Acorn Squash, Apple, Spinach and Macadamia Nut Cheese Pizza

The weather this winter has been unseasonably cold and snowy. We have had more snow this winter than we normally get in three winters. I mention this because they are calling for a few inches of snow again today. I grew up on Lake Michigan so I normally love to see a beautiful white blanket of snow, but I am getting a little tired of it now.

Snow in Baltimore is never ever pleasant if you need to drive. Imagine someone from Jamaica on snow skis and you get the idea. Most Marylanders are clueless of how to drive in snow. They either drive 5 miles an hour or 65 miles an hour. Whenever it snows there are more cars in the ditch on the side of the road than you can count. Also there are a ridiculous number of fender benders from people following too closely and driving too fast. It is safer to stay home and wait for the roads to clear.

Why do I mention all of this? Today I had intended to run some errands, grocery store, health food store, and bookstore. However, with the snow I am going to stay how and wait until tomorrow to go out. Since I will be home today there may be a little extra cooking and blogging today.

Here is the pizza I made last weekend.

Acorn Squash, Apple, Spinach and Macadamia Nut Cheese Pizza
Makes 1 pizza – 8 slices

Ingredients:

1 whole-wheat pizza crust, par cooked
1/3 acorn squash, cut into thin half moons (slices about ¼ inch thick) – leave skins on if organic
Freshly ground black pepper
Dulse granules (a natural salt substitute with trace minerals)
¼ firm apple, thinly sliced
½ tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon basil puree (from the freezer)
1/6 dehydrated onion
½ cup baby spinach julienned (more if you want extra nutrition but it won’t be as pretty)
2 ounces cultured macadamia nut cheese
1 tablespoons walnuts, roughly chopped

Directions:

Preheat your oven and pizza stone to 400 degrees.

Place the acorn squash in a single layer on a sheet pan lined with parchment or silpat. Sprinkle the squash with freshly ground black pepper and dulse granules and bake until tender.

Increase the oven temperature to 500 degrees.

While the pizza stone is preheating prep the ingredients. Thinly slice the apple and toss with a little apple cider vinegar. Defrost the basil puree. Julienne the baby spinach. Roughly chop the walnuts.

To assemble top the par cooked pizza crust with basil puree, acorn squash moons, apple slices, dehydrated onions, and macadamia nut cheese. Bake to finish cooking the crust and heat all the ingredients. As soon as you remove the pizza from the oven top with julienned spinach and walnuts. The heat of the pizza will lightly wilt the spinach. I add the walnuts after the pizza has baked so that I don’t oxidize the fat in the nuts.

Serve hot.

Nutritional Information per slice:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 134.79
Calories From Fat (36%) - 49.15

Total Fat - 6.22g
Saturated Fat- 0.72g
Cholesterol - 0.01mg
Sodium - 53.22mg
Potassium - 128.82mg
Total Carbohydrates - 20.77g
Fiber - 2.77g
Sugar - 0.96g
Protein -3.3g

Comments:

The flavor combination of this pizza was nice. Not your typical pizza but very nice if you want something different. The next time I make this pizza I will probably make a quick spinach and basil pesto to go on the base of the pizza. I prefer my pizzas to be a little moist, and this one was a bit on the dry side.

Unrelated Note:

With the snow we decided to start the day slowly. Since it is cold we decided to have chili tonight for dinner. I am going to make a little cornbread with quinoa to go with the chili and some sort of salad. I love chili or stew when it is cold and snowy outside. What sort of foods do you tend to make when it is snowing?