— Tamara Grignon

You know, I can appreciate that you choose not to use, you know, a plant-based cheese. Um, I can think of a, a couple reasons not to, but, uh, whatever uterus is, I appreciate that. And, you know, in terms of, uh, a replacement for cheese. So first of all, let's think about what cheese does, right? How does it function? So when we think about replacing any ingredient in any scenario, think about its function, uh, in the original recipe. So cheese provides some sense of, of moisture, okay? You know, it is gonna be through its water content, through its fat content, you know, as well as some, uh, degree of, of saltiness and umami taste that comes along with that. And, you know, for me, uh, it becomes sauces or condiments, uh, that will, you know, it could be, you know, earlier in today's program, I, in the burrito building, um, discussion, you know, I reference things like pesto and, um, chimi chui, uh, or other things that you might enjoy in that sauce condiment category. And these work for me on a pizza. Um, cheese is great, of course, and, um, uh, but, uh, you know, these other sauces, uh, work well for me as well. Now, here comes, here comes the mental part that I like to talk about when it comes to making changes to your, your, your diet, to your food lifestyle. And that is that we need to focus on what we have in front of us, not what we don't have in front of us. And this is true of anything else in life, right? Whether it's the house you live in, the clothes you wear, the car you drive, or something else. If you focus on what you don't have, you're gonna be perpetually dissatisfied. But if you can focus on what you do have and all of the, those wonderful characteristics and elements that are provided to you, then you can find the, you know, the appreciation, the joy and, and the value in that particular combination of, of ingredients in this case. Okay? And the, for me, the beauty of sauces or condiments is that you can go on and on experimenting, whether it's something bought from the store or something you make yourself, and you can have a lot of variations of that same pizza, which is what we experience at home, for example. Okay? And so, you know, that is gonna be, um, you know, my number one recommendation. Now, you can also start to experiment with your base sauces on the pizza. It doesn't have to be a tomato-based sauce, okay? And now, I'll give you an example. You, I'm in the Portland, Oregon metro area, and there's a, a pizza company, or there has, has been around for a long time, um, or it had been, I'm not sure its its current status, but it's, it was called Hot Lips Pizza. And one of their, um, you know, um, stated, um, objectives was to use foods that were in season. And, uh, tomatoes are not in season around here, you know, during these long, uh, you know, cooler months. So, David Kin, who owned, um, hot Lips at, during the time that, uh, I was familiar with the company, uh, he used butternut squash and made a puree flavored that, and that went on the pizza as the base sauce when he wasn't using locally sourced tomatoes for his sauce. And so, in that way, you know, you can be creative and, and experiment and find ingredients that replicate textures and that you can work with flavor-wise, just like we're talking about the cheese here, but in this case, the sauce to create some interesting combinations. Okay? Having fun with pizza is a lot of fun.