I give up.  I wave the white flag of surrender.  This cold virus has me beaten.  I’ve tried just about every remedy – homemade and otherwise – and none of them give me much relief.  I’ve decided that if this cold wants to be declared the winner, then fine by me.  Just so long as it claims its victory and then moves on.

Chris took Joe on a walk today to let me try to recuperate.  When they got back, I noticed that Joe was short 1 shoe.  We looked for it, but I was mentally chalking it up as another sidewalk tragedy (Joe has a tendency to throw things overboard when we go on walks… remember the monkey pillow?).  We ended up finding it, but boy, was it close to being lost on the pavement!

Yes, that is Joe’s shoe stuck to the stroller handlebar.  Sigh.  At least we found it, right?

Since I’ve been feeling so under the weather, I decided that we’d better do something easy for dinner.  This is one of my new favorite recipes for pizza crusts.  It’s nutrient-dense, simple to put together, and a big hit with all of us.  It’s also something that I can start during Joe’s nap, let it rise, and then have it ready to put together once dinnertime rolls around.

 So what’s the secret ingredient?  Chickpeas!  And carrots!  Oh, and no sugar, something that you often find in pizza dough.  I found the original recipe here but modified it a bit to fit the ingredients that I had on hand.  Be sure to check out the original, but if you’d like to make it the same way that I do, then read on:

Easy Pizza Dough

Ingredients

• 1/2 batch of chickpea/carrot puree (read below)
• 2 tsp active dried yeast
• 1 C hot water (should be just slightly uncomfortable to the touch)
• 1 C all purpose flour
• 2 1/2 C wholemeal flour
• A few dashes of garlic powder, thyme, or rosemary… or all three!

{For the chickpea/carrot puree, steam 340gms (3/4 lb) of peeled, diced carrots.  If you’re short on time, then just use a can of unsalted carrots, drained and rinsed.  Combine carrots with 1 can of drained, rinsed chickpeas.  Blend using hand blender (you can also puree in food processor, but don’t try to blend these in a regular blender – it doesn’t work).  Mixture should be smooth – no lumps.  This will make enough for 2 batches.  Reserve half and store the rest in the freezer for a later date.}

Combine yeast and hot water in a small bowl.  Stir once, then let sit for 5 minutes.

Combine flours and spices in a large bowl.  Mix well with fork.

Add puree to yeast mixture, stirring till fully incorporated.  Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients.  Mix together with a fork, then use hands to knead everything together.  Lift dough out of bowl and spray inside of bowl with non-stick spray.  Return dough to bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and allow to rise for 2 – 3 hours.

Once dough has risen, separate into 2 lumps.  Each lump is enough to make 1 large pizza.  Preheat oven to 425F/220C.

Put each lump of dough onto a greased baking sheet.  Spread out using your hands and bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes.  Remove trays from oven and flip pizzas over.

{At this point, you could freeze one of the pizza crusts if you’d rather not use both of them.  Just let it cool, then wrap in plastic wrap and either place in large Ziploc bag or wrap with an extra layer of foil.  We like to eat the leftovers for lunch the following day, so I typically make 2 pizzas at a time.}

Spread pizza sauce and toppings onto pizzas.  Some of our favorite toppings are tomatoes, onions, wilted spinach sauteed with garlic, mushrooms, chicken, basil, and different types of cheeses.  Take your pick.

Put pizzas back in oven.  If you’re only making 1 pizza, bake for 15 minutes.  If you’re making 2 pizzas, bake for 25 – 30 minutes.

That’s it!  So simple, easy, nutritious, and very yummy!