I love pizza!!  In fact, one of my favorite meals on this diet is Pita Bread Pizza because it's quick and easy BUT the crust is just pita bread.  Not a big deal when I'm in a hurry and need to get my pizza fix or when I need a quick meal for the kids.  But, when I'm truly wanting a pizza, the Pita Bread pizza doesn't cut it.  Normally what I do is order a pizza from one of the local pizza joints and ask for a vegetarian pizza with no cheese.  The problem is, I know their crust probably contains oil and enriched flours.  So I decided to find a recipe I could modify to make a good pizza crust but it had to meet the criterion of my plant-based diet.  The recipe that follows is quick, easy and there isn't much time waiting for dough to rise.  Feel free to experiment with the flour of your choice in this recipe.



Pizza Crust

Ingredients:
1 pkg. active dry yeast
1 tsp. white sugar
1 cup warm water
2 1/2 cups of flour (whole wheat, spelt, oat, etc.)
2 Tbsp. applesauce (this is as an oil replacement)
1 tsp. salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). In a medium bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
2. Stir in flour, apple sauce and salt. Beat until smooth. Let rest for 5 minutes.
3. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pat or roll into a round. Transfer crust to a lightly greased pizza pan or baker's peel dusted with cornmeal. Spread with desired toppings and bake in preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Let baked pizza cool for 5 minutes before serving.

On a completely separate note, I just got this latest information in my email from the PCRM (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine).  The article is title, "Avoiding Cow’s Milk May Cut Risk of Type 1 Diabetes".  New research suggests that children NOT exposed to cows milk in their infancy have less risk of developing type 1 diabetes.  Interesting stuff, for the rest of the article go here.  This is not the only research discouraging cows milk for infants or children (or adults for that matter).  Read, "The China Study" and the book does a wonderful job of linking many of our diseases today to animal protein and more specifically, cows milk.  I guess milk DOESN'T do a body good!!

We had our first Bakersfield plant based potluck and it was a great success.  There were about 35-40 people including all the kids.  We ate wonderful food, enjoyed some good conversation and several people spent time in the pool.  I have the recipes for almost all of the dishes and will be adding them to my "Recipes" section as I have time.  The recipes that came from the potluck will have "potluck" in parenthesis next to the dish.  Unfortunately, I left the recipes at the host house and will need to get them later this week.  Once I have them, I will get them up on my site.

Thanks to all of you that brought a dish or dishes to make the potluck a success.  Hopefully you have some new ideas for recipes.  For those of you that might be "trying out" the diet, feel free to email me with questions.

Also, I will let you all know when we will be doing another potluck.  We're looking at the possibility of doing the next one sometime mid-August.  I will keep you updated!  Also, for anyone else in the Bakersfield, CA area that are interested in joining us for a plant-based potluck, please send me an email [email protected] and I will add you to the list.