Mini Broccoli Pesto Pizza Home Bakers Challenge

Baking is one of my stress burster, i can bake for hours and i love it. Actually while chitchatting with some of our buddies, suddenly we planned to start a baking group and this is how this beautiful Home Bakers Challenge, our new baking baby group was born. Every month a host will give her choice of bake and bakers from this group will bake the posted recipe within a month, between 10th -12th of each month we will post our tried recipes in our respective blogs. How easy na, yep anyone who love baking or to experiment their baking skills can join their hands with us.

For our first month of Home Bakers Challenge, the host of the month Divya Prakash of Divyas Culinary Journey chosed Pizza with 4 varieties, one with pizza sauce while the another one is without pizza sauce,the third one is with pesto sauce and the last but not the least is naanizza, an Indianized version of pizza with naan.I chosed pesto pizza and baked few mini pesto pizza with homemade basil and walnut pesto with our family favourite veggie broccoli. Each and every baker of this group can chose their toppings with their favourite veggies or cheese,watever this group members are really very amazing and they baked varieties of pizza with beautiful toppings.Thanks to Divya for suggesting us pizza for the first bake of this group and we loved it.

Recipe source : Martha Stewart

2+1/4 tsp Active Dry Or Instant Yeast
4 cups All-purpose Flour
1 tsp  Salt
1tsp Sugar
1/2 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Sprinkle yeast over 1 1/2 cups warm (not lukewarm) water.

Combine flour,sugar and salt in a bowl,drizzle in olive oil until combined with flour. Next, pour in yeast-water mixture and mix until just combined.

Coat a separate mixing bowl with olive oil, and form the dough into a ball.

Coat the dough with olive oil, then cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and store in the fridge until you need it.It’s best to make the dough at least 24 hours in advance, and 3 or 4 days is even better.

Basil Pesto:

2cups Fresh basil leaves

1/4cup Walnuts

2nos Garlic cloves

Salt

Pepper

Olive oil (as per need)

Bring boil two cups of salted water, drop the basil leaves,within few seconds drain them and let them cool completely.

Pat dry them completely.

In a food processor, take the nuts,basil leaves,garlic,salt,pepper,process until the nuts are finely chopped.

While the machine running, pour the oil and grind until smooth. Transfer the pesto to an air tighted box.

Basil pesto is ready..

Assembling the pizza:

Broccoli florets (as per need)

Grated mozzarella cheese

Take enough pizza dough,roll it as small sized circular discs.

Transfer the rolled pizza dough to a baking sheet placed over a baking tray.

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Spread the pesto sauce to the rolled disc,arrange the broccoli florets over the pizza base finally sprinkle the grated cheese over the veggies.

Bake this vegetarian pizza in the middle rack for 20-25minutes until the cheese melts.

40 Day Challenge – What is Your Goal

Are you struggling to make all the changes you know you should make for your health?

Looking for health answers but don’t know where to start?

Just need some encouragement in your health journey?

Welcome to the Wellness Challenge! 

 I’m so excited for the great information and prizes I get to share in the next 7 weeks!
Yep, you read that right, 7 weeks! Can you do it?
At the request of several of my readers, and to make your transition easier than mine was, I have put together a 40-day challenge to offer you support, recipes and giveaways! If you’ve been waiting for an excuse to try going grain free or ditching the sugar, now is your chance.
Please join me for Lent, or just for 40 days, to try living grain free. Your health will thank you, and if you don’t like it, you can always go back to the old way of eating.  What have you got to lose?
To help make the transition easier and to make sure we address all aspects of health, I’ve broken the challenge into Seven Mini Challenges. Each week, there will be a new challenge with specific goals, support and prizes!

Start A Wellness Journal!

Maybe your goal is to lose weight, maybe to sleep better or make improvements in your families diet. Whatever the goal, keeping a journal will help you both with accountability and support! Consider starting a Wellness Journal .
If you want to lose weight, post your measurements and *gasp* a picture if you want, if you are trying to clear up your skin, take a picture to document your progress. If you’re trying to improve your family’s health, show us their beautiful faces!
This is my favorite part of the Challenge personally, since I feel like I really get to “meet” you all.

And the Week One Mini Challenge Is…

Getting a solid nutritional foundation in place! Anyone surprised? Many of you may already be solid in this area, but I know that this is a huge struggle for many people! 
If you’re diet is already iron-clad, please offer some advice and encouragement for those who are struggling to make the change. This challenge will actually go a little longer than a week so that everyone has time to make the changes, and so we can get on a Monday-Friday schedule…

Nutrition Basics

Nutrition can have a tremendous impact on overall health and will be a large part of the focus of the challenge. If you’ve been a Wellness Mama reader for a while, you know that I’m not a fan of grains, sugars and starches and recommend removing them from your diet. Of course, only if you are making sure to get adequate nutrition from proteins, fats and vegetables.
Some foods, like beans, are of questionable nature, so for the duration of the challenge, I’d suggest removing them too! Others, like vegetable oils, margarine, and other frankenfats are toxic and should be avoided completely, challenge or not!

Mini Challenge #1
Cut out the grains, sugars, potatoes, beans and all processed foods from your diet and focus on getting maximum nutrition from meats, vegetables, healthy fats (coconut, olives, coconut oil, olive oil, tallow, lard, butter, unprocessed cream, etc) and fruits. 

Everyone is entering the challenge for different reasons, but if one of your goals is to lose weight or improve your physique, consider drastically reducing your carbohydrate intake.
If weight loss is a serious goal, this will mean that that morning bowl of oatmeal or potato salad at lunch is out. To keep it simple, just get your carbs from vegetables (minus potatoes) and you’ll be fine! One exception, if you struggle from low-thyroid, don’t drop your carbs too low for too long, as this can stress the thyroid, just make sure to get your carbs from healthy foods like sweet potatoes, winter squash, fruit, and grain-free baked goods!
[Note: Some people experience a "carb flu" as their body adjusts to not having a constantly available stream of glucose. This is temporary, but can be uncomfortable for the first couple of weeks. Check out these two posts by Dr. Michael Eades to help make the transition easier
Tips for Starting Low Carb Part I and Tips for Starting Low Carb Part II ]

We’ll be addressing some specifics that can help with your individual goals in the next few weeks (supplements, what type of exercise, etc) but nutrition is the single most important factor and all the other factor’s can’t fix a poor diet!

Here are a few free printables for quick reference:

• Here’s a full week of my premium Meal Plans (budget friendly!) and a corresponding shopping list!
• Foods to Avoid
• Foods to Eat in Moderation
• Foods to Consume Freely