Rainbow Pizza

For those of you who were lucky enough to have yesterday off from work, I hope you thoroughly enjoyed your holiday. It doesn't seem right to not include a little inspiration from Martin Luther King Jr., as he was the reason for the holiday, and he also inspired quite a few people himself. My favorite words of his are:

(Source)

It's really as simple as that. Love is far easier than hate, and this concept is something we can all choose to live by.

Yesterday was yet another beautiful day in Houston, Texas. I had on shorts, a short-sleeve shirt, and sandals, so I'm going to go ahead and say that's my idea of a perfect January day. The sun was shining and Amira and I took full advantage of the day. We started out with a rollerblade session along the bayou (because my half marathon is over, I feel as though I can rollerblade again), followed by a little Houston exploration. 

On sunny days, we blade

I had driven by The Biscuit Paint Wall on Westheimer on the way to a volleyball game late last year, and I made a note to go back and visit it. It has been popping up on my Instagram feed fairly frequently these days, and I knew today was the day to check it off my list. We had a lot of fun having our own little photo shoot in front of the wall, and quite a few other people had the same idea. We snapped a few quick pictures, and we vowed to come back and pay it a full visit sometime very soon.

Then we decided to check out the Greetings from Houston mural, located on the side of Gelazzi, a relatively new ice cream and gelato parlor located in The Heights. On the way over there we made a little pit stop at the "Before I Die..." wall, and had fun reading some of the (mostly inspiring, sometimes inappropriate) things people hope to accomplish in their lifetimes. 

All in all, a wonderful day off. If only we could have a three-day weekend every weekend! So, before we get to the heart of this post, let's start off with some normal fitnessandfroyo news - a workout and breakfast.

Workout

My sleeping schedule is all off these days. But lucky for me, no matter what time I go to sleep, my body seems to crave at least eight hours of it. So I popped up around 6:30am yesterday, but I made myself relax in bed before getting up and getting a head start on my to-do list. After a very full day, I was very tired very early. I crawled into bed around 8:30pm, meaning I woke up around 4:30am. That was okay with me, though, because I made myself get out of bed so that I could be at the gym right when it opened for a swim. As I have mentioned in previous posts, getting a lane after school hours is tough. There are lots of swim lessons and swim leagues, and if I want to swim, morning is the time to do it. I'm taking a couple of days off from running, and a swim is the perfect low-impact workout.

Breakfast

I'm sure you all will be surprised by this one. Scrambled egg whites and spinach, topped off with some lemon pepper and salsa. You would think I would be tired of this by now, but I'm just not. I typically don't eat it on the weekends, though, so I get that little break from it that prevents me from getting sick of it. Plus, I love squeezing in some veggies in the morning.

Rainbow Pizza

Going with our rainbow theme, I followed up my visit to The Biscuit Paint Wall with a Rainbow Pizza for dinner. I was reading a BuzzFeed article (shocker, right?), that provided readers with a list of rainbow recipes that are sure to brighten any day. There are quite a few aesthetically pleasing recipes on this list (that you know I pinned), but the first one that caught my eye was the Rainbow Veggie Flatbread Pizza from Gimme Some Oven. Not only does it make a pretty appearance, but it tastes great and it's healthy to boot. And it's extremely easy to prepare. I'm talking the time it takes for your oven to heat up easy.

Ingredients:

• 1 Multi-grain with flax Flatout Flatbread*
• 1/4 cup pizza sauce
• Turkey pepperoni
• Cherry tomatoes
• Orange bell pepper
• Squash
• Zucchini
• Broccoli
• Red onion
• Black olives
• Mushroom

*It turns out that this company has actual pizza crust flatbreads - I will be on the lookout for those and be sure to give them a try very soon! 
**You can use any veggies that you would like on this pizza. There are many other colorful vegetables that would have worked on this pizza - I just chose some of my very favorites!

Optional:

• Shredded cheese
• Lemon pepper

Directions:
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees
2. Lay out flatbread on a foil-lined baking sheet
3. Use a spoon to spread the pizza sauce over the flatbread
4. Arrange turkey pepperonis on top of the pizza sauce
OPTIONAL: if you are choosing to use cheese, now is the time to sprinkle it on your pizza
5. Chop veggies into small pieces and arrange in a rainbow pattern on top of the pepperoni

Before going into the oven

6. Sprinkle each pizza with your favorite seasonings
7. Cook for 15 minutes
8. Slice and enjoy (or you can eat it all by yourself like I did)!

The finished (delicious) product

NOTE: The amount of each veggie you use is completely up to you, and the size of the pizza crust that you use. This flatbread is a good option, as is Naan bread, or legitimate pizza dough as can be found in most grocery stores. I simply chopped up each veggie and arranged it on the pizza before starting on the next veggie, so that nothing would go to waste.

Have a great Tuesday, that's really a Monday, but so much better because there's only four work days this week!