Cauliflower Pizza Crust

A good friend of mine mentioned "cauliflower" pizza to me.  I love cauliflower...but in our family of 4, I am the only one.  I bought a head of cauliflower a week or so ago with making it, but hadn't gotten around to it until today.  Both kids were at school, so Nick was going to be my taste tester.  I am pleasantly surprised with the outcome.  There is a very, very mild cauliflower taste to it.  Not enough for anyone to go "this is cauliflower, isn't it?"  If you didn't know that I used cauliflower to make it, you really wouldn't know by the taste.  The one thing that was different about it was you need a fork to eat it.  It doesn't get as hard of a crust as a regular pizza, but I'm okay with not having messy pizza hands.  :)

Ingredients:
1 Head of cauliflower
1 Cup mozzerella cheese
1 Egg, beaten
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp granulated garlic
Olive oil to drizzle
(any pizza toppings you want, pizza sauce, cheese for the top)

Directions:
*Chop all the flowerettes off of the cauliflower.  Place them into a blender or mixer.

*Once all of it is into the tiny cauliflower granules, put it into a microwave safe bowl.

*Cook the cauliflower in the microwave for 8 minutes.  Still every 2 minutes throughout the cooking.

*Pre-heat your oven to 450*F.

*On a pizza pan (or any baking sheet really), place a piece of parchment paper.

*When the cauliflower is done cooking, pour it into a bowl (one medium head of cauliflower will make right around 1 cup of "grain" type cauliflower).  Add the egg, spices, and mozzarella cheese into the bowl with the riced cauliflower.

*Mix it all up.

*Pour the dough onto your parchment paper on the baking sheet.

*With your hands, push the dough out and flatten it into your pizza shape.

*Drizzle with olive oil.

*Bake at 450*F for 15 minutes.

*Once the crust is cooked, add your sauce, toppings, and cheese.  I HIGHLY suggest cooking your sauce and toppings before adding them on because your pizza will not be in the over long enough to heat through.

*Turn the "broil" on your oven on.

*Put your pizza with toppings and cheese into the oven.  Cook for about 4 minutes.  You only want to cook it until the cheese is melted.

*Careful cutting the pizza and placing it onto the place (remember how I said it isn't as hard of a dough as a regular pizza?)  Enjoy!

Mini Pizza's

Nick told the boys about a recipe he made at a birthday party when he was 7 or 8 years old.  Cooper decided we needed to make them, so here they are.  EASY!

Ingredients:
1 English muffin per person (makes 2 mini pizzas)
1/4 Cup pizza sauce per English muffin
1/4 Cup mozzarella shredded cheese per muffin
Pepperoni, olives, peppers, other pizza toppings...

Directions:
*Cut your English muffins in half.

*Line a baking sheet with tinfoil.

*Pour the pizza sauce over the muffins.

*Place cheese on top of the pizza sauce.

*Put your toppings on top of the cheese.

*On some of the pizza's (one's with lots of toppings) I put an extra set of cheese to make sure they all held.

*Bake at 425*F for 12-14 mins or so (until cheese is melted).

Sausage and Spinach Pizza

Holy amazing.  Totally made this recipe up on my own.  Will be making again very soon!

Ingredients:
1 Can pizza dough (I used pillsbury)
1-1 1/2 Cups alfredo sauce
1 Bag frozen spinach, thawed and well drained
1 lb mild italian sausage
2 Cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:
*Pre-heat your oven to 400*F.  (Use the temperature your can says to use...mine was 400*F).

*On a baking sheet sprayed with baking spray, unroll your pizza dough.  Stretch it out to the size you want.  If you want to pinch the edges for a crust, do that now also.

*Pour your alfredo sauce onto the dough, not going all the way to the edges though...You need to have the edges without sauce to help pick your slices up with once cooked.

*Spread the sauce out.

*Cook your sausage in a skillet on the stove until cooked.

*Once cooked, add the spinach and cook until heated through.  Be careful to stir constantly because the spinach can easily burn.

*Pour your meat and spinach mixture onto the alfredo sauce.

*Top with shredded cheese.

*Put your pizza into the oven and bake for the amount of time that your pizza container told you to.  Mine was for about 18 minutes.  This is so so so good!

Pizza Quesadilla

Cooper LOVES pizza.  He wants it all the time.  I...hate...pizza.  I don't like marinara sauce.  YUCK.  So I have had to search out fun pizza recipes...or invent them; like this one.  Cooper came up to me today saying he was hungry.  I have been so busy all day that I didn't have time to do anything fun for lunch.  I wasn't hungry yet either.  So I thought "Ah-hah."  GOT IT!  Super easy, hope you like its...or your kids like it!

Ingredients:
1 Tortilla
2 Tbsp's pizza sauce or spaghetti sauce
1/4 Cup shredded cheese
Pepperoni's (if you have them)

Directions:
*Put your tortilla on a plate.

*Spread your sauce over the tortilla.

*Layer your cheese and pepperoni slices.

*Cut into pizza pieces, or roll it all up.

Pizza Rolls

I came across this fun recipe at brokeassgourmet.com.  She has tons of really neat, creative recipes.  (I'm going to try her homemade pop tarts soon!).  Anyways, I'm not a pizza fan...but I am a "dough" fan (crescent rolls, pastry dough...).  This recipe was really easy and my whole family loved them!  Perfect for a family lunch!

Ingredients:
*Flour for dusting
*1 pizza dough (pilsbury kind in the can)
*3/4 Cup tomato sauce
*2 Cups shredded cheese (approximate amount...just enough to cover whole pizza dough)
*Pepperoni slices that have been cut into quarters

Directions:
* Lightly flour your counter

*Unroll pizza dough and stretch it out to about the size of a baking sheet

*Spread your tomato sauce all over the dough except for the very top, long side.  (If it has sauce it won't stick once you roll it up.  All the other edges can have sauce all the way to them).

*Now put your cheese and then your pepperoni's on top of the cheese.  (If you want to add other ingredients you can...green peppers, onions, olives...)

*Now roll the pizza dough with ingredients up from the longest side.  You want to go lengthwise so you have more rolls and that they aren't too thick or they won't cook.

*Now cut your dough into about 10 equal pieces ("rolls").

*Place your rolls cup side up, not dough side up on a baking sheet that has been covered in tin foil and sprayed down with cooking spray.

*Put in a pre-heated oven of 400* and bake for 15 minutes.  (I baked mine about 17 minutes.  Just keep checking on them starting at 13 min's and pull them out when they are as done as you would like them to be).

*Super easy, and fun!  Enjoy!

Ritz Cracker Pizza Snackers

Cooper LOVES "tiny pizza things" (lunchables pizza's).  One day he wanted one, and I didn't have any lunchables at home.  SO...I created my own for him!  So easy, and the kiddo's love them.

 

Ingredients:

Ritz Crackers (as many as you want to eat)

Spaghetti sauce

Shredded Cheese

Directions:

*Put a bit of spaghetti sauce on top of each ritz cracker.  Now add  shredded cheese to the top.  Your kids will think your a genius!

Taco Pizza

A couple weeks ago I found a taco pizza recipe online that sounded good.  I copied it to my recipe file online like usual but forgot to write it onto my my actual recipe cards.  While at the grocery store the other day I remembered saving it and wanting to make it but I completely forgot what ingredients were in it other than meat, cheese, and the dough package!  So I grabbed what I thought would be good and tonight I created my own taco pizza.  It was exactly what I was craving,  :)

 

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef

1 Pizza dough (by crescent roll/cinnamon rolls at the grocery store)

3/4 Package taco seasoning

1 can refried beans

2 cups shredded cheese

1/2 cup salsa

Add ons you like:

lettuce

tomatoes

green peppers

jalapeno's

avocado

salsa

sour cream

black olives

Directions:

*Preheat oven according to your pizza dough package (mine was Pillsbury, and it was set for 425*F)

*Cook your ground beef on the stove with 3/4 package of taco seasoning in the meat.  You can use more or less taco seasoning if you want.

*Unroll your pizza sheet and roll it out onto a greased baking pan.  It will stretch out as big as you want, just keep working at it!

*This is the annoying step.  UGH.  The dough is so soft and sticky, so trying to spread the can of refried beans is a little tricky.  I put my beans in a bowl and stirred them up to soften them.  Then I took a spatula and "painted" the beans onto the dough.  Leave an edge for your "crust".

*Once you have "painted" your beans onto your crust, pour your meat mixture on top.  

*Put your cheese on top of your meat.

*Bake for the amount of time on your dough package (mine was 13-17 minutes for multiple toppings.  I did 15 and it was perfect).

*While your pizza is cooking, chop any vegetables you want on top.  We put lettuce, green peppers, and tomatoes.

*Once your pizza is cooked, layer a thin layer of salsa on top.  Now put all the toppings you want on it.  Delicious!!!