Pesto Chicken Pizza

Update on our South Beach adventure: we made it 4 days. We like the food, but the breakfast is just too much! After four days we couldn't stand the smell of eggs and I hadn't even made the Canadian bacon because I already knew how my husband felt about that. So, we have gone back to just trying to make healthier choice--whole grains, fresh fruits and veggies, just keeping a balance. I will say that even doing the diet for four days has made me feel better. It was just long enough to get past the sugar withdrawal stage of feeling blah and tired. My husband dropped 10 pounds! I won't even begin to tell you how not fair that is. I lost 3.5, so now I'm back to my pre-Christmas weight. That's something at least.

Anyway, dinner last night was heavenly! Have I ever posted my favorite pizza crust recipe? I tried to find it in the previous posts but only found the foccaccia recipe, so I will post the crust today.

Pesto Chicken Pizza

Crust
* 2 1/2 cups flour (all purpose, whole wheat, or a combination--I did half and half)
* 1 tablespoon yeast
* 1 tablespoon sugar or honey
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 2 tablespoons oil
* 1 cup warm water

1. Mix 2 cups of the flour with the rest of the ingredients until well blended. Add remaining flour until a soft dough forms and cleans the sides of the bowl. Knead for 5 minutes and then let rest for 5 minutes.

2. Roll out the dough and place on a pizza pan sprayed with cooking oil and let rise (Rising is optional depending on how much time you have, you can also make the crust thin or thick. I recommend letting the thicker crust rise at least 15 minutes) while the oven preheats to 500 degrees.

3. Pre-bake the crust for 5 minutes and then lower the temperature to 450 while you put the toppings on the pizza.

Pesto Chicken Topping:
* Jar of pesto
* cooked chicken, sliced or cubed
* 1 large tomato, sliced and halved
* mushrooms (and any other topping you might want to add)
* mozzarella cheese

1. Spread the pesto over the crust like you would pizza sauce (but a little thinner since it will be strong and greasy)

2. Sprinkle with cheese, then top with tomatoes, chicken and mushrooms. Top it off with a little more cheese.

3. Bake at 450 for 9-10 minutes or until the cheese is lightly browned.

Yummy!!