On Saturday, in advance of my beloved Florida State Seminoles football game, I whipped up two batches of pizza dough – one for Saturday night and, if no friends joined us at the last minute, one for Sunday. We decided to experiment with different toppings each night so dinnertime didn’t get too repetitive (and so that leftovers for lunch didn’t, either!).
Well, no friends materialized for the 3:30 game, so a little after halftime I prepped one pizza for the oven using the dough recipe I’ve already outlined here. We topped the crust with tomato sauce, sliced fresh mushrooms, diced bell pepper, sliced black olives, and – my favorite – thinly sliced Lightlife Italian “sausage.” I added a light layer of Italian cheese blend for texture and popped the pie in at 450 degrees. In 15 minutes or so, the pizza was piping-hot and ready to eat, and eat we did, while cheering FSU on to a 62-7 victory!
Yesterday, we baked the second pizza for dinner and aimed to spice things up a bit. Instead of tomato sauce, we spread a thin layer of olive oil across the prebaked dough and added some garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Then it was time for the toppings, some of which we used on Saturday – mushrooms, diced bell pepper, more Lightlife sausage – and one that was new to the scene: halved cherry tomatoes. This time, instead of adding cheese, I decided to go the dairy-free route and simply pile on more veggies (and sausage). When the pizza was ready, I dusted the top with some nutritional yeast, and dinner was served! We added some tomato sauce to the side for dipping, and the combination was a delight.
The best part? There are plenty of slices left over for lunches! These meals ought to carry us through Wednesday, at least.
Here’s to football fare!
:)