LEARNING AT THE POTTER'S WHEEL

Somewhere between the ideal of completely pure, toxin-free foods and practical living, I stand in my kitchen and try to figure out how to make the ingredients we can afford into nutritious, good-tasting meals. I have found that the greatest hurdle isn’t necessarily finances. (We actually spend less now on food than we did when our family was smaller.) My greatest hurdle has been learning to set aside all of the reasons I thought I couldn’t change our food choices. When I did this, I was able to get creative. Instead, I count the things that I DO have and determine to work within those guidelines.

That’s how I came up with Tortilla Pizzas.

My family has the potential to be world-champion junk food junkies. My husband was a confirmed bachelor before we met and didn’t have much of a concept of food other than what came out of a box, bag or fast food outlet. Thankfully, he grew up around some immigrant Italian families and had actually tasted ‘from scratch’ foods in childhood – so there were memories of pure food tastes that I could revive.

My family wanted pizza. I didn’t want to subject our systems to the chemicals in the dough and every other ingredient on top of it. I also wanted to have an easy meal that didn't involve hours of preparation or planning. Here’s what I came up with:

TORTILLA PIZZA
Ingredients:

• 1 package of Ezekiel 4:9, 12” Sprouted Grain Tortillas (These come 6 to a package. I could have made my own, but purchasing these saves me valuable time and provides me with a quality product. We are also trying to avoid large sources of gluten.)
• 1 package of raw cheese (We find ours at the local health food store which retails product from a licensed, organic raw dairy)
• Organic vegetables sliced thin: onions, green peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, etc.
• Organic herbs & seasoning: Oregano, basil, sea salt, etc.

The major portion of time will be spent slicing the veggies thin and grating the cheese. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit while you do this. Once these tasks are done, you only have to layer the ingredients. I like to place parchment paper on a cookie sheet or pizza pan and assemble the pizzas on the pan.

I usually start with a thin layer of cheese and follow this with an assortment of veggies, seasonings and then a final layer of cheese. I have found organic pepperoni, but it really isn’t necessary. The cheese provides plenty of protein along with the tortilla. Also, I don’t brush the tortillas with olive oil as this is too much oil for our taste, but it isn’t a bad option if you prefer.

Once assembled, you place the tortilla pizza into your oven for 7 minutes. In that amount of time, the tomato slices will have softened and turned to a type of sauce, the tortilla crust will be crisp and the cheese will be bubbly and melted. Remove from the oven and slice with a pizza cutter. Another benefit to these is that the ‘slices’ are just the right size for little hands at the table.

Two or three are enough to feed my family of four for a lunch. If they’ve been out playing and really built up an appetite, you may find that they will eat more. Recently, we had a visitor and had been outdoors. I assembled all 6 tortillas into pizzas which were promptly consumed by 5 people. I think I might have gotten 4 little wedges.

This would also do nicely as party favors or for a social where the guests assemble their own and pop their creations into a toaster oven.

Enjoy!