Green Dean’s Blog

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Do you believe in saving the Earth? It’s a broad concept to save the planet, and different people believe in doing so for different reasons. Some are humanitarian, some natural and some more spiritual. Whatever your broad or specific reason for wanting to support your environment and ultimately save our planet is, always remember it is a wonderful world with more amazing living things than we could ever image – all with their own very specific and vital role to play in the greater fabric of life. Here’s a few amazing facts about the beautiful world we live:

  • The Earth is home to an estimated 13 million life forms, of which we have only named around 1.8 million
  • There are around 10,000 bird species – which includes around 350 species of parrots
  • 90% of our oceans still remain unexplored – what amazing creatures live in these depths?
  • Only about 1 millionth of the total seabed has been explored scientifically
  • By far, the greatest number of any species living around us is insects and microbes
  • Sadly, we are losing many species every year to extinction, while new species are being disovered worldwide every month, but the ratio of species becoming extinct is far greater than those being discovered. Did you know that we’re losing around 4 species of domestic animals to exticntion every month?
  • Too many species are now ‘extinct in the wild’ – meaning there are only a few remaining in captivity in the world (most in private collections)

Like us humans, all living creatures have taken millions of years to evolve, in most cases much longer than humans. Please spare a thought to how you affect your environment and how you impact on the millions of species of living organisms (seen and unseen) that share your environment.

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One of my absolute all-time favourite foods is pizza … I love it! And as it’s hard to find good pizzas these days, I prefer to make my own gourmet pizzas, using fresh, delicious and nutritious ingredients. It’s easy, fast and can be very creative.
And for me personally, less is more on a pizza. I like to use just a few fresh, tasty ingredients, like pesto, a good cheese (or even 2 or 3 types on the one pizza) + basil + sliced tomatoes + salami or smoked salmon. Yummo!
Suggested ingredients:
Pesto
1 bunch of basil (leaves removed) – approx 100g
3 cloves of garlic
80g of pine nuts (toasted are nice!)
½ teaspoon of salt
¼ cup of light virgin olive oil
water
To make the pesto:
Place basil, garlic, pine nuts and a little salt in a food processor. Process the mix while slowly pouring in the oil, then add enough water to make the pesto smooth.
Pizza
2 x large wholemeal pizza bases (or make your own!)
2 x punnets of mini Roma tomatoes (quartered)
280g jar of artichoke halves (quartered)
220g tub of fresh cherry bocconcini cheese (sliced)
Approx 20 Kalamata olives

Spread pizza bases with pesto and arrange tomatoes, cheese, olives or whatever you want over the pesto.
Bake the pizza in a hot oven at about 180-200 degrees, for about 20 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown.
Bon appetito!