Entering into a new realm of gluten-free cooking

I apologize for the delay in posts, but the stomach flu bug hit our house and my gluten-free cooking was put on hold for a few days.  But as of yesterday we are back in business! I have to say I missed my everyday cooking experiments...I look forward to trying out new recipes, especially when I am not confident that they will taste exceptionally good. It's not fun if you know what the outcome is going to be! Just like Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make, the better."  Maybe that is why I enjoyed chemistry so much in college? 

The recipe I made Sunday night was most definitely an experiment.  I tried a household favorite, which is not an exaggeration by any stretch of the word.  I attempted gluten-free pizza.  Many nights Tommy and I have enjoyed our stuffed crust pizza from Pizza Hut.  I cannot lie...even though I am a Registered Dietitian I still cheat on my diet.  I am not the food police.  I am just like everybody else! Anyway when I ventured out to do the grocery shopping Sunday afternoon, I made a pit stop at Food Fantasies, the ONLY "grocery" store in Springfield that carries a variety of allergy-specific food items.  I wasn't really searching for anything, just mainly browsing, and I stumbled upon gluten-free pizza crust mix. I had a few brands to choose from, but I decided to pick a mix by Chebe mostly because it was the cheapest at $2.99 a bag.  When you squeezed the contents of the bag it felt...interesting to say the least.  Gluten-free pizza here we come!

We first preheated the oven to 375 degrees F. The back of the gluten free pizza crust bag displayed a list of ingredients to add to the mix, which included eggs, olive oil, milk and a few random spices. Once everything was mixed together, I kneaded the dough for about 5 minutes, gave Tommy the rolling pin, and delegated the task of rolling the dough out on the pizza stone. To be honest, this recipe was fairly easy.  I was concerned the most about the taste, only because it was up against a few pretty tough critics.  The toppings we decided to add included pizza sauce (which is an obvious ingredient but I had to state it), low fat mozzarella cheese, diced tomatoes, and grilled chicken pieces.  



I have to admit, it looked like it would taste pretty good! Our pizza only needed to bake for about 20 minutes, most likely because we have a Crosley stove which is the oldest brand of stove I know.  They don't even sell them anymore...yet ours is still working! How does that happen?? Our oven is a beast and it only takes half the prescribed time to bake anything.  So after 20 minutes this is what was produced:

Final verdict was it tasted pretty good!  It's definitely not Pizza Hut stuffed crust, but I will admit I preferred the taste of the gluten-free counterpart.   I don't miss the way I felt after eating a greasy pizza slice, and I definitely don't miss the havoc it wreaks on my stomach.  Overall, this gluten-free substitution was a hit!!