I made the pizza with whole wheat flour (I can’t remember the last time I bought white flour) and a bit of flax meal. I’ve made bread before with leftover rice, oatmeal, quinoa, etc and it would probably be better with something like that (lighter) mixed in with the whole wheat, but it was very good as is. I love your cabbage leaves “crust” suggestion and will try that sometime too. I’ve got a flatbread recipe that I’ve used for crust in the past but it’s a yeast dough and yours was so damn easy. I had pizza quicker with your recipe than if I’d ordered one delivered.

Here are a couple of tips for you with the dough. I didn’t have any trouble with it sticking to my hands because I lightly oiled my hands (just a dribble from the bottle holding my hand over the dough bowl “in case”). Rub hands together then roll the balls of dough. For me, this eliminated the sticking and I didn’t need to oil the pan because there was already oil on the outside of the crust.

Also, I didn’t keep the golf-ball sized dough balls. I made about 1/3 of your dough recipe and decided to mush the dough balls back together and make just one pizza crust instead. I spread it in the bottom of my cast-iron skillet to cook instead of using a separate baking pan. After heating the cast iron and putting a lid over it, it’s its own little “oven” without heating up the big one. I cooked the crust a bit and then realized I was going to want to cook the toppings in that pan too, so I removed the crust to do that. Next time I’ll probably start with the toppings, then remove them from the pan, start the crust, then add the cooked toppings and cover to finish.

I had pretty much the same toppings as you suggested – I had most on hand: onion, green/red pepper, eggplant (sounded good so I bought one), broccoli. I have never used paprika for pizza but I LOVE SMOKED PAPRIKA. Thanks for sharing that suggestion! I don’t have garam marsala and didn’t look up what’s in it (next time I will use some of those spices – looks great!!). I used some marjoram and S&P with the paprika. Was going to add oregano but forgot. :) Too bad because the snow’s melted and I might have some outside already. Oh well, it was still awesome.

Four years ago I moved from a 2500 sq ft house to 1000 sq ft. Right now I’m working at clearing out my house because I have waaay too much stuff to take care of. I’m trying to pare down to one room’s worth of stuff. Not sure if I’ll get to that point in this iteration, but I’ll get close. I have two books from the Married with Luggage folks and that’s helping me. I think this site will help inspire me too. :) I’m hoping to list my house within the next month or so – I have work to do!! But this was a nice break – and I wanted to let you know I like your recipe.

-N

Lovely to hear from you and lovely to hear you’re taking steps towards having a simpler life. It’s amazing how much your possessions make you a slave, but not many people realize it. You start letting go and then your fears dissipate and you’re just free to really live your life, travel, work less, enjoy your time more… I’m also a vegetarian, I eat no animals when I have access to a variety of foods and I add a little fish once or twice a week when I don’t. I love fruit, seeds and grain above all else. And it’s a diet that works for my metabolism. But I don’t preach because I know we are all different. Other people enjoy protein most of all, my body has a hard time digesting big amounts but finds it really easy to process good sugars and carbs. What we all know is how toxic are processed foods, especially in the US where you buy bread crumbs and it has 30 ingredients. How do they manage to put so much shit in something so simple?

I am not much of a chef, I really suck at recipes because I eye-ball quantities and experiment with the ingredients I got constantly. Living on a boat on the hook and only being able to go to a supermarket once a month, if that often, asks for creativity. This is how we live, mostly on locally grown or found fruit and veg and plenty of dry staple items. Our refrigeration is a joke, it’s a tiny Engel (you can’t fit a one liter soda bottle in it, it’s not high enough.

So I’ve been learning how to adapt to it and that is why sometimes I try to share ideas for those who might be a little afraid of experimenting. We enjoy the occasional visit to a French restaurant nearby (once every 8 weeks or so) and it’s lovely but we do eat too much there and come home full. When you eat natural foods and only when you’re hungry you start eating a lot lighter. And you get healthier.

Keep it up, girl!! And write to me if you have any doubts, comments or questions! Lovely to hear from you!!!

Love,

C

I am in the baby stages of simplifying my life. I don’t yet entirely know “in what ways,” but right now am working on purging/condensing my possessions. I want to be mobile and to have more experiences than “stuff” in my life. I’ve been doing some mental preparations for this already but I know I have some hard work ahead of me.

Mucho gusto conocerte, Carla. Todd me ha contado mucho de Alex y de tí que él ha leído/visto a través de este blog y los videos.

Anyway – creativity in the kitchen has always been something I’ve enjoyed. I made some flatbreads out of oatmeal recently. Sunday afternoon boredom often spurs the best meals!

Wow, goat cheese! Great idea!!

Yes, go for it. I always try to use this space to invite people to let go of their pre-conceptions in the kitchen. I can’t say I really know what I’m talking about other than from experience. I don’t use recipes and find it hard to describe quantities and stuff because I always eye-ball everything and use what I got. We are a two-hour bus ride from the closest supermarket, plus waiting time, so going shopping is at least a 5 or 6 hour ordeal. You learn to become creative with what you have at home and that’s when the most delicious meals come to exist.

I loved this meal that’s why I shared it. Basically I want to show that I don’t know what I’m doing and yet I surprise myself all the time. Anyone can do it. It’s cheaper and healthier when you make your own meals from scratch. And it takes time of course but it also takes time to make cash to pay for someone else to cook your meals and fill them with preservatives and additives and chemicals and packaging and truck distribution and pricing and stocking and cashiering and you know driving home etc etc

Better to work less and cook more. Hahaaa thanks for making contact Ryan!! Feels weird sometimes on this side of the screen alone on Splendid. Like I’m in a spaceship or something. Nice to know there’s someone on the other side. Right on!!