Thursday 28 July 2011

And I Cant Cook Either...Not As Long As They Still Deliver Pizza

Thanks so much to both of you who gave comments on improving the blog yesterday – it’s much appreciated! I think I will carry on with the theme of de-bunking healthy foods and lifestyles and encouraging people to nourish themselves in a way that is sustaining and healthy… not low fat, low energy and ultimately depressing. The other really important part of what I want to do is help people find THEIR healthy BMI – for lots of us being under 20 is just not healthy or practical to maintain… and the cost of the obsession is far too great. Trust me.
Good thing the joy of breaking free is so much fun!
I really want to carry on with the food logging, but I will do that through my Twitter account. I’ll basically enter what I eat so people can an idea of the foods I consider to be helpful, and eat regularly … with the occasional blip of course . I’ve started a winenbutter account that is separate to any I have with my friends … so I should avoid overwhelming them with constant updates about me eating sardines!
Today’s post I'm keeping pretty simple though about what I’m having for dinner tonight and how I healthed up a traditional choice.
Tonight is going to be a super quiet one. Louis is still out of town so Im going to drink a teeny glass of wine and rest up in preparation of my hen night – yipppeee!
Now as healthy as I am during the week Friday is always my treat night. I LOVE watching movies on the sofa and nothing goes as well with movies as a pizza. Nothing. It’s also so easy to just shove in the oven – no washing up or preparation required. Even in my dieting years I was always a big pizza on a Friday kind of girl – you can get smaller pizzas that only have about 500 calories (trust me, I know) and I would then chop some fresh tomatoes on it, pour a small glass of wine and call it dinner. Nowadays Im more free about the type of pizza I chose - like I’ll go WILD and get the added ricotta and spinach one for example - but the tradition has remained. I just love pizza.
But then today, I got thinking about it. As much as I’m all in favour of having treat days and letting yourself have what you fancy – I’m also all in favour of making healthy substitutions wherever possible. Healthy subsitutions means fresher and more real – not lower calorie!  I definitely don’t consider pizza an awful product, but store bought pizza really isn’t a great choice. Its totally not fresh in any way and, as much as I love the good occasional dose of sugar, I actually far prefer whole grains to refined flour anyways. Generic pizza dough is not a treat and refined flour is just SUCH a nothing food.
So then I got thinking -  ‘Why don’t I ever health it up a bit?’ I don’t have to go as far as making my own crust or anything (waaaay too much work for a Friday night) I just have to take my favourite elements of the pizza and re-create them with healthier ingredients. By doing this I could even use organic ingredients! I got thinking and here is what I came up with, and bought in the supermarket near work at lunch.
Stuff I Like About Pizza
Cheese and carbohydrate combo!
Toppings – fresh tomatoes, anchovies, jalapenos..
The crunch
The ease of preparation!
Stuff I would improve
Whole grain base
Stronger flavours
More fresh vegetables
Get to eat BOTH goat cheese red onion and anchovy plus chilli and tomato– my two favourite kinds of pizza!
My Pizza Re-Vamp
Cheese and Pumpkin Seed Spelt Crackers – I LOVE the Amisa brand!
Full Fat Philly Cream Cheese– organic might have been ideal but it was on sale!
Full Fat Spreadable Goats Cheese
Fresh cherry tomatoes
Yellow Pepper
Spinach
Red Onion
Red Onion Relish (already had some!)
Oh my goodness I am SO glad I reconsidered. The total cost of this was £7, but it will serve 2 people (that's me today, and me sunday night after recovering from my hen do!). That's 4 crackers per night - one bunch with cream cheese, tomatoes, peppers and hot mustard dressing - and one bunch with red onion relish goat cheese and some left over spinach. I was going to have a mix both nights but then I got confused half way through assembling and decided it was easier just to split between the nights. I'm a bit simple like that sometimes :)!
Anyway, although these werent a ready meal they took about 4 minutes to prepare. I used one chopping board and I shoved them all under the grill for a minute or two afterwards (weird thing to do with crackers but it worked). Call me strange but I actually prefer these to proper pizza - what can I say I'm obsessed with crunch!
A Pizza Express cook at home pizza costs £3.99 each. That’s a saving of £1 – plus I got some fresh veg servings and all the carbs are wholewheat. Massive result. The only possible downside is it wasnt hot, but sitting in a warm apartment and drinking wine, who cares! I think I will do this pretty much ALL the time from now on. Its weird isn’t it – how you can get so attached to your little unhealthy rituals that you never really even properly consider how you might actually prefer the healthier option
Anyways - this post has taken quite a while, on account of me not being TOTALLY familiar with the inner workings of my I-phone yet. I'm therefore going to leave you know, finish my mini glass of wine and get an early night. Hope to see you tomorrow!! xox

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