Greek Pizza

This is straight from Menus4Mom. My notes are in italics, and the pictures are from my kitchen. :)

This was yummy and easy! Here is a link to my favorite Pizza Dough.

Greek Pizza

• Your favorite pizza dough recipe (see notes above)

• olive oil
• oregano
• basil
• garlic salt
• 1 bag baby spinach
• 2 ripe tomatoes, thinly sliced
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 4 oz. feta cheese
• 2 cups mozzarella cheese

Arrange ingredients on pizza crust in the order listed. Bake at 450°F until hot and bubbly.

I substituted mushrooms for the onion.

Calzones Take II

Do you remember last fall when I posted the "easy" way to make Calzones or Pizza Pockets? Well, here they are again with the home made crust. It is half wheat half white flour and that gives it that pretty coloring. I also brushed the tops with an egg white (mixed with 1 tablespoon water) to give it a crispiness. After making the crust the steps are the same as the first time. (Sorry, I just don't want to type it all again! It'll just take a moment for you to click the link and see what I'm talking about. :D)

I made 4 different fillings for these. Here they are before going in the oven.

Pepperoni and Cheese

Left over Fajita filling with Colby jack cheese

I also made one with just butter, garlic salt and mozzarella cheese for my boy who doesn't like anything else.

This one I did a little different. I spread butter (right out of the tub), sprinkled cinnamon and brown sugar, then I rolled it up. You can see where the seam started to bust open.

Dessert Pizza!

Pizza Crust

I thought I would post just the crust recipe again for the categories. Now it will be easier to find in the future. :)

Home Made 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 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!!

Calzones or Pizza Pockets

My kids love these because just like personal pizzas you can personalize them for each child. I took the quick and easy way tonight, but I have used my pizza dough recipe to make them as well. If you make your own dough you can make them wheat which are just as yummy.

Ok, all you need is:
2 cans crescent rolls (to make 4 pizza pockets)
mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup melted butter with garlic salt sprinkled in (about 1/2 a teaspoon)
whatever toppings you want to fill it withTake 4 of the triangles and press them together to form a rectangle. Do not roll them together and knead! It makes the dough tough and you lose some of the flakiness. Press firmly with your fingers to seal the seams and then press out to make it look like a rectangle.

Brush the melted butter all over the dough, then top with your toppings. My kids prefer cheese and pepperoni. (I have also added peppers, mushrooms and pineapple in the past)Roll the dough up, or fold it like a burrito and press the edges together.Bake in a 375 degree oven for about 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Vegetable Focaccia

Mmm, focaccia bread. One of my favorites every since they opened the Brigham Young University Museum of Art Cafe (WAYback when I was still a student). I use to go there for lunch because they had this delicious Chicken Caesar salad with focaccia bread on the side. Oooo, just thinking about it makes my mouth water. Well, a few years ago I actually found a recipe for the yummy bread. I'm still playing around with it, but last night was pretty close to perfect for me. It is great just as bread as a side, or you can make a yummy vegetable pizza with it.

Vegetable Focaccia and Cheesy Bread

Bread

*2 to 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
*1 package (1 heaping tablespoon yeast)
*1 teaspoon salt
*1 cup warm water
*1 tablespoon olive oil

1. Combine flour, yeast, and salt. (Last night I added about a tablespoon of Italian seasoning and 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese to the flour mixture.) Add water and oil and mix until it forms a soft dough. (Remember soft but not sticky). Knead for 4 minutes then let it rest for 15 minutes. If making the pizza, prepare vegetables while the dough is resting.

2. Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Press the dough into a pan that has been sprinkled with cornmeal. Prick with a fork and bake for 5 minutes then cover with toppings and bake for another 8-10 minutes. (So if just making bread, cook for about 15 minutes.)

Vegetable Toppings
*chopped tomatoes
*sliced mushrooms
*1/2 cup chopped green pepper
*sliced olives
1/4 cup chopped onions
*3 tablespoons olive oil
*2 teaspoons red wine or cider vinegar
*3/4 teaspoons salt
*1/4 teaspoons garlic powder
*1/4 oregano

1. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl. Super easy!

Tip: As you can see, I made the pizza and the cheesy bread with the same dough. It won't look like a lot of dough, but the bread as pizza is better if you keep it thin. It will rise while cooking and you end up full anyway. For the cheesy bread, I just brushed it with olive oil and sprinkled cheese. The Vegetable pizza is so good that it doesn't need cheese (I prefer it without, but my hubby likes the cheese so ours has it on it in the picture). The extra oil around the edges bakes a nice crispy crust! Mmmm. Enjoy!

Pizza on the Grill

Well, today's recipe comes from a guest cook. My good friend Laura invited my family over on Friday night to enjoy dinner with her family. Her new favorite summer recipe is making pizza on the grill. I was intrigued, plus a night out with friends is always a welcome thing, so we headed over to their house. The pizza was delicious! The kids loved it and so did my husband and I. I don't think there was any left over. So, thank you Laura for a great new recipe, and a good night with friends!

Here is the dough recipe and then the toppings that we used. The great thing about this recipe is that you can mix it up to fit whatever mood you are in. Try adding BBQ sauce and grilled chicken or any variety of vegetable toppings. I took lots of pictures, so I stuck them in a slide show with comments on them. The dough has to sit for an hour, but the actual cooking time is nothing! I think we made 4 pizzas which fed both of our families (11 of us total) in about15 minutes. We had salad and watermelon and cantalope for sides.

Grilled Pizza dough

• 2 cups bread flour


• Pinch salt


• 1 tablespoon sugar


• 1 teaspoon (or envelope package) yeast


• 1 tablespoon whole wheat flour (optional, adds texture and color)


• 1 cup water


• 1/3 cup olive oil

1. Stir ingredients together for 1 1/2 minutes.


2. Remove dough from bowl, cover with towel, and allow to rest for one hour in a warm location.


3. Cut dough into four pieces. Roll out each piece, and let rest for 15 minutes.


4. Then, roll out each piece to about 9 inches in diameter. Stack the rolled dough rounds, dusted with flour and separated by waxed or parchment paper until you're ready to grill the pizzas.