As promised, I not only have an amazing recipe to share for this Three Cheese Spinach Pesto Pizza, but thanks to Vital Proteins, I also have a GIVEAWAY! If you missed last week’s post, you can check out the first part of this two-part series here. But, first and foremost, this pizza. Seriously, one of my favorite things I’ve made in a long time. Josh and I love the idea of Friday night pizza and game nights with Brighton as he grows {and hopefully other children}, and although he’s a little young at this point, we’ve already set this tradition in motion. Rather than baking a full pizza, I prefer using flatbread and baking a personal size one for each of us. {I don’t do well with lots of leftovers sitting around, I tend to nibble until I’ve eaten way too much!}
For this Three Cheese Spinach Pesto Pizza, I used whole wheat lavash flatbread as the base, each one contains 7 grams of protein, 6 grams fiber and only 190 calories – yes please. Then there’s this pesto, oh the pesto! In all honestly, I’ve never been drawn to pesto pizzas, but with a craving for goat cheese, a garlic-spinach-based-pesto seemed like the perfect pairing. And trust me, it was. The pesto is robust, packed with earthy spinach, freshly grated Parmesan cheese, garlic cloves, pecans, and a little lemon. It came together exactly as I was hoping and beautifully countered the creamy goat cheese, sweet onions, and mozzarella cheese.
And perhaps the best thing about this spinach pesto is the addition of Vital Proteins’ Collagen Beauty Greens, adding not only protein, but an array of other health benefits, including anti-aging properties. In turning 30 earlier this year, I find I am suddenly all for bringing on the anti-aging products!
I’ve loved having a canister of these beauty greens sitting in my pantry. It’s great for adding to things like guacamole, or can easily be thrown in a blender with a little almond milk, peanut butter, banana and cocoa for a healthy smoothie. You can find additional details on the Collagen Beauty Greens below, plus check out Vital Proteins’ blog for more recipes using their various products.
Collagen Beauty Greens:
- Premium natural blend for a beautiful glow that begins from within
- Nourishing elixir combines marine collagen peptides with raw organic greens, hyaluronic acid, and probiotics
- Offers a natural coconut flavor made from organic coconut water and the finest Madagascar vanilla beans
- Helps prevent the signs of aging
- Improves skin’s moistures, smoothness, and tone
- 28 servings per container
How Collagen Supports Joint & Bone Health
While I love the thought of collagen helping with more apparent things such as smoothing and toning my skin, I also love it’s ability to help support joint and bone health. It does this by allowing your digestive system to break down the proteins into amino acids, that are then absorbed and used as building blocks to help support collagen production throughout the body. Essentially it helps the body heal from within.
Bone Health
- Several studies on collagen suggest that orally administering collagen peptides may provide beneficial effects on bone metabolism, especially in the calcium-deficient condition such as osteopenia.
- Studies have demonstrated that when collagen peptides metabolites are present in this matrix, osteoblasts, the cells responsible for bone formation, are preferentially stimulated, instead of osteoclasts, the cells involved in bone resorption, this triggers bone formation.
- Collagen Peptides may be effective on bone metabolism by inducing differentiation and maturation of osteoblast and stimulating their activity.
- Collagen Peptides have been shown to support bone health through increased bone and mineral density, increased bone size, less brittle bones, and the stimulation of osteoblast activity in spite of osteoclasts activity.
Joints
- Collagen plays an important role in the building and support of joints, and it may help reduce the discomfort associated with osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.
- The beneficial effects of collagen peptides demonstrate a positive effect on knee joint comfort with a dose of 10g of collagen peptides per day. Subjects with the greatest joint deterioration benefited most.
- Collagen hydrolysate has been shown to support joint health and possibly reduce the risk of joint deterioration.
Even MORE Benefits and Considerations – Preliminary research suggests that collagen supplements may help:
- thicken hair
- improve nail disorders
- help boost the immune system
- balance blood sugar
- regulate sleep
- assist with wound healing and reduce inflammation
So many amazing health benefits to consider, and best of all, you can enter to win a canister of each of these products to try for yourself. Vital Proteins has agreed to give one lucky winner a 20 ounce canister of Collagen Beauty Greens, and a 10 ounce canister of Marine Collagen, that’s a value of $130! For your chance to win, enter below!
Vital Proteins Collagen GIVEAWAY
This post is sponsored by Vital Proteins, however all opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting the sponsors who keep Lemons and Basil in action!
Three Cheese Spinach Pesto Pizza
Ingredients
- FOR THE PESTO:
- 2 cups packed spinach
- 1/4 cup pecans
- 1 scoop Collagen Beauty Greens
- ½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese {approx 1 ounce}
- 1-2 garlic cloves
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1 tbsp coconut oil melted
- 1/4 cup garbanzo beans
- FOR THE PIZZA:
- 2 flatbreads
- 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese shredded
- 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese freshly grated
- 1/2 onion thinly sliced and caramelized
- 1 1/2 oz goat cheese crumbled
- 1 tbsp roasted pumpkin seeds
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Thinly slice onions and add to small pan, cook over medium heat for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until onions caramelize.
- While onions cook, add all pesto ingredients to bowl of food processor and process 12-15 seconds.
- Add flatbread to baking sheet and bake 5-6 minutes or until flatbread is crispy without being burned.
- Remove flatbread from oven, add pesto, followed by shredded mozzarella, grated Parmesan, caramelized onions, goat cheese and roasted pumpkin seeds, bake additional 5 minutes or until cheeses have melted. Enjoy!
Nutritional information taken from LIVESTRONG.com and Vitalproteins.com.
