Sunday, October 3, 2010

Pizza is Delicious!

Despite my promise to try to blog more frequently, it appears I have fallen off the wagon again! Sorry about that, but don't worry, I am back. I have lots of pictures and recipes to post.

Just to let everyone know what's been going on since my last blog, I'll give you a brief update. I've had several base social events to attend and plan, so those livened up my schedule a little bit. I've been running like a fiend and keeping up on my running plan! I hadn't really weighed myself since I started, so when I was at the doctor's office and they asked if I wanted to be weighed, I jumped at the chance. To my infinite surprise, I have actually lost 12 lb since I started my running plan! I am feeling great about this since I have not been the best at patrolling my eating habits lately. So, here's to a great new running habit that will help allow me to indulge myself with the occasional brownie! My running buddy, Mack is doing great. He completed a straight two mile run with me and my person running buddy on Friday, so if we can keep up the running, he will be ready to 5k with me. Our current goal is the 5k Turkey Trot in Uvalde the weekend after Thanksgiving.

My meal planning and budgeting has also been going great! It's helping us get back on track financially and it's kept a lot of extra food out of house so I don't eat too much! It is fantastic. I don't want to take up anymore of your Sunday morning with my rambling, so I'm going to post today's recipe and come back tomorrow or whenever I have something else interesting to say.

The BEST Homemade Pizza Ever
I should preface this recipe with the fact that I use a bread machine to make my pizza dough, so if you have a bread machine also, you should plan to start the crust 1.5 hours (or however long your dough cycle is) before you would like to bake your pizza.

Cornmeal Pizza Dough


Ingredients:
1 1/2 c. water
1/4 c. olive oil
2 c. all purpose flour
2 c. cornmeal
1 tsp salt.
3 tbsp Italian seasoning
2 1/2 tsp bread machine yeast

Place all ingredients in the pan according to order in the manufacturer's instructions. Program your bread machine for the dough cycle. Press start.

Let it do all the work for you and think of the glorious homemade crust you'll soon be using

Pizza
Put your baking stone in the oven and preheat the over to 400 degrees. Do this about 30 minute before your bread machine cycle will be over.

When the bread machine is done, pull the hot baking stone out of the oven and place it on a heat proof surface. I use several several trivets on my counter. Sprinkle extra cornmeal all over the baking stone. Take your ball of dough and roll it out on the baking stone. Be careful so you don't burn yourself.

Now, top your pizza with your toppings of choice.

The pizza pictured here has:

Muir Glen Organic Tomato Basil Pasta Sauce
Kraft Italian 6 cheese blend
Fresh pepperoni from the deli, not the kind in the package
canned artichoke hearts
canned presliced black olives

After adding all your delicious toppings, put it in the over for about 20 minutes or until the crust is golden and done and the cheese is melted.

Take out, let cool for a couple minutes and enjoy!

Soo delicious!

Nothing like a red wine to go with your pizza!