They say that necessity is the mother of invention. This is very true in the {Nourish} test kitchen. Some of my best ideas for new healthy concoctions come to me when I’m completely out of all of my go-to recipe ingredients. Like when I’ve been avoiding the grocery store like the plague because sometimes it’s just a pain in the butt: take inventory, make a list, clip coupons, download coupons, load the buggy up, dish out two hundred bucks, load groceries into the car, unload the car, clean out the fridge, and finally, put groceries up. Oh, and then order a take-out grilled chicken salad from Pepper’s because it’s too late and I’m too tired to cook. Ugh!
It’s occurred to me that I may be slowly turning into my mother who loathes the grocery store. Or maybe I’m just a little burned out; after all, I have been grocery shopping since the eighth grade. Because of my mom’s disdain for the stores and all of the above, I volunteered for the job. So before I could even drive she would make me a list (complete with my little brother’s bologna and “Nana” cheese, and my dad’s coffee and powdered creamer), give me a blank check and a budget, drop me off at the front door, and pick me up in an hour. I thought it was the greatest thing ever. Until I got cut off for buying too many bubble baths and conditioning treatments.
So anyway, sometimes I like to take a break from the grocery store and just see what new dishes I can come up with while scraping the bottom of the barrel. It’s kind of fun, science experiment-like. And this is exactly how I stumbled upon one of my best ideas in a while.
I had a few eggs so the plan was to make some sort of omelet. I had a little left over sautéed spinach and onion Tuperware-ed into the back of the fridge, a quarter of a jar of marinara, a sprinkle of 2 percent mozzarella, a few pieces of turkey pepperoni, and some black olives in the door. Pizza omelet? Sure, why not.
Well, I’ll have you know, it was delicious and tasted just like good ol’ pepperoni pizza without all the carbs and grease. I realized about half way though stuffing my face that if I’d kept it open instead of folding it over into an omelet that it would even look like pizza. So I set out to perfect my new recipe — after a much needed trip to Kroger, of course.
Here’s the deal: In a small frying pan sauté 1/4 cup red onion and 2 cups of fresh baby spinach in 1/4 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil until onions are transparent but still crunchy and spinach is wilted but still bright green.
In a bowl whisk two whole eggs, season with sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper, and combine with spinach/onion mixture. Pour it back into the frying pan and cook on medium until the bottom is set. Carefully flip your “pizza crust” over. While the bottom is cooking, top your pizza with two tablespoons of marinara sauce, an ounce of lower fat turkey pepperoni, and 1/8 cup sliced black olives. Top it off with 1/4 cup of 2 percent shredded mozzarella and a tablespoon of grated Parmesan. Continue cooking until the cheese is good and melty. It’s perfectly fine for the bottom of your “crust” to get a little well-done and crispy as this makes it even more pizza-like. Now slice that pizza pie up and dig in.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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