Portabella Pizza Bites

Hold onto your hats kids because these are a real treat!! There IS a place for pizza in your P90x nutrition plan, even if you’re in Phase 1. We Xers are always looking for good food carriers that don’t involve the carbs! You can use the big ones or the small little guys scream appetizer, so consider these if you’re ever looking for a tasty P90x friendly appetizer for a party. =)

Ingredients: 6 mini Portabella mushrooms (or 2 large Portabella mushroom caps) 1/2 cup marinara sauce (if all you have is a tomato, you can try Xed Pizza Sauce- see below!) 1/2 oz. turkey pepperoni (approx. 6 slices) 2 oz. black olives 3 oz. low-fat Mozzarella cheese 1 egg white

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Clean mushrooms and scoop out the insides and stem with a spoon. Place on baking pan and bake for 7 minutes.  While mushrooms are baking, grate Mozzarella, and combine in a bowl with one egg white. (Usually low-fat cheese has trouble melting, so this technique helps the cheese melt while adding a bit of protein.) Remove mushrooms from oven, and turn the broiler to High. On the mushrooms layer pizza sauce, cheese mixture, olives, and pepperoni slices. Return pan to oven and broil on High for 3 minutes or until cheese has melted and started to brown.

P90x Nutrition Plan Servings:

6 mushrooms provide 1 1/2 vegi servings, 1/2 protein serving, 1/2 fat serving, 2 dairy servings.

P.S. When cleaning your mushroom, don’t rinse them under water like I did – mushrooms are very absorbent, and I found that mine came out a bit watery.  I’ve since learned that you should just brush the dirt off of them with a cloth or paper towel.

Ingredients for Xed Pizza Sauce:

• 1 Roma tomato
• 1 tsp. Italian seasoning
• 1/8 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
• salt to taste

Chop tomato into small pieces, put in a microwave-safe bowl, and microwave for 1 minute on High. Transfer tomatoes into blender, add Italian seasoning, garlic powder, red pepper flakes, and salt to taste. Blend on high until smooth. Transfer back to bowl, and microwave for 1 additional minute on High.