Necessity is the Mother of Invention

I had a major dilemma this afternoon.

I'm currently on the South Beach Diet phase one (for two weeks) during which I am not eating any carbs or sugars. Then, today's lunch came along and threw a wrench into the works. Mama wanted to make a nice hot *delicious* lunch of homemade pizza, one of our favorite meals. I can't have pizza crust, it's a carb.
Thus: DILEMMA.

Mama was not to be swayed by a little problem like that, (harhar) so she set her mind to work on how we could make a pizza that I could eat. She began pondering what we could do as a substitute for her crunchy, amazing whole wheat crust... *drool* ... and came up with a happy alternative.

We opened up a can of black beans and heated them up on the stove. Then we threw in some leftover cooked chicken to give it a little more body. We spread out a layer of the black beans/chicken (using about half of the pot) in a glass pie pan, and topped that with tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, and my favorite pizza toppings.. pepperoni, black olives, and pickles. :D Yummmm.

And, we sprinkled the whole thing with parmesan cheese, garlic, oregano, and basil. Then, into the oven it went!

We broiled it for about 6 minutes, watching it carefully to make sure it didn't get too crispy. Then... out it came. I wasn't sure how the black beans would taste, topped like a pizza. But then I took my first bite.

Oh. My. Word.

It was AWESOME! I loved it! All my favorite pizza flavors were combined with a delicate chicken taste, subtly underscored by the mild black beans. Ooooooh. :)

I was only able to finish about half of this filling dish, and wrapped up the rest and put it in the fridge for tomorrow.

Hurrah for inventive mothers!