Pizza night

Mr. Man has started a second job and is now working way longer days, leaving me to feed just M & myself most of the time. The thing is, at the best of times I'm all about convenience rather than health, and when I'm alone it's even worse. For example, yesterday I bought Kraft Dinner.

WHAT?

Yeah, it's this silly thing that I can't shake. Now, when I make the KD, I'm going to have broccoli and meat and other veggies too, all mixed together in a casserole, but that doesn't take away from the fact that it's KD.

The problem I run into is that I don't want my kid eating KD. So now my efforts to be lazy have doubled my workload because I have to make something healthy for him. In an attempt to avoid this backlash, I'm making an effort to think of delicious things that are both easy and healthy.

Like pizza!

So tonight I'm trying a thin crust veggie chicken pizza. I have a red pepper that I'm going to roast, and some bone-in chicken breast that I'm going to bake then shred. Of course, it wouldn't be The Cookery if I didn't use my mixer, so the pizza dough will be made in the mixer.

Now to figure out how to make thin crust. Off to google!

_______________________

So it turns out that I've broken off a bit of my flat beater attachment when making banana bread today! FLIP! I was going to use the weareneverfull recipe for thin crust dough, but it says to use the flat beater instead of the dough hook. Instead I just used my regular bread dough recipe, but I added a bit more oil than normal, and adjusted the amounts.

For toppings I used roasted red pepper, avocado and some shredded chicken. Roasting peppers is dead easy and so worth it for the taste.

Take your pepper and cut it into large pieces. Drizzle with olive oil (plenty now, don't be shy) then broil until they look burnt.





Take them out of the oven, or toaster oven, and let cool for a minute or so until transferring them into a freezer bag (like Ziploc). They'll steam nicely in there, loosening the skins. When you're ready for them, simply peel off the black skin and slice!



Pizza Dough

Ingredients:

1 c. warm water
1/2 tbsp. quickrise yeast
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. olive oil

Flour

Directions:

Mix yeast, sugar, and salt with oil and water. Let sit for a minute or so until foamy. Pour into your mixer bowl. Add 2 c. flour to start then continue adding until your dough is smooth and elastic and no longer sticky.

Rub with oil or flour and let rise for an hour or so, until doubled in size.

Preheat your oven to 450F, and put in your stoneware to heat up. I have one of those huge (and heavy) Pampered Chef bar pans, so that's what I'm using.

Punch down and begin to roll it out until it's almost translucent. Add your sauce and toppings, then bake for 7-9 minutes or until golden and cheese is melted. I baked my second pizza for more like 15 minutes and I liked the crust a lot better. The first one was okay, but became a bit too soft after cooling. I like it when the crust remains crunchy.









Voila! Pizza on a Wednesday. Tons of leftovers too, for which Mr. Man will be very grateful.

And it turns out that everyone was a fan! Yay for healthy options!