Last week I missed an important deadline. I should have placed the order for the monthly pizza lunches at my daughter’s school but, in the busyness of the week, I forgot. Gasp! I felt bad. She loves pizza and I don’t want her to miss out. What’s a Mom to do?
So that my little one does not feel like she’s left out of the fun, I marked the next 3 months of pizza days in the calendar and am making homemade. The first of 3 pizza days was this past Wednesday. We had it for dinner on the Tuesday night and it was all packed and ready to go the next morning.
I usually use this Martha Stewart pizza dough recipe and then make modifications such as adding half whole wheat and half all purpose flours. The results are a light and fluffy crust.
My kids don’t like to much fuss on their pizzas so I served it Margherita style with a simple pizza sauce and used freshly sliced mozzarella (not the large brick style ones, I’m talkin’ authentic). Once baked, I topped my half with fresh basil, some sea salt and a drizzle of olive oil. Yum, yum, yum!!
But the finishing touch to this meal is adding the bestest Caesar Salad you will ever have! I’ve been mixing the following ingredients to produce this dressing for years and it does not disappoint:
- 1/2 c. olive oil
- 3 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
- 1 clove garlic, grated or minced
- 1/2 tsp mustard powder
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- A few dashes of Worcestershire sauce
The dressing goes on top of the usual mix of romaine lettuce, grated parmesan and croutons. For the croutons, I like to use the Fresh Gourmet brand. They have a great selection, one of my faves is a multi grain variety. I’m not sure of the exact branding on this one but the different types of bread used (such as pumpernickel) are pictured on the package. Look for those and grab them if you can! As for the bacon bits, sometimes I’ll substitute them for sundried tomatoes instead or just leave the bacon out all together. But if I’m going to use the bacon, it’s the real deal (none of that fake, crunchy stuff).
I knew my daughter would be pleased to not only get pizza on Pizza Day but her favourite salad alongside. And if you read my previous post on her need for fibre, you’ll understand one of the reasons for including that salad with the pizza. That girl needs every bit of fibre she can get! Win for both of us. Yay!!
Foodie Fridays is a weekly blog series from Michelle Pitman, attempting to remove the stigma and the labelling of food that tastes good as being bad for you; to show how supportive choices can incorporate all categories of food and that balanced eating means you are satisfying your physical needs as well as the emotional ones. Bon Appetit!!
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