Many people make a New Year’s resolution to lose weight and exercise more.

Diet websites are hitting all time records with people looking for the miracle answer to decrease those dreaded numbers on the scales.

Although we all know that by eating more fruits and vegetables and by eating less we would most likely lose weight over time, there are just some temptations that are hard to resist.  

For me, pizza is my downfall.  I honestly could eat pizza several times a week (ok, let’s be honest – several times a day!).  

Hot pizza fresh from a brick oven, cold pizza straight out of the fridge the next morning, buffalo chicken pizza, veggie pizza – it doesn’t matter – I LOVE them all!

The problem is that typical pizza crust is loaded with refined white flour and sometimes sugar is even added without us knowing.  Not a good match when trying to reduce the waistline.  

Although we typically compensate by preparing a cauliflower based crust, this week we had to improvise.

We had eaten all of the cauliflower in the countless numbers of salads and veggies and hummus dip that we have consumed over the first few days of the new year.

What we did have was several fresh chicken breasts and cheeese on hand. We used two large chicken breasts, plaed them in our food processor and ended up with about a pound of ground chicken to use in the crust.

However, we did make the mistake of using a Stoneware pizza pan – not a good idea because of the amount of time that it takes to heat the stone.

This caused the chicken to release a ton of moisture – right over the stone onto the bottom of the oven.

Luckily, a glass dish placed on the bottom rack helped catch the excess liquid.  So the key lesson here is to use a very hot oven with a standard pizza pan.

The pizza still turned out amazing – it was just a little steamy in the oven for a while!

Chicken Crust Pizza Recipe

Ingredients:
1 pound ground chicken breast

½ cup grated Parmesan

1 cup shredded mozzarella

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

½ teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

Instructions

Preheat oven to 450°F

1. Line a pizza pan with parchment paper or foil sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.

2. In a medium bowl combine the ground chicken with parmesan, mozzarella, salt, black pepper, garlic powder and oregano.

3. Place the mixture onto the parchment paper and pat into flat disc. Cover with plastic wrap and evenly press or roll with a rolling pin until you reach a 1/4-1/8″ inch thickness.

4. Remove the plastic wrap and bake until lightly golden (approximately 12 to 15 minutes).

5. Remove from oven and add your favorite toppings.

6. Pop back into hot oven and cook until melted and bubbly 6 to 10 minutes.

7. Remove from oven and scatter with chopped basil and/or parmesan cheese.

Enjoy!  (printable recipe below)

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Mary and Jim

[recipe difficulty=easy]

Chicken Pizza Crust Recipe

Ingredients:
1 pound ground chicken breast
½ cup grated Parmesan
1 cup shredded mozzarella
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
½ teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

Instructions

Preheat oven to 450°F

1. Line a pizza pan with parchment paper or foil sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.
2. In a medium bowl combine the ground chicken with parmesan, mozzarella, salt, black pepper, garlic powder and oregano.
3. Place the mixture onto the parchment paper and pat into flat disc. Cover with plastic wrap and evenly press or roll with a rolling pin until you reach a 1/4-1/8″ inch thickness.
4. Remove the plastic wrap and bake until lightly golden (approximately 12 to 15 minutes).
5. Remove from oven and add your favorite toppings.
6. Pop back into hot oven and cook until melted and bubbly 6 to 10 minutes.
7. Remove from oven and scatter with chopped basil and/or parmesean cheese.

recipe courtesy of Old World Garden Farms   www.oldworldgardenfarms.com

[/recipe]