Taco Salad Pizza

This was so yummy! I made it yesterday for my mom's Mother's Day lunch. We all really enjoyed it. It's this great Mexican style pizza that's baked then topped with lettuce and your favorite taco salad toppings. We made the taco salad pizza with chicken but it would be great with seasoned ground beef or shredded pork too. Nate and I decided it's a great light Mexican meal that we will be making again and again! I hope you enjoy it too. I saw the idea over at Lauren's Latest.

Ingredients:
1 tube Pillsbury pizza crust*
2 chicken breasts cooked and shredded**
1 cup black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup salsa
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
shredded lettuce
pico de gallo
sliced olives
crunched up tortilla chips
any other of your favorite taco salad toppings

Preparation:
Line a baking sheet with tin foil and then spray with non-stick spray. Spread out the pizza dough to fit the pan. Par-bake the crust at 400 degrees for 8 minutes. Then top with salsa, black beans, chicken, and cheese. Return to oven and bake another 8-10 minutes or until crust is golden brown on bottom. Remove from oven. Slice into 8 pieces. Top your slice with shredded lettuce and your favorite toppings and enjoy!

Here's what the pizza looks like before topping.



*We used a store bought dough for convenience. You could absolutely use homemade dough. The instructions I included are for the Pillsbury dough. I do recommend par-baking the crust though.

**This is our all time favorite rub to use on chicken for a great Mexican flavor. I just put a little olive oil on the chicken then season with the rub. I bake my chicken breasts, let them cool for 15 minutes then shred them.

Rub Recipe:
2 tsp. chile powder
2 tsp. garlic powder
2 tsp. paprika
2 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

Mix all of those really well. Store in an airtight container.

Hashbrown Breakfast Pizza

We hardly ever make breakfast at our house. It's usually a cup of yogurt or a protein shake for Nate. We do however like breakfast for dinner. I stumbled across this recipe a few days ago and I thought it would be something we'd enjoy. I saw this idea over at Three Kids and a Fish. We made this for dinner last night and had a great time cooking together. Hope you enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 package (about 20 oz.)shredded hashbrowns (if using frozen, thaw first)
8 eggs
1 cup chopped ham
1 cup bacon, cooked and crumbled
2 green onions, sliced
1 green pepper, diced
2 tsp. dried chives
shredded cheese
salt and pepper

Preparation:
Spray pizza stone with non-stick spray. For crust combine shredded hashbrowns, one egg, salt, and pepper, mix well. Spread hashbrown mixture into a circle on the pizza stone, use your hands and pat down to help it stick together. Bake at 400 degrees F for 20 minutes. While crust is baking, scramble and cook eggs with chives and salt and pepper. Chop veggies and meats. Once crust has baked 20 minutes remove from oven. Top with scrambled eggs, ham, bacon, green onion, and green pepper. Add cheese on top if desired. Return pizza to oven and bake for 12 more minutes. Slice and serve!

Pull Apart Pizza

We love pizza in our house. My favorite pizza dough is this one, it's so tasty and so versatile. I usually keep a batch or two in the freezer. This recipe is a great alternative for when you don't have pre-made dough on hand. The pull apart pizza crust is made up of bite size pieces of French bread, so good! This would also be a fun appetizer, you can just imagine the toppings possibilities. I saw this idea over at Plain Chicken. Enjoy!

Ingredints:
2 (11 oz.) packages of Pillsbury refrigerated French bread dough
pizza sauce (we used this homemade sauce)
shredded mozzarella cheese
pizza toppings of your choice

Preparation:
Open one package of dough onto a cutting board. Slice the dough in half lengthwise so you have two long strips. Then slice the dough strips widthwise into 16 pieces each (so you end up with 32 dough bits). Repeat with the other package of dough. You should end up with 64 dough pieces. On a lightly greased pizza pan or pizza stone, arrange the dough pieces into a circle. Top with pizza sauce and toppings. Bake at 400 degrees F for about 16 minutes or until crust is golden brown and cooked through.

Pizza Fondue

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a fun and safe holiday season and that you all rang in the new year in style! Nate and I had a great time last night with lots of fun, friends, and laughs. We are so blessed to have such amazing people in our lives. This pizza fondue is one of the things I made to eat last night. I also made Nate's favorite holiday treat, dipped cinnamon sugar pretzels. Everyone seemed to really enjoy both. I got this fondue recipe from the Crock Pot Recipe Collection Cookbook. As usual, I tweaked just a couple things to suit our tastes. Nate gave it to me for Christmas and it is chock full of recipes I can't wait to try. This is a fun alternative to pizza night.

Ingredients:
2 jars (about 25 oz. each) of marinara or meatless pasta sauce
1 green bell pepper, finely diced
1 small yellow onion, finely diced
1/2 lb. Italian sausage (mild or hot, your preference)
3 oz. sliced pepperoni, finely chopped (we love Hormel's turkey pepperoni)
3 oz. Canadian bacon, finely chopped
1 1/2 Tbsp. garlic bread seasoning
pinch of red pepper flakes, optional
dipping items, I made some cheesy breadsticks to dip but the recipe book mentioned using some French bread cubes or mozzarella cheese cubes

Preparation:
Cook and crumble the Italian sausage and add 1/2 Tbsp. garlic bread seasoning. Halfway through cooking add the diced green pepper and onion. Once cooked, drain the excess fat. Add the sauce to the crock pot and then stir in the sausage and veggies, pepperoni, Canadian bacon, 1 Tbsp. garlic bread seasoning, and red pepper flakes. They recommend using a 4 1/2 qt. crock pot. Cover and cook on low for 3-4 hours stirring occasionally. Serve hot with warm breadsticks or your choice of dipping item. Enjoy!

Steak, Egg, and Bacon Breakfast Pizza

This may be our favorite breakfast ever! It was so so good. After we hosted the gift exchange party for Nate's family on Sunday night, Aaron, Yang, Amelia, and Jake slept over at our house. This is what we served them for breakfast on Christmas Eve morning. Everyone gobbled it right up. I was so glad I made two pizzas. It is definitely going to making many repeat appearances at our breakfast table. I used leftover steak and prepped a lot of the things ahead of time to make it so easy that morning. You'll definitely enjoy this pizza.

Ingredients:
2 refrigerated pizza doughs (I cheated and used Pillsbury)
1 lb. bacon, cooked and crumbled
6-8 oz. leftover steak, thinly sliced
8 eggs, seasoned and scrambled
1/2 small onion, diced
1 small green pepper, diced
1 Tbsp. butter
salt and pepper
shredded cheese

Preparation:
Roll out pizza dough onto prepared baking sheets. Par-bake your pizza crusts until they start to get a light golden brown and then remove from oven. You want the crusts mostly cooked before you top them or else your eggs will dry out. Ours took about 8 minutes (I think the temp was 400 F degrees). While crust is cooking, make your scrambled eggs and set aside. Also melt your butter over medium heat and then saute diced onion and green pepper, season with a bit of salt and pepper, and also add the sliced steak. Cook 3-4 minutes or until the vegetables are a nice tender/crisp texture. After crusts have par-baked, top with pizza toppings. Put on scrambled eggs, steak, bacon, and veggies. Top with a bit of shredded cheese and return to oven. Bake until cheese is melted, another 6-8 minutes. Slice and serve immediately with some hot sauce or salsa to top if you'd like.

Calzones

You really need to make this dough. It is honestly the best homemade pizza dough I've ever had. Everyone I make it for loves it too and wants the recipe. I always make a double batch of dough, which yields 4 balls of dough, and have some in my freezer. It's perfect for busy days, especially during this holiday season! The frozen, thawed dough tastes as good as fresh too. I've used the dough for pizza, breadsticks, pizza bread, ham and cheese roll ups, and calzones. The options are really endless!

Ingredients:
1 ball amazing pizza dough (makes 4 good sized calzones)
pizza sauce
freshly shredded mozzarella cheese
garlic bread seasoning
pizza toppings of choice, we love Hormel's turkey pepperoni, green peppers, onions etc.

Preparation:
Cut your pizza dough into 4 even sized pieces. Roll and stretch each piece of dough out into a thin circle. Spoon some pizza sauce into the middle of the circle, being sure to leave a nice perimeter of plain dough. Add pizza toppings of your choice and some cheese on top of the sauce. Don't go too overboard, you want your cheese to melt nicely. Fold the dough in half and seal tightly, make sure the entire thing is pinched tightly together so your filling doesn't ooze out. Make a couple small slits in the top of your dough to allow the steam to escape while baking. Sprinkle some garlic bread seasoning on top of each calzone and some mozzarella if you like. Bake in a 500 degree oven for 8-12 minutes or until golden brown and the dough is cooked through. I recommend using a pizza stone or a metal pizza pan that has the holes in it. I also like sprinkling a tiny bit of cornmeal on your stone or pan so the calzones don't stick. Enjoy!

Pizza Bread

Sooo amazing! This was absolutely divine. I'm so glad I have another batch of pizza dough in the freezer. I'm definitely going to have to make this again soon. It's so easy to make too. I'll probably have this be one of the meals Nate makes for me after my foot surgery next week. You can use whatever fillings you'd like, and the dough get's this nice crust on the outside and is soft on the inside, so good! I tried grating my own whole milk mozzarella, and it was so good, I don't know if I can use the pre-shredded stuff again. Make this asap, you'll love it!

Ingredients:
1 ball amazing pizza dough
melted butter
garlic bread seasoning
freshly shredded whole milk mozzarella
pizza toppings of your choice (I added green pepper, onion, Hormel's turkey pepperoni our favorite!, and Canadian bacon)

Preparation:
Roll pizza dough out into a rectangle. You don't want it to be too thick or you'll have trouble getting the middle cooked. Brush a really light coat of melted butter over the dough and then sprinkle garlic bread seasoning over the top. Add your mozzarella cheese, then your pizza toppings. Carefully roll up the dough lengthwise, making sure your toppings stay inside. Cover a cookie sheet with tin foil and spray with non-stick spray. Transfer your pizza bread onto the middle of the cookie sheet. I find it's easiest to make the pizza bread on a cutting board and then I can easily roll it onto the cookie sheet. Brush a small amount of butter over the top of the bread and sprinkle with some garlic bread seasoning. Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until a nice golden brown. Slice and serve hot with our favorite pizza sauce for dipping!

Taco Pizza

Tonight we made dinner for Nate's grandparents, two aunts, two cousins, and sister. Quite the crowd. Nate's grandpa really likes those frozen taco pizzas so I thought I'd make that for dinner. I was a little worried about making a new recipe to serve to others, but I figured they're family, and they'd be okay being my guinea pigs. I have to say that this recipe was a hit! Everyone commented on how good it was, and most everybody had seconds. Success!

Ingredients:
Dough-
I used this dough recipe, I highly recommend it! But you can use your favorite recipe, or even a pre-made crust.

Sauce-
6 oz. tomato paste
6 oz. water (just use tomato paste can)
12 oz. mild salsa
8 oz. Rotel mild red sauce
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. parsley flakes

Toppings:
1/2 lb. beef, cooked and seasoned with taco seasoning (I used thinly sliced steak but you could use leftover roast or ground beef, whatever you've got)
refried beans
sliced olives
diced green pepper
slivered onions
shredded mozzarella cheese
diced tomatoes


Preparation:
Whisk together all the sauce ingredients. This makes quite a bit of sauce, you definitely will have leftovers, it would be great used as an enchilada sauce too.
Sprinkle a small amount of cornmeal on a pizza pan and stretch out pizza dough. Spread a layer of refried beans on the dough. Next add sauce on top of beans. Add meat on top of sauce layer. Top with shredded cheese, olives, green pepper, and onion. Bake pizza at 500 degrees for 8-12 minutes (or whatever is required for your dough recipe). Let set for a minute or two, add tomatoes if you like them, then slice and serve warm. Enjoy!

Sorry about the photo. I forgot to take a picture until halfway through dinner.

Amazing Pizza Dough - Freezer Friendly

Okay folks, I may have completed one of my goals for 2012 already! I was so so pleased with this pizza dough. I want to try it baked fresh (not frozen) before I call it the perfect pizza dough recipe. This dough is not too thick, not too thin, has a great texture. We made this pizza for a group of people tonight and everyone loved it and commented on how good the dough was. I found this idea over at Annie's Eats. I recommend reading her whole post, it has good information on pizza dough and how to freeze the dough successfully. Make this soon, it's so good!

Ingredients:
-makes enough dough for 2 pizzas
½ cup warm water
2¼ tsp. instant yeast
4 cups bread flour, plus more for dusting*
1½ tsp. kosher salt
1¼ cup water, at room temperature
2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

Preparation:
Measure the warm water into a 2-cup liquid measuring cup. Sprinkle the yeast over the top. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the bread flour and salt, mixing briefly to blend. Measure the room temperature water into the measuring cup with the yeast-water mixture. With the mixer on low speed, pour in the yeast-water mixture as well as the olive oil. Mix until a cohesive dough is formed. Switch to the dough hook. Knead on low speed until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl, turning once to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in size, 1½-2 hours.

Press down the dough to deflate it. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface. Divide the dough into two equal pieces. Form each piece of dough into a smooth, round ball. (If freezing the dough, wrap in plastic wrap and freeze at this point.) Cover with a damp cloth. Let the dough relax for at least 10 minutes but no longer than 30 minutes.

To bake, preheat the oven and pizza stone to 500˚ F for at least 30 minutes. Transfer the dough to your shaping surface, lightly sprinkled with cornmeal. Shape the dough with lightly floured hands. Brush the outer edge lightly with olive oil. Top as desired. Bake until the crust is golden brown, and cheese is bubbling, 8-12 minutes.


*I required more flour. The amount varies on where you live, altitude, humidity, whatever. I need to add more flour to most every bread and pastry dough I try. I added about an extra cup to this recipe.


Freezer Instructions:
If you don’t plan on using your dough immediately, freeze it. To do this, mix up the dough as usual and let it rise as normal. After dividing the dough into two equal portions, wrap each tightly in plastic wrap and store inside a freezer-safe bag, and transfer to the freezer immediately. (Reuse these bags to avoid being wasteful!) The double layer is important here. Even after the dough is moved to the freezer, it will continue to rise a bit before the rise is completely suspended. It always, always pops through the plastic wrap so the extra layer of protection is needed to prevent exposure.

Freeze the dough until it is ready to be used. The day you plan to use the dough, transfer it to the refrigerator in the morning to thaw in time for dinner that evening. (If using the dough for lunch, transfer to the refrigerator the night before.) The dough that has been frozen tastes every bit as good as fresh, so it is incredibly convenient to have available for a quick, throw-together meal.

I’ve had many questions pertaining to the need to freeze the dough if you plan to use it the very next day. It seems logical that you could simply refrigerate it immediately after the rise and use it the following day. However, I have tried this and it didn’t go well. The refrigerator is not cold enough to stop the rise quickly and the result is an over-risen, crazy puffy monster dough.

Thin Crust Pizza

We have Nate's little sister Stephanie over for dinner once a week. She likes to look at my weekly menu and pick what night she wants to come and eat. When she saw barbecue chicken pizza on the menu she got so excited. She has told me every day this week that she was excited for dinner. Thankfully she really enjoyed tonight's dinner, I was starting to feel the pressure! I got the crust recipe from Chef in Training. I like that there is only one short rise time for the dough making it a super easy meal. It was so good, and it's Stephanie approved!


Ingredients:
2 cups warm water
1/2 Tbsp. yeast (I used Fleischmann's pizza yeast)
2 tsp. salt
2 1/2 cups flour
olive oil

Preparation:
Mix warm water and yeast, let sit 5 minutes. Add 1 1/4 cups flour and mix well in Kitchen Aid or with a dough hook, I used my Bosch. Add additional 1 1/4 cups flour and salt, knead. Let dough rest in a ball for 10 to 20 minutes. Spread a scant amount of olive oil on pizza pan, roll dough out very thin and place on greased pan. Also brush a small amount of oil on top of dough before adding sauce so that the sauce doesn't make the dough soggy. Top pizza with sauce and toppings and bake at 400 degrees for 15-18 minutes.

Nate's and Stephanie's portion was barbecue chicken pizza, you just replace the pizza sauce with barbecue sauce and top with mozzarella, green peppers, and onions. My portion was veggie pizza with normal sauce, I'm not a fan of barbecue.

Pizza Crust

We really enjoy pizza at our house and I've been on the search for the perfect pizza crust. This recipe turned out really well and made for a fun dinner. I found the recipe over at Oopsey Daisy.

Ingredients:
3 ½ cups flour
1 cups warm water
2 Tbsp. yeast
2 Tbsp. honey
¼ cup olive oil
½ tsp. salt

Preparation:
Pour warm water into a bowl. Add honey and salt. Mix until well blended. Add the yeast and mix. Let this mixture sit for about 5 minutes. Add 1 cup of flour and the olive oil. Mix until well blended. Add the rest of the flour and mix well.
The dough should turn into a ball. If it is too dry, add water 1 tablespoon at a time. If it is too sticky, add more flour 1 tablespoon at a time.
Once the dough is balled up, place on a floured surfaced and knead for 1 minute. Place in a covered bowl and store in a warm, dry area to rise.
After about 45 minutes, the dough should have doubled in size. Punch it down. Let it rise for another hour. The dough is now ready to be rolled out.
Roll out the dough on a clean, dry surface. Use a rolling pin to flatten it out to about ¼ inch thick. Place on a pizza pan. Take a fork and puncture holes all over the dough to prevent bubbling.
Brush with olive oil and Italian seasoning (I used garlic bread seasoning, and I also added a sprinkle to the top of the pizza toppings, so good!). Add your sauce, cheese, and toppings.
Bake pizza at 450 degrees for 15 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Let cool for a couple minutes and enjoy!

Pizza Bites

It's game day! While Nate is busy cheering on BYU he will be snacking on chicken wings and these pizza bites. I've had these bookmarked for so long and I thought today was the perfect day for them. The recipe is from Our Best Bites.

Ingredients:
1 roll refrigerated pizza dough (or you can use homemade dough)
pizza sauce
melted butter
garlic bread seasoning
shredded mozzarella cheese
pizza toppings of your choice (I used turkey pepperoni, green peppers, and onions)

Preparation:
Preheat oven to heat specified on pizza dough package. Usually it's 400 degrees.
Unroll your pizza dough onto a lightly floured surface. Pat or roll the dough so it's about 12" by 8". You're going to want to cut it into 24 squares, so just eyeball it if you need to. Use a pizza cutter to slice the dough into 24 squares.
Place cheese and desired toppings on each square. Just eyeball how much. You just need to be able to enclose the toppings in the dough so keep that in mind.
When all of your dough squares have cheese and toppings on them, carefully lift up each square and wrap the dough around the toppings. Pinch to make sure each ball is sealed shut and then place them seam side down in a lightly sprayed pie pan (or similar sized dish).
Brush the tops of the dough balls with melted butter and then sprinkle with the garlic bread seasoning.
Cook them in the oven for about 15-20 minutes or until golden brown on top. Keep an eye on them! Doughs vary, so I'd check them after even 10 minutes.
Serve warm with warmed pizza sauce on the side for dipping.


These were so fun and they are perfect football food!

Homemade Deep Dish Pizzas

On Sundays I like to make dishes that involve Nate. It is one day that we get to cook together, and I really enjoy that. I feel like pizza is a fun dish and I don't know why I don't make it more often. I saw this recipe over at Kimmy's Kitchen. I didn't change a single thing. This recipe is by far the best homemade pizza we've made! Enjoy!

Ingredients:
2 1/3 – 3 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. yeast
1 cup warm milk
2 tsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. olive oil

Preparation:
In your mixer combine the flour, salt, and yeast. Mix well. In a separate bowl combine warm milk, sugar and olive oil. While your mixer is on low, slowly pour the liquid mixture into the dry ingredients. Let the machine knead the dough for 5 minutes. Put in a greased bowl and let rise. After dough has doubled in size put dough on lightly floured surface and divide in half. Roll each half into a 7 inch circle. Place over your knuckles moving the dough around in a circle so that the middle is thinner than the sides. Put 1-2 Tbsp olive oil in the bottom of pan. Spread the olive oil evenly throughout the pan. Place the dough into an 8" or 9" cake pan and press out to the sides of the pan, trying to avoid getting the oil on top of the dough. You need enough so that it will fry the bottom of the dough. Let the dough rise 10 minutes. Then put on your favorite toppings. Bake on bottom rack of oven at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

*Just for reference- my dough took just over an hour to double in size. I was really nervous cooking the pizzas on the bottom rack, but they were perfectly cooked at 20 minutes. So good!

French Bread Pizza Bites

Okay this is such a quick and easy recipe! We made these really quick and ate them with a simple green salad. Makes for a nice easy dinner. I like that people can make them to their own tastes as well. I found the idea over at Jamie Cooks It Up. She made it using homemade french bread. I think it would make these even better!

Ingredients:
1 loaf of french bread
mozzarella cheese
pizza sauce
pepperoni (we like turkey pepperoni in our house)
other pizza toppings of your choice
butter (optional)

Preparation:
Cover a baking sheet with tin foil. Cut the french bread into even slices and arrange them on the baking sheet. If you want you can butter the bottoms of the slices. On the top of the french bread slices spoon on some pizza sauce and cover with cheese and toppings. Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until bottoms are nice and toasty and the cheese on top is all nice and melted.