Mangia! Pizza! Updates!

I dare you to tell me that you don't like pizza. Do it. I will call b.s. on you so fast your head will spin! I don't care what form it's in, if there's no cheese, no sauce, just dough with some greens on it, it's pizza and YOU LOVE IT.

I was really craving pizza, but of course I was doing my No Eating Out challenge, and in all honesty I very rarely get delivery pizza anymore. If anything, I go to Papa Murphy's where I can control the toppings and get a thin crust.

With no delivery or takeout options available to me, what was I to do? Make my own of course! I picked up some whole wheat pizza dough from the grocery store, and I had everything else at home already. The dough is convenient, but next time I'm going to make it from scratch, it can't be that hard.

At first I was thinking Meatless Monday, but then I remembered I had some turkey pepperoni in the freezer and I couldn't resist. I rolled out the dough, ladled out my sauce, and sprinkled on shredded mozzarella. For toppings I added the pepperoni along with mushrooms, olives, red peppers, pepperoncinis, and a handful of feta cheese.

It turned out delicious! My pizza craving was satisfied and I didn't feel guilty.

To update you all on the No Eating Out Challenge, I can say that yes, I made it the whole two weeks without eating out. I know it doesn't sound like a big deal, but I will say that there were invitations I had to turn down and temptations I avoided. I even sat and talked with friends while they ate at a restaurant and I sipped on a soda.

Success? Meh. I wasn't super happy with the results, except for maybe in my bank account. I still need to work on time management and meal planning. I may not have gone out to eat, but some nights I got home fairly late and didn't have anything prepared for dinner. I ended up eating crappy stuff like ramen noodles and even *gasp* boxed mac n' cheese. The whole point of this was to save money and eat better, but I definitely fell short on the eating healthier part. While all in all I eat much better than I have in the past, I could definitely use some help in planning out dinners. Breakfast with my smoothies are easy, and lunch is usually chicken and veggies so no problem either as long as I make sure to have my work fridge stocked. With dinner I either need to wake up earlier to prep before I go to work (yugh!) or I need to spend Sunday evening getting my dinners for the week made and ready to go. As much as I hate waking up early (I am a total She-beast for the most part in the morning before coffee), I still think that may be the way to go since I am usually pretty beat after my Sunday hikes.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated, I'll keep posting recipes and updating you all on successes and failures as they come. I like to think that every day is a new chance to improve on something you've done in the past, and I'm not going to beat myself up for trying.