With my husband traveling on business last week, all of the parenting responsibilities were mine, which meant a lot of time was spent driving children to their activities. So, in the interest of my sanity, I decided to take a shortcut or two in my cooking.
One night we had homemade pizza for dinner, so rather than making the dough, I bought a ball of dough at the grocery store. With only two kids at home, this was enough dough to make their pizzas. Not needing another whole ball of dough for my pizza, I decided to use a piece of lavash bread for my crust. This bread would give my pizza the thinness and crunchiness I prefer.
While prepping toppings for our pizzas, I decided to make a quick batch of parmesan white sauce. Our thirteen year old has been enjoying white pizzas lately, so I thought he would like trying this to top his pizza. As it smelled quite yummy, I decided to make a bigger batch so there would be some for my pizza also. Typically made with whole milk or cream, I used skim milk and had great results. The sauce was creamy and rich but not overly heavy.
Once all of the toppings and sauce were ready, each of us made our own pizza creation. There was a pizza with white sauce, sausage, and mozzarella, an order of parmesan breadsticks, and a very thin crust cheese and veggie delight. Each dish was different but thoroughly enjoyed by its creator.
When you have more time for dinner prep, try my recipe for homemade pizza dough.
- olive oil
- 4 ounces baby spinach
- 1/2 yellow onion, sliced
- 6 cremini mushrooms, sliced
- 1 piece lavash bread
- 2-3 tablespoons parmesan white sauce (recipe follows)
- fresh mozzarella, sliced
- Preheat oven to 450° with a pizza stone or inverted baking sheet on the center rack.
- Heat a large nonstick frying pan over medium heat.
- Place 1 teaspoon olive oil in pan, and add spinach.
- Toss constantly until all spinach leaves are wilted.
- Move to a small bowl.
- Place onion in frying pan, and cook for 4-5 minutes.
- Add mushrooms, and cook for an addition 5 minutes, or until both onions and mushrooms are tender.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Place lavash bread on the pizza stone, and spread a thin layer of white sauce on bread.
- Top with spinach and mushroom/onion mixture.
- Place pieces of mozzarella cheese on top of veggies.
- Bake for approximately 5 minutes, or until cheese is melted and edges of crust are golden brown.
- 1 tablespoon salted butter
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- skim milk
- 1/4 – 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, shredded
- Place a small pot over medium heat, and add butter.
- Once melted, add flour, and stir until mixture becomes slightly tan in color.
- Add milk slowly, whisking to combine. (Depending on the thickness you prefer, you will use between a half and whole cup of milk.)
- Continue to whisk until mixture thickens.
- Add parmesan cheese to taste.
- Whisk until fully combined.
[…] Rather than spending time rolling the dough, why not try a different sort of crust. At our food and cooking website, Tasty Thoughts, we recently posted a recipe that has an alternate ingredient for thin crust pizza. To learn what this simple and very thin crust is just click here! […]