Twiggie Makes by Candace Grahl

It is March 1st. FINE. UH. LEE. Normally the early months of the year don’t bother me too badly but we’ve had the most bonkers amount of snow and March 1 is just a nice reminder that spring IS a-coming! Even if they’re calling for more snow this week (which they are) we’re getting there!

I have to share this easy, healthy and oh-so amazing recipe with you. My husband has recently started a year-long wellness journey and one of the aspects of this project is that he not eat meat. This isn’t much of a stretch for either of us since the first three years of our marriage I was a vegetarian, so he got used to eating meatless meals. So in honor of his new eating habits & getting to crack open my dusty vegetarian cookbooks, I wanted to share this recipe with you. It is one of our favorites from back in the day & is now a family favorite - my picky four year old will even eat it, spinach and all. Enjoy!

Mediterranean Pita Pizza

(5) Whole wheat pitas
(2) 15 oz. cans of northern beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup crumbled feta
Fresh spinach leaves (about 4 hand fulls), rinsed and cut into strips**
(2) cups shredded mozzarella
(1) tbsp minced garlic
extra virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mash beans in a medium sized bowl with a fork (this is relatively easy if you first rinse the beans in warm/hot water) or food processor. Drizzle with olive oil, add garlic and mix. Spread bean mixture evenly on pitas and bake 10 minutes in oven. While they’re baking, chop the spinach leaves. When pitas are done
remove from oven and sprinkle (in this order) mozzarella, chopped spinach, and feta. Cook an additional 10 minutes. You can also add chopped sundried tomatoes if you’re a fan or you want more pops of color.

** for this, I pluck any long stems off the leaves, pile them together & lightly mince them