Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Build Your Own Pizza (so you can just turn your nose up at it later) Bar

Studies are showing more and more that diet has a huge influence on one's risk of colon cancer.  Focusing on a more plant-based diet and cutting down on or eliminating meat is one of many modifications, so I have worked to eat less meat and obtain my proteins from other sources.  We're also trying to model good eating habits for HRH.
When I was pregnant, I could not even look at a piece of lettuce (or any proper veggie) without turning green myself.  Three days after I found out that I done got myself knocked up was Easter Sunday, and I had brought a lovely salad, replete with blueberries, corn, carrots, strawberries, and more (oh, it was a vision of loveliness, I tell you) as my part of the family pot luck.  When dinner came around, I took one look at that bowl of greens and veggies and fruit, all packed with nutrients, and had to back very quickly away in order to avoid 1) ruining Easter dinner for everyone and 2) prematurely announcing that we were expecting.
I honestly did try to eat well.  I knew that what I ate during pregnancy would inform what my child ate post-womb emergence.
Well, you know what they say.... the best laid plans o' mice and men.... blah, blah, blah.
My diet consisted mostly of chilled grapes, whole milk by the gallon, Nestle Drumsticks, and lots of buttery, cheesy pasta.  There were also about two weeks that I had to eat a salami sandwich with iceberg lettuce, provolone cheese, mustard, and a ton of pepperoncinis on a toasted white bun.
Hence giving birth to Picky Picky.
So the Philistine household has been active, lately, in our campaign to get HRH to eat "real people food."  One of our major tactical moves is to get her to participate in the food preparation.  Tonight, she and I made sugar cookies using a recipe from Peas and Thank You (bonus - being a vegan recipe, there was no issue with letting her lick the spatula).  Sunday we were a little more creative and made mini pizzas on the grill, using as many fresh veggies and various ingredients (no pepperoni in sight) as we could.
I ate a ton of pizza when I was pregnant, too.  This had to be a win.
HRH was thrilled to pull up the step stool and throw on her little bumblebee apron (carefully chosen over the ladybug one) to create a mini pizza from all these assorted ingredients:

Arugula, butternut squash, and eggplant from our CSA
She chose red sauce and mozzarella cheese.
And then she didn't eat it.
My personal favorite was the arugula pesto-cashew-feta-caramelized onion-mushroom-eggplant combo, but everything that we made was pretty tasty.  I did struggle with the butternut squash, as several years ago I had a bit of a negative experience with an attempt at butternut squash soup (perhaps that was the start of what I feel is my inability to make a good squash soup).  But with apples and a little feta, it was really nice on the grilled pizza.

Arugula pesto, feta, mozzarella, mushroom,
kalamata olives, & onions caramelized with a bit of Coke®
Next time, I'll stop knitting long enough to make real pizza dough (that was really the only disappointing part of dinner) and remember the cashews before the third pizza.  Seriously - if you've never had cashews on a pizza, you haven't lived.

1 comment:

  1. haha I've never tried cashews on a pizza! Coincidentally, I've never lived.
    I'll get on that. ;)
    Tonight is homemade pizza night...methinks I might add more veggies to the mix now.

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