Wheat Flour and Oats Pizza.

I have always liked pizza. But lately specially after my weight loss, its very hard to look past few hard facts. The last two times when I had a pizza I found it loaded with lots of cheese and butter and after a while it gave me that uneasy feeling. I felt over loaded with food every time I had pizza, let me tell you its not a very good feeling and it just spoils the fun of eating food.

It was on my wish list to eat pizza which was not very heavy on the stomach, should taste great and should be healthy and guilt free.

SO, I made pizza with whole wheat and oats and seed mix. It was super tasty and super light. The only downside to it was that I felt like eating it more and had to really work hard to stop myself from committing gluttony.

The pizza was super easy to make. The only time that you require is the waiting time for the dough to rise and then the baking time.

Ingredients :

1. 1 cup whole wheat flour.
2. half cup oats.
3. 3 tsp oil.
4. Salt to taste.
5. 2 tsp yeast.
6. 1 tsp sugar.
7. Pizza sauce (market bought)
8. Veggies of your choice.

9. Seed Mix.
10. Mozzarella cheese.

The beauty of Cheese : The beauty of cheese lies in its ability to melt and spread. this means, you can spread small amount of cheese over the pizza and it will melt and reach all over the pizza and you will not miss the taste of cheesy pizza at all.

The seed mix: Take hand full of sesame seeds, handful of flax seeds, and then grind them coarsely to make the mixture.

Procedure

1. Dissolve the yeast and sugar in warm water. Warm water is water which does not feel hot to your fingers. Add just little water, mix well and keep aside for 5 -10 minutes. You should see bubbles and froth forming. If the bubbles and froth are not there then the yeast is dead and you should get a new packet.



2. The art of kneading a dough with less oil - Add wheat flour, oats, seed mix and salt together and mix well. Then add the yeast.



Now make a soft dough like a chapathi dough. Once you have made a ball of the dough, its then that you should put one tsp oil over it, knead it again for sometime, then once again spread 1 tsp oil on it and knead. As you will knead with oil you will see that the dough becomes smooth. Lastly, cover your palms with oil and again knead well. The end result should be a smooth dough.

Keep this dough aside in a warm place for 30 minutes so that it rise and becomes double it size. You should keep the dough in a bowl and sprinkle little flour on it and cover the bowl with a lid.



3. After 30 minutes, punch the dough and divide it in equal portions depending on the thickness of the pizza you want. If you are calorie conscious like me then its best to roll out a pizza as big as a chapathi.

4. Now, spread the pizza sauce, add all the veggies of your choice. Spread the cheese on the veggies. There is no need to load the pizza with cheese, just take a small amount and spread.




Pizza Baking - This is the best trick I ever came across and it resulted in properly baked pizza. Pre heat your oven for 20 minutes on the maximum temperature. For example : The maximum temperature in my oven is 280 C, so I heated it for 20 minutes on this temperature.

After 20 minutes, put the pizza in the oven. Now the pizza takes between 15 - 20 minutes max with this technique. For pizza to bake properly the temperature of the oven should be high. I check my pizza after 15 minutes and depending on how crisp I want it I leave it for 5- 10 minutes more. 20 minutes max is what is required to crisp the veggies, melt the cheese and cook the dough.

Medium Size Pizza




A sneak peak at my chapathi pizza.



Few really awesome points about this pizza.


1. It tastes great.

2. You can prepare the dough one night before and keep it in the freezer. So, next day you just need to roll in and put it in the oven.

3. The pizza freezes beautifully. So, you can prepare small size pizzas and freeze them then all you have to do is heat them in microwave.

4. Its light on the tummy and is loaded with veggies

Munch munch munch, chomp chomp chomp, eat away happily.

The Lentil Bread Toast

When I was kid we had a party. My grandmother made a very different kind of a bread toast which really attracted me. I stood there watching her, she took 2 pieces of bread, applied some sauce to it, dipped them in curd and then into a lentil batter and deep fried it.

My mom gave me 2 of those toasts and asked me to go out and play. When I tasted them they were just amazing, by the time I came back and the party was over there were no toast left. And somehow after that time no one ever made that dish. My grandmother tried making it that way but she forgot how she made it the first time.

Now the other day while I was sleeping a small voice told me why don't I try it on my own. What harm will it cost, at the most the dish will taste horrible and I will throw it in the bin. Before you guys wonder, let me tell you that I do think of food while I am asleep (no wonder I have weight issues).

So, I made this just according to the way I remembered but grilled it instead of frying, deep frying is prohibited in my house. With lot of enthusiasm I took my first bite, it tasted nothing like what I had in my memory BUT it tasted good and so a nice breakfast dish was born which was equally loved by my husband and me.

Ingredients :

Sauce - I just cooked 1 large fine chopped tomato with 2-3 cloves of garlic and a bay leaf till I got a puree like consistency. I then added salt to taste and 2 tsp tomato ketchup and black pepper. You can add oregano seasoning if you want.

Lentil Batter:

Soak 1 cup channa dhal/ Split Bengal Gram, overnight, then just drain the water, wash the dhal nicely and then grind to a fine paste with littler ginger. Ginger is optional. Add salt to taste to the batter.


Procedure:

1. Take a large piece of bread and cut in half. Apply the sauce to one side. You can apply green chutney to the other side if you want. Arrange both the sides one on top of each other just like a sandwich.



2. Now, in a plate make a mixture of 2 tsp curd (make sure its not sour, if it is then just make use of the milk), 2 tablespoon milk (the quantity of milk should be more than that of curd). Add finely chopped green chillies and coriander to this mixture. Now, dip your bread sandwich in this nicely.



3. Transfer the milk soaked sanwhich to the lentil batter and cover both sides properly. You can also add more lentil mixture on top of the bread after transferring it on the pan.



4. Heat a non stick pan and spread 1/4 tsp oil in the middle (you do not need lot of oil for this). Place the sandwich on the pan and put 3-4 drops of oil on top of the toast. Now let the down side grill properly and then flip the toast and let the other side cook till crisp. You need to press both the sides so that the soaked mixture oozes out and get cooked. The toast will expand in size. Once the toast becomes thick and crisp transfer it on a plate.





5. Serve it with green chutney.




Yumm!!!!