Eat Your Feelings - Homemade Pizza

Sometime over the past six months, I stopped cooking.

Whether it was getting back into an office routine, or summer being the epitome of eating outdoors, I became a "grab and go" kind of girl.

I used to be the type of person who always packed a lunch for work, and made homemade dinners 80% of the time. This summer, I found myself too tired to cook, and too lazy to make lunch. Fast-forward to the fall season, and I've wasted an exorbitant amount of money on food and I don't feel as great.

Recently, after another boring meal, I climbed my two-step ladder and grabbed some of my cookbooks collecting dust. I chose a recipe from one of my favourite food blogs, Smitten Kitchen, and set a lofty goal to make homemade pizza dough.

To get back into any game, you have to go all in.

I couldn't start with a salad recipe; I had to do something that required effort, because no one can check Instagram with sticky dough fingers.

I walked to Bulk Barn, and bought two types of flour (white & 12 grain) as well as rising yeast.

I put the ingredients together rather quickly, and chose the 22 hour rise option because I am a working woman who likes to sleep, and I was making the pizza for myself so I didn't have a timeline.

The next day I awoke to slightly risen dough, and after a full work day, it had doubled in size. I rolled it out on a pan, added cheese, tomato sauce, and mushrooms. I popped it in the oven and voila, I had dinner, and lunch for the next two days.

While the final product wasn't perfect, (it was a bit stuck to the pan, note: use more than just flour for setting your pans) I was proud that I made it. The recipe was simple enough that I couldn't believe I'd never tried it before.

I read this quote by Michael Pollan and found it relevant in my quest to start cooking again.

"We do find time for activities we value, like surfing the Internet or exercising... the problem is we’re not valuing cooking enough. Who do you want cooking your food, a corporation or a human being? Cooking isn’t like fixing your car or other things it makes sense to outsource. Cooking links us to nature, it links us to our bodies" - Michael Pollan

So that's it! I hope to get back into the cooking groove, and share some more recipes on the blog.

Now back to Instagram.

Recipe here via Smitten Kitchen