Pizza Face Off

We've been “afterschooling” lately-supplementing a not-so-great teacher’s kindergarten curriculum (AKA free daycare) with our own lessons. Tonight’s lesson combined reading, math, science, civics, photography, and writing, and ended with a delicious dinner. 

Left: cauliflower crust, right: meatza

I planned for pizza this week, but we needed a few last minute items, so we started at the grocery store where the man cub had a list of things to find and compare prices. The question of the night was: cauliflower crust pizza, or meatza? He was skeptical of meatza and oddly confident about of cauliflower crust so we decided to make both. We measured and cooked together, he took pictures and wrote our recipe tweaks for next time, then we ate and voted for the winner. 

Candidate #1 Cauliflower Crust Pizza:

We followed this recipe pretty closely for the crust, but topped with just mozzarella and pepperoni. I mixed an easy sauce with a small can of organic tomato paste, a can of water, 1 tsp minced garlic, 1 tsp each oregano and basil, and a dash of sea salt. 

The recipe says to use a cooking spray to grease the pan and then “spray crust with cooking spray”. Instead, we used coconut oil on the pan and took our chances with the crust. After 15 minutes of baking the edge was getting a little dark and the top wasn’t as golden as it could have been, but once the toppings were added and broiled, it was perfect.

Candidate #2 Meatza:

We started with this recipe as our base, but changed a few things out of necessity. We left out the cheese in the crust since I can’t tolerate it. We used fresh pressed garlic instead of powder, added an extra ½ tsp chili powder and skipped the cayenne since we didn't have any on hand. I diced up some shallots instead of using onion powder. Finally, we added some finely chopped basil to the crust mixture.

We topped it with the sauce mentioned above and made one with mozzarella and pepperoni, another with no cheese, just sauce, peppers, tomatoes, shallots, garlic and basil.  

Here are all of the crusts going into the oven

The verdict?

That's "best guess spelling" for "meatza is the winner"

Pizza is a lot like sex; 

even when it’s bad, it’s still pretty damn good!

I couldn’t try the cauliflower crust because it has cheese in it, but it smelled amazing and had a texture that was closer to traditional crust. Man Cub was sad to find out that “it tastes like cauliflower”. (Next lesson? Predictions)

Meatza was a clear winner for him. He was thrilled with himself, and ate about four pieces. Mine was good, but it’s not quite pizza without cheese or pepperoni (If anyone knows of a casein free pepperoni I’d be all over it). 

So there it is...give it a try and let me know what wins in YOUR house! 

Fruit and Almond Bars- Man Cub Approved

These make great snacks for the man cub's school lunches or a snack, and they are also great money savers when you consider that one Larabar costs around $1.50 and gluten free rice bars cost around $5 for a box of 6, and contain lots of undesirable ingredients. I spent about $11 on ingredients for these, and made 18 bars. ($.60 each- not including the bits we tasted, and the fruit that got eaten in the car on the way home from TJ's).

**PAF disclaimer: The Trader Joe dried fruits contain sugar and sunflower oil.

Triple Fruit Bars
1/2 bag (4 oz) TJ's Triple Fruit Treat or you own dehydrated mango, cranberries and blueberries.
1/2 bag almond slivers (or any raw almonds)
1/4 cup virgin coconut oil
2 tbs ground chia seeds
1 tbs raw organic honey

Orange Chocolate Cranberry Bars
1/2 bag almond slivers (or any raw almonds)
1 bag orange flavored cranberries
3tbs organic cocoa powder
1/4 cup virgin coconut oil
2 tbs ground chia seeds
1tbs raw organic honey
(You could make these more natural with plain dried cranberries and orange zest)

Almond Joy Bars
1/2 bag almond slivers
3 tbs cocoa powder
1 cup large unsweetened coconut flakes
1/4 cup virgin coconut oil
2tbs ground chia seeds
1 tbs raw organic honey

If you have a great food processor, you can probably just throw it all in. Mine is a little cheap one, so I finely chopped the almonds in it, and used a butcher knife to finely chop the fruit separately, and a mortar to grind the chia seeds. 

Mix all the ingredients together. 

Spread mixture onto wax paper, cover with more wax paper, and roll until it forms a dense rectangle about an inch thick. 

Cut into bars (some shaping is necessary here to pack the bars firm) and individually wrap tightly. 

Bars will firm up in the refrigerator as coconut oil hardens.  

Enjoy! 

Wrap in plastic wrap for portability and store in the refrigerator.
They might fall apart if they get too warm, but no one has complained yet!