Easy Go To Meal - Pizza

Tuesday nights are hectic. I always stay a little late at work to work in my classroom and my husband has bowling with the guys from work. Since sometimes he stays and has a few drinks after bowling, I never really know when to expect him home (which is fine, I don't mind that!) and so I always have something that can be thrown together in 15 minutes or less. This has been a regular go to meal lately and it satisfies my pizza cravings!



Canadian Bacon and Veggie Pizza
(source: me)

1 thin premade crust (I used a generic brand from the grocery store)
4 oz tomato sauce with a little Italian seasoning mixed in
1 pkg Canadian Bacon
1/2 green pepper, diced
1/2 small onion, diced
1 cup ff mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray pizza pan with PAM. Spread tomato sauce on crust, top with fixin's and mozzarella cheese. Spray with PAM (helps the cheese melt). Bake for about 11-14 minutes.

One half of the pizza is 9 points.

Deep Dish Pizza...Casserole?

I got this recipe from my WW leader. She emailed me a file of WW recipes that helped her lose 65+ pounds five years ago. She swears by this one and we thought it was...eh. First of all, it was huge. Which is great for a night that I haven't eaten much during the day, but today was not a great on plan day. Not a terrible day but not fantastic either. We liked this but maybe we just weren't in the pizza kinda mood (if that is possible!). One slice though (1/6th of the pizza) is definitely a good sized portion. :) Oh and please excuse the aluminum pan...I didn't want to do another dish. Hee hee!

Deep-Dish Pizza Casserole

(source: WW leader)

1 pound 95% Lean Ground Beef

1/2 cup Green Peppers, chopped

1/2 cup Onion, chopped

1 small can Mushrooms, drained (I omitted)

1 – 15 oz. can Chunky Italian-Style Tomato Sauce

Cooking Spray

1 – 10 oz. can refrigerated Pizza Crust Dough

1-1/2 cup (6 oz) 2% Shredded Mozzarella

Cook meat and vegetables in a non-stick skillet until browned, stirring until it crumbles. Drain and return to skillet. Add tomato sauce, and cook until heated through.

Coat a 9x13-inch-baking dish with cooking spray. Unroll pizza crust dough, and press into bottom and halfway up sides of baking dish. Top with meat mixture. Bake, uncovered at 425 for 12 minutes. Top with cheese and bake 5 minutes or until crust is browned and cheese is melted.

Cool 5 minutes before serving.

6 Servings – 6 POINTS each

Mmmm....PIZZA!!

I love Weight Watchers because it is not a diet. It is a lifestyle change and I LOVE that! I love that WW isn't a diet because on a diet I couldn't have pizza, cupcakes, or Mexican food. Ok, so I don't have these things that often, but the fact that I can have them is wonderful for me. I have learned through the program that all it takes is a little planning and will power and VOILA! 20 lbs gone forever and I have dropped a pants size. A pants size I have not fit into in 10 years, since my junior year of high school! Now that is a great feeling!! It's definitely my motiviation to keep going and to stick with my lifestyle change. Ok, enough of that...on to my favorite part...the food! We made pizza tonight. It was wonderful. I love making pizza because I get to use my new food processor, something that I don't get to use very often. Now, you could go to Pizza Hut and get a thin crust slice for the same amount of points but it wouldn't be as good, in my opinion. Plus the crust is a little thicker! We made hamburger and canadian bacon with green peppers and onions. YUM!!

Pizza!!

4 1/4 cups flour
1 pkg rapid dry yeast
1 1/2 cup warm water
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1 tbls olive oil
1 tsp salt

In a 2 cup measuring cup, mix the sugar and water together. Add in yeast and let rest for 5 minutes, after 5 minutes, add in olive oil. Meanwhile, pulse the flour and salt in the food processor. Add in yeast mixture through tube and pulse until dough forms a ball. Take out of food processor and knead until the dough is strechy (is that a word?).

Spray bowl with PAM (I used olive oil spray) and put dough in it. Wrap tightly with saran wrap and let rest about an hour until it doubles in size. I used my Pizzazz pizza maker for 16 minutes but you can bake it for 15-20 minutes at 450 degrees, or until browned on bottom.

YIELDS: 2 crusts (one for now, one for later! stick it in the freezer), 6 servings each crust

POINTS Per Serving: 3

I browned some hamburger (1/2 lb) and diced onions and green peppers. For my sauce I used an 8 oz can of tomato sauce with some added basil. With canadian bacon (about 10 slices in total) and part skim mozzarella, the total POINTS for one slice was 6. So worth it though!

Dough-rific Pizza

I have never made my own pizza dough before and I thought I would give it a whirl. I have to say, it turned out very good! The only adjustment I would make to this would be before baking, I will spray some butter on the crust and sprinkle with garlic seasoning, just to help add to the flavor.

I found this recipe in a magazine my good friend Erica got me while I had my wisdom teeth pulled. I didn't know Paula Deen had a magazine until it arrived in my care package! I was so excited! This recipe was very easy and turned out great. I topped it with Ragu pizza sauce (yes, canned pizza sauce-I didn't want to push my luck!), Italian sausage, pepperoni, onions, green pepper and mozzerella cheese.

Traditional Pizza Crust - Makes 1 15 in crust

1 (1 1/4 oz) envelope active dry yeast
1 tbsp sugar
1 1/4 cup warm water (105-115 degrees)
3 1/4 cup AP flour
2 tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil
cornmeal

In a 2 cup measuring cup, combine yeast, sugar, and water. Let stand for 5 minutes.

It the work bowl of a food processor, combine flour and salt. Pulse several times to combine. With processor running, slowly add yeast mixture and oil. Continue running processor until mixture is combined and forms a ball.

O a lightly floured surface, turn dough out and knead for 5 minutes. Place in a lightly greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover, and let rise in a warm place (85 degrees), free from drafts for about 1 hour, or until doubled in bulk.

On a lightly floured surface, roll dough out into a 18 inch circle. Sprinkle pizza pan evenly with corn mean. Fold edges over to form a crust. Add desired toppings and bake for 15-20 minutes.*

*** I used my Pizzazz pizza maker, so I didn't bake it. I highly recommend the Pizzazz! It's awesome. It allows you to cook frozen or fresh pizzas without using the oven. It also lets you cook the pizza using the top and bottom heating elements (dual), or just the bottom or just the top. This is great when you want your crust extra crispy, which is hard to do when making homemade pizza. We cooked in in the Pizzazz for 16 minutes on dual, then 2 extra minutes on bottom.

Cheese + Pepperoni + Bread = Delicious

So we made Pepperoni Rolls for the second time and once again they were amazing. They only take about 10 minutes to assemble and 20 minutes to bake and then it's time to enjoy!

Pepperoni Rolls (recipe from Krashed24 from the WC board)

1 loaf of French Bread (I used Pillsbury)
Shredded mozzarella cheese (about 1 1/2 cups)
Pepperoni (I used about 50 slices - we like a lot of pepperoni)
Parmesan cheese (a few handfuls)
Italian Seasoning to tase (a palmful is what I used)
Egg wash (water and egg)

Preheat oven to 350. Spray cookie sheet with nonstick spray and roll out the bread dough. Sprinkle generously with parmesan cheese, mozzarella cheese and italian seasoning. Lay out the pepperoni, as much or as little as you would like. Roll the bread up carefully, trying to put the seam down on the cookie sheet. Cut three slices in the bread loaf to allow air to escape. Brush bread with egg wash. Sprinkle parmesan cheese, italian seasoning on top. Line top with remaining pepperoni and sprinkle with cheese. Bake for about 20 minutes until golden brown. Enjoy!