Part of my non-blogging time this past year, a least six months of it, has been occupied with finding a healthier me. It has been a wonderful journey so far. Hard, but wonderful! I am looking forward to telling you more about it in future posts. (Pst. Subscribe, so you don’t miss those.)

One of the habits I am learning is to ditch sugary and starchy foods until after a good workout. It isn’t as hard as it sounds, except I usually don’t get a chance to get a workout in until the kids are in bed. That equals 9pm on most days that end in “y”.

So I have found ways to cope. Ways to have my carb-esque foods and eat them too.

I have always loved zucchini. Well, as long as it wasn’t steamed in a veggie medley. The blessing and curse known as Pinterest opened my eyes to zucchini pizza crust. Of course, the food porn photo I repinned was marked spam and had no real link to a recipe. Lucky for me, Google and I go way back.

There are only a bazillion recipes for zucchini pizza crust. How in the stink would someone know which one to pick? I didn’t pick one. I picked all of the stuff I liked out of the bazillion of them my Google search produced. I am adventurous like that!

So here is what you need:
1. A pizza stone (They are $15 at your local big box store.)
2. Parchment Paper (Seriously, if it isn’t in your kitchen already…I hope that means you are living off frozen meals.)
3. Zucchini – 4 Cups shredded
4. 1 large egg beaten or equivalent egg substitute
5. 1/3 cup shredded Parmesan (not the stuff that looks like clumped up powder, the real stuff)
–Note: I saw lots of recipes that used goat cheese, so feel free to experiment with cheeses.
6. 1/3 cup almond flour/meal
7. 2 cloves of minced garlic
8. 1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
9. 1 tsp dried basil
10. An oven preheated to 475 degrees

Line your pizza stone with parchment paper.
The shredded zucchini will need to be drained. I pressed mine in between paper towels in a strainer and walked away for 20 minutes. The more liquid you can get out the better. Mix all of your ingredients together in a bowl. 

Now feel free to make a large pizza crust by covering most of the pizza stone. I make small six inch pizza crusts instead of a large one. Spoon the mixture onto the parchment lined pizza stone. Pat it out to about a 1/4 inch thickness and bake. I baked my small ones for 8 minutes flipped them and then repeated for the other side. Do me a favor and don’t just use my times. Every oven is different so you will want to keep a close eye on your crust(s).

Once the crust is golden brown you can top it immediately and stick it back in the oven. OR, in the case of my individual crusts, refrigerate them for meals throughout the week. Today my zucchini crust had marinara, baby portabellas, black beans, cilantro and a tiny dusting of shredded mozzarella. I popped mine in the toaster oven for 10 minutes and they were perfect!

BONUS:
Zoodles (a.k.a. Zucchini Noodles)
I have started using these instead of pasta. I top them with some red sauce, veggies and a protein. There are lots of gadgets out there to get your zucchini into a noodle-ish form. I have almost lost some finger tips on a few of them! My favorite is the VEGGETTI! Honestly, it cracks me up that I am recommending an AS-SEEN-ON-TV product! But wait, there is more!!! You don’t have to purchase it online or during an infomercial! They are available in the AS-SEEN-ON-TV section of most department stores!