAY WITH THE HEAVIEST SNOW FRIDAY NIGHT. HIGHER ELEVATION REGIONS OF PRESCOTT SOUTH AND WEST OF DOWNTOWN WILL RECEIVE HEAVY SNOW AT TIMES THROUGH THE ENTIRE EVENT. CONSULT POINT SPECIFIC FORECASTS AT: WEATHER.GOV/FLAGSTAFF.

Doggone it, I moved an hour and a half south to Prescott to escape massive snow events.

Okay, I really moved for my job … but I certainly hoped I wouldn’t have to see this much snow at once anymore.

I do not do well in snow — and I blame my mother, who would have turned 73 yesterday if she were still with us. Right after I learned to drive, the days it snowed were the only days Mom made me ride the school bus. Consequently, I never really learned to drive on snow/ice.

Yes, I’m 40-plus years old and have had ample opportunities to attempt winter driving. However, when I lived in Flagstaff, I was a short walk from my office, so when the skies dumped snow, I bundled up and hoofed it to work. (My editor or one of the other page designers always ran me home at the end of the night.)

So I still try not to go anywhere when the roads are crap. Luckily, I’m off on Friday and Saturday, so I shouldn’t have to drive in the brunt of this storm … But the forecast will keep me from planting my butt in a chair at Starbucks, where I can log massive writing time.

Good thing I have a Keurig at home. Also good, there’s a clear spot on my kitchen table. I’ve been trying to prep a place where I can sit and write so I don’t have to spend so much money at Starbucks every week.

*Gasp* I can’t believe I said that. Blasphemy!

It’s also part of my attempt to finally settle in at my place. I moved in there in early May 2015 and STILL have packed boxes in the living room.

May 2, 2015 – the truck is packed and ready to haul.

Remember what I said yesterday about there always being something better to do than cook? The same thing applies to unpacking.

I’ll even go a step further: I’d rather go to the dentist than unpack a box. Yes, it’s that bad. There’s a reason I only move a couple of times a decade.

It also doesn’t help that I went from having two bedrooms, a good-sized shared kitchen and living room to having a small-ish one-bedroom bungalow. (It’s cuter than cute, but there’s barely enough room to turn around in the kitchen — and there’s very little in the way of counter space.)

But I’ve probably used the size, or lack thereof, as an excuse long enough. It’s long past time to declutter and settle in.

Ha! If I’m snowed in at my place Friday and Saturday, I’ll have the perfect opportunity to do exactly that.

Too bad that’s still not the adventure I had in mind …

 

 

 

 

I’m ba-a-ck!

Long time no blog, eh?

In case you hadn’t guessed, my New Year’s resolution/intention or whatever the hell you want to call it was a big, fat bust.

Which brings me to Labor Day … and a Sept. 8 re-launch into the land of low-carbing it. As I’ve often said, Atkins is the only diet I’ve ever followed where I can forget to eat. On other plans, I’m constantly thinking about my next meal and/or snack.

Not so when I’m doing the low-carb thing.

So on Monday, I hit up not one but THREE grocery stores — Sprouts, Trader Joe’s and Walmart — in preparation for Tuesday’s start.

My grocery haul. Not included: The Atkins bars and shakes I bought for quick, on-the-go eats.

I boiled some eggs (which have already disappeared. Need to make some more.) I chopped jicama and cucumber spears. I whipped up some homemade olive oil mayo (using this recipe from Melissa Joulwan).

Since the recipe  used a whole (small) bottle of oil, it’d probably have been just as cheap to buy mayo … but this stuff tastes so much better than the crap from the store.

Before I went shopping, I planned a rudimentary menu, with certain things on  the list for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks.

Despite all my foot-dragging to get to this point, re-starting the low-carb plan has been easy. I (as always) don’t miss the pasta, bread and potatoes I’ve been OD’ing on for far too long.

Lunch the first day was pickle spears wrapped in ham and Swiss.

I forgot how delicious — and filling — they were. You see I packed three of them, because I thought I’d be hungry enough to eat three. Stopped after two and was perfectly content.

This week has been about rediscovering old favorites…and trying new foods. I tried bacon-wrapped avocado fries one morning, just because I’d seen them all over Instagram and Periscope and they looked delicious. (You can find me on Periscope: @arlenehittle.)

 

You can see them alongside this two-egg omelet topped with cherry tomatoes. They are pretty tasty, but in my quest to make sure I got crispy bacon, I might have let mine cook too long.

Ah well. There’s always next time, right? Because I’m back, and determined to take this weight off again so I can get healthy.

This morning’s breakfast was this “pumpkin pie” from the Paleo Mama.

 It’s topped with a tablespoon of coconut butter. Yum! I had to find a way to use up the rest of the can of pumpkin I opened to make a batch of Kerri O’s Paleo Pumpkin Spice Creamer.

Yes, it’s Pumpkin Spice Latte time at Starbucks. While I enjoyed the real thing several times last weekend, thanks to the “unlock the latte pass,” I needed to find a substitute starting Tuesday. I’ve been adding 2 Tablespoons of the creamer and some Splenda to iced coffee. It works — and keeps me from feeling deprived.

Not that I’ve been hungry much. It’s amazing how filling l0w-carb meals can be.

And I think I’m already noticing results. When I woke up in the middle of the night early Wednesday morning, I got out of bed without groaning and complaining about how achy I was. The achy feeling was GONE …

Things can only get better. 😀