Bakin' a Pizza Pie

I was going to write about my great graham cracker experiment- but I think I will save that for next time. I had grand ideas for graham crackers, and well... they didn't work out. So instead I bring to you pizza. Yum, who doesn't love pizza? My dad doesn't actually, but I don't know why.

Anyhow, I've actually come up with a brilliant plan to cook most of mine & Jason's dinners to save money, eat healthier, etc. etc. And this time the brilliant plan involved actually planning out what to make for the week instead of just buying things and figuring them out later (as I usually do) . And when that figuring it out later part doesn't turn into any ideas, we turn to take out and eating out pretty quickly. But not this week! I made a plan! And a grocery list! And a wonderful trip to the farmer's market! 

Making your own pizza is actually really easy. And if you don't have the time to make the dough yourself, I find Trader Joe's refrigerated dough to work just perfectly. This time though, I made the whole pizza from scratch. I opted for BBQ chicken pizza as a) pepperoni is overrated and b) trying to use my keen sense of saving $$, using chicken was more practical since we could eat it later in the week unlike pepperoni. (Well I guess you could, but that isn't too healthy isn't it?)

The dough only consists of flour, olive oil, yeast and water. This time I tried out Smitten Kitchen's pizza dough recipe. It's different from others I've tried as you don't mix the water and the yeast together first. It was pretty good and easy, but I think I still be experimenting with other pizza dough recipe in the future.


Oh and the red onions and cilantro were picked up from the Mar Vista farmer's market. I've been there a few times, but was always a bit intimidated to buy anything. Plus until this weekend, I didn't have an actual list of items I needed. Lists, they are life savers sometimes. The farmer's market has taught me two things, 1) never will I buy herbs from the grocery store again- they are way overpriced b) make a list before you go.


My BBQ chicken pizza doesn't really have measurements. Pizzas are easy enough that you can just wing it- trust me. The pizza dough recipe is enough to make a semi thin crust pizza for two, or perhaps a thicker crust pizza for one.

Ingredients:
Your fave BBQ sauce
parmesan cheese
mozzerella cheese
3 small strips of chicken breast, grilled w/ salt & pepper & chopped into bite size pieces
small handful of chopped cilantro
small handful of thinly sliced red onion
olive oil

Steps:
Preheat your oven to 495 degrees
Roll out your dough to your preference of thinness or thickness
Brush on a small amount of olive oil onto dough
Brush on BBQ sauce onto dough
Mix your chicken with some BBQ sauce & toss onto pizza
Add some onion and a small amount of cilantro
Toss on the cheeses (I used mostly mozzeralla and a small amount of parmesan)
Add some more red onions
Toss your pizza into the oven and bake for 10 minutes or until cheese is bubbly and slightly brown
Cool for a few minutes and add top it off with some more cilantro
Enjoy!


If you're into making your own pizza, I also suggest getting a baking stone. Your crust will not burn on the bottom. It's the best thing ever!