One of the hardest things for me to give up when I'm trying to lose weight is pizza. I'm a pizza-holic, plain and simple. The average person's response would be, "Even when you're dieting, you can still enjoy things you like. Just remember, everything in moderation!" I've always been above average, so said logic just doesn't cut it for me. As I've mentioned many times before, I can easily eat a large pizza without assistance of a friend. In fact, if a friend happens to be anywhere near the pizza, we need to go ahead and order/cook a second pizza. I am an addict and the good Papas John and Murphy are my dealers. With the carb restrictions imposed by the 17 Day Diet, daddy can't get his fix right now. I've been on the hunt for a solution to help curve my constant craving (I may have had a bit of a relapse this weekend while we were ice fishing...a couple of times), and I know that if I don't find a healthy alternative to Domino's, I'm never going to beat this thing. I ordered some 17 DD cookbooks that had over 1,000 recipes in them, including three different "pizza" recipes. I have limitations on how far I'm able to go in trying to trick my brain into believing something is what it isn't (for instance, blended cauliflower can taste like mashed potatoes, but Greek yogurt is not a Blizzard). Tonight I decided to bust out a spinach crust that consisted of chopped frozen spinach that was thawed out and patted dry, spinach, salt, oregano, basil, egg whites, and Parmesan cheese. I mixed it all together and evenly distributed it into a cookie pan. From the look of what was going into the oven, this was headed towards disaster. After about 15 minutes in the oven, I pulled it out and was pleasantly surprised and how it had kind of pulled together to form a solid substance. I flipped it over (which was easier than I thought it would be) and stuck it back in the oven for a couple of minutes to make sure there wasn't any mush left in it. In the meantime, I cooked up some Italian style chicken sausage links, one of my favorite grocery store finds. I pulled the spinach crust out, put a little no-sugar added marinara on it, and added a little turkey pepperoni, low fat mozeralla, and the cut up chicken sausage on top. I popped it back in the oven for about five minutes to melt the cheese and to get the flavors melted together. When I pulled it out, I was surprised to find what looked like pizza. The question remained...would it taste like pizza? Ladies and gentlemen, I am hear to tell you that...no, no it doesn't. Don't be ridiculous! Nothing tastes like the delicious ooey-gooey greasiness of pizza. BUT! But this was about as close as I think I'm going to get on a low to no carb diet, and I think I'm okay with that. The toppings are the same toppings I would use on a regular pizza, and the crust held together pretty well. It still has a spinach taste to it (why wouldn't spinach taste like spinach) and the texture was more egg souffle than doughy crust, but it wasn't any worse than a spinach flavored tortilla wrap and I kind of like egg souffle. I still want to try some of the other recipes for crust as the cravings come back around, but I'm giving spinach pizza crust a solid passing grade.
What are the cravings that cripple you when you're trying to cut calories/fat/carbs? How do you get over those cravings? Do you have any handy alternatives that you use when you just can't shake the need for your favorite unhealthy foods? As always, I love your feedback and tips!
See you tomorrow!
Jeff
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