Shrimp and Pesto Pizza with Sun Dried Tomatoes on No Rise Pizza Dough.

Would you believe me if I told you that this pizza was so fast and easy to make that you can do it on any day of the week? I did just to make sure it was as easy as it sounded, it is. I usually save pizza for the weekends and home made pizza for a day when I have plenty of time, patience and energy. Needless to say, we don't have home made pizza very often. That is until my sister gave me her recipe for this basic pizza dough. Now we can have fresh out of the oven pizza on any given Tuesday!

Preheat your oven to 425F.  Place a pizza stone if using, in oven and sprinkle with cornmeal. 

This dough is so easy I almost feel like I'm cheating. NO rising, No kneading and no waiting. Only a handful of ingredients and a stir of the spoon and you have home made pizza dough in under 10 minutes.

Separate the mixed dough into two equal parts {or shape into bread sticks!}. 

On a silpat or wax paper, roll into a ball and press with your hands to make a circle. Finish rolling the dough out with a rolling pin until it's about 1/4" -1/2" thick. 

Carefully, transfer dough to the hot pizza stone by flipping it over. Pushing the edges in if needed.

Cook the dough for 10-15 minutes till lightly golden brown but not done.  Poking holes in any bubbles that may form. 

Using an oven mitt, carefully pull oven rack out and spread pesto (or sauce of choice) over dough to 1/2" from the edge. Sprinkle with mozzarella, sun dried tomatoes and raw shrimp. 

Rachel's Easy Pizza Dough Recipe  (makes 2 pizzas or 1 pizza + bread sticks)

2 1/4 cup warm water
2 tsp. salt
2 1/2 tsp. sugar
4 1/2 Tbs. oil
2 tsp. dry yeast
5 2/3 cup flour

Mix salt, sugar, yeast and oil. Pour warm water over mix and stir. Add flour one cup at a time, mixing well each time, then kneed. No rising necessary. Bake 425 degrees 15-20 minutes. 

Top with sauce and toppings, bake another 5-10 minutes until cheese melts and turns golden brown and shrimp is pink.

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Pineapple Carnitas Pizza

Rosemary, Garlic and Parm Rustic Flatbread Pizza

Cheesy Pizza Bread with Caramelized Onions

Cheesy Cauliflower Crust Pizza with Prosciutto and Roasted Garlic {gluten free}

It takes a good, solid year to get moved and settled into a new house. This, is a fact.... otherwise known as my opinion. We have been living in our current house AKA the crappy rental for almost a year and I finally found a good place to store the ginormous magnifying glass from Pottery Barn and hung the last 3 pictures in our bedroom. Mind you I have absolutely no idea where half of my belongings are. You see, part of the curse of being a procrastinator is that you wait until the day of moving to pack things that you never knew you even had in the first place. Things you never even used one single time like your kitchen scale which you have now decided that you can't live without. 

Not worth killing yourself over a kitchen scale by climbing mountains of haphazardly stacked boxes topped with over sized Christmas wreaths and luggage. The arrangement my husband assured me was only temporary 10 months ago.

What is driving me batty is not remembering exactly what camping gear we do or do not have because when we lived in our old house we had 4 children, 3 of them under the age of 7 and 1 in diapers until after we moved. Not exactly the scenario I would paint for a fun camping trip. Wait. Did I just say camping could be fun? Well, we're going this weekend and have no idea where half our gear is. 

Camping with 4 kids = Not always so much fun.

Simple home made pizza with negative zero guilt = My idea of fun!

Amen!

 

Believe me when I tell you that this pizza crust is delicious, thin and remarkable crispy yet slightly soft and chewy with notes of Italian herbs, spices and freshly grated Parmesan and mozzarella in every bite.

Your "dough" will be slightly crumbly but will hold together nicely
by the egg and cheeses. 

Mix the 'dough' together with your hands until combined then shape into a ball and place on a square of parchment paper. Using your hands, flatten out into a circle about 1/4" thick. The thicker you make it the longer it will take to cook. Look how nicely it forms.

While you are preparing the cauliflower 'dough' place a pizza stone (or baking sheet)  in an oven pre-heated to 450F. on the lower rack.

Carefully slide the dough and parchment onto the pre-heated stone.

Bake 20-25 minutes until the crust is golden brown and crispy around the edges.

Remove stone from oven, place on a cooling rack and top with your choice of toppings! The possibilities are endless of course. I used one of my all time favorite combos, roasted garlic and prosciutto with fresh pizza sauce and lots of fresh Italian cheeses. I made the boys a cheeseburger pizza. 

You Will Need:

1 medium sized cauliflower
 1/4 cup mozzarella or Italian cheese blend plus more for topping if desired
1/4 cup Parmesan Cheese, freshly grated is best
1 jar prepared pizza sauce or home made (recipe below)
1 medium egg (Organic & free range of course :)
1/2 tablespoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
cracked black pepper or red pepper flakes to taste (I use 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes)

Toppings of your desire.


Wash cauliflower well and dry. Cut off leaves and stems. Break into florets. 

Place into a large food processor (I don't have one, I used my Vitamix. If you do this I suggest putting in half at a time.)  PULSE several times until you have a 'powdery' texture. Don't over blend, you'll have mush.

Scrape into a microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 2 minutes on regular power. (I've skipped this
step before and it turned out fine, slightly soggier but fine)
Carefully remove from microwave and let sit for a couple of minutes. 
Dump cauliflower onto the middle of a kitchen towel and fold lengthwise into thirds. 
Now, wring the heck out of it getting out as much liquid as you possibly can. I typically get just less than a cup! The more liquid you get out, the crispier your crust will be i.e. more toppings!

Place cauliflower back into bowl. add herbs, spices, salt and cheeses. Mix well with your hands.
Now add egg. Mix to combine. Make into a ball and place onto a square of parchment paper. 
Using your hands, shape into a circle 1/4" thick. 

Carefully slide the parchment paper and cauliflower crust onto your pre-heated stone.
Bake at 450F for 20-25 minutes (checking after 15 minutes as oven times vary).
When crust is golden brown and crispy around the edges remove from oven.

Top with your favorite pizza toppings and pop back into the oven for 5-10 minutes until warmed through.


Enjoy!!!

Making and Storing Herbed Butter and Italian Stuffed Portobello Pizzas

Fresh herbs aren't easy to find or grow year round, even here in  the desert. It gets so hot here during the
summer that even the cactus start to look like they are going to give up and melt away by the end of August. It's difficult for me and my lack of a green thumb to keep plants alive indoors for any extended period of time, even ones as hardy as most herbs are. Right now is the time to plant many herbs and greens here in the Arizona desert even though the gardening season is coming to an end in most other regions.  Just one more reason I love the Fall.







So since I adore cooking with my  fresh  herbs I needed to find a way to preserve them a bit longer. One way is by simply dropping a small handful of fresh herbs into a small bottle of olive oil and using as a salad dressing. Another way to keep fresh herbs around for cooking is by chopping them up and mixing them into softened butter and refrigerating or freezing for future use.


So make a big batch of fresh and  creamy  herbed butter and freeze in ice cube trays and you will have little herb balls of joy to throw into your saute pan whenever you want a fresh pop to your dish.

Make this herbed butter now and it would be perfect for a quick baste on your 

Thanksgiving turkey, potatoes and other side dishes.

Start with fresh, creamy salted Organic butter. The salt will help preserve your herbs.

 Let it sit on the counter for an hour or so until it softens.

Choose any selection of your favorite herbs. I went with an Italian theme this time.

In the bowl of your small food processor, combine softened butter and herbs. You can mix them up or just add one herb to each small batch of butter.

Pulse the butter until its smooth and creamy.

Using a small spoon, fill an ice cube tray with your herbed butter.  I used small ice cube trays which hold about 1 teaspoon of butter. Then larger ice cube trays hold about a tablespoon. Cover with wax paper and freeze. If you are not going to use the butter within a short period of time I suggest taking the butter out of the freezer after a few hours and popping the frozen butter cubes into a freezer safe bag. They should keep in the freezer for months and in the fridge for several weeks.

When you are ready to use your butter simply add one of the cubes to your pan or baking dish and watch as the aromatic butter turns golden brown.

Fresh herbs really made this thinly sliced squash so aromatic and delicious. 

For a different and healthy version of Friday Pizza night I made these stuffed baby portobello pizzas. Even the kids loved them since the were stuffed with Italian sausage two kinds of cheeses and fresh pizza sauce.

Use a wet cloth to clean your mushrooms. Don't rinse under the sink since mushrooms are like sponges and will absorb all of the water and become soggy while baking.

Using your fingers, pop out the stems.

I used a sweet Italian sausage for the kids but we prefer spicy Italian sausage. Simply brown the sausage in a skilled and spoon into your carved out mushrooms. Spoon on pizza sauce and sprinkle Italian cheeses such as mozzarella and Parmesan.

I use my baking stone which I looveee! It keeps oil locked in the pours of the stone so I don't need to brush my mushrooms with any additional oil. If you don't have one brush the tops of your mushrooms with a bit of oil. Put into a pre-heated oven at 400F. and bake for 20-25 minutes until the cheese is golden brown.

Serve these healthy little pizzas with your sauteed  Italian squash and enjoy your weekend!

This post is linked to:

Tasty Tuesdays

Pineapple Carnitas Pizza

Happy Pizza Friday! 

One of my family's favorite foods is pizza and one of my favorites is home made pizza. You just can't beat a good home cooked pizza on a pizza stone. The fresh dough and fresh ingredients of your choosing. I like to get crazy with my pizza and put stuff like eggplant and goat cheese on it but the kids have a slightly less exotic palate. 

This pizza incorporated another of our family's favorite cuisines, Mexican food. The roast was slow cooked in pineapple juice making it sheer torture waiting for it to be done while whiffs of warm pineapple floated around the house. 

Serve with an ice cold tropical margarita if your feeling festive.

The meat is moist and will make your dough soggy if you don't pre-cook it, so pop the dough onto your hot pizza stone, brush with a bit of good olive oil and bake at 400F for about 10 minutes. Remove from oven and then put your toppings on.

Topped simply with shredded Jack cheese and slices of sweet peppers this pizza was very satisfying.

I seem to have started quite a stir when I posted my shredded chicken tip  last year. I had several people asked me if it worked with beef and sure enough it does!  Again, just make sure you are using very warm or hot meat and trim as much fat from the roast as you can. If you use cold meat it can quite possibley harm your mixer, my Aunts Bosch mixer broke when we tried to shred a cold pork roast for tamales last year. 

Hot pineapple roast in......................................

shredded beef in seconds!

Serve with a side salad.

Rachel's Easy Pizza Dough Recipe(makes 2 pizzas or 1 pizza + bread sticks)

2 1/4 cup warm water
2 tsp. salt
2 1/2 tsp. sugar
4 1/2 Tbs. oil
2 tsp. dry yeast
5 2/3 cup flour
Mis salt, sugar, yeast and oil. Pour warm water over mix and stir. Add flour one cup at a time, mixing well each time, then kneed. No rising necessary. Bake 425 degrees 15-20 minutes.

Pineapple Carnitas Pizza Recipe
 PREP TIME      30 MINUTES       COOK TIME      45
Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons chili powder

• 1 teaspoon cumin

• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

• 3-4lbs. chuck roast

• 2 tablespoons canola oil

• 2 - 12oz. cans pineapple, papaya or mango juice    (I use leftover canned pineapple juice from our cottage cheese and pineapple snack) 

• 1 recipe for pizza dough

• olive oil, for brushing the dough

• 1 cup jarred tomatillo salsa, plus more for serving

• 12 ounces fresh jack cheese, shredded

• 1 yellow onion, thinly sliced and sauteed until golden

• 1 cup of sliced sweet or bell pepper

• sour cream, for serving (optional)

• guacamole, for serving (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

1. Mix the chili powder, cumin and  salt in a small bowl.

1. Rub the spice mixture on both sides of the roast.

1. Heat the canola oil in a large pot over high heat, then sear both sides of the roast until nice and brown, about 2 minutes per side.

1. Pour the juice into the pot with the meat.

1. Cover and roast for about 4 hours, until falling apart.

1. During the last 30 minutes of cooking, put your pizza stone if you have one it the oven.

1. Put hot roast in your mixer with the cookie paddle attatched and blend on speed 4 till shredded. Or use 2 forks to shred the meat then return to the juices.

1. Add tomatillo salsa and onions to the shredded roast, mix to combine.

1. Turn up the heat in your oven to 400F

1. Roll out pizza dough into a circle

1. Fold dough in half and gently transfer to your hot pizza stone, brush with a bit of olive oil.

1. Cook dough for 8-10 minutes so it will not soak up all of the juices from the meat. 

1. Remove from oven and spread the shredded roast all over pizza

1. Top with shredded Jack cheese and  peppers.

1. Bake pizza for 12-15 minutes until crust is browned and cheese is melted.

Rosemary, Garlic and Parmesan Rustic Flatbread Pizzas

I don't know why I still sometimes think that making good, home made breads has to be difficult. After all, I am known for preaching about how simple it is to make home made snacks and meals so why not breads? I still find myself searching high and low on the bread aisle for healthy and affordable breads, usually to no avail. About half way down the list of ingredients I give up and say " Well, at least there's not any High Fructose Corn Syrup in here." even if I have no idea what the last 10 ingredients are. I have found 2 excellent bread recipes that I stick to when I have the courage time and patience to make bread. I don't know what my hang up is..... previous life baking disaster maybe?  Luckily, I do have my trusty  'Go To' sandwich bread recipe which is super easy is this  Honey Oat Bread  I've made this rustic  Rosemary Filone Bread  many times as the perfect accompaniment to soups or panini's and this  Cinnamon Spice Bread  is one of our all time favorites and perfect for Fall.



Make sure to check out these simple bread recipes and please keep in mind that I've been making them for so long that they were some of the very first recipes I posted here on Simply Healthy Family so the pictures leave much to be desired. I must retake some decent ones.... some day.

There. Disclaimer complete. Onto my latest 'Go To' bread find. Super simple and amazing Rosemary Flat bread. These flat breads take all of about 20 minutes total to make and are perfect as individual pizzas, to serve with a chopped salad such as my this one,  which is why I started the search for the perfect flat bread in the first place.

I am submitting this recipe to  Whole Foods Market Fairfield Cooking  for their 'Best Parmesan' recipe.

I would be ever so grateful if you would stop by and Tweet or share my recipe. The voting on the top 2 finalists starts next week. Thanks again for all of your support!

So, my search for a quick and delicious flat bread recipe that would come out slightly crispy and 'rustic' led me to this recipe on Smitten Kitchen which was originally from July 2008 Gourmet magazine, can't go wrong there. I adapted it by using less oil in the dough, more rosemary and instead of brushing them with more oil I used a roasted garlic spread then made it into a pizza by sprinkling with Parmesan and sliced veggies. That's it. Simple.


I'm thinking I will make these with roasted eggplant and feta next time. What do you think you would put on them or serve them with?



I doubled this recipe.

TIME 20 MINUTES YIELDS 4

You will need: 

1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil + 1 teaspoon
3 tablespoon chopped rosemary
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water

Preheat oven to 400°F with a baking stone on the middle rack.
Slice the top 1/4 inch off of a head of garlic and drizzle with a teaspoon of olive oil. Place on a baking stone (you will need the pre-heated stone for the pizzas). Roast the garlic for about 20 minutes, remove from heat and let cool so you can handle it. 

Meanwhile....
Stir together flour, chopped rosemary, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Make a well in center, then add water and oil and gradually stir into flour with a wooden spoon until a dough forms. Knead dough gently on a work surface 4 or 5 times.
Divide dough into 3 pieces and roll out 1 piece (keep remaining pieces covered with plastic wrap) onto a lightly floured work surface into 8 inch rounds (shape can be rustic; dough should be thin). 

Using your fingers, gently pop the cloves of garlic out of the skin and put into a small food processor. Add a dash of salt and a bit more oil if needed. Pulse until smooth. Using a brush, spread garlic onto flat breads. Sprinkle with freshly grated parmesan cheese and top with thinly sliced tomatoes and zucchini.
Slide pizzas onto preheated baking stone and bake until pale golden and browned in spots, 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer pizzas to a rack to cool.

Mix your 3 dry ingredients and chopped rosemary in a medium bowl.

Add water and oil and stir

Divide into 4 equal size pieces and flatten out with your hand then a rolling pin.

Mean while, you will want to roast your garlic. Simple cut off a bit of the top,
drizzle a tiny bit of olive oil onto exposed garlic head and put onto a baking sheet and
into a preheated oven at 400F for about 20 minutes.

Voila! Deliciously sweet roasted garlic.

Put into a small food processor {I love my new manual one from P.C.}
Drizzle about a teaspoon of olive oil and a dash of sea salt into processor and pulse till blended.
You can never, EVER have to much garlic IMHO.

Brush the tops of each flat bread with your garlic spread

Sprinkle with shredded Parmesan and keep an eye out for sneaky baby fingers!
Top with your veggies of choice and bake as directed above.

Bon Apetite!

I'm thinking I will make these with roasted eggplant and feta next time. What do you think you would put on them 

or serve them with?

Personal Pizza Party Friday

This is really very easy and a lot of fun for the kids. They thought they were pretty special picking out whatever toppings they wanted and making their very own pizza! I bought a few yummy ingredients from Trader Joe's, all were $2-$3 each and then chopped up a few different veggies that I had in the fridge. Much cheaper than 3 $25 pizzas it usually takes to feed this bunch. I bought most everything you see below for about $20. You could use just about anything on pizza. It's really fun to do it this way and try out different combinations!
I love "weird" pizza so I made my very own pesto, sun dried tomato, goat cheese and onion pizza. Spectacular if I must say so myself! The little boys just piled on everything as high as they could which is a very sneaky way to get a few servings of vegetables in! Britton spent a lot of time making funny faces out of veggies for his pizza Picasso. I have made these before and the problem with so many fun toppings is that after you sprinkle on the cheese they fall off creating a mess. So I tried sliced, part skim Mozzarella this time, laying it on top of the ingredients and it turned out great! The cheese melted right over the top and the boys ate their pizzas virtually mess free.

You will need:

French Bread Rolls, cut in half length wise, or English muffins etc.

Lots of different chopped veggies, try some new ones!
ideas:

onion, zucchini, sun dried tomatoes, eggplant, Roma tomato (be careful, regular tomatoes are very moist and will make your pizza mushy), mushrooms, olives, fennel, bell peppers, spinach, whole garlic cloves, artichoke hearts (my favorite!) radicchio pineapple, pears, pine nuts.... basically anything, get creative.

Pizza sauce (look for one with little or no sugar, should be less than 3 grams or close to last on the ingredients.

You also just use tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes. This will work especially well if you are using fresh herbs!

Cheese. Choose part-skim, low moisture Mozzarella, goat cheese, or low-fat feta.

Fresh Herbs if possible! This really is the best part of pizza in my humble opinion! Try, oregano, thyme, basil (of course!) sage or rosemary.

Meat: Sometimes I'm nice and buy meat for the boys. ;-) I try to stay away from pepperoni and sausage, but if you love it use a little!

Other ideas are: prosciutto ( a thin cut cured ham from Italy), Canadian bacon, cubed or ground chicken, shrimp (goes great with pesto), Italian sausage, mortedella (an Italian pork almost like bologna), Copa salami, Genova salami, you get the picture.

Pile on toppings, place on foil lined baking sheet, place in pre-heated 400 degree oven for 10-13 minutes until cheese is golden brown!