We made pizza today. We tried this a while ago when I conned my husband into cooking for me. He was a pizza boy back in high school, so I seized the opportunity! He denies being able to cook anything, but there was no way out of the pizza request since he’s assembled hundreds of pizzas at Pizza Hut for 2 years! Anyways, assembling the pizza with our daughter and with our own fresh seasonal vegetables and homemade pizza sauce was such a hit, I am trying to do it every two weeks or so! If you go into Trader Joe’s, they have some great fresh made pizza doughs (garlic herb is my favorite) for $1.99. My friend Suzane (Hi Suzane!) tells me the pizza counter at Whole Foods will also sell fresh dough if you request it and it is even easier to roll out (the whole wheat flax is awesome!) I use this pizza opportunity to load up on some fresh veggies and nobody really notices because they are so excited to eat the pizza they made and its all covered in hot gooey cheese! I used zucchini, portabella mushrooms, kalamata olives, juicy tomatoes (yes hubby you ate zucchini and tomatoes both of which you despise!), garlic, asparagus spears, and sliced red bell peppers. What a delicious Mediterranean combo! My daughter is obsessed with feta cheese so of course we sprinkled some all over. What a hit this was! My husband wasn’t home when I actually made this and he thought I bought the pizza from a gourmet shop. Not a bad deal for about $3 a pizza! I also like to use broccoli florets and basil in the mix, but the key is to not overload the cheese or the toppings so that the pizza is not too heavy and bakes to the perfect crunch. The pizza sauce I use is adapted from a recipe found on allrecipes.com, I just omit the anchovy because I am not a fan. I also simmer the sauce with a fresh onion cut in half so that its juices cook into the sauce. If you do not have time to make sauce, I also tried the fresh pizza sauce at Trader Joe’s found in the refrigerated section. It’s great!
All in all, this is a quick and easy way to get the kids (and husband) involved. Rolling out the dough is super fun, and letting them throw on the toppings and cheese is really the most kid friendly cooking can get! Of course, I could not stop smiling when I saw my daughter and husband chowing on the whole wheat pizza loaded with fresh veggies. SCORE! They had no idea how much good green fiber they were consuming!
I want to take a bite of this through the screen! I love how your recipes are healthy- but don’t feel like Your depriving yourself! This is a must try! I don’t know how I feel about having asparagus on a pizza though, maybe I’ll substitute w another veggie like bell pepper, and I think I will also add mozzarella cheese to mine so it’s more cheesy! I wanna go to trader joes to get the garlic crust, I’ll let u know how mine turns out!
I agree 100% with that thought Dalia! Awesome shots of the whole process, makes it easy to go step by step 🙂
We definitely used mozzarella! Just added extra feta on top:) try the asparagus with broccoli or arugula, it’s good promise! 😉
Emmad and I do this all the time! We love how fast and easy it is and how you get all those healthy veggies on!
We never tried zucchini or asparagus thought, will try it next time! And defenitley need to try it with feta cheese!
Yum, Noha! This looks very pizzeria-like. I recently purchased a pizza crisper pan like the one you used. I used it once and it worked out pretty well. Your post has motivated me to have pizza night sometime this week…it’s always a popular request around here but I haven’t fulfilled it in couple of months. I have a great pizza dough recipe that comes together in the food processor that I will send you…try it and tell me how it compares to the tj/whole foods variety :).