Parmesan Pizza Crust and Weekly WI

I’ve had plantar fascitis for about five years.  I ended up having to have special inserts made for my shoes that I have to wear every day.  If I wear flip flops or skip wearing them for a couple days, the back of my heels, especially the left one, becomes painful not only to the touch, but with every step I take.  It usually takes until after lunch for the pain to go away.

Even if I wear the inserts every day, my left heel is still normally sore for a good couple hours after getting up.  It’s just something I’ve learned to live with.

So yesterday I went to my DVR and saw that another episode of Classical Stretch had recorded.  This one was called calves, shins and posture.  Guess what?  After that 30 minute routine, my heel pain went away and didn’t bother me at all the rest of the day.  Better yet?  No pain this morning when I got out of bed!

I guess my Achilles tendon was just really tight and whatever moves she did in that routine did the trick.  I seriously will do one of those videos every morning.  See if you can search it on your cable package – she normally appears on public television.

I made a quick zucchini frittata yesterday morning.  Hannah and I were on a mission to go garage saling before she had to work.  1 zucchini shredded that I sauteed in about 1/2 teaspoon of olive oil, then 1/2 cup egg beaters, 1/2 ounce of cheese and I had a cup of fruit on the side.

We ended up going to four garage sales.  I ended up getting a WW cookbook for .50 cents and this for the fridge – Tony loves iced tea so I plan on keeping some in the fridge for him – this cost $1 and it’s brand new.

On the way back Hannah and I went to Walmart to get our eyebrows threaded.  We both know its gonna hurt like a son of a bitch, but the pain only lasts a couple minutes.  However, it never fails that they then ask “you want me to do lip and chin?”  I politely said “no thank you.”  But the woman said “but ma’am – it looks so bad!”  I’d like to note for the record that I don’t have lip and chin hair, thank you very much.

Tony and I went grocery shopping for our Easter dinner.  We bought a $14 ham, but had a $9 off coupon – score!  After grocery shopping we went out for Chinese!  Woop – lunch out with Tony two days in a row?  Love it.  Since it was Good Friday Tony went with Chinese noodles with shrimp.  I however, can eat meat, so I went with the spicy Mongolian beef.  This plate came in at 580 calories and hit the spot.  I ate all the beef and broccoli, 1/2 cup of the brown rice and the egg roll.

When we got home I did a dry run of my Easter dessert yesterday – I am calling it a rustic apple tart that I plan to serve with vanilla bean ice cream and peanut brittle as a garnish. I will post the recipe tomorrow, but holy shizz, this one is a keeper.

While I was cooking, Tony did our first mow of the season – our grass was so thick!  It looked great when he got done.  I think even if Tony was bleeding out of his eyes he wouldn’t let me use our riding mower – apparently I can’t cut our grass straight!

We have two giant pine trees in front of our house.  Every time we have a bad storm we think they will break in half, but they are still standing strong.

I’ve had a pizza jones all week.  While my favorite pizza dough is still super thin and crispy, Tony usually likes a bit thicker dough.  I looked through a bunch of other dough recipes online, and ended up coming up with this one:

Parmesan Garlic Pizza Dough

• 1 1/8 cup water (9 ounces)
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 1.5 Tablespoons honey
• 1.5 Tablespoons olive oil
• 3 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese

Mix the water, yeast, honey and olive oil and let stand for about 10 minutes, or until the yeast gets frothy.  Add the flour salt and Italian seasoning in the food processor.  Turn the processor on and add the water mixture.  After a minute the dough should be incorporated and pull away from the sides of the processor.

Put in a bowl with a bit of olive oil, and let rise for 1 hour.

You can see the flecks of Italian seasoning.  This dough is really soft too.  While the dough was rising, I did Billy Blanks “Empowerment DVD.”  The first 10 minutes were a cake and I almost switched to something more challenging.  Um, the first 10 minutes was just the instructional part!  The next 50 minutes kicked my ass.

Melt the butter and garlic together.  Stir in Parmesan cheese.  Brush this mixture all over the crust, especially on the outer edges.  I had baby spinach and red pepper on my side – Tony had green and black olives and tomatoes on his side.

I preheated my oven with my baking stone in there to 425.  This took about 15 minutes to bake.

This was delicious.  I ended up having two slices, or half of my side – which came in at around 590 calories.  I really wanted a third piece, but told myself to wait 30 minutes, and if I still wanted it I would have it.  But I never ended up going back in and Hannah had the leftovers when she got home from work.

Best part is Tony loved it.  He said “it’s a non-Biz crust!”  I’ll definitely use this dough recipe again.

I realized that my WW meeting will be closed tomorrow for Easter, and I couldn’t weigh in today since I weighed in on Sunday, which is the start of their week – if I went today it would just tell me that I had already weighed in for the week.  I plan on switching back to Saturday meetings – I like the leader a lot better.

So last week I was:

This morning I was:

So unofficially I am down 1.6.  I hope to see – 3.0 at next Saturday’s official WI.

So Hannah has decided that she wants to go to Roosevelt University to study Marriage and Family with an emphasis on Speech Pathology.  She forwarded on her college transcripts yesterday which was the last thing required before she hears if she’s accepted.

She had her letters of recommendation, and she said “I am not sure I showed this one to you.”  It was written by her psychology teacher from last semester.

I am one proud Momma!  Hannah I have no doubt you’ll get accepted and that you will continue to succeed academically.  I am so proud of you!

Alright, I am off to finish making my apple tarts, my Italian wedding soup and homemade bread for tomorrow.  Enjoy your Saturday!

Stats for Day 6 of 30 Bad Ass:

• 1336 calories
• 56 fat
• 132 carbs
• 15 fiber
• 75 protein
• 40% calories from carbs, 38% from fat, 22% for protein
• 30 minutes stretch
• 50 Billy Blanks kicking my bootie