Quick Get A Plate!

My step-sister-in-law writes a fabulous blog all about pizza- Girl Loves Pizza.  She has inspired me to make my own dough (really not that hard!) and get creative with toppings.  I also find that it helps us to be a little healthier than ordering a pizza in.  This is what my crust recipe looks like all rolled out:

#1.  My top choice for toppings will always be buffalo chicken.  I heart buffalo chicken anything.  I used a ranch dressing base, 2 chicken breasts, mild wing sauce (I prefer the thickness of this to hot sauce), blue cheese, and mozzarella.  Oh yea- a little taste of near home.

#2.  My next favorite pizza was my eggplant Parmesan pizza.  I roasted my eggplant in olive oil in a 425 degree oven, threw it on top of some marinara sauce and topped the eggplant with turkey pepperoni, fresh basil, Parmesan, and mozzarella.

#3.  For this next pizza, I was inspired by a DC restaurant called Matchbox.  They have this great veggie pizza that I wanted to recreate.  While my dough was rising, I roasted some very thin potato slices in olive oil in a 425 degree oven and sauteed some peppers, onions, and mushrooms with some minced garlic.  I put my sauteed veggies on first, followed by some fontina and mozzarella, and topped it off with my potato crisps.  Delicious.

#4.  My roasted garlic, spinach, mushroom, and prosciutto pizza was thrown together in a hurry to watch KU during March Madness.  While the dough was rising, I chopped off a head of garlic and added some olive oil, salt, and pepper, wrapped it up in foil and popped it in the oven to roast and moved on to sautee my mushrooms and spinach.  I squeezed my roasted garlic directly onto the dough and topped with the spinach/mushroom combo.  Then I had some prosciutto and fontina left over from my veggie pizza so I threw that on top.  And KU won.

#5.  My latest creation was a chicken fajita pizza.  I topped my crust with salsa verde (the King was a little leery of this...green salsa?!), sauteed peppers and onions, 2 chicken breasts, and some Mexican cheese.  It's a good one!

#6.  In a hurry...try french bread pizzas.  There is no time wasted waiting for the dough to rise!

#7.  I am also including these tasty pizza bites...better than those rolls from your freezer section!

The Queen's Pizza Dough

• 1 cup warm water
• 1 Tablespoon honey
• 1 packet of yeast (2 1/2 teaspoons of yeast)
• 1 1/2 cups of bread flour
• 1 cup of whole wheat flour
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil

1. Combine honey and warm water in bowl (works great in a stand mixer).  Add yeast and wait for it to foam (~approx 10 minutes).
2. Add a flour/salt mix to yeast mixture and stir to combine.
3. Knead into a well formed ball.
4. Pour oil over the dough and set aside in a bowl in a warm place.  Allow dough to double in size (~approx 1 hour).
5. Roll dough out and add your toppings!