Potato, Kale and Egg Pizza

As I’ve shared in the past, one of our family food traditions is to have a Friday night pizza dinner each week.  Whenever possible, I make homemade dough in the bread machine and we are able to eat homemade pizza.  I have a whole section in my recipe binder dedicated to pizza recipes and I usually pick from the tried and true recipes that I know we love.  But every once in a while, I get creative and daring and try out something new! 

A couple of weeks ago, I put together this Potato, Kale, and Egg Pizza and really loved the way it turned out.  So I figured I would share the love and share the recipe!  We picked up the kale and potatoes from our CSA and the eggs are from a neighbor who raises free-range chickens for eggs.   

If you’ve never cracked an egg over your pizza before, you are missing out!  Don’t be nervous about trying it…I promise it will be delicious!  As I mention in the recipe, just crack the egg shell in half and try to gently pour the egg out on top of your unbaked pizza.  By the time your pizza is done baking, the egg will be cooked similar to a sunny-side up breakfast egg – with a completely cooked white part and a yolk that runs when you poke it with your fork.  It doesn’t get any better than that.

And while we’re on the topic of eggs, did you know that an egg that comes from a free-range, organically grass-fed chicken provides our bodies with an extra serving of “good” fat?  Yep.  Omega-3s are known as the “good” fats while omega-6s are known as the “bad” fats in our diet.  You can find omega-3s in healthy foods, such as flax seeds, eggs, some fish oils, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, grass-fed meats, wild fish, and certain nuts.  But what is most important for our bodies to function properly is maintaining the right balance or ratio of omega-3 and omega-6 fats in our diet.  Research varies on what this appropriate ratio should be but in general you should keep it between 1:1 and 4:1 of omega-6 to omega-3.  This is because the omega-6s tend to cause inflammation in our bodies while the omega-3s will reduce it. 

Now get this…the ratio of omega-6s to omega-3s in a grass-fed egg is 1:3. So it actually helps your body bulk up on the “good” fats to counteract any “bad” fats that you may have eaten through other food sources.  Also, the essential fatty acids in eggs are far more bioavailable than from oils.  So, our body can more easily absorb the good stuff.  Bonus!

However…and this is important…a typical egg that you would buy in the grocery store (i.e. NOT the organic, free-range, grass-fed eggs) has a ratio of 20:1.  !!!  As you can probably tell, that 20 is on the wrong side of the ratio.  That means you are getting 20 times the “bad” fat as compared to the “good” fat when you eat a conventional egg from the grocery store.  That is because the chickens that produce those eggs are not being fed a healthy source of food and, unfortunately, that shows up in the eggs that they produce.  So it certainly pays to be careful about where your eggs come from.

Okay, that’s it for my preaching today.  I hope that you enjoy your Friday and that you try out this new pizza recipe with your daily dose of omega-3s on top!

AuthorMaria

[cooked-sharing]