Last Friday night, my husband (curse his cotton socks) wanted to order a takeaway pizza for dinner. Of course, as a direct result, my kids then wanted pizza. After a long day, everyone was tired and not in the mood for cooking… The easy short term choice would have been to cave and order additive laden pizza for everyone. I thought about this for a millisecond then reality dawned. Was I willing to deal with little werewolves for a week as a result of this decision? Short answer, no. So I hauled my weary legs off out of the office and into the kitchen to whip up a few additive free organic pizzas for dinner. The half an hour of effort saved me a week of turmoil.
When you’re starting out along The Food Werewolf journey, this might not seem like a no brainer decision. The uncertain future (“Will my kids turn into werewolves if they eat additive laden pizza”) is overwhelmed by the certain present (“I don’t feel like making pizza *sigh*”).
Perhaps for those already well along the path towards change, the motivation might be waning in such a situation and the lure of a seemingly easy option can seem extra bright and shiny (“One takeaway pizza can’t hurt can it?”).
So what to do?
It’s unrealistic to expect to be
100% perfect and additive free all the time. We’re human and that’s ok. But when it comes to Friday night pizza, I only need to think of the consequences for a millisecond and my choice is made. To help you make your choice, here’s a little tip.
When commencing The Food Werewolf journey it’s important you take a snapshot of your start point i.e.: become aware of your family’s ‘normal’ before making the change. I’ve mentioned the power of this strategy in previous blogs. It helps to remind you why you are making the change and in this case, may even provide the stimulus to make the right short term choice (i.e.: make the effort to whack together a homemade additive free healthy pizza). To do this, try keeping a journal of the behaviours and mood swings you notice in your kids at the beginning, to refer back to later. For more information on working out your family’s start point baseline or ‘normal’ before going additive free, click here and here.
So next Friday night, think twice before choosing the seemingly ‘easy’ option. And for any pizza lovers out there, here’s a recipe for your next Friday night conundrum.
There’s no denying you are going to have to put a bit of effort in to stay motivated and additive free, but rest assured, dear reader, the results are worth it.
Happy pizza cooking!
Loren x
PS: A little info on the ingredients we use for pizza…
Bases – I used three different types of pizza bases last Friday – two of which were gluten free. One was Lifestyle bakery gluten free soft n light pizza bases (we were trialling these ones)… They were certainly more pizza-like than a gluten free wrap (which is what we normally use if not having homemade) The second was the Old Time Bakery organic gluten free wraps – a tried and true pizza base in our house. The third – the wheat base – was Australias Own organic rye oat and linseed wrap. All are quick easy pizza base options if you don’t have any homemade from scratch bases in your freezer. I am in the process of trialling a few new homemade gluten free pizza bases… will keep you posted!
Other ingredients – All other ingredients used in our Friday night pizzas were organic and preservative free, including the olives (Absolute Organic), sundried tomatoes (Absolute Organic) and fabulous organic ham from Bonah organic meat. Super yummy!
