As a female who wasn’t blessed with the ability to lose weight and be toned just by existing, I find myself constantly looking for ways to achieve this but without feeling like I might die of boredom at having to eat bland, tasteless food; or indeed feel like I’m missing out on lots of other delicious foods that I know I enjoy and crave deeply from the exact second that I make the decision to get back on the healthy eating wagon.
And, because I’m a vegetarian, I have always found myself relying perhaps a little too heavily on carbs also, to make a meal feel substantial, filling and obviously tasty. So knowing I needed to lower my carb reliance and increase protein to start seeing further results, I spent the last 4 years forcing myself to find ways to eat eggs so that I could actually enjoy them, which meant that they weren’t too eggy, both in taste and texture; as despite not being vegan, I didn’t eat eggs (unless in cake) for a very, very long time.
I just couldn’t get my head around what they were (let’s not even mention it now as I am still not at ease with it and I don’t want to undo my hard work over these years, ha) so my protein intake was less than impressive. I have now mastered the art of making both omelettes, and scrambled eggs by adding vegetables, cheese, and other flavourings that have enough other textures/tastes to make them actually quite enjoyable to me.
Success… I now have a healthy, low carb meal option that actually leaves me feeling full, and satiated. I still miss carb heavy food, but now look for ways to try and satisfy cravings for them without leaving myself feeling guilty that I’ve fallen off the wagon again. Obviously a treat is fine, but as a lifestyle change that is realistic, I need to enjoy the food I am eating and not just eating it because it’s healthy.
One massive craving for me that I really miss whilst trying to be healthy has to be pizza. I bloody love it! But it doesn’t love my waistline… it’s just not healthy, and that carb-heavy base makes me put on a stone just thinking about it (sympathy please). So how could I find a way to satisfy a regularly recurring craving for the gooey, pizza goodness? Well, with an omelette base, of course.
Luckily, I have been
sneaky well informed, and researched enough to have found a ‘diet’ that might suit me as it allows me to eat cheese(!); and not only allows, but encourages (high fat, low carb – keto diet)… yep, I think I might have found ‘the one’ - diet wise, anyway.
And so I decided to do an eggsperiment (geddit? I’ll book my own taxi for that) to see if I could make this omelette taste anything like a passable pizza to me. And by goodness, I think I actually have! Obviously it’s never going to replace your favourite pizza from wherever, but it’s also not going to make you die from diet guilt, or have your buttons popping off your clothes by indulging in it.
Ingredients:
2-3 eggs (or more if you’re making for more than one person, or particularly hungry)
Chopped tomatoes/passata
Herbs (mixed, or fresh basil works)
Chopped onion
Cheese (hurrah, I used cheddar but any melty one that you fancy is all good)
Salt & Pepper to taste
Or whatever toppings you fancy, obviously. I just kept this one very simple, as I didn’t know if it would work or not.
Method:
I cooked the chopped onion in a small amount of oil (I used olive, but any is fine, just don’t use too much as you don’t want a greasy pizza sauce) until translucent, then added the tomatoes, herbs, and seasoning before cooking through so the flavours were developed enough. You could make this in advance and freeze it, or use it as a base for pasta sauce too. You could do this without the onion, and add them at the end, or not at all if you prefer.
Then, I decided to stick to just a plain omelette base as I knew there’d be less chance of it breaking. I whisked the eggs with salt and pepper, then cooked it both sides in a frying pan so that it was golden brown, and feeling fairly sturdy.
I then transferred my omelette to a foil lined tray and spooned enough ‘pizza sauce’ to cover it, sprinkled plenty of cheese over it (and any other ingredients you choose), and then put it under the grill until it was melted (this particular cheese didn't melt as well as I'd hoped, but still tasted good).
Then I ate it, obviously. I really, really enjoyed it too. So I actually do think I have found something I can eat and enjoy regularly that does satisfy that pizza craving I get, until such a day where I can have a real pizza as a treat.
Happy days. I can’t believe I’ve written so much about eggs though, ha.
