Week 4 and 5: not much to write home about

Life has been super crazy lately, and while we have continued to make pizza each week we seriously have not had a spare minute to write about any of it. We are going to combine week 4 and 5, because neither one of them were anything to write home about.

Week 4 was the first time trying our hand at grilled pizza. The process was made simple by just using a store bought pizza crust, but the flavor was completely taken over by accidentally using too much pizza sauce. The crust was the Meijer Naturals whole wheat crust, which comes 2 in a package. We brushed it with olive oil, topped with pizza sauce, roasted red peppers, onion, sun dried tomatoes, mushrooms, asparagus and Italian blend shredded cheese. Grilling it took longer than we thought it would and we were worried we were going to get rained on by the end of it. It was good, but too saucy. 

Week 5 pizza was made after a trip to the first Farmer's Market of the season, we came home with lots of goodies to plant in our garden and a few goodies to put on a pizza. We used the 2nd store bought pizza crust that we had frozen the week before, but this time we baked it instead of grilling. This time we also used considerably less pizza sauce, then topped with bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, and we hand shredded buffalo wing cheddar cheese made at the local Ropp Cheese Farm. Overall, the pizza was really simple but it had great flavor. We will definitely be trying other Ropp cheese on future pizzas.

Only a few more weeks until our schedules free up a little bit and we can get serious about our 52 week pizza challenge!

Week 3: Cold Veggie Pizza Easter Style

Week 3 of the 52 week pizza challenge doubled as our Easter dinner contribution. It's one of those party favorites that takes you back to your childhood.  A food you completely forget about until it shows up, and when you see it your eyes light up and you have to say "I used to eat the shit out of that when I was a kid!"  Mom always made it best, but we think we created a pretty good replica.  It was easy to make, we made some healthy substitutions as usual, and it was a giant hit with only 2 pieces remaining out of a sheet tray. (Jackie said 'shut up with your fancy terms chef Cecil, normal people call it a cookie sheet!')  Well parrrrrrdon me, I'll try to write the rest for the normies.

First off, we hit up the local Aldi's for ALL of our ingredients--that place rocks!  After Jackie scared herself twice by opening the 2 cans of reduced fat crescent rolls and I got done laughing about it, we laid them out on the COOKIE SHEET and baked it per the instructions on the can until they were a nice golden brown. 

While we let that cool down Jackie mixed up 2 boxes of Greek cream cheese--it's a thing!--with 4 teaspoons of dry ranch dressing mix.

I chopped up the veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, bell pepper, and we bought already shredded carrots).  We spread the cream cheese mixture over the cooked crescent roll crust, layered the veggies over the cream cheese, and topped it with just enough shredded cheddar to give it a little pizzazz without overshadowing the other flavors.

We covered it and kept refrigerated until it was time to party!  I can't believe I didn't even steal one piece before dinner, it looked sooooooo good!  Okay I would have, if it weren't for the threats of losing my fingers if I touched it.

Week 2: Cauliflower Crust White Pizza

Week 2 pizza actually didn't get made until the first day of week 3, but we were having far too much fun this weekend to spend too much time in the kitchen. So, that means 2 pizza days this week!

Oddly enough, we chose to make a white sauce when it was 80º out this weekend, then Mother Nature decided to make it white outside in the middle of April while we were baking it....boo snow, but yum white pizza!

After our success with cauliflower mashed "potatoes" a few weeks ago, we wanted to try the cauliflower pizza crust we have heard so much about, but we were skeptical about how cauliflower, egg and cheese could make a sturdy platform for saucy, cheesy goodness. (See photo #3 below)
We chose to keep the toppings light and the sauce thick instead of a potentially runny tomato-based sauce to avoid a lava pool in the bottom of our oven.

The cauliflower crust was fairly simple to make.

• 1 head cauliflower (about 2 cups riced)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1-2 cup part-skim shredded mozzarella cheese (we used the Italian blend)
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 teaspoon basil

1. Preheat oven to 400º, grease a baking sheet or use greased aluminum foil to keep it from sticking.
2. Remove the stems and leaves from your cauliflower and chop the florets into chunks. Add to a food processor and pulse just until the texture is similar to rice. If you don’t have a food processor, you can grate the cauliflower with a cheese grater or chop it.

Looks like rice!

3. Sauté cauliflower “rice” in a non-stick skillet over medium heat and cook until translucent, approximately 6-8 minutes. (You can use the microwave for this as well. Just place cauliflower in an uncovered microwave-safe bowl and cook for 8 minutes.)

4. In a bowl combine the cooked cauliflower with all remaining ingredients.
5. Spread dough out evenly over foil (or stone) – about ¼ to ⅓ of an inch thick. The pizza should be about 10-12 inches in diameter.

This is where it got weird, that egg and cheese mixture does not look appetizing.

6. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the crust is golden, crispy on the edges and cooked through the middle. (we baked for 15 minutes, then cut off those weird little edges that were already crispy. Then we baked for about 10 more minutes)
7. Remove the crust from the oven.

Sorry for the glare, but it did get golden brown and the edges were crispy.

 

8. Top with pizza sauce and toppings. (We used a ricotta cheese sauce: sorta/kinda recipe below, fresh spinach, tomato slices and onions. We topped it with about 1 cup of Italian blend shredded cheese)

9. First, we baked it for about 5-6 minutes to melt the cheese a little bit. Then we broiled the pizza for 5 minutes, or until the toppings are hot and the cheese was bubbly and starting to brown. 

Allow the pizza to cool for 2-3 minutes then cut and serve immediately.

The crust held up fairly well, and it the pizza itself turned out beautiful! The points of the slices (middle of the pizza) had to be cut with a fork but the outside edge was nice and crispy. I am interested to see how (or if) it crisps up when I reheat it on the pizzazz.

 

Ricotta Cheese Sauce:
We used a whole tub (2 cups maybe?) of ricotta, part skim. 
Mixed in to taste (meaning we didn't measure...)
-Roasted minced garlic
-Nature's Seasoning
-Italian Seasoning (Basil, Oregano, Marjoram, Rosemary, Thyme)
(we had leftovers that we are going to freeze for another delicious meal someday down the road)

 

Week 1: Gluten Free Pantry Pizza

As previously promised here, 52 week homemade pizza challenge, we are starting week 1 of the challenge with a Gluten Free Pantry Pizza. We wanted to start out simple and give ourselves a good solid base to grow from. 

We started with a Glutino gluten free pizza dough mix. We chose this brand because we found during our (almost) year gluten free, that they have some of the best products and Jackie is obsessed with their pretzels. We prepared the dough according to the directions on the back.

Crust:
Entire bag of Glutino Pizza Crust mix
Enclosed packet of yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
1 3/4 cups lukewarm water or milk (used 1/2 and 1/2 almond milk and water)
1 tsp cider vinegar
1 tbsp honey
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs plus 1 egg white

Once we had the crust mixed up, we smoothed it into a pan. The directions say that it makes 2-12 inch pizzas, but since we freeze a lot of our meals for later use we decided to just do 1 big pizza and freeze the leftovers.

(It spread and looked like frosting)

We let it rise a little bit while we prepped the veggies and sauce.

(look at my good little food chopper!)

We used broccoli, cauliflower, tri-color peppers, onions, zucchini, tomatoes and kale.

Some of our favorite vegetables, including some leftover from the last batch of homemade dog food. (and yes, these hippies make their own human grade dog food)

We spread 1 jar of Meijer Naturals pizza sauce and seasoned with basil, and Italian seasonings.

Next, came spreading the beautiful kale.

And then, tomatoes and the rest of the veggies quickly followed.

It looks beautiful just as it is, BUT the reason we are vegetarians instead of vegans is CHEESE!

We baked at 450°, for 10 minutes, checked it, added more CHEESE! and turned the pan. Then baked it for another 15 minutes or so until the cheese was a nice golden brown.

We let it cool about 2-3 minutes in the pan, before cutting (per the dough instructions)

We ended up with 16 good sized rectangle slices, and decided to freeze 8 of them.

Then, served it up!

Delicious!

Our reviews:

The crust was fluffy, but it did not get super crispy like we like. If we use this crust again, we will par-bake it before adding ingredients. When we reheat it, we will crisp it up on the pizzazz. The crust was pretty flavorless, we would probably add some herbs to the dough as well. 

As far as gluten free goes, in our experience, it was a good texture and held up well. It also served it's purpose in getting all of those delicious vegetables into our mouths.

The pizza sauce was good with our added spices, but our next endeavor will definitely be making our own sauce.

Overall thoughts:

Minus a little bit of a flimsy crust, you really can't beat a simple homemade pizza full of your favorite vegetables and CHEESE!

52 Week Homemade Pizza Challenge!

Hello fellow foodies and friends! 

This new blog has been created so we can document the pizza challenge happening at our house. 

Back story: we are 2 former fatties that still really love food. We have made many lifestyle changes that have resulted in collectively losing over 150 pounds. We workout, eat (mostly) clean and try to live healthy lives, but we also like to cook. Cecil professionally and Jackie domestically, and what better way to bring our two cooking styles together than to top homemade pizzas with gourmet ingredients? Our pizzas will range from healthy, to gluten free, to grilled, all the way to being our "cheat meal" for the week. One thing they will all have in common: completely vegetarian.

Backstory #2: We were gluten free for almost a year due to health concerns. We still regularly choose gluten free options, we have started to work gluten back into our diets. We have also recently committed to vegetarianism, for health and humanitarian reasons. 

Starting the first week in April we will start our 52 week Homemade Vegetarian Pizza Challenge. 

We will include recipes, pictures and our own reviews each week. 

Who's ready for some delicious pizza?!