Pizza?! Did someone say, PIZZA???!!!

It should come as no surprise to anyone that any busy family with small children gets take-out at least twice a week.  For our family, we used to get every fast food chain under the sun and sometimes we'd get it more than twice a week....I'm ashamed to say that but it's the truth.  Pizza is definitely one of our favorite foods around here.  Whether it's take-out style pizza (i.e. Dominos or Papa Johns) or restaurant style, Pizza cannot be beat in this household.

So wait a second......we went vegan, right?  Whenever someone finds this out the second question out of their mouth (besides where do you get your protein/calcium?) is, "What about Pizza?!"  I'm not gonna lie I thought the same thing.  What am I going to do when I have a hankering for Pizza? Will I just have to live without it?  The answer is: NO WAY!  lol  There are some great Faux cheese products out there that can actually save you money if you look hard enough.  My favorite brand (along with many fellow vegans) is "Follow Your Heart" mozzarella style cheese.  It melts down perfectly, tastes exactly like mozzarella to me (the packages stuff anyway) and my kids can eat it while not getting sick. 

Poor Collin has not had much cheese in his life because of his casein/whey sensitivity.  When he first had this pizza he looked at the "cheese" on it and made this face like, "Huh?!  You want me to eat that?"  We excitedly said, "Look Collin, it's Cheeessse!"  He took one taste and would not stop squealing the word "CHEESE!".  It almost brought tears to my eyes to realize this poor kid would not be able to experience things like this if it were not for my research and willingness to let go of my hangups about eating dairy and to be open-minded.  It was a success!  We've been eating this "cheese" for weeks and not harmful effects for him in the bowel department lol.

So this is my pizza! (please don't mind the timestamp on the photo lol)  I used a whole wheat organic crust from whole foods (2 crusts is enough for all 4 of us since their one the smaller size), 365 organic Italian Herb Sauce, fresh basil leaves, 1/4 block of "Follow Your Heart" Vegan mozzarella, and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.  I also put 1 "Walla Walla" onion thinly sliced on the other pizza for momma and daddy.  The pizza was DIVINE!!  This is my 4th attempt at this pizza thing and every time they get better and better.  I've done ones with roasted veggies and oil.


 I was in the mood for something sweet tonight, so I decided to make some chocolate chip cookies.  I have an awesome recipes from my fav. vegan cookbook "The Vegan Famile Cookbook" by Brian P. McCarthy.  These cookies turned out to be FANTASTIC!  Nice and crunchy on the outside, the cooking time and temp was perfect, and ooey gooey on the inside.  The batter is a bit crumbly so it took some extra TLC when I was rolling them into balls, but all in all a perfect vegan delight!  The picture to the right is my plate, loaded up with an ice cold glass of Almond Milk!

What a yummy night!  Now I'm not gonna lie, those cookies made an excellent snack this morning as I was thinking of a breakfast for myself.  But one or two can't hurt right?  lol  On a side note we have a little family thing going on this weekend and my lovely Mother-In-Law has offered to order a special Marinara Pizza for us since we are vegan.  We don't mind bringing our own food to family functions, but it's nice to know there will be something for us to eat.  A lot of people wonder why we won't just "eat around it" or "don't worry, it's just a little salad dressing/butter/cheese.  It's not gonna kill ya!"  But it is a personal preference that we don't like to sway on because of how well our whole family has responded to this diet change.  Over time I think people may be more accepting of our eating habits and diet change, but for right now it's still new.  We don't mind being made fun of either, as long as it's in good fun.  Just don't feed my kid cheeseburgers and we'll be fine LOL!!

That's all for now internet world!