Meatless Monday with Mindy #17 Organic Pizza

Welcome to the 17th installment of Meatless Monday with Mindy!

I hope the one or two of you that are reading this blog haven't given up on me.  My sister had open heart surgery recently and things have been a little hectic lately.  She is recovering at my home and both of our routines have been changed.

One of the things I am trying to do is to take this opportunity to introduce a healthier diet to her.  She has been slowly upgrading her diet, but she doesn't really like to cook and Dad, who she lives with, is a "meat and potatoes" kind of man.   He is slowly opening up to new foods, but he considered quinoa stuffed acorn squash to be an "exotic dish" at one of our Thanksgiving meals and asked us not to make exotic foods anymore.  So the path to healthier eating at their house has been small changes such as instead of eating full fat ice cream after dinner each night, Dad eats frozen yogurt bars instead. It's better than mud in your eye ... right?

Sis has been feeling a little better lately, so we've made small outings around the house to get her out and change the scenery.  This past weekend I took her to lunch at the Mustard Seed Market & Cafe.  We, along with my daughter and a good friend of hers, had lunch upstairs in the Cafe, which overlooks the shopping area. The food was phenomenal!  Kidlet #1 and I were like kids in a candy store. We could actually go out to eat and choose pretty much anything off of a menu and order it if we wanted.  Eating out is really difficult when you are a vegetarian in our neck of the woods, especially when we choose to eat plant strong , so this was a real treat for us.

Anyway, after we spent a leisurely lunch chatting and enjoying our food and fellowship, our friend was excited to learn more about the way we eat.  Kidlet #1 and I both came prepared to grocery shop while there.  This store isn't real close to either one of us, so when we are in the vicinity we take advantage of getting good, organic, plant strong foods that we cannot find at our closest grocers.  We turned our shopping excursion into a learning experience for our friend.  She went home with some quinoa and a few other goodies, excited to try to start eating healthier.

While shopping, I picked up a few things to make a quick, easy and nutritious meal that my sister could make at home once she returned from recovering at our house.  I knew both she and Dad liked pizza, so we shopped with that in mind.  I know that she really doesn't care to cook, so I kept in mind, quick and easy, yet still healthy. I had her look at all the labels so that she knew how to shop with her new diet in mind.  She has to watch her sodium and her carbs, and of course choose lower fat foods. And overall, I'm trying to get her to think more whole foods rather than more processed foods.  Below is the result of our shopping trip.

We picked up this Rustic Crust brand six grain pizza crust and took it out of the bag and placed it on a cookie sheet.  So far, pretty simple.

Organicville has a gluten free organic pizza sauce that we spread on the crust, just to about 1/2 inch from the outside edge.  Easy Peasy.

I chopped up veggies that I bought at Mustard Seed, some I had in my crisper and fresh herbs from my garden.  I think I started loosing her attention here. But I assured her they have pre-cut veggies in most grocery stores these days.

I used Vegan cheese. Organic cheese would be another good option.  I use Daiya brand as it is Soy free.  I can't have soy products, so I steer clear of other brands with soy in them.  I doubt she'll opt for either of these options and go with whatever cheese she currently uses.  But after we ate this, we both realized that we could have left the cheese off and it would have been just as good.

Add any veggie you like, but we used zucchini, mushrooms, onions, tomato, fresh spinach, fresh basil and fresh oregano.  

Once you have the veggies assembled, sprinkle with your choice of cheese, or cheeses and bake in a pre-heated oven at 425 degrees for about 10 minutes.

This pizza smelled so good, and we were so hungry that as soon as it was out, it was cut and consumed.  After it was gone (3 of us ate it all!) I realized that I didn't even get one picture of the completed baked pizza.  You'll have to trust me, it was that good!  And sis even said she thinks she could make this at home!  Hooray!

I'd love to hear what you're making on Meatless Monday's, or Meatless Tuesday, or Wednesday or.....

Share please.

If you have a blog, link up and let me see what you're making meatless.