Stuffed Crust Chicken-Spinach Pizza

Stuffed Crust Chicken-Spinach Pizza

This is one of those dishes that is MUCH tastier than it looks there in the photograph.  Even my husband had his doubts until he tasted this.  He LOVED it!

I thawed a chicken breast for dinner but my mid afternoon, still hadn’t decided what I was going to make for dinner tonight.  I looked in the fridge and saw that I had a little chive and onion cream cheese in the tub I wanted to use up.  I had thawed some frozen spinach, as my husband needed to have some Vitamin K intake.  He is on Coumadin therapy and needs to keep his Vitamin K levels consistent from day to day and I realized he had not eaten anything with K today.

As I thought about how I could incorporate spinach and chicken in our dinner, I remembered the chicken and spinach quesadillas I used to order at Pappacitos Cantina  on the Gulf Freeway in Houston years ago (in my pre-low-carb life).   Thought I might either try making something like that or an Alfredo-type pizza, but use a real simple open-faced presentation to avoid the grilling step.

At 5:00 pm, I sure didn’t feel like baking focaccia bread from scratch or making this more complicated than need be.  So I reached for the last two sheets of Joseph’s Whole Wheat, Oat and Flax Lavash bread in the refrigerator.  I opted to pre-bake the sheet that was going to be the bottom of my creation and then just started layering until I was satisfied and ready to bake the final dish.  This creation turned out quite delicious and not as “rich” as we thought it would be.  I will definitely be making this again.  The Joseph’s lavash on the bottom really crisped up nicely, too!

This recipe isn’t suitable until Atkins Pre-Maintenance or Maintenance because of the whole-wheat flour in the lavash bread.  It is low enough in carbs to be OK for Keto diets, but is totally unacceptable for Primal-Paleo.

INGREDIENTS:

2 full sheets of Joseph’s Whole Wheat, Oat, Flax lavash bread

4 T. chive & onion cream cheese, softened (or plain cream cheese + 1 T. ch. green onion)

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1½ c. cooked chicken breast, shredded

1 c. frozen chopped spinach (uncooked), squeezed of all water (about ½ c. packed spinach)

½c. shredded Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS:   Preheat oven to 350º.  Place 1 sheet of lavash on a non-stick or parchment lined baking sheet.  Pop into hot oven and bake for about 10 minutes or until no longer soft, but not very brown or overly brittle/crisp.  Remove from oven and slightly cool.   Spread with the cream cheese.  Sprinkle 2/3 c. of the shredded mozzarella cheese evenly over the crust.  Next evenly spread the shredded chicken. Dot the chicken with half the frozen spinach. Sprinkle half the Parmesan on top next.  Next sprinkle another 2/3 c. mozzarella cheese on top.  No place the second sheet of lavash bread on top and press down with your hands.  Sprinkle the final 2/3 c. mozzarella on top of the top sheet of bread, followed by the rest of the spinach and finally the last of the Parmesan.  Pop back into the hot oven and bake for about 20 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges like pizza crust.  The top cheese should be completely melted.  Remove and cut into 6 equal slices.  Serve with a nice green salad and ENJOY!

NUTRITIONAL INFO:   Makes 6 slices, each contains:

272 calories

15.5 g  fat

7.71 g  carbs, 2.80 g  fiber, 4.91 g NET CARBS

667 mg sodium

236 mg potassium

36% RDA Vitamin A

19% B6, 46% B12, 8% C, 7% E, 34% Calcium, 8% copper, 20% iron, 13% magnesium, 11% manganese, 34% niacin, 49% phosphorous, 24% riboflavin, 34% selenium, 8% thiamin, 22% zinc