Cauliflower-Basil Pizza

This week, I sat down and planned out a week of HEALTHY meals for my family. It takes a lot of work, but I think it is totally worth it. So far, I'm three for three. If you knew my family, you would understand how hard it is to please everyone at the same time when it comes to food. My dad always looks at my healthy foods and says, "Can you throw some bacon on that?", and my sister suspiciously raises her eyebrows at things that are too green, or have any sort of crust. Luckily, Monday night's meal was a huge hit.

I found this recipe on Pinterest. It was a great way to satisfy the pizza craving that my mom and I find creeps up on us sometimes. It's relatively easy, and, if done right, is under 300 calories. It makes 4 individual pizzas. This recipe includes some specific vegetables, but you could really include any that you want. Afterall, the more vegetables, the better.

Ingredients:
2 eggs
2 cups of mozzarella cheese (I used shredded, go with a low-fat or reduced fat cheese to make it even healthier)
2 cups of "riced" cauliflower
2 minced garlic cloves
1/4 cup of fresh "julienned basil"
1 cup of marinara sauce (1/4 cup per pizza)
1 zucchini
1 yellow zucchini
1 white onion
1 cup ricotta
1 tablespoon of chopped basil
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
To start, you need to "rice" the cauliflower. You can do this using a cheese grater, or a food processor. I chose the food processor, which was quick and easy. Once you have enough cauliflower riced, mix together the eggs, cheese, garlic, and basil in a bowl.
Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Form four equal portions of the mixture, place them on the cookie sheet, and flatten them. I placed another piece of parchment paper on top and flattened them with my hands the best I could. Bake the "crust" for 12-15 minutes. I eyeballed the crust to my personal preference, because I like it crispier. I ended up cooking it for closer to 18 minutes to get the edges browned and crispy.
While waiting for the crust to cook, prepare your vegetables. I sliced the zucchini thinly so that I could load it on.
After the crust has cooked, remove it from the oven and add the sauce. Pile on the veggies however you like. Place it back in the oven for anywhere from 5-20 minutes. The recipe called for 5-10, but I found in order to make my veggies cook through and melt the cheese, it called for closer to 20 minutes.
Here is when you would make the basil ricotta. You mix together the ricotta, the basil, and sale and pepper. Form four balls of the mixture for each pizza, and gently flatten them when they come out of the oven.

I am not a ricotta fan. Because of this, I used some plain old mozzarella (I know, not the healthiest, but I  needed to get that real pizza flavor somehow).  It was delicious!

Recipe credit to: http://www.fatgirltrappedinaskinnybody.com/2011/06/basil-cauliflower-pizza/