recipe: tuscan white bean pizza

When I first discovered I was lactose intolerant a few years ago, I attempted to really limit the amount of dairy I consumed since I didn't want to be taking lactose pills all the time. I usually saved them for ice cream. :)

However, it's awfully challenging to find many cheese-free recipes that agrees at least half the people in your family, not to mention that four of the family members seem to constantly change what they like and don't like to eat at any given meal. It's also difficult to enjoy social gatherings when you have to grill the hosts (and anyone else who contributed to the meal) on whether there are any milk products present in the food. So I gave up the battle and resorted to using the lactaid pills.

Worked great until recently when the pills seemed to stop working so well. Which left me with two options: try taking two pills with every dairy-present meal or stop taking in dairy altogether. I felt the Lord asking me to go with option b. Fasting dairy products is not going to be easy and I'm sure I'll do my share of complaining to Him about it along the way, but I also believe He'll give me the grace to do this. And the recipes.

Like this tuscan white bean pizza recipe I found yesterday. Cheese- free pizza may not sound appetizing. It may even sound like an anomaly. However, this pizza is really good. The recipe is from Vegan on the Cheap, but here is the ingredient list and directions on the author's blog.

And here are some modifications I made to the recipe:

• When I want to do pizza quickly, I've found large pita shells, nan bread and even a couple tortillas work well
• I spread olive oil on the dough/shell to "seal" it and then spread some pasta sauce on it
• For the white bean mixture I used great northern beans since I had those on hand and only put in two garlic cloves (out of respect for Dave :) ) and only one tablespoon of basil (since I used the basil I had pestoed with olive oil and then frozen in the summer, it may have equaled closer to two or three tablespoons of fresh, chopped basil). Next time I make this, I'll only use 1/8 tsp pepper since I found 1/4 tsp a little too hot. I didn't measure how much water I put in - I added as much as needed to get the consistency I desired.
• The toppings I used were sliced cherry tomatoes, pine nuts and chopped onion

I'm already anticipating the next time I feel in the mood for pizza. :)