For Emma’s dinner last night, I threw together a very easy pizza that was both a hit and very nutritious.  It’s a tortilla, topped with marinara sauce, topped with very finely chopped raw broccoli and kale, topped with rice cheese.  Throw it in the oven until it’s bubbly and voila!  She seemed to like it, although the broccoli did give it a very “green” taste that she kept saying was “spicy.”  I don’t know that she had the word to describe it correctly, so she settled on “spicy.”  We’re in between vitamins at the moment (switching brands and I have to order them), so that’s why I wanted to throw in an extra vegetable to her dinner.  I guess I really shouldn’t worry since most kids I know have WAY worse eating habits and don’t take a vitamin at all.  Anyway, I don’t know that I’ll put the raw broccoli in there again.  Cooked broccoli seems more mild in flavor (aka less detectable).

Emma requested pizza for lunch today and, since I had a package of whole wheat dough and some soy and rice cheese to use up, I thought it sounded like a great idea. Instead of making one big pizza, I cut my dough into sixths to make mini pizzas that I could freeze for future use. It’s always handy to have stuff like this in the freezer for days when I need to go grocery shopping but don’t, or for night’s when our dinner may be objectionable to her.

I had about 3 leaves of kale left in the fridge, so I used my chopper to chop them teeny tiny. I love that thing- it chops up anything in about 3 seconds flat.  Layer the pizza in this order: sauce, kale (be generous, they won’t even know it’s there), cheese.  Nothing to it!

I used a combo soy cheese and rice cheese.  I have to admit that neither of them are vegan, as they do contain casein, but vegan cheese is really pretty nasty.  I really do feel bad, but a little slip like this every now and again is OK, I suppose.  I can only do my best, but it’s a good thing the vegan police weren’t in my kitchen today.  One note about the rice cheese: I think I actually prefer it to the soy cheese.  Once melted, it had a more cheesy texture.  I think I’ll keep an eye out for a vegan rice cheese the next time I’m at Whole Foods.

Emma really loved these, and I did end up freezing the rest between pieces of wax paper.

So, Emma and I were at the grocery store yesterday morning and I asked her what she’d like to have for lunch. Her response: pizza. Hmm… I know it was an honest answer because there wasn’t anything pizza related in sight. In fact, I have no idea where it came from aside from a craving. I thought it sounded pretty good too and I grabbed a pack of pizza dough (whole wheat, of course). On the way home from the store, I realized that I didn’t really buy anything to put on the pizza other than sauce so I started brainstorming all the things in our fridge and freezer that could fit the bill. Here’s what I came up with: tofu, basil, spinach. It basically turned into an inverted pizza (sauce on the top) and was actually pretty good. All I had was extra super duper firm tofu, which I thought would be too much for this, but not so. Once blended, it was a thick creamy consistency and it only tasted of basil and spinach. I’ll definitely be making this again.  Hers was just tofu and sauce, while mine was tofu, sauce, kalamata olives, green olives and roasted red peppers.  Definitely more tasty with all the stuff piled up on top!

Tofu Pizza

1/4 of a package of tofu (I guess that would be about 1/4 of a pound)

handful fresh basil leaves

handful fresh or frozen spinach (or kale)

1/2 clove garlic

Pinch S&P

Puree everything in a food processor or blender. Roll out your dough. Spread tofu mixture on top of dough and top the tofu mixture with marinara or pizza sauce (I used jarred). Top with your favorite toppings.

Not to toot my own horn, but I thought this idea was so clever.  I had some leftover pureed calzone filling (marinara sauce, cashew cheese, spinach, kale, and broccoli) that I needed to use up (or else stick in the freezer).  I didn’t have any pizza dough on hand, nor did I have the time to roll it out to make Emma’s “pizza,” so I decided to use the filling to make a quesadilla.  How clever!  Emma really likes quesadillas, but up until now, I haven’t thought of a veganized version.  For some extra calories and fat, I “buttered” the tortilla before pan frying.  These were a big hit!  She ate the entire thing.

I had this idea for pizza, but at the last minute, decided to make calzones instead. I was pretty pleased with how they turned out and I will definitely be making them again.

To make the calzones, I divided my pizza dough (store bought whole wheat) evenly into thirds. One of the thirds I divided in half (to make Emma an extra one that I could freeze). I then rolled them all out into circles and filled them with the rest of my cashew cheese, some frozen spinach, and a few broccoli florets (also frozen). I had originally planned to throw some basil in there too, but forgot until they were already baking. I baked them at 450 degrees for about 20 minutes on my new baking stone (thanks, Brianne and Paul!). We had some marinara on the side for dipping. They were great! The best part was that Emma liked them too. She loves pizza and this is a good veganized version that tastes pretty close to the real thing. For hers, I took all of the filling components, plus a little bit of marinara and gave them a whirl in the food processor before stuffing the dough.

On the side, we had a chopped salad. We are out of lettuce and the only fresh veggies in the fridge were the last of my organic golden beets, some baby carrots and some celery. I chopped up all of those, plus an apple and pear, topped it with my balsamic dijon vinaigrette and sprinkled on some toasted pine nuts, walnuts, pistachios, and dried cranberries. Very tasty!