The Beginning and Kermit the Pizza

This is the beginning of a whole new part of my life. A year ago if someone told me I was going to start baking and enjoy it as thoroughly as this I would've laughed in their face. This year I've left the toaster and microwave behind to begin an exhausting, yet somehow fun quest to make things gluten-free, mostly vegan and hopefully free of most common allergies all while making things taste delicious while looking adorably dweeby.

This all began when I started getting horrible stomach pains practically all the time. At first I thought it was dairy, as my boyfriend had similar side effects with his lactose intolerance. I bought a cute recycled notebook from the art store I work at and began changing my diet around and writing down what I ate that day and if I still got the same side effects. I cut out dairy for a while but still felt the same effects, so I didn't get it. One day at a restaurant I noticed a gluten-free menu. I had heard about it but didn't exactly know what it was, and found out it was in a lot of flour which meant I should try giving up my addiction to bread. This, as an Italian, is completely unheard of and it made me feel even more sick just thinking I had to live in a world without bread. Well, I researched this, received the extremely popular book "Wheat Belly" for my birthday, which told me extremely shocking facts on bread I never thought about before and tried to convert myself to eating highly expensive and sometimes even dry, tasteless and let's face it, pretty gross, gluten-free substitutes on the market.

Friends and family members have been extremely supportive in my research in discovering the joys of making healthier meals from scratch. I have yet to master everything and become a pro, but the thing that makes me really excited is baking. If I can decorate it I'm extremely happy, mainly because I'm an artist/cartoonist and enjoy being creatively nerdy. My first attempt at making something super nerdy yet healthier than the normal, everyday meal was my Kermit the Frog gluten-free pizza. I love Jim Henson, he's my idol, such an imagination that man had, he could do anything it seemed. As a tribute to my hero I made an "It's not easy being green" pizza, using veggies on a gluten-free, vegan friendly crust I made from scratch. The recipe can be found here:

http://www.food.com/recipe/vegan-pizza-dough-10579

Anyway, Kermit's green colour was naturally perfect for an all veggie pizza and I joked for some of my meat-lover friends to make a Miss Piggy pizza out of, well, obviously meat. I used baby spinach for most of his face, black olives for his pupils, tomato sauce and cheese for his mouth and background. The only problem I had was that I stupidly picked up baby cucumber instead of zucchini for his eyes and neck so that part didn't taste incredibly great but I'm sure next time if I decide to do the same pizza properly the zucchini would be a much more delicious choice. I also think next time I'll just peel off the green part of the zucchini to create a flatter, and easier to eat edible decoration on the pizza. Here is the pic people went crazy for over facebook, I even had a few shares:

Anyway, more pix to come and more tales of my adventures turning every baked good I make into a geeky treat!