Katie's Low Carb Pizza

 

As I have written before, I am not only a Costco Shopper, but I am in the process of changing my food style to Keto.  I don't like to say the "D" word because I have been on so many diets that I hate that word.  I have totally changed the way I look at food, and eat it because it sustains life, and for me, I am eating to lose weight.  I have another very big reason for change, and that is my Diabetes has gotten out of control, and I needed to get my insulin levels back in check.  This change I am making not only has helped me to lose some weight, but lowering my carbohydrates have changed my body so much, I no longer require insulin.  That's right, losing weight and being very low or no carb, stopped me from injecting myself, several times a day with insulin.  Woo hoo!  The same is with my husband and he has not only stopped his insulin, but he isn't taking Metforman anymore either.  BIG changes!!!!

So, I wanted to tell you that tonight's meal was Pizza!  Yep, crust and all and it was very low carb.  I know you are saying, Yeah right, how can pizza crust worth eating, be low carb? I have found that there are many ways to do things, and my whole way of thinking is cooking with the least amount of carbs in my food, as possible. I have been hearing about this crazy dough that is made out of cheeses, that looks like dough, tastes like dough, and guess what folks... It's dough!  It is just a different kind of dough, but this dough recipe is so yummy because combined with all the other yummy things you top your pizza with, it blends to taste so much like regular pizza, you wouldn't know you were eating something different.

My husband has been a Guinnie pig for all my cooking and recipes, and is starting to really enjoy eating low carb.  Tonight was proof positive, as he loved the pizza.  I probably should have not told him what t he ingredients were in the pizza dough, and he would never have known.  My pizza tasted just like thin crust pizza.

Now I must plug Costco, because ALL, yes I said ALL my ingredients were purchased at Costco. Let me share my pizza recipe with you, and you tell me that there is much difference than what regular pizza has for it's ingredients.  I googled Keto Pizza Dough recipe and the following recipe came up from this link.  I always tweek my recipes a little or a lot, but this time, I didn't do much other than doubling the recipe.  If I'm going to go to all the effort to cook, I am going to make it last for at least two meals, which isn't too hard for me because I cook for 2.

So, you can make 2 pizzas with this dough recipe. By the way, I have no idea why the term "Fat head" was given to this dough, unless it is made mostly from cheese which has a lot of fat in it, but this dough is perfect for people who follow a low carb or Keto food plan. For the Pizza dough recipe, there is no egg added, though some people might want to.  I say no, follow this recipe, and it will be less sticky and much easier to work with.   It is  very low carbs, especially compared to regular pizza dough in fact, it is only 2g of carbs if you slice your pizza for serving 8. (8 slices)

Katies Thin Crust Pizza using Fat Head Pizza Dough
(The Best Low-Carb Pizza Crust)

INGREDIENTS: 

• 1 & 1/2  Cup Almond Flour (Costco)
• 4 Cups grated Mozzarella cheese (Costco)
• 4 Tablespoons cream cheese (Costco)
• 3/4 teaspoon Salt (Costco)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to  350 degrees .  Cut 3 sheets of parchment paper large enough to cover the baking sheet you will use.  
2. In a microwavable glass bowl, add both cheeses, and heat for one minute on high.  Turn and heat one more minute to melt the cheese.  This will be enough time, and it won't get so hot, it will be hard to work with. 
3. Stir to blend cheese into a sticky ball of dough.  Sprinkle the Almond flour and salt on top of the dough and begin working it into the dough until it is well incorporated.  May take about 4 minutes or so.  Yes, it will be sticky, but less sticky after adding the flour.
4. Split the dough in two pieces, and set one of those dough balls on a piece of parchment paper.  Place another piece of parchment paper over the top, and roll out to be about 1/4 to a little thicker inches thick.  Don't worry if it isn't perfectly round, and looks a bit skewompus, but no matter, because once you get the toppings on your pizza dough, you will not care what shape it is in.
5. Remove the top sheet of parchment and set aside to use to roll out your second dough ball. Prick your crust with a fork, and put it in a preheated oven.   Bake for 10 - 11 minutes or until parts of it begins to look pretty and golden.  It will cook some more when you top it and bake, so don't over bake the crust. 
6. Once done, take out of oven and let sit for about 5 minutes before you begin topping this pizza crust.  Pat yourself on the back for baking such a pretty crust.  It looks yummy, and I had to restrain myself from taking a big bite, or slapping on a dab of butter and having a taste.  I didn't!
7. Now add the following toppings, or the toppings of your choice, just being careful to not add too many more carbs to your pizza.  It is amazing how little things like peppers have carbs in it that you didn't know about.  Also watch the pizza sauce too.  Load on the Mushrooms because one whole cup of raw mushrooms are only 1g carb, and 12 black olives are also 1 carb.  4 Tablespoons of Cream cheese are 4 carbs and 2 cups part skim Mozzarella are 13 grams.  Add to that your pizza sauce, and as you can see the carbs do add up, however if you consider that the full amount of carbs is divided into 8 slices, then you will see, this pizza, largely due to the low carb crust, is a low carb food you really can eat and enjoy! 

PIZZA TOPPINGS: (all can be purchased from Costco)

• Pizza Sauce of your choice, or I use Spaghetti sauce.
• 1/2 lb ground sausage or 4 sausage patties crumbled or sliced into cubes.
• Pepperoni
•  1 - 1/2 Cup Mozzarella Cheese
• Parmesan Cheese (to sprinkle)
• Black olives
• Mushrooms (1 cup sliced) 
• 1 Green or red bell pepper chopped
• 1 Small Onion (chopped and marinated
• Red chili pepper flakes 

You can go crazy creating just about whatever kind of pizza you like, by changing up the ingredients.  Instead of a Red sauce, try a Alfredo sauce made from canned milk, butter, Parmesan cheese and garlic powder. Top with Chicken, ground chicken or turkey burger, and get creative with the vegetables, but be sure to add them.  Spinach is wonderful with an alfredo base, and so is artichoke hearts, mushrooms, and more.  Just remember that everything you add, will also probably have a few carbs in it, so if you are making this to be low carb, watch what you add.

ENJOY!

What is the deal about Keto?

There is a new revolution if that is what  you want to call it, but people all over the world call it Keto.  It is a new way of eating and thinking about food.  In a nutshell, Keto is about eating very low or no carbohydrates, high fat of the right kind, proteins, green vegetables and if you want to know more, just google it!  I googled it because I saw my daughter in law losing weight and reshaping her whole body by going Keto, and since seeing is believing, I wanted to do it too. 

I have diabetes and so does my husband and when I realized that if I cut way down on my daily carb intake, or cut out my carbs all together in my diet, it could significantly help me get in control of diabetes, and lose weight.  We were all on board, and without much study into Keto, we just cut out most of the carbs we ate in our meals. Did it help?  You are darn tootin it did!  We began to see our blood sugar levels drop down into normal ranges, to the point that we didn't need to be on insullin.  If we took our insullin, we found that we became hypoglycemic, which is essentially too low blood sugar, and we began to feel sick, nauseated, extremely fatigues, and just plain crappy! 

We continue to eat low carbohydrates and do our best to maintain this balance through not eating anything that has flour or sugar in it.  You have to understand, that both of us were raised on Breads, pastas, rice, and sweets of all kinds.  We loved it and actually still do, but we finally get the fact that if we eat those thing, we will have to go back on insullin, and our blood sugar levels will rise.  Those types of foods are also addicting, and it makes it difficult to eat just one.  A handful of M&M's turns into a whole bag by the end of the day.  One sweet roll turns into finishing the entire pan of sweet rolls by the end of the week.  It is an addiction of the worst kind, and the result can be a myriad of health issues.

Eating keto is just a different way to cook, and it isn't icky, it's just different.  You can have breads, but not made from wheat flour.  Almond meal and Coconut flour becomes the replacement because of the low amount of carbs they contain.  Normally I would have stayed away from these foods, because of the calories, but in Keto, calories aren't not what you are counting, its the carbs. There is a learning curb to creating delicious meals this way, and I have also found that my taste buds have changed because if introducing this different but very healthy way of eating. 

There is more to Keto than this little bit of information and practical experience I have provided, but if you have a desire to learn more, google it.  It is all over the internet, Pinterest pins, people are talking about it, Instagram pictures galore of people losing weight on the Keto diet. 

What I want to do now is to share some of the good meals I have created while wanting to get healthy, get in control of my diabetes, and not starve in the process.  A Keto type meal plan has provided me just that.  I have found quite a few good things are happening to me as a result:

• Weight loss.  So far I have lost almost 20 lbs. For me it's slow, but I see it
• My stomach is shrinking.  I believe 100% it was the carbohydrates in my diet that made my stomach balloon because when I stopped eating Carbs my stomach began to shrink and flatten.  I'm not there yet, and it will take a while, but it is happening and I am very pleased! The same results are happening with my husband.
• I am finally getting back some energy.  I use to feel like I wanted to take a nap daily, but now days, the fatigue isn't there, and I can make it through the day, and into the evening til bedtime before feeling tired.  This folks is a miracle.  I have found that now if I can get my 8 hours of sleep nightly, I can make it through the day, and not need a nap.
• I am completely off my insulin and so is my husband.  If we were to take it, we find ourselves getting hypoglycemic, which is low blood sugar.  By just not having many carbohydrates during the day, we can maintain healthy blood sugar levels.  What a blessing! We are still on Metformin, but we hope one day, we will no longer need that to maintain our health and that diabetes, though we will still have it, will not be something that will take our health and well being down to our graves. We are also staying close to our doctors recommendations, but He continually tells us that what we are doing it helping us, so keep it up.  
• Lastly, I am learning how to cook some really delicious meals, and as my husband calls them... "Resturaunt quality."  They taste wonderful, are very  healthy for us, use the freshest ingredients, mostly all from Costco, and look so pretty plated!  If I cooked for someone who didn't know my meal was Keto based, they would love and enjoy it as would they for any other meal.  Mine would definitely be healthier.

I will be sharing many of the recipes I come up with and some that I find through other means, and it has been an eye opener to me that most if not all the ingredients can be purchased at Costco.  With careful planning, anyone can utilize the bulk goods that Costco provides, without much if any waste.  This is what I do, and yes it is what I call the $200 store, because I can't get out of there without spending at least that much, but I have learned to use it, and enjoy cooking again with such fresh, good products.  

My next post is one of my favorite Costco product recipes!