Pizza

So my garden is overflowing with these... Remember?

And my family really loves pizza, and in the past couple months I actually decided to start making it myself because I could:

• Control the ingredients
• It's fresher... less grease, real food
• It tastes WAY better
• Its fun!
• And its honestly not as hard as you might think.  It does require some "pre-planning" though.

I've avoided pizza quite a bit on this journey so far.  I like to eat a lot of it, and it can be a lot of points.  So making my own was a great solution. 

Yesterday we had a pesto, fresh mozzarella, tomato pizza, and it was awesome!

I have been using Pioneer Woman's crust recipe which makes 2 really large pizzas, and one little one - because you know that every 3 year old "wants my owns"  You can make this ahead and keep in the fridge for a couple of days, and it also freezes well.  Once you have the crust the rest is easy!

First you roll out the crust - find a really cute helper:

Next you need some pesto.  I make my own when I have fresh basil, but I'm used store-bought before as well.  I throw together:

• Fresh Basil Leaves
• 4 Cloves Garlic
• 1/3 of a cup of sliced almonds
• some Parmesan cheese - a handful ... maybe 1/4 cup

and I process in my food processor while streaming in olive oil, until it is more liquid.  Sorry for the vagueness... I'm one of those "throw things together" type of cooks.  If you need exact measurements, just google pesto... there are a million and one recipes out there!

Now top the pizza crust with some of the pesto, sliced fresh tomatoes, a little shredded mozzarella, and then slices of fresh mozzarella (you can buy it in the deli section of the grocery store). I even added a few pieces of some leftover smoked mozzarella we had around.

I bake on a pizza stone @ 500 degrees for about 10-11 minutes.

YUM!  Now wasn't that worth it?  I'm not saying this is "low calorie", but it is made with tons of fresh ingredients, and it is not one bit greasy... it is vegetarian too.  And... it is certainly worth it!

What do you like on your pizza?