Pesto Pizza Recipe

I've said it a million times. I'll say it again. I LOVE pizza. Yep. Love. So much in fact that I make the Farmer eat it every Friday. Ok. I don't MAKE him eat it. I make it. And then he has to eat it unless he wants to cook something else. Lucky for me, he likes it, too. And we save TONS of moula by making our own. And not to toot my own horn, but toot toot! I'd have to say ours it pretty dang good.

And of course, there is no picture because we ate it before I remembered I wanted to blog about it. Don't worry, we'll have it again next week and I'll post it then.

I realized quite some time ago that I've never posted my pizza dough recipe. I've been using it for awhile and think I've got it pretty well perfected. Sometimes we like to change things up though. For instance, using a little bit of white flour makes it fluffier. If we want crunchy crust we use all whole wheat. Anyway, enough about that. Let's talk about the recipe. (I'll post the crust recipe, too).

The Recipe: Pesto Pizza

What you Need:

Toppings:

4 medium mushrooms (chopped)

1/2 a small onion (chopped)

10-15 black olives (chopped)

sundried tomatoes

1/2 cup fresh spinach (optional)

1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese

1/4 cup shredded mozzarella

1/4 cup pesto

Crust:

3 cups whole wheat flour

1 1/4 cups warm water (not HOT!)

2 1/4 tsp yeast (or one packet)

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp of sugar, honey or agave nectar (we use agave)

Crust directions:

Place yeast and 1 cup of warm water in your KitchenAid mixer bowl (or you can use a regular bowl and do the kneading by hand). Add your tbsp of sugar, honey or agave...it doesn't really matter what you use, the yeast just needs something sweet to eat (and no, a piece of candy won't work). Let it sit for 10 minutes until the mixture looks beige and bubbly. Add 1 cup of flour and turn your mixer onto setting 2. Gradually add another cup of flour until it starts to form a dough. Add 1 tbsp olive oil and 1/4 cup warm water. Add the rest of the flour a 1/2 cup at a time until the dough forms a ball (or lump). This takes 2-4 minutes. Make sure you put the lock down on the mixer, otherwise it'll be dancing all over the place. Take out the dough and form it into a ball.

Place it back in the bowl and drizzle with a bit of olive oil. Cover the dough with a clean towel and let it rest in a warm area where it won't be disturbed for 1 hour. After an hour, punch down the dough and get to rolling!

Sprinkle a bit of flour on the counter, flour up your rolling pin and roll the dough into a rectangle or circle. We use a cookie sheet with a rectangle pizza, but a circular pizza works, too. Transfer the dough to the sheet.

Add pesto using a spoon and spreading it out over the dough. Add chopped onions, black olives, mushrooms, sundried tomatoes and spinach (if using...we go back and forth. sometimes we use it, sometimes we don't). Sprinkle with cheeses and pop it in the oven.

Bake at 350˚ for 18 minutes. Cut with pizza cutter and devour! Yum.

Did you make this? Let me know!

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Felt Car Mat

This was my final homemade Christmas gift for Sweet P and I must say I am super proud of how it turned out. We haven't really played with it much, yet, but I can't wait until we get going with it. I heard about this idea from fellow blogger Allison and followed her trail to find A Girl and a Glue Gun, which is where (as you can see) I found the idea and the mat was born.

I purchased felt by the yard from Joann's. I can't remember the exact cost because I bought other things that day, but I didn't even buy a complete yard (a half, a 1/4 and an 1/8th of 3 different colors). The rest of the felt came from felt squares (although they are really rectangles) I had or ones I bought at Hobby Lobby, Joann's or Michaels (because I HAD to have a certain color). The only other tools you need are a good (I mean really good) pair of scissors and a glue gun (and maybe a ruler if you're fancy like that).

This project took me several nights to complete and I'd say the hardest part was deciding on what to put on the mat and the road. I wanted to make sure it could grow with her and that certain places would still be significant in a few years. So without further ado, here is Sweet P's car mat. I still can't believe I made this.

**Excuse the wrinkledness, it'd been rolled up and shoved into a car for 12 hours.

Sweet P's garages: These are pockets that can store cars, figurines and other toys that can be played with on the mat.

Our farm: We don't have cows anymore, but I couldn't resist putting one there. I also added pumpkins, cabbage/lettuce and some carrots, a tractor and a barn in the distance (since it's obviously not to scale!).

Mommy's Weaknesses: The town wouldn't be complete without a coffee shop and a Target. Pretty sure those will still be in our lives for years to come. Once upon a time I tried to give up coffee. Still workin' on that.

The Park: Sweet P is obsessed with swings and I couldn't resist putting a soccer field. And the awesome Farmer contributed the soccer ball with the Nike swoosh (he even cut it out for me!). There's a pond and a tire swing, too.

Sweet P LOVES HyVee. For no reason other than the fact that they have a FREE (yes, I said free) mechanical horse that children can ride on. As soon as we pull into the parking lot she says, NAAAYYY!!!! That's him in the right corner of the store.

Here is the library, church and mall. There are also roads to Hobbs and Dallas (important roads around here!).

There's also a pharmacy, Trader Joe's (how could I forget a close up of that!) and the YMCA. The second hardest part was cutting those teensy weensy flowers, but I'm glad they're there.

And last but not least is a neighborhood. If you've been to my house, you'll know that the bottom left house looks very similar to the one we live in (I bought that beige color of felt for that specific purpose). We even have a big window in front just like that! Although, we don't have any neighbors with hot pink roofs.

If I had to estimate, this project cost less than $10 to make because I had most of the tools I needed. If you make a felt car mat, I'd love to see it! And I think A Girl and a Glue Gun would, too!

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Muffin Tin Monday

We haven't done Muffin Tin Monday in a while because Sweet P was sick and pretty picky. But I decided we'd give it a go since she started eating better once we got home. Her new love? Hummus (is she her mother's daughter or what!?). She loves it (and loves to say it too). Once I tell her that's what she's having, I hear a little voice saying "hummus. hummus. hummus." until I put it in front of her. I wasn't sure what the theme was this week and was too lazy to look when I was fixing her lunch so I decided to go with shapes (loosely). Turns out the theme was liners and cups (which I sadly didn't use).

Clockwise from top left: flattened dried bananas cut into stars, avocado squares, hummus (no shape unless blob counts), pita triangles, orange circles and celery crescents. And the little turkey gobbled it all up.