Menu Monday: Homemade Pizza Dough

My back issues have lessened a bit. I am still going to the chiropractor and still working on it here at home with rest and walking. Sitting feels good now, so the temptation is to sit more, but getting up again is when I realize it was a bad idea. So I have to keep it in my head to stay on the move. If I do rest, I need to rest on my back, not on my bottom.

I know that doesn’t have anything to do with food, but it is still determining certain things about my menu.

This past week went pretty well, we never made quesadillas because there was a lot of time spent planning our life group for the next few weeks and we ran out of time to make the tortillas. We ate sandwiches that night and some leftover pizza from our Huddle on Friday. The huddle went well, the jambalaya pasta always makes a huge batch and I only had two lunch containers leftover. We always pick up pizza for the kids that come and this time we got the large frozen bake at home pizza’s from Kroger. They are pretty good and much more filling than the ‘Hot n Ready’ pizza.

This week we are keeping it pretty simple. We are leaving on Friday to go to a family reunion in north Florida and then we’ll spend some time down in Lakeland as well, so there will be no Menu Monday next week as I won’t be in charge of meal planning until we get back.

Here’s what we’re eating:

Monday – Potato Soup
It’s almost too warm for this, but loaded with pureed veggies, it’s a year round meal to me. We’ll serve this with a little baby spinach salad on the side and there are still a few rolls from Friday night we can put on the side as well.

Tuesday – Taco Salad
Lettuce, spinach, black beans that I’ll soak today and cook overnight in chicken stock to add more flavor, tomato, onion, cheese, salsa and cilantro…make a good Kelso family taco salad. Crumble up some chips and a little dollop of sour cream…yum.

Wednesday – Stromboli
I will make the dough for this on Wednesday morning. The recipe I use is below. Pizza dough, covered in yummy meats and cheese and then rolled up, baked and sliced into pieces we can tackle with a fork. Just realized I forgot to get cheese at the store this morning. Oops. I got time though.

Thursday – Leftovers
I have MOPS this week so I will not plan to cook anything. I’ll just lay out a buffet for the hungry boys to pull from.

Friday – LEAVE FOR FLORIDA!
I will tell you that our typical schedule for the reunion is to arrive in the afternoon and eat an early dinner at a restaurant on Friday night. Saturday night we typically grill steaks and chicken and then we leave on Sunday for Lakeland and will probably get something quick and easy when we get there.

So…here’s the recipe I’ve been using for pizza dough, in case you want to try it out:

it’s called “Pizza Dough III” and I found it on AllRecipes

makes 1 large crust

Ingredients
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast

1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

2 cups bread flour

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons white sugar (honey can be used instead)

Directions
In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. If using honey instead of sugar put the honey in with the warm water as it is easier to combine when warm and thinned.

In a large bowl, combine 2 cups bread flour, olive oil, salt, white sugar and the yeast mixture; stir well to combine. Beat well until a stiff dough has formed. Cover and rise until doubled in volume, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Turn dough out onto a well floured surface. Form dough into a round and roll out into a pizza crust shape. Cover with your favorite sauce and toppings and bake in preheated oven until golden brown, about 20 minutes.