Raw Veggie Pizza with a Crescent Roll Crust, and a little Philosophy

In our family, we practice attachment parenting. And we don't.  It depends on the day, it depends on which child we are talking about, it depends on our mood and the mood of said child.  I wore Noorah, whether in a sling, backpack or frontpack for several hours a day until she was about 18 months old.  I only carry our 11 month old, Zayd, in a pack when we are going on a hike and he really can't be in a stroller or just carried in arms.  Zayd will sleep in his crib most the night, while Noorah, at three and a half,  still climbs into our bed at 3am most nights.  We cloth diaper.  But for travel, or if we have a really hectic week, we use disposables.  The point I am trying to make is that for our family, flexibility is key.  We have things that our important to us, and we try to implement those things as much as possible, but we are human.  We take the easy way out sometimes, and that doesn't make us bad or lazy parents. Heck, I would say it makes us better parents. We know what our limits are, and what we are capable of and we work within it.  Sometimes, everything can't be ideal, but we can try our best.  Soooo....how does this relate to this blog about food? My philosophy on food is similar to that on parenting, I guess. We do the best we can; taking shortcuts sometimes, indulging sometimes, always hoping we are doing enough good to offset these shortcuts and indulgences. If we can make small changes in our daily routine, or our old standby recipes, we can slowly begin to improve the health of our family.  Yes, sometimes we might hit the drivethru for breakfast.  And some days we might let them watch far too much TV just so we can catch a break.  But if we try each day to implement one small positive change, then we shouldn't feel bad about the not so great stuff. 

Case in point.  I'm remaking my mom's raw pizza.  This pizza is a hit at potlucks, its delicious, great for summer and so easy to prepare. The toppings are super healthy, and take no time at all to prepare; just raw sliced veggies and sprouts.  But the "dressing" on the pizza is made with cream cheese, miracle whip, packets of ranch dressing powder, and knorr onion soup packets.  Alot of pre-packaged not healthy crap basically.  The crust is also prepackaged tubes of crescent rolls.  So I picked my battle. I knew I could more easily come up with a healthy dressing, than I could make crescent rolls from scratch (plus most of the recipes I'm finding list shortening - I refuse to use shortening, it grosses me out) So I kept the crust, revised the dressing, and was pretty happy with the results! Compromise and flexibility.

MOM'S RAW VEGGIE PIZZA

Crust
2-3 tubes of crescent rolls

Dressing
1 block Neufchatel cheese
1/2 cup plain yogurt or Lebna(yogurt cheese) for thicker, (I will try that next time, I think it would be better)
handful of parsley chopped small
a few sprigs of winter savory chopped small(if you don't have this, double your thyme)
a few sprigs of thyme chopped small
a few mint leaves chopped small
1 clove garlic chopped small, or garlic powder
black pepper to taste

Toppings
Whatever fresh veggies you have on hand.  I used:
Tomatoes
carrot shavings
cucumbers
broccoli
sprouts
red bell pepper
but I usually like to also add:
cauliflower
mushrooms
zucchini

Press your crescent rolls into an ungreased baking pan.  I like a big sheet pan, so I have plenty of leftovers.  Make sure you press all those seams together, overlapping helps.  You might have to get creative about how to piece together the last spaces, that's fine, no one will see it, and if some spots are thicker than others that's fine too.  Bake at 375 until it's golden brown.  Allow to cool before adding dressing or toppings.

While it's baking, I make the dressing.  I used an immersion, or stick blender to get it nice and smooth, but you could use beaters, or even just a fork.  Mix all ingredients together. Put it in the fridge to keep it cold. 

When your crust has cooled, spread the dressing on, making sure to leave a little crust showing all the way aound. Top with your choice of veggies. Which ones, and the amounts you use is up to you. I like it STACKED! I want so many veggies you can't see the dressing anymore, I want veggies falling off everytime I take a bite. But thats just me, and this is such an adaptable recipe.  Try it for your next BBQ. It will be gone in no time, its basically a salad on a crust.

So, I think I was really successful in making a much healthier dressing (i had some left over too, so now we have veggie dip!).  Even though the crust is not that great, you have to pick your battles.  I didn't want to battle with pastry today. And in all honesty, the crescent roll crust is delicious! So who knows, I may try it later and realize that it's just not worth it to make it "healthy". I would love to read any suggestions, or reviews.  Next time, I think we may try it with roasted red pepper hummus as a dressing! That was the suggestion of the husband.