pizza | Sacred Strawberry

I have officially finished my career as an English Teacher!  It still doesn’t feel real, as I have spent the last six years working at the same academy.  It is something that is so familiar to me that it hasn’t fully sunk in yet.  I know that my next job, that of being a mama to the beautiful creature I am carrying in my belly, is the most important job I will ever have.  Then, after that, who knows?  I feel strangely liberated by the uncertainty, like the world is my oyster, so to speak.  I do love to teach however, so maybe yoga? Maybe raw foods?  Whatever my next incarnation will be, I am patient now, waiting for what feels right.

This is a meal I made for lunch the other day- super simple and delicious!sdc11906-8048206

It was some zucchini noodles made with a veggie peeler, cherry tomatoes, grated carrots, fresh peas, and spinach.  I topped it with a simple sauce made from the inside bits of the zucchini I didn’t use for the noodles blended with an avocado, lemon juice, a bit of himalayan salt and some hemp seeds.  And a generous sprinkling of ground black pepper of course!

I also broke out of my rut and made a raw pizza for the first time in months!  It had been entirely too long, as raw pizza is one of my favorite meals.  Luckily, I made two pizza bases, so I have another one for this week!sdc11912-9888887

Sprouted buckwheat, zucchini and flax base with homemade raw marinara, topped with cashew cheese, red onion, red pepper, cherry tomato and fresh homegrown basil.

Lastly, I FINALLY sourced some kale here in Madrid.  Literally, years in the making 🙂  Before, I just made chard chips which are nice but as anyone who has had kale chips will tell you, just not the same!  Well, I bought six bunches of kale for the sole purpose of kale chip making.  Seriously, I need a bigger dehydrator.  Here we go with some basic cheesy kale chips!sdc11925-2211240

That is it for now! Stay tuned for my experiments with matcha green tea powder!

Wheat and I really don’t get along.  I have never been formally diagnosed as celiac or even gluten intolerant, but I do know that when I eat something with wheat in it, I start itching.  My hands, arms, legs, and scalp itch and the skin around my eyes feels really puffy and sensitive.  Clearly something isn’t right with that!

Even so,  I have found it extremely hard to actually give up wheat once and for all.  I seem to do fine with oats and most other grains, and I can generally eat some glutinous grains like spelt or kamut.  The problem with those is that I feel fine eating them for a while, but then I reach a point where all of a sudden I don’t.  It’s like there is some kind of hidden threshold that I have to stay under or something.

I think my sensitivity to wheat and gluten is one of the reasons why raw food is so appealing to me.  99% of the time, it already is gluten free and I don’t have to think about it.

One gluten free recipe that I love is this one:  http://www.nourishingmeals.com/2009/12/thin-buckwheat-pizza-crust-gluten-free.html

I’ve made this pizza base recipe before and every time I make it I am generally happy with how it comes out.

Terrible picture,  as it was already nighttime when I made this 🙁

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with sun-dried tomato and basil sauce, zucchini, onions, red pepper, crumbled smoked tofu and fresh basil

The only changes to the recipe that I made were to increase the amount of ingredients, substitute baking soda for baking powder, and leave out the sweetener completely.  It made enough for dinner tonight, which I served with my favorite raw red pepper soup and also enough to take tomorrow for lunch as I am starting my second week of Kundalini yoga class!

I have had a wonderful weekend and I am now looking forward to a wonderful week 🙂