Plant Powered Pizzas – “Raw Rainbow” 

Hey all you wonderful, amazing, super cool people.

I found out last weekend that one of my best friends in the whole world is having a baby! I am beyond excited for her. I mean, I’ve never seen her so happy.

It’s really cool watching all the people I am close to in my life pass through these amazing milestones in life, and I am blessed to find joy in their joy. I really am at that age where everyone I know it getting married and having babies.

And I’m over here like damn, this is the first year I actually did my taxes on time!

Jokes aside, I am growing up too in my own ways. And as I may have mentioned in my last update, I just passed my 28th birthday (gasp!). It is important, even this early in life, to take care of myself, so I can be better down the road.

Getting an adequate intake of raw fruits and vegetables can play an important role in that. You know, when you cook fruits and veggies, they change slightly, and many of them lose some of their vitamins or enzymes once processed in any way with heat.

Now, that’s not to say that oven baked veggies are worthless because we all know they’re not – they’re still delicious and nutritious.

But yes – some nutrients can be lost. So with that in mind, I’m betting most of us could up our raw fruit and vegetable intake! How about giving this pizza a try?

This pizza is gluten free, dairy free, and nut free

(please note that the vegetables are the ‘raw’ part of this pizza and that the crust is, in fact, cooked. I like a crunchy baked crust, what can I say!)

Putting up a recipe for this is almost silly, as it is so so simple. But in keeping with tradition, I will add it below. Honestly, feel free to add whatever raw veggies you enjoy, on whatever crust you enjoy. The focus here is bright colors in variety.

Ingredients

• 1 gluten free pizza crust
• 3 heaping tbsp beet hummus
• 4 radishes, thinly sliced
• 9 small tomatoes, halves
• 1/4 red pepper, diced
• 1/4 cucumber, thinly sliced
• 1/2 an avocado
• Fresh basil, chopped
• Sprinkle of salt, pepper, and hemp seeds

Directions : Preheat the oven to the instructions on your pizza crust. I used the same crust as I did last week – the one from Care Bakery here in Calgary, as it has been my favourite so far!

Once the crust is cooked, spread the beet hummus over it. Layer raw vegetables on top, and finishing with a sprinkle of salt, pepper, and hemp seeds.

Oh, and I added a little sprinkle of lettuce for some extra crunch before I chowed down – yep – half the pizza was gone pretty fast!

Now, where do I start with all the goodness in this pizza?

Tomatoes are super high in vitamin C – I know your mind typically goes to citrus fruit and to most this comes as a surprise! Vitamin C is amazingly multi-purposeful ; it is an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antihistamine. Avocado has lots of potassium, which is an electrolyte used to conduct electrical impulses in your body. Cucumbers contain antioxidants, which help to combat free radical damage in the body. Bell peppers contain vitamin B6, which supports the production of red blood cells. The basil in this pizza really pulls it all together flavour-wise. It also contains manganese, which is needed to manufacture collagen – this is especially important for your skin.

And the beet hummus well, not only is it beautiful, but beets also help the body produce nitric oxide, which helps to increase blood flow. More blood flow = more oxygen to your organs and muscles!

With one pizza left in this series the pressure is ON! What do you guys think I should do? I have to say, it’s been awesome eating pizza every week!

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Thanks for reading, have a great Friday everyone!