Tues: Pizza(-ish)

On the menu for tonight is one of our favorite dishes, (mostly) homemade pizza. It's a really simple, sauceless recipe I've been making for years. Pretty low-cal, too, as long as you're stingy with the cheese. (Which I am not.)

Pizza crust (make it yourself if you're ambitious, but we go pre-fab - Mamma Mia or Boboli)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 bag of spinach
1/2 container of baby bellas, sliced
1/3 of a red onion, chopped
1/2 a pepper (orange is my favorite), chopped
A handful of sliced black olives
1-2 tomatoes, sliced or wedged
Part-skim or low-fat shredded mozzarella cheese

1. Mix the olive and sesame oil , and paint the crust with it (don't miss the edges).
2. Add the spinach, bellas, onion, pepper, and olives.
   
3. Cover (liberally!) with the mozz.
4. Cook at 375-ish for 12-15 minutes (till the cheese is starting to brown)
5. Haul it out. Add the tomatoes.
   
6. Put it back in the oven for another 5 minutes or so.

Who moved my cheese?

Pizza is a weekly go-to easy comfort meal, so there's always mozzarella in this house. We buy big bags of it (it freezes well).

Not tonight, though. The pizza was completely assembled before we realized we'd left mozzarella off the list this week, thinking we had some in the freezer. Nope. Totally out.

It was 9:00, and neither of us wanted to go back out to the store, so we figured we'd try using what we had - half a bag of cheddar/Monterey Jack blend left over from the polenta, and some spare sharp cheddar. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't that good either. Next time, I'll go out for mozzarella.

Hints:

This is a great way to use up leftover veggies. Add whatever you like. But as the pizza gets more loaded, reduce the heat and add time to make sure it's cooked through. (Also a good idea if you add a lot of watery veggies (like zucchini) or if you didn't defrost the cheese first. )

Sundried tomatoes are great on this. Black olives are also great. Sundried tomatoes AND black olives are NOT so great - it gets way too salty.