Hooray for Pizza Day

Homemade pizza is incredibly easy to make, yet pizza-focused restaurants are still a multi-billion dollar industry. While not everyone has 800 degree ovens at home, the pizza that comes out of a standard household kitchen is still a cut above the mass-produced variety.

Making pizza dough is pretty simple, especially with an upright mixer. What's even more simple is that to make a double batch every time--That means every other time you make pizza, all you have to do is remember to take a ball of dough out of the freezer to defrost in time for dinner! In our household, we've found homemade dough to be a lot tastier (not to mention cheaper!) than the crusts you can buy in the grocery store.

When you make your own pizza, your choices for toppings are unlimited! In college, when I would buy frozen pizza, I usually added my own toppings to plain cheese pie to customize to my own tastes. Homemade pizza is like having a blank canvas in front of you! It's easy to accommodate multiple tastes--pineapple and light cheese on one side, mushrooms only one slice... whatever combination/s you can think of can be created at home!

I also find that homemade pizza can be healthier than the store- or restaurant-bought varieties. It's no more difficult to make a whole wheat crust, you don't have to explain to a server that you only want half cheese, can buy better quality ingredients for less, and you can put as many veggies or other healthy toppings on top without the extra fees for each one. I'm not saying homemade pizza is like spa food, but it can certainly be lower in the bad stuff than the processed kind you may otherwise be consuming.

And since some of you were wondering, my homemade pizza pictured above had a base of (veggie) sausage in marinara sauce topped with a layer of sauteed spinach then several dollops of goat cheese and caramelized onions for the finishing touch.

Related Links:

• The Simple Dollar's Guide to Making Inexpensive & Delicious Homemade Pizza
  
• Wikipedia History of Pizza
  
• Michael Ruhlman on Homemade Pizza Including detailed instructions/tips for pizza & dough-making, and a recipe for his fabulous "Spring Is In the Air Breakfast Pizza" (Homemade Pizza with Bacon, Egg and Asparagus)
  
• Asylum's list of Ten Weirdest Pizza Toppings Some are weirder than others...
  
• TLC's Favorite Pizza Toppings, by Country Eel, anyone?
  
• LA Times list of Gourmet Pizza Topping Combinations They probably wouldn't like my topping-dense pizza, but I could go for some of these.
  
• Serious Eats' Grilled Pizza Guide Perfect for outdoor eating this summer!
  

Quick & Easy

Today is the first day of an 8-week long Fitness Challenge within my office. This has become an annual event for my work team--I think this is the fourth year.

In the spirit of the challenge, I decided to go to the gym today. The goal is to workout at least three times per week for the 8 week period. It seems like there is never enough time in the day for me, especially when I go to work and try to work out at the gym on the same day. Squeezing in a decent dinner on those days can be hard, even though I know it's especially important to refuel when exercising.

Anyway, I looked in the fridge and saw a bunch of leftovers. There was some Swiss cheese J left for me to eat, as well as an opened jar of spaghetti sauce, an open container of baby spinach, and half a loaf of bread.. In my head, it all came together as a "Grilled Leftovers & Cheese" sandwich.

The sandwich was actually toasted (on a non-stick frying pan), and the contents' status as leftovers is questionable, but it did make a tasty sandwich. I realize that a grilled cheese sandwich is almost the antithesis of what one should eat when thinking about health and fitness, so I promise that next time I will use more spinach!

Linguine and Zucchini

I love leftovers. But even better than plain old leftovers is being able to use leftovers to come up with a completely new creation.

Over the past week, I had been craving pasta, which is basically a staple of my diet. The craving was not helped by going out for Italian food on Wednesday night, and only eating a salad and some risotto. As delicious they were, I left wishing that I had ordered something else.

Luckily, pasta is something incredibly easy to make at home and I was able to finally satisfy the craving this evening. Conveniently, I had some leftovers laying around that I was able to use to create a fabulous pasta dinner.

The Leftovers
*Zucchini is something I did not truly enjoy on or with pasta until the summer of 2005. I spent that summer living in Verona and was exposed to many new tastes that have stuck with me long since leaving. I had some zucchini leftover from Tuesday's dinner that did not look very exciting sitting in the fridge in a container and alone. Luckily for the zucchini and for me, I remembered that it would be a great addition to the night's pasta creation. I chopped it into more convenient bite-sized pieces, and it was ready to go!
*A few days ago, J had opened up a jar of marinara sauce that needed to be finished. I hear that pasta sauce actually shouldn't be kept very long once it's opened, so I was eager to use it up. The only addition made to this sauce was some garlic powder for extra kick.
*We also had some stravecchio cheese left from the Macaroni and Cheese we made on New Year's Eve. This is one of my new favorite cheese. It is hard, pungent, and versatile. I think it is a great cheese for snacking alongside sweet fruit, using in savory dishes, or simply for nibbling alone. J and I were both surprised that the stravecchio had lasted this long (both in terms of us not eating it and in terms of it not being taken over by mold growth) and decided it needed to be consumed without further delay.

The Dish
Whole wheat linguine, with zucchini, a basic tomato sauce, and sprinkled with grated stravecchio cheese. Simple, easy to make, and absolutely satisfying! This is how I like to eat.