French Bread Pizza

Talk about a kid-friendly, easy, weeknight dinner! This is just the ticket! I don't always have French bread on hand but it doesn't matter! This is one of those meals where you can have all the components ready. Then call the hubster on his way home from work and have him pick up a loaf. As soon as he gets home, put it all together, pop it in the oven, and by the time he has kissed the kids and changed into his comfy clothes, dinner is on the table! I love it!

French Bread Pizza

1 loaf French bread

1 cup pizza sauce

  1 lb lean ground beef

1/2 cup onions, chopped

1/2 cup green peppers, chopped

3 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (freshly shredded works best)

Parmesan garlic herb seasoning (recipe following)

Heat oven to 450 degrees. Brown ground beef, onions, and peppers together. Really you can use whatever pizza topping you like here but ground beef really works great for this. Sometimes I don't even add the peppers and onions. Drain beef. Cut French bread in half hot-dog bun style. Spread with pizza sauce. Sprinkle on ground beef mixture. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Top with seasoning. Bake for 7-10 minutes, until cheese is nice and melty. You could also put it under the broiler for the last 2-3 minutes to get that goldeny cheese. Enjoy! I serve this will a Ceasar salad and mixed fruit.

Parmesan Garlic Herb Seasoning

1/2 c. powdered Parmesan cheese

1 tsp salt

1 Tbsp garlic powder

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp basil

1 tsp marjoram

  1 tsp parsley

Mix together in a jar. Store in fridge. Use on any pizza or garlic bread!

Slightly adapted from Our Best Bites.

Spooky Halloween Mini Pizzas

If you are looking for a quick and fun Halloween dinner, I have the solution!  

Spooky Halloween Mini Pizzas!!  

The past couple years, Amanda and I have celebrated Halloween together with a fun Halloween dinner. It's now turned into a tradition that we look forward to every year.  We have tried mummy pot pies, mashed "boo"-tatoes, slimy worm cups, etc. 

It seemed like we were running out of ideas for this year, but decided to do Spooky Halloween Mini Pizzas! Each person rolled out their dough to create their very own Spooky Pizza. I included the recipe for the dough because we loved the crust and over half the flour was whole wheat!  (psst..I try to add in whole grains whenever I can. Hello FIBER!) 

My favorite part was how creative everyone got. This would be fun to do with little kids too!  Here are the ones we made: a zombie, ghostly vampire monster,  pumpkin, BOO!, and owls.  See if you can tell "witch" one is which.  

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough Recipe

(makes 2 large pizzas or 6-8 mini pizzas)

2 cups warm water

2 packets of yeast

1 TBSP sugar

4 cups whole wheat flour

2 cups all purpose flour

1/3 cup olive oil

1 egg yolk

2 tsp salt

Directions

In a mixing bowl add warm water, dry yeast, and sugar. Let set for 6 minutes. After 6 minutes, add the flour, olive oil, egg yolk, and salt. Knead with a dough hook for 6 minutes.  If the dough looks too wet add a little bit more flour if it looks a little dry add a little water to compensate.  If you don't have a mixer knead the dough until it is smooth and easily comes off the counter. Roll into a ball, cover with a towel, and let it rise for at least 1 hour (should double in size). 

To make the individual spooky pizzas separate into small dough pieces. If you want to make 2 larger pizzas split the dough in half.  Flour your work surface and roll out the dough as thick or as thin as you please. Place the rolled out dough on a pizza/cookie pan and then add your sauce, cheese, pepperoni, olives, and other toppings to make spooky little pizzas!! Bake at 375 for about 10-15 minutes. Time will vary depending on how thin or thick you rolled the dough.  Most importantly enjoy your spooky creations!

Pizzeria 712

Pizzeria 712

320 South State Street Orem, UT 84058

Mmmm, pizza at it’s best! Right when you walk in you can’t miss the wood fired brick oven, which makes for a top-notch pizzeria. You won’t find your every day pepperoni and cheese, but a unique blend of fresh toppings that make for delicious pizza. Handpulled mozzarella (sounds like something the pioneers went through), fennel, grana padano, fresh tomato sauce, I start to salivate just thinking about it.

What We Got…
They have a lunch and dinner menu which don’t vary too much, but the menu is seasonal to insure for fresh quality ingredients (I love that).

I met my grade school friend Sarah for lunch. First thing we were excited about was, instead of the usual breadsticks or loaf of bread, they brought out complimentary paprika hummus with soft bread to dip.  We devoured the hummus and wanted to ask for a hummus refill, but felt too embarrassed. 

To start we got the la nay ferme greens, peach, potato, rockhill gruyere, almond, sherry vinaigrette ($10). Sounds fancy shmancy, with words I’ve never heard of before, but it was good! I recommend trying it. I never would have thought to put red potatoes in a salad, but they fit in just fine.

As for the main dish, we got the creminelli sausage, caramelized onion, roasted fennel, tomato sauce, mozzarella pizza. ($14)   The crust was one of my favorite parts. Not to flat, not to doughy, but just right! And the sauce still had a fresh tomato taste. 

Service…

Our waitress was friendly and we even got the name of the lady who does her eyelashes, but she wasn’t Lighting Macqueen.  After we got our pizza it was like we didn’t exist. My glass was craving water, and it seems like whenever you have a waiter that leaves your refills hanging, that your thirst meter automatically goes to empty. Does this happen to anyone else?  Slow to pour and slow to charge. I had to go up at the end and give her our cards because she was taking forever. 

Overall...

Despite the slow service, I give Pizzeria 712 a Green Light. You better believe I’ll be back!


Scale Rating Descriptions
Green Light: I'll be coming through all the time, call me a regular, recommend to everyone and all, I"ll crave this place when I'm pregnant, loved it!

Yellow Light: I'll be slow to go through,  I'd go back if someone suggested it,  nothing special, not something I'm going to crave, it was ok.

Red Light: STOP! Don't go, tried it once and that's enough, warn people not to go, thinking about it brings back bad memories, didn't like it.