Secret Recipe Club: Polenta Pizza Crust Monday, Feb 25 2013

This is my 12th Secret Recipe Club reveal day! I’ve enjoyed being part of this group, being assigned a food blog, choosing a recipe, and trying it out. Oftentimes, the blogs assigned were quite different than how I normally cook. So it was a challenge, especially at times, to find something that my whole family would like, yet something new and unique to try out! 🙂

I’ve enjoyed this time, but sadly this chapter of my blogging life is coming to a close now. With our recent move, getting used to our new schedule, expecting our 3rd, homeschooling our 1st, and preparing for our move to Africa in a few months, I have to let some things go. As fun as it’s been to be part of SRC, sadly, I’ll pass that fun on to another food blogger waiting to join. 🙂  So thanks for joining me in these past reveals, and do check in from time to time! Of course there will be new recipes posted here, that’s my hobby! 😉  I’m enjoying putting my recipes on here as it will also be so handy once we are in Africa, where I can’t bring all my cookbook stash. 🙂

This month, I was assigned Bean’s blog, Without Adornment. How fun to get to end this SRC journey with being assigned a fellow Canadian food blogger! 🙂  Bean cooks gluten-free, and, also has a lot of recipes that are dairy free, egg free, etc. It’s a great blog for those of you with these allergies!

After browsing around, I decided on the Vegan Polenta Pizza. However, I’m not using her toppings (kale, mushrooms and pine nuts). Sounds yummy to me, but I do have one child who is a picky eater, so I try to be sensitive to that, while pushing him to try new things as well. 🙂  He LOVES pizza, and guess what? He loved this one! I didn’t tell him it was a different crust. He took a bite and said “Mmm, this is good food!” and ate his whole piece. Yay!!!

I’m also excited about this crust, because, in Africa, they eat a lot of maize, which I believe is sort of similar to cornmeal. Since that will be so readily available to us, I’m sure I’ll be able to make a very similar pizza-crust to this recipe! And since my sons love it – yay! 😀  So thank you, Bean, for this recipe that I’m sure will come handy in the future!

Polenta Pizza Crust

2 cups water
1 tsp italian seasoning
1 1/2 Tbsp oil
1/2 tsp salt
dash pepper
3/4 cup cornmeal

Bring water to boil. Add seasonings and oil. Whisk in cornmeal slowly, and let it simmer/boil 5-7 minutes, until thick (oatmeal-like consistency), stirring constantly. Add a bit of water if necessary, though I didn’t need to – probably depends how hard you let it boil. 🙂

Spread on greased cookie sheet/pizza pan, working quickly so that the polenta doesn’t have time to set. I spread it on an 11″ circular pizza pan and it seemed the perfect thickness to us (“thin-crust”).

Bake at 450F for 20-25 minutes, until lightly brown underneath. Remove from oven, and put desired toppings on. Return to oven and bake another 10 minutes.

Breakfast Pizza Toppings (as pictured above):

4 eggs
1/4 cup milk
Meat or sausage of choice
Pizza sauce/salsa
Cheese

Mix together eggs and milk, and cook in a frying pan. I left them slightly undercooked as they cooked a bit more in the oven.

Put desired sauce on top of polenta crust. I used pizza sauce on half, and salsa on the other (kid-friendly and for adults!). Spread scrambled eggs over the top. Place meat/sausage of choice. Top with cheese!

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Homemade Salami Friday, Sep 21 2012

Years ago, my Mom found a recipe for homemade pepperoni, and we made it quite regularly. We loved eating it plain, on crackers, or on pizza.

About four years ago, I decided to try a couple variations of it, a summer sausage and a homemade salami from Tammy’s Recipes. I fell in love with the salami recipe, and that’s the main one I’ve been doing every since.

So, if you’re looking for healthy homemade meats for easy lunches (great with cheese slices and crackers), to send on school lunches, or on pizza, make sure to try this yummy recipe! 🙂

The only thing I do different, is that I like them to be cracker size, so I make 10 rolls from the recipe instead of 3 like the recipe says. 🙂

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Homemade pizza pockets Wednesday, May 16 2012

Did you grow up on pizza pockets for your school lunches? Well, I didn’t. But my husband did! And they bring back warm memories for him! I recently had the “privilege” of tasting a store-bought pizza pockets. I felt like I was just eating dough! So little filling inside, and lots of thick white dough. Not what I want to be feeding my children. 🙂

Did you know how easy to it to make pizza pockets at home? It’s a fun project to involve your children with! Once the pizza pockets are cooked, you can easily freeze them to microwave later for a quick lunch.

Start off by making pizza dough. Once it has risen once, roll it out. Use a bowl to cut circles the size you want your pizza pockets to be. Put a bit of pizza sauce and your toppings in the middle of each circle of dough.

Fold them over (stretch the dough, if needed) and press the seams firmly. Make sure these are firmly pinched so that your toppings don’t leak out while it cooks. 🙂

Let rise 15-20 minutes, then bake at 375 until dough is nice and brown. I forgot to time this! I would think about 20 minutes?

Yum! Healthy, homemade pizza pockets! My son loved eating these dipping in pizza sauce. 🙂

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Valentines’ Day Pizza! Monday, Feb 13 2012

How about making your significant other a yummy homemade heart-shape pizza for Valentines’ Day? 🙂  It’s so cute, easy to do, and much cheaper than take-out or going to the restaurant! 🙂 Very family-friendly too!

 

You can follow this Pizza Dough recipe. After the rise, roll out the dough in a heart-shape. Top with whatever ingredients you want, but make sure to keep the meat for on top of the cheese! You can use pepperoni. I used sandwich deli meat since I didn’t have any pepperoni on hand. I folded the meat in two, and used scissors to cut the heart. Open the meat and voila! A pretty heart! Super easy, and super cute. 🙂

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Pepperoni Pizza Puffs Monday, Jan 30 2012

I made these last Saturday for a potluck. They were a hit! (Just don’t make them in paper cups like I did, they stuck so bad!!) Basic ingredients, and easy to make; and oh, so yummy! 🙂

The recipe is from A Bountiful Kitchen, but of course I made small adjustments. I just can’t seem to follow recipes even if they look perfect as is! 😉

Pepperoni Pizza Puffs

3/4 cup flour (I used 1/2 cup spelt, 1/4 cup white)
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup cheese, shredded (I used cheddar)
1 cup pepperoni, cut into small cubes (I used what I had: garlic sausage!)
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp basil
1/4 tsp thyme
1/2 cup pizza sauce (for dipping)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 24-cup mini muffin pan, or makes 9 regular size muffins. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and baking powder; whisk in the milk, egg, and spices. Stir in the cheese and pepperoni; let stand for 10 minutes.

Stir the batter and divide among the muffin cups. Bake until puffed and golden, 20 minutes for mini muffins and 25 minutes for regular sized ones.

Warm up the pizza sauce. Serve the puffs with the pizza sauce for dipping.

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Cornmeal Pizza Dough Friday, Dec 9 2011

This is a nice variation to traditional pizza dough, especially if you’re making a Mexican pizza! It’s from the Fleischmann’s Yeast Best-Ever Breads booklet.

 

Cornmeal Pizza Dough

1 cup wheat flour (I use spelt)
3/4 – 1 cup white flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 Tbsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 Tbsp yeast
2 Tbsp oil
1 cup very warm water
Cornmeal (about 1 Tbsp), optional

Proof yeast if necessary; if using instant yeast, just mix in with your flour! Mix all ingredients, adding flour until the dough is smooth and doesn’t stick to the sides (or sticks just a little bit). Knead 5 minutes. Place in an oiled bowl, rolling it around to oil all around the dough. Cover with a cloth.

Let rise 30min-1hr, or until doubled. Punch down. Sprinkle greased pizza pans with cornmeal. Roll out dough into pizza pans (it makes one large one with thick crust, or two thin crusts).

Add your toppings. Bake 20min at 400F, or until golden brown underneath.

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Mexican Pizza Wednesday, Dec 7 2011

I liked experimenting with pizzas…. Recently, for an at-home date my husband and I attempted a Mexican pizza, with a cornmeal crust, topped with salsa, taco seasoned ground beef, green peppers, and corn.

Next time we’ll do it a bit differently, by using more salsa, and seasoning the meat more (I had seasoned it very mildly), but it was still yummy!

So, help me out for future at-home dates with my husband:

What are some of your favorite pizza flavours, toppings, etc? 🙂

Here is the recipe that inspired me… although I really didn’t follow it! 😉  I’m sharing it in the hopes that it inspires you too! It’s from Fleischmann’s Yeast Best-Ever Breads booklet.

Mexican Pizza

Cornmeal pizza dough
1lb ground beef
1 clove garlic, minced
3/4 cup kidney beans
1 can tomato sauce
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 cup grated cheddar or monteray jack cheese
1/3 cup diced pimientos, drained

In skillet, cook beef and garlic over med-high heat 5 minutes or until browned, stirring to crumble. Drain. Add beans, tomato sauce, and chili powder; stir well. Cook for 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until liquid is absorbed.

Roll out pizza dough, place in greased pizza pan. Spread topping on top of dough. Bake at 425F for 20-25 minutes or until done.

 

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Dessert Pizza Friday, Aug 12 2011

Dessert pizza is sooo good. There were a few years, as a young teenager, when my family went out to a Pizza Hut buffet once a year – for my Dad’s birthday. We loved it, of course, since we rarely ate out (a family of 9 can’t eat out too much!). One of the things we really enjoyed was their dessert pizzas, and we quickly learned to make a simple version at home! Years later, I still make it. It’s easy, and delicious!

Dessert Pizza

Pizza crust
Jam/jelly of any type, I’ve used strawberry jam, apple jelly, pear jelly, etc
Cinnamon, optional
Crisp Topping (recipe below)
Icing (recipe below)

Roll out your pizza crust. Spread jam/jelly on top. Sprinkle cinnamon. Sprinkle Crisp topping. Bake at 450F for 20 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. Drizzle icing over top, and enjoy!

Crisp Topping

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup  flour (white or wheat)
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/3 cup butter/margarine

Mix ingredients together to make a crumb.

Icing

6 Tbsp icing sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla
2 tsp water

Mix ingredients together, adding water or icing sugar to get the desired consistency: not too thick or runny, so it can be drizzled over the dessert pizza. Make a double batch if making a large pizza.

Shared at Tempt my Tummy Tuesday and Cast Party Wednesday!

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Vegetarian Pizza Thursday, Aug 11 2011

I really enjoy having vegetarian meals once in a while, and this vegetarian pizza is delicious! I usually make one with meat, and one vegetarian!

What veggies do you like on your pizzas?

Vegetarian Pizza

Pizza Crust
Sauce: pizza sauce, italian dressing, or voeller dressing
Diced veggies: zucchini, tomatoes, broccoli, peppers, grated carrot, and onions (regular, purple and/or green onions)
Cheese

Once again, this recipe is versatile, so I don’t feel I can give exact quantities needed, it’s up to your taste buds! Use the veggies you have in your fridge, and add it on. To me? The more variety, the merrier! 🙂

Spread sauce of choice on your crust, add your veggies, and top with cheese. Bake at 450F for 20 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

Shared at Tempt my Tummy Tuesday and Cast Party Wednesday!

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Chicken Thai Pizza Wednesday, Aug 10 2011

Chicken Thai Pizza is currently our favourite pizza! We had it in a restaurant and just had to mimic it at home! We’ve served it to several friends, and everyone so far has enjoyed it! It’s easy, but oh so yummy. Definitely a nice alternative to traditional pizza.

Chicken Thai Pizza

Pizza crust
Sweet thai sauce (about 1/2 cup)
Cooked chicken pieces (about 1 cup)
Purple onion, sliced (1/4 of onion)
Green peppers, sliced (about 1/4 of pepper)
Cheese (about 1 1/2 cups)

Excuse my lack of precise measurements! Pizza is one of those things that (apart from crust) is very versatile. Add extra ingredients to your liking! 🙂

Spread the thai sauce on the pizza crust, add chicken pieces, onion and green peppers, top with cheese. Bake at 450F for 20 minutes or until the crust is golden brown underneath.

Shared at Cast Party Wednesday, Homemaker by Choice and Tempt my Tummy Tuesday!

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