Pizza

Everyone has that one food. That one food that could easily send them over the brink. That one food that flashes in your mind when told you have to change your diet. For you it may be steak, french fries, chips (I know, I'm only making this worse.) But for my roommate and compadre, it is pizza.

Our roommate is in charge of Friday night dinner. Every Friday night. For exchange of endless groceries and homemade dinners every other night of the week, she's in charge of Friday. And every Friday, like clockwork, we've had pizza.

Usually Domino's. Sometimes she's fancies it up with Streets of NY. Occasionally she'll diversify into Papa Johns or frozen. However, when she heard about the new diet, she was supportive yet horrified.

"No pizza?!?!"

So I found it my personal mission to find an alternative.

I thought about it for a minute. Hmmm, crust? No flour. Paste? No sugar. Cheese? No cheese. Toppings? No meat.

Ugh, is this going to be impossible?!

I would not give up though. My firs, desperate stop the first business night that we went PBWF, was Whole Foods. I had heard horrendous stories about this chain. Overpriced. Overpriced. And perhaps a bit pretentious. But where else was I gonna go? Many a friend talked about Trader Joes, but it wasn't a "health food" store per say. I figure the least I could get was maybe some pita bread, crushed tomatoes, and lord help me, what would I use for cheese?!?

The most important part of the pizza! Cheese! What could possibly substitute for it? There really is nothing. No kale or veggie would ever match the gooey wonderfulness that is cheese.

But as I was perusing the hot foods setup, my son ran to a counter and yelled, "Pizza!" I thought, "that's nice, he found pepperoni pizza. I'm sure it's healthy, but his dad and I can't eat it."

As I stood waiting for the man to deliver my boy his pizza, I glanced over the display and came to the words, "Vegan Pizza." Okay, I thought, as I dissected it with my eyes. It looks like pizza. That's a bonus. Crust is probably not within out PBWF, but the rest of it is fair game. healthy tomato sauce, kale, eggplant and what appeared to be some cheese substitute. I eagerly asked for three large slices. Hopeful, but secretly knowing I would bring it home and probably be disgusted. I bought prepared brown rice and zucchini as backup.

I came home. Both roommate and husband looked dubious. I heated it up and laid it out. Hmmmm. I took a bite. It was actually, not bad. The cheese was almost spot on to the same consistency and flavor as normal cheese. Actually the only thing I didn't like about it was the kale. It kind of had crispy edges and I didn't like that. Was like someone put dried parsley on my pizza. Ewww...

Fast forward a week. It's roommates turn for dinner. She said she was stopping by Whole Foods. What would she get? Brown rice? Quinoa? Salad? Yes, she brought home frozen pizza. Three types. Vegan, non-dairy. One with garlic and mushroom, one "cheese", and the other I don't know because she didn't cook it.

I took my first bite of the mushroom and garlic. It was bland. The crust had not been cooked to crispy on the inside and I don't think it had been cooked through. As I ate up to the edges, it got much tastier and I found myself wanting more of the slice that was crispy. When I told the roommate, she informed me that the cheese pizza was much more consistently crunchier. So I tried that. It was actually, pretty good. I think if I am craving pizza in the future, I would go for this frozen "cheese" variety but add my own whole veggies. Bell pepper, mushrooms, and add a little spice such as oregano and garlic powder.

So I would definitely suggest grabbing a vegan pizza with "cheese" if you get the hankering.

Have you tried one? What do you think?