Super Yummy and Quick Pizza Crust!

The girls wanted PIZZA!  I did as well, but didn't want to take the time to make a cauliflower crust and I was kinda tired of always using tortillas, so I pulled out the old tried and true.  This is a nice crust as it only needs to rise 15-20 minutes before preparing as pizza crust!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups warm water
• 1 T yeast
• 4 cups flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 T Sea Salt
• 2 T Italian Seasoning
• 1 T Minced Garlic

  Olive Oil

In mixing bowl, mix warm water and yeast.  Let sit 5-10 (closer to 10, usually for me) until mixture is bubbly.  Add 2 cups flour (one cup at a time) to the yeast mixture and mix well with dough hook attachment on your Kitchen Aid.  Add the additional 3 cups flour (one cup at a time), salt, Italian Seasoning and Minced Garlic.  Continue to mix/ knead dough with dough hook until dough becomes a smooth ball (you may need more/less flour, depending on weather - this time, we had to add another almost 1/4 cup for dough to be to my liking). Cover bowl with clean kitchen towel. Let dough rest for 10 to 20 minutes. 

Evenly coat pizza pan with Olive oil.  

Preheat oven to 400F.  Split dough into two pieces (these make very large pizzas, you may need to split dough into 4 or more pieces, depending on size of your pizza pans).   Sprinkle top of dough with flour.  Roll one part of dough out on pizza pan.  Continue with second part of dough. 

Top dough with whatever toppings your family likes.  Bake at 400F for 15 -20 minutes, until cheese is light golden brown.

This recipe can make cheese sticks - load the dough with lots of cheese and bake a little less (around 12-15 minutes).

Additionally, this can make cinnamon sticks - leave out the Italian Seasoning and Garlic when mixing dough, use butter instead of olive oil when rolling out dough.  Spread additional softened butter over rolled out dough and then sprinkle with mixture of cinnamon/sugar.  Bake around 12 - 15 minutes).

Pop-up Pizza Casserole

I'm looking at this recipe in the cookbook and notice that I pretty much substituted for everything that was listed in the book!  Good Gravy ~ why do I feel the need to modify every recipe I touch!?!

This recipe received rave reviews from the Hubby. 

Pop-Up Pizza Casserole
~ adapted from 9x13 The Pan That Can

1/2 pound pepperoni
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 cup chopped green (sweet) pepper
1 cup chopped red (sweet) pepper
1/2 cup chopped black olives
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 26 oz jar spaghetti sauce
1/2 tsp dried oregano, crushed
1 15 oz can tomato sauce
1/2 cup water
1 pkg refrigerator croissant rolls
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 400.  In a large skillet, stir onion, peppers, garlic, spaghetti sauce and oregano.  Add tomato sauce and water.  Cook and stir until boiling, reduce heat.  Cover; simmer 10 minutes.  Stir in pepperoni.

Transfer pepperoni and sauce mixture to an ungreased 9x13 baking dish.  Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.  Unroll croissant rolls and spread over sauce mixture as a top crust.  Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Bake, uncovered, for 25 to 30 minutes or until puffed and gold brown.  Serve immediately.

Makes 9 servings.

Make-Ahead Pizza Casserole

I have a confession to make . . . I rip recipes out of magazines prior to passing them on to friends and family.  I always mean to make the recipes, but usually, they just sit in a pile.  I never do anything with those recipes for a few months, other than look at the pile and think "maybe next week, I'll make  something . . ." and then I toss the riped out pages during one of my purging sprees. When I toss them, I feel guilty that I ruined a magazine and didn't get to share something potentially  yummy with others.

So, I've decided to go through my latest pile and make the recipes that initially caught my eye.  I decided to start this today.

My first recipe is from one of the (what seems like) zillions of Parenting magazines that keep piling up here, no matter how large the pile is I purge every so often.

The Hubby loved this recipe.  I thought it was pretty good . . . after I got past the feeling I was eating a baked french toast!

~ Some advice prior to making this - if using regular bread, let the slices sit out for awhile to dry out prior to making this.

~ If using canned tomatoes, drain 'em . . . this gets pretty soggy.

~ I think I'll add peppers and onions the next time I prepare this meal.

~ Watch spice bottles, when cooking with a 2.5 year old . . . it's amazing how quickly little kiddo fingers can grab something and even more amazing at how much will come out of the spice bottle when you only wanted a small amount!  Thank goodness the Hubby and I enjoy our Mrs. Dash Herbs and Garlic bottle of seasoning.

Make-Ahead Pizza Casserole
~ adapted from parenting magazine april 2009

6 servings
1/2 lb shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 lb pepperoni
3 medium tomatoes, cored and diced
6 cups cubed whole wheat bread
5 eggs
1 1/4 cups skim milk
1/2 cup reduced fat sour cream
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp garlic powder

Spray 9x13 baking pan with cooking spray.  Set aside.

In large bowl, toss together mozzarella, pepperoni, tomatoes and bread.  Turn out the bread mixture to evenly cover baking pan.

Use same bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk.  Add milk, sour cream, oregano, basil and garlic powder.  Beat well.

Pour the egg mixture over the bread, tilting the baking pan from side to side to soak all the bread cubes evenly.  Cover the pan with foil and refrigerate at least three hours, or overnight.

Remove from refrigerator and let stand at room temperature for about 20 minutes; heat oven to 350.  Uncover the casserole and bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until golden brown and crisp on top.

Linking to the following:

Sloppy Joe Pizza

I'm trying to get back into planning meals for the week as well as attempting new recipes.  Today, I met with success on both counts.

Sloppy Joe Pizza
from Taste of Home simple and delicious

~ makes 2 8 serving pizzas

2 13.8 oz tubes refrigerated pizza crust
1 lb ground beef
1 15.5 oz can sloppy joe sauce
2 cups shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Unroll pizza dough; place on two greased 12 inch pizza pans.  Bake at 425 for 6-7 minutes or until golden brown.

In a large skillet, cook beef over medium heat until no longer pink; drain.  Add sloppy joe sauce.  Spread over crusts*.  Sprinkle with cheeses.  Bake at 425 for 6-7 minutes or until cheese is melted.

* If you're like me, you'll be worried that the sloppy joe mix isn't enough for two pizzas.  Trust the recipe, there is plenty of sloppy joe mix!  It will look sparse on the crusts prior to baking.

~ Next time, I will be using my homemade crust and also making my own sloppy joes (with peppers and onions).  But, even as is, it is a very yummy recipe.

Linking to:

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

I'm lazy. If you know me at all, you know this for fact. I HATE having to exert myself and will find ways to cut corners. Unfortunately, this means I don't make lots of crusts/doughs/breads from scratch as they require WORK!

This dough recipe is an exception. Oh wait, there is NO WORK involved. It's a VERY easy peasy pizza crust!

You do need a bread machine!

I use a 2 lb recipe which "says" it makes 2 12" pans, but I like my crust thin, and this will make 3 12" pans for us.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup WARM water

2 T olive oil

2 cups all purpose flour

2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour

3 T Italian seasoning

2 tsp salt

2 tsp sugar

2 tsp dry yeast

Directions:

Add all ingredients to bread pan in the order given. Set on "dough" setting of bread machine.

When dough is done, remove to floured board*. Separate until 2 or 3 evenly-sized balls. Lightly sprinkle pizza pans with cornmeal. Hand pull crust to start shaping into pie pan. Use dough roller to finish shaping crust. Bake @ 350 for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool (if you have the patience). Top with your favorite toppings and bake at 400 until pizza cheese is golden brown.

* Or, place in bowl greased with olive oil, turn dough over to coat, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use.

~ adapted from The Breadman's Bread machine recipe pamphlet