Frozen Prosciutto Pizza

Last week I had some leftovers from the Toddler Gourmet dinner date so I decided to put them to good use for another toddler creation.

Frozen Prosciutto Pizza
(makes 4 pizzas)

Ingredients:
Super Easy Pizza Dough
1 large tomato, diced
1-1/2c. fresh broccoli, steamed and chopped
3 slices prosciutto, fried to crispy and chopped
1c. shredded mozzarella
1/2c. shredded parmesan

1. Preheat oven to 500 degrees.
2. Shape dough into toddler sized individual pizza crusts.
3. Parbake the crusts for 5 minutes on a cookie sheet. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
4. Top each crust evenly with the remaining ingredients.
5. Wrap each pizza in plastic wrap and then put in a freezer safe bag or wrap in aluminum foil. Freeze until ready to use.

To reheat: Unwrap pizza and place directly on oven rack or on pizza stone. Bake at 500 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

"Catching a Rainbow" Dinner Date

Back when the 5-a-Day program was still in vogue, one of its themes was to "Catch a Rainbow Every Day". So cute! A few weeks ago, I bought an erasable whiteboard and a rainbow of dry erase markers, and now every day Abby and I draw our fruits and vegetables as we eat them. I tell Abby that we want to try to eat a rainbow every day to help us be big and strong. The motivation to draw works really well, and Abby has eaten a rainbow most days since!

Now, I'm not too picky about having both a blue and a purple, and I'll let yellow slide if we have plenty of orange, but we always aim for a red, an orange, a green, a blue or purple, and a white. Here's how the board looks at the end of a typical day (clearly, I let Abby draw her own foods on this!) (and if you're laughing at my random red-green blob... it's supposed to be a mango.)

I found some other cute ideas on encouraging children to "eat a rainbow" at Preschoolrock.com. They have a lot of other fun stuff in their nutrition section, so poke around! And of course, the 5-a-Day program is outdated now, but the Fruits and Veggies Matter site has some useful information and tips, too.

Hidden Rainbow Pizza

(this is probably the worst "food" picture I've ever taken. It tasted way better than this looks)

Super-Easy Pizza Dough (I made a double batch and then froze half of the pizzas for future yum!)
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 zucchini, chopped
1 yellow squash, chopped
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 cup baby carrots, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
oregano, salt, and pepper
1-2 handfuls of baby spinach
1 jar of your favorite marinara (or 2-3 cups of homemade marinara)
Cheddar cheese

Prepare the pizza dough. Prepare the sauce during the second rise (when the dough balls are resting for 30 minutes):

In a large saute pan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add all vegetables and garlic to the pan. Season with dried oregano, salt, and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes - until the carrots and onions are tender, but before the zucchini and yellow squash get too squishy. Remove from heat and stir in the baby spinach.


Dump vegetables into a blender. Add about 2 cups of marinara sauce and blend until smooth, adding more marinara as needed to achieve a smooth texture.

Preheat oven to 450F. Form the dough balls into pizza rounds. Top each round with some sauce and ample cheddar cheese. Bake for about 10 minutes, until the pizza crust is golden and the cheese is melted.


This pizza is all about the hidden vegetables - I am a fan of hiding vegetables for a picky eater, but alongside the pizza, we also served some cut-up, colorful, raw veggies. Abby only ate the carrots, and Neko stuck to just the carrots and tomatoes, but at least the veggies were offered!

Fruity Brownie Pizza

I could eat this entire thing by myself. And I almost did.

1/2 cup unsalted butter
4 oz white chocolate
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 banana
1/2 packet of acai pulp (available in the freezer section - leave it out if you can't find it, but I wanted a purple!)
a rainbow of chopped up fruit (we used cherries, strawberries, mango, and blueberries - I wish I had bought some kiwi or green grapes!)

Preheat the oven to 350F. Generously coat a 9-inch round cake pan with non-stick spray.

In a small bowl, combine butter and white chocolate. Microwave in 30 second intervals, whisking well in between, until melted. Set aside to cool.

In a small bowl, whisk together wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar. Whisk in the vanilla extract and the melted chocolate-butter mixture. With a spoon, stir in the flour until just combined.

Smooth the batter into the cake pan. Bake for about 25 minutes, until set in the center. Let cool.

When cool, mash the banana well with a fork. Stir in the acai pulp (only as much as you need to make it smooth and not too runny). Spread the banana-acai mixture on as the "sauce". Top with chopped fruit. If you're feeling nice, serve it to your family. Otherwise, go hide in a closet with a fork and the brownie cake!

Here's the board for the girls' dinners - a whole rainbow, tucked in their tummies!


... and I have no idea what an acai berry looks like.

Butternut Squash-Gorgonzola Pizza

The girls were finally all well enough for us to have dinner date last night, and since Celeste was hosting, that meant I took a night off from the Month of Veggies. But since the guest of dinner date always brings a "reheatable", I made these frozen butternut squash-gorgonzola pizzas!

I got the inspiration for this pizza from LaDue & Crew's recipe for Gorgonzola and Butternut Squash Pizza. I thought it looked delicious, but I knew that great big chunks of squash and pear would be a tough sell for Abby. So I took it down to toddler level - but if you are just making this for adults? Try LaDue & Crew's recipe! (And then go drool over her other recipes... yum!!)

I was shocked at how much Abby and Lizzy both liked these pizzas. I worried that the gorgonzola might be a bit strong, but the squash is so mild that they balance each other out well. My husband and I loved them, too!

Butternut Squash-Gorgonzola Pizza

1 recipe Super-Easy Pizza Dough, prepared into 4 pizza shells
2 cups butternut squash puree (make your own, use frozen, or heck - use baby food!)
4 oz gorgonzola
1-2 tsp dried rosemary
salt & pepper

Spread about 1/2 cup butternut squash puree over each pizza shell. Top each with about 1 oz of the gorgonzola (it's a strong taste, so a little will go a long way). Sprinkle with a little dried rosemary, salt, and pepper.

To bake: Preheat oven to 425F. Bake for about 15 minutes, until crust is golden.

To freeze: Put each pizza on a wax paper-covered plate in the freezer. Freeze for about 2-3 hours. Wrap well in plastic wrap and store in freezer bags. To bake from frozen, preheat oven to 425F and bake for about 20-25 minutes, until crust is golden.

Couch Potato Pizza

Couch Potato Pizza(makes 3 small pizzas)

At the last dinner date at Kara's she made an amazing pizza crust that I've been dying to try on my own. I finally gave it a shot with this concoction.

In the earlier stages of our relationship my husband (then boyfriend) and we lived in a tiny apartment in Boston. Down the street was a pizza place that made this amazing pizza that we couldn't keep ourselves away from. It was topped with mashed potatoes, bacon and cheddar cheese. Using Kara's great crust, I made a healthier version of this blast from my past. It was truly delicious! You shouldn't have a hard time convincing a toddler to eat this one. I sure didn't.

Ingredients:
Kara's Crust
2 c mashed potatoes
1/2 can (about 2/3 c.) cannellini beans
6 strips of turkey bacon
1 c. shredded mild cheddar cheese
handful of fresh baby spinach (optional)

1. Prepare crust according to Kara's recipe.
2. I recommend making mashed potatoes how you like them since everyone likes them their own way (I did butter, garlic, etc). However, during your 'mashing', throw in the beans and mash those up with the potatoes. I thought this would be an easy way to throw in a little undetected protein. In my case they didn't affect the taste one bit.
3. While your potatoes are cooking fry up the bacon until just under crispy. (They will finish crisping in the oven,) Cut into small pieces.
4. Assemble the pizzas. I decided to sneak in a layer of spinach under the potatoes. Ultimately this was fine but I will say it was hard to spread the potatoes over the spinach which kept sticking to the potatoes and sliding around. If you don't do spinach: spread on the potatoes, top with the bacon chunks and finally top with some cheese.
5. Bake on a cookie sheet in a preheated oven (450 degrees) for about 15 minutes (or until the cheese is melty.) Cut and serve!

"Make Your Own Darned Dinner" Dinner Date

Don't you just daydream about saying that some (or, most) days? Last night, we made Neko and Abby responsible for making their own dinner! (you know... within reason!) The girls had a blast constructing pizza and painting cookie masterpieces.

Super Easy Pizza Dough

(seriously - it's super easy)
Makes four 6-inch pizza crusts

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup cornmeal
1 1/2 tsp coarse salt
1 envelope rapid-rise yeast (or 1/4 oz)
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup cold water

Pulse the flours, cornmeal, salt, and yeast together in a food processor. With the processor running, add the olive oil and then water in a steady stream. Process until dough just comes together in a ball.

Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead a few times, until it is smooth and elastic. Place it in a resealable bag. Let rise until about doubled - either about 2 hours at room temperature, or overnight in the refrigerator.

Divide the dough into 4 balls. Cover them with a clean towel and let rise until puffy, about 20 minutes.

Stretch the dough balls into 6-inch pizza crusts. Top as desired (set out bowls of toppings for the kids and let them have at it!) and bake at 450F for about 10 minutes.

Cookie Paintings
(can you guess which one Celeste painted and which ones the girls did?)

2/3 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 egg whites (save the yolks for your "paint")
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
separated eggs and food dye for paints

Cream butter and sugar together until fluffy. Beat in egg whites and vanilla extract. Stir in baking powder, salt, and flour until combined. Scrape the dough onto a floured work surface and knead until a smooth ball forms. Divide dough into four balls and shape each into a disk. Cover the disks with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator until firm (at least an hour, or overnight).

Preheat the oven to 375F. Roll out the dough and cut out squares (your "canvasses"!), re-rolling the scraps as needed.

Separate eggs into ramekins, using one yolk (or white) for each color. Whisk each yolk (or white) with 1 Tbsp of water and desired dye until a smooth, watery paint forms. Using clean (let me stress CLEAN) paintbrushes, let your kids use the paints to decorate each cookie.

Transfer painted cookies to greased cookie sheets. Our cookies were about 4"x6" and baked for about 9 minutes, but watch them carefully (baking time will vary by the size of your cookies).