Whole Wheat Pita Pizzas!

Hello! Its been awhile and I'm so sorry. Work has been crazy. Went to the beach for the long weekend. And Ive been cooking off of my own blog. Can't blog my own recipes twice, you know?!

This has been a go to staple for us the past couple weeks. Trying to cut down on spending, cut down on calories, and cut down on prep time, this really did the trick! You can make these a million different ways! Here's what we did

Ingredients:

Whole Wheat Pitas 

Pizza Sauce

Skim Mozzarella Cheese

Fresh Basil and Oregano (Dried will work too)

Sliced Tomatoes (Totally Optionals)

You can add any pizza toppings you like, but try and choose the healthy ones. We've also added pre-cooked diced chicken to ours!

Another option is to sub hummus for the pizza sauce. Its mighty tasty!

First, Doll them up

Here's a close up :)

You can either microwave individually about 2 minutes, or you can grill them about 5 minutes or until cheese is melted. These, I've grilled, but we have microwaved others!

5 minutes later ....

And one more close up

I'm telling you, these are so yummy, but so easy! And so cheap, and mostly healthy!

Enjoy :)

Every Step of the Way ... Homemeade Pizza

These are some recipes I want you to play around with. I went for EXTREME homemade Pizza last night. Crust? Check! Sauce? Check! Toppings? CHECK!

You could make the crust, and then store buy everything else. Or, you could make the sauce, and store buy everything else. OR, you can play around and totally make YOUR own personal recipe for a delicious pizza!

Whole Wheat Pizza Crust

(This makes 2 pizza crusts. Save one in the freezer for the next Pizza night!)

3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

2 packets dry active yeast

1/2 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp olive oil

Extra flour for rolling out the dough

Cornmeal for sprinkling on baking stone/sheet

Combine flour, yeast, salt, and sugar. If you have a stand mixer, use the dough insert and allow it to run on low speed. While mixer is running, add water gradually and let it knead for about 10 minutes. (If by hand, you'll have to knead it yourself for about 10 minutes)

At this point, turn the machine off. Drizzle oil down the side of the bowl, and knead on low about 15 seconds to coat the bowl and the dough with a coat of oil. If by hand, put oil in a bowl and then roll the dough ball around in it until coated!

Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for about 2 hours. It should double. 

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. If using a pizza stone, place in oven while its preheating. DO NOT do this with a baking sheet!

Punch down the dough and then divide in half. (At this point, ball one up and freeze it for later if you aren't making 2 pizzas!)

Cover counter top with flour. Stretch dough out with hands, and then roll out dough to desired size.

Slide onto baking stone, and top with sauce, cheese, and any desired toppings you'd like!

Homemade Tomato Sauce (Good for pizza OR Pasta!) 

28 oz can whole tomatoes (Or crushed if you don't like chunky sauce)

1/2 cup chopped onions

2 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp sugar

2 T tomato paste

1 clove of garlic, minced

2 T Balsamic Vinegar

Salt and Pepper to Taste

All you need to do for this is saute your onions and garlic in a sauce pan. Add remaining ingredients (Except Vinegar). Bring to a boil, then reduce and simmer until it reaches desired consistency. Right before pulling off of the heat, stir in balsamic vinegar. (I crushed SOME but not all of the tomatoes!)

Save for pasta or pizza nights!

For this pizza I made yesterday (Which was Nick's all time favorite) I simply made the crust, topped it with some chunky homemade sauce, a good handful or two of skim mozzarella, and then had made some caramelized shallots (you could use onions) to put on top.

If you've never caramelized before its easy.

Caramelized Onions/Shallots

Take 1 or 2 onions (5 or 6 shallots) and slice them very thin. 

Toss them into a DRY skillet over medium-low heat. Once they start cooking, but not browning, add a little salt to get them to release their liquid.

Once skillet dries up again, add about 3 T of water or more. You kind of want to cover the bottom of the skillet. No precision necessary here. Cover them and let them cook about 10 more minutes until water is absorbed and they pick up a caramel brown color. 

Throw these in pastas, pizzas, paninis, omelets, YOU NAME IT! They are AWESOME.

Like I said earlier - take liberty with this! We ate the whole pie! I can't lie to you!

Enjoy :)

Homemade Pizza .... and spaghetti squash!

Yes- homemade pizza. Who can really pass it up, right?! I throw herbs into this crust to make it more than just whole wheat dough, but if you don't want to buy them, just add some cumin and some chili powder and make it more of a mexican crust taste. I also whipped up a random side dish of spaghetti squash.. just because I had the ingredients. I'll show you all of it!

Herbed-Pizza Crust:

1/2 cup warm water

1 packet dry active yeast

1/2 cup wheat flour

1/2 cup tomato juice

1 T chopped rosemary

2 T chopped chives

1/4 t white pepper

1 t olive oil

1 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Pizza Toppings:

Pizza Sauce

Mozzarella Cheese

Any toppings you like- but here's what I used

4 oz can sliced black olives

1 plum tomato sliced

Some chopped chives

Some pepperoncini (only because it was in my fridge)

Here it was pre-bake!

I sometimes could just eat it as dough. But I wait. Here's all you do:

Dough:

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add all ingredients except all purpose flour and mix well. Gradually add all purpose flour as it works into the dough. Once all flour is mixed in, place dough on a lightly floured surface and knead it for about 5 minutes, until its smooth and elastic. Let it rise, preferably in a warm place, for 45-60 minutes. Once it has doubled in size, punch down into pizza pan and spread out to desired shape and thickness.

Top with whatever you prefer. Sauce, cheese, and the good stuff!

Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes, until cheese is melted and turning golden brown, at 425 degrees. And your result should look something like this

Too good! I promise you'll love it. If you can splurge on the herbs, DO IT! Its totally worth it!

So, my random side dish was herbed spaghetti squash. You just cut a spaghetti squash right down the middle. Place about 1.5 cups of chicken or veggie broth into a 9X13 baking dish. I put 2 sprigs of rosemary (which you already have from the pizza) and 2 sprigs of sage (it came in a mixed herb pack along with rosemary at Kroger!) in the pan. I banged mine with a knife so it would open up the leaves and release that herby-ness. Place the squash, hollow side down, into the broth.

Place in the oven for about an hour at 375 degrees until the skin gives way a little when you push on it, and squash is completely tender on the inside.

Remove from the oven and flip onto a plate. ALLOW TO COOL BEFORE THE NEXT STEP!

About 10 minutes later, seed the squash carefully. Then take a fork and go at the flesh of the squash. It will come out like noodles! Go all the way to the rind. Place in a bowl, toss with a little olive oil, or butter, some salt, pepper, and parsley flakes. Serve:

Looks kind of odd, I know. But its good. Its healthy. Its easy. Here's the ingredient list since I didn't list it earlier:

1 spaghetti squash

Rosemary (2 sprigs)

Sage (2 sprigs)

Butter or EVOO (about 1 tsp)

Salt and Pepper

Dried Parsley (about 2 tsp)

ENJOY! Try this pizza! You'll never order in again. Well, you probably will, but it will never taste as good and as healthy!