gluten, dairy, and soy free pesto pizza with sun dried tomatoes

"but what do you do about pizza?!?!?!!"
-almost everyone.

although i never ate pizza that often, i am definitely a fan of a good quality fresh and tasty slice of pizza. and yes, i do miss it. i had finally come up with a gluten free dairy free pizza that i liked, but it used soy cheese (which i still think is a great cheese if you can eat soy). after i found out i had a soy intolerance as well, that eliminated most alternative cheeses except for this one cheese: Galaxy Nutritional Foods Rice Vegan- Soy and Casein Free Cheese Slices. There are three different types (american, pepper jack, and chedder, but only in slice form). If you are only dairy free, they have a variety of lactose and soy free cheeses. I avoid casein, so i can only have the sf/cf slices. Anyways, they don't melt very well, so they were out for pizza.

so anyways, i'm all for making everything from scratch, as i tend to do, but i'm really finding that i need to buy a few prepared things to not make myself starve and go crazy waiting for food to be ready. so i bought some frozen pizza crusts on a whim the other day at my new favorite grocery store. they are kinnikinnick foods 7" pizza crusts. to me they resemble a greek style gyro bread if you just heat them up, but they make a lovely pizza crust. it's hard to describle, but what i liked most about it was the flour texture on the outside that is like bread made on a well dusted board, similar to regular pizza crust. i think this is due to the sweet rice flour that's added to the dough when rollng it out.

so this is what i did for my simple and super fast and tasty pizza:

1. made some pesto (unfortunately these measurements are all approximate because i was just throwing them all in):
-approx 1.5 cups packed organic basil, 1 cup packed cilantro, 1/4 cup pine nuts, 1/4 cup cashews, 3 Tbsp chopped garlic, 1/4 tsp sea salt, 1/4 tsp pepper, 1 Tbsp nutritional yeast, 4 Tbsp good tasting olive oil
-throw the ingredients except the olive oil into a food processor and mix. gradually add the olive oil until well blended. taste, adjust flavors to your taste and go!
*i usually make a lot of pesto then store it in a container with extra olive oil on top which can later be used for pasta, eggs, etc.
*the nutritional yeast adds a bit of a cheesy flavor that's a great sub for parmesan

2. lightly oiled the top of the crust with olive oil.

3. spread pesto on top

4. spread toppings on (for my first one i used sun dried tomatoes and all natural cilantro chicken sausage from trader joe's (pictured above). for my second one i used sun dried tomatoes and roasted red peppers (pictured below). i also sprinkled soem crushed red peppers on top.

5. put in oven at 400 degrees for approximately 10 minutes (check periodically depending on your oven).

kind of silly to even give a recipe, but it was a great assurance that good pizza can be enjoyed even without all of the dairy, gluten, etc... (and quickly!)


Pin It Now!

greens greens the magical.... vegetable?

i've loved greens of all types since i was little... call me a southern girl, but they've been part of my family meals forever. i didn't start cooking them myself until a year or two ago though-- partly because i didn't realize how easy they were to make! i always watched my mom make an intimidatingly big pot of them, overflowing full of mustard greens, kale, spinach, and collards, and watch them cook down for a lonnnngggg time... my dad's favorite way to eat them is with apple cider vinegar, so we would always sprinkle some on top.

now that's great, but after experimenting and reading more about them myself, i realized number one, you don't have to cook them forever. number two, there are so many things you can do with them!! i do still love to mix all the different types of greens together, but sometimes i like them separately as well. i also read something else recently, that you should chop them right before you put them into the pan, because a lot of the nutrients drain out when you cut them.

so here's one fairly simple mix i did recently:


Kale with Cashews and Sun-Dried Tomatoes







1 large bunch of kale, chopped
1 red onion
approx 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes
1/2 cup cashew pieces or halves
1 Tbsp chopped garlic
1-2 Tbsp sesame seeds (depending on your liking)
salt
a dash or two of red chili flakes (optional)
optional: 1/4 cup chicken broth

Sauté the onion in some oil (flavored olive oil works well here). Add garlic and stir for another minute or so. Add chili flakes here if you're going to use it, or use black pepper. Also add the salt (I'm not sure how much i used, but I used sea salt, and tended to be generous with it and taste and add more depending on the flavor in the end).

Add the chopped kale into the onion/garlic mixture, and sauté for approximately 5-8 minutes. Add the broth if you're using it.

Add in the cashews, tomatoes, and half of the sesame seeds and stir for another few minutes.

Serve hot and sprinkle more sesame seeds over it for garnish.

Enjoy! Pin It Now!