Gluten Free Pizza Recipe

Got back from racing in Cali yesterday and was craving a goood pizza. I love making my own pizzas with whatever random ingredients I have and I just made one that is to die for! For the crust I tweaked a recipe seen in Elana Amersterdam's Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook. For the topping I used some fresh veggies and a sweet flavorful chicken sausage that I love to use in almost anything from salad to pasta and now even pizza. The base was simply pesto top with grated parmesan. I also added a sundried tomato tapenade sauce to the top of the pizza which added a bit extra flavor.

This pizza is more of a personal sized pizza. I eat the whole thing myself but being a runner I eat alot so it could be 1-2 servings depending on how hungry you are.
Ingredients:

CRUST
- 1 1/2 cups almond flour
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp dried oregano
- 1/4 tsp dried thyme
- 1/4 teaspoon dried basil
- 1/2 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
- 1 tbsp grapeseed oil (can use olive oil, canola oil, or whatever you prefer)
- 1 large egg

TOPPINGS
- olive oil - just need a little to brush on edge of pizza
- cornmeal
- 1 tbsp pesto- I used jarred version because it was faster and easier but can make own
- grated Parmesann cheese
- 1/2 link of Aidells Chicken and Apple smoked chicken sausage or 1/2 link of Al Fresco's Apple Maple Chicken sausage (either will work and both are gluten free)
- handful of grape tomatoes - washed and chopped in half
- 3 stalks of asparagus chopped into little bite size pieces (chop about an inch off white end of asparagus and throw out)
- sundried tomato tapenade- I used one made by Meditalia but if you cant find anything like this you can use any gluten free tomato sauce you like
-pinch of pepper

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Combine almond flour, baking soda, sea salt, oregano, basil, thyme, and rosemary in bowl
3. In separate bowl whisk together grapeseed oil and egg. Add to dry ingred. and mix until thoroughly combined
4. tear off 2 sheets of parchment paper and place dough between them. Using rolling pin roll out dough to about 1/8 thickness.
5. Remove top sheet of parchment paper and fix up the edges so that there is a little rim around the edge of pizza. Place pizza with bottom sheet of parchment paper still intact onto cookie sheet.
6. Spread the 1 tbsp of pesto onto center of pizza leaving about a 1/2 inch edge. Brush olive oil around outer edge of pizza and sprinkle with a little bit of cornmeal. Add grated Parmesan over the pesto - you may put as much Parmesan as you so desire
7. Top with halved grape tomatoes, chopped asparagus, and sausage
8. Get a spoonful of sundried tomato tapenade and drop small amounts over toppings so that there is a little bit in each quadrant of pizza (I put small dollops of tapenade in each of the 4 quadrants of the pizza so that when I cut the pizza into fourths there would be a little bit in each)
9. Evenly sprinkle pinch of pepper over top of pizza. Place in preheated oven and let cook until edges of pizza start to brown slightly or turn golden ( about 15 min but that is just an estimate so really be paying attention to it)
10. Remove pizza from oven carefully as it will be hot.
11. Let it cool a min, then slice into fourths and devour!

DAY 3

I've been soo super busy lately that i haven't had time to write anything on here let alone think about writing anything on here. Yesterday I sat in a van feeling carsick for 3 and a 1/2 hours on my way back from a meet in Williamsburg, then had to run 12 miles hard and then immediately go home to shower and get to work. Now Im up for work this morning for work and I really don't have time to be doing this now but o well. Whenever I do get the time I have some really good recipes to post on here. Just the other night I made some gluten free wonton wrappers stuffed with 4 different kinds of shrimp filling :-) . I also made some angel food cake which pretty much taste exactly like the original! Anyway I'll have to get back to this later as I need to get ready for work. :-/

By the way if your gluten free and reading this you should check out Cafe Harmony. It is amazing and located next to Harmony Farms a natural grocery store with tons of gluten free food. I know that was random but I though it was important

DAY 2

Alright, so to continue with my story...I began meeting with the schools nutritionist in the spring to work on a diet plan to make me feel better and get back to my normal weight. Of course our awesome sports nutritionist had been seriously ill and out a couple of months so my only option was to meet with the schools nutritionist who wasn't quite in tune with the diet of an athlete. She believed the iron supplements I was in dire need of were the primary cause of my stomach issues and mandated that I needed to stop taking them. When I told her I felt like I was always hungry even after meals she told me that was normal as I was burning a lot of calories doing what I do. After meals I felt hungry but my stomach would feel full up into my chest and when that happened I knew the stomach pains were on their way. I wasn't running well, constantly felt tired and sick and was hating every bit of it. WHEN WOULD THIS END?!? Finally, the next fall, our sports nutritionist was back and better than ever! I began the season with IT tendinitis in my knee and was trying to work my way back when I got fed up with the stomach issues. My coach suggested I meet with Michelle (our nutritionist) and I gladly followed through. When I began describing my symptoms she immediately began asking what all it was I was eating. When I told her she asked do you normally feel sick after eating a lot of pasta or carbs. In the past I was an absolute carb lover. Being part Italian pasta was a mainstay in my diet as well as numerous bagels, waffles, and of course my favorite Hawaiian sweet rolls :-). However upon thinking about it, I realized that after I had mono I couldn't make it through the day without some sort of stomach pain. After eating my sandwich and pretzels and whatever else, I would get a stomach ache. I wrote it off as normal but little did I know the real issue.

The diagnosis:
CELIAC DISEASE.

DAY 1

I've never really been the type to put my life down on paper so when I decided to finally create a blog I was completely unsure how to start. A couple of days ago I made the blog and was soo excited but I couldn't think of anything to say so instead of writing anything I just sat staring lifelessly into the background picture I thought was awesome. Finally now 3 days later I have decided to go for it. I guess I can start out by saying the reason I decided to start this blog in the first place. I currently run varsity cross country and track and field at North Carolina State University and absolutely love it but my journey from my freshman year to now (I am currently a junior) hasn't been the smoothest. I started my freshman year struggling to cope with the increase in mileage and day to day agonized over my weak ankles. I couldn't make it through a run without rolling at least one of my ankles even on flat level sidewalks! I was a distance runner that had to wear ankle braces to make it through runs and felt fatigued the whole time. I was always tired, gaining weight, and sick to my stomach 80% of the time. My 5 ft 0 inch frame reached 124 pounds and no matter how healthy I tried to be I couldn't lose the weight or prevent it from coming. My stomach issues continue to worsen and the fatigue and anemia I had acquired in high school was not getting any better despite all of the iron supplements I was prescribed. For the most part, all I wanted to do after runs and workouts was curl up in bed and go to sleep. Needless to say, I finished my 1st collegiate cross country dismally running somewhere in the upper 22 for 6k. When I got back in the spring things seemed to be looking up until the little pain in my foot took a turn for the worse and after running through the pain for almost a month I found I had a navicular (not sure how to spell that but its in your foot) stress fracture that had actually started heal. Nevertheless I red shirted my outdoor season and let it heal completely. I continued to be unable to get through a day without wanting to roll up into a ball due to stomach pain and was miserable. My first year as a collegiate runner was worse than it was my senior year in high school which wasn't my best year either. My senior year in high school I ended up with a mild case of mono and my ferritin levels in my blood had dropped all the way down to an 8 (should be AT LEAST 20, normally 50ish for distance runners). This marked the beginning of the endless stomach saga....

I think I am going to leave the story at that for now. I have practice at 7:45 and have some stuff to do prior so I will continue this later :-)

P.S. GOODD LUCKK TO ALL MY FELLOW TEAMMATES AT RALEIGH RELAYS TODAY! GOO WOLFFPACKK!!