Meatless...Thursday?...

Is it allowed to do a Meatless Monday post on Thursday?  Let's just call it playing catch up mkay? I sort of hit the wall recently between homeschooling, a Monday evening study B and I are going through, Awanas, youth group, work, small group and life in general.  All that said, I have had trouble eeking out posts for the last few weeks.

But, I will say one of my bright spots of late was a trip to San Diego with a few ladies from church to attend the CPC conference for those working in children's ministry.  It was awesome.  I learned so much and came away with tools to not only help me as I work with children and youth, but tools to help B and I raise our little ones up to love their Lord with all their heart!  Good stuff!

Here are a few pics from our time there:

It was so much fun...but my favorite part?  Not having to prepare any meals!  I'm not going to lie, having my food prepared for me every evening was pretty amazing.

What about B and the kiddos you ask?  Well, B held down the home front for a few days, and may I add he did an amazing job?  Seriously, he's such an awesome dad, and the three of them had such a great time together!  The two littles are a couple of lucky kiddos to have a dad like him!

Now that we're back to our routine again, and I'm back to cooking *sigh* I thought I'd share a recipe we were totally loving last night...caramelized mushroom, pepper and onion pizza with herbed goat cheese.  Oh. My. Word.  This was so good. The pizza was perfectly crispy, the veggies were nice and caramelized and the goat cheese...oh, the goat cheese.  This pizza was so good we fought over who would have the leftovers for lunch...

Caramelized Mushroom, Pepper and Onion Pizza with Herbed 

Goat Cheese

Crust:

4 1/2 C white whole wheat flour (all purpose is okay)

1 3/4 tsp. Kosher salt

1 tsp. yeast

1/4 C. olive oil

1 3/4 C. cold water

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and beat with a mixer fitted with a dough hook until ball forms.  Cover bowl with a towel and let rise 1 hour.

Sauce:

1 can diced tomatoes

1 tbsp. olive oil

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 tsp. kosher salt

Place olive oil, salt and garlic in a small pot and cook just until garlic becomes fragrant.  Add tomatoes and cook 10-15 minutes breaking up the tomatoes until sauce begins to thicken.

Toppings:

8 oz. package mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced

1/2 red pepper thinly sliced

1/2 green pepper thinly sliced

1/2 red onion thinly sliced

about 6 baby bella mushrooms washed and sliced

4 oz. package tomato/herb goat cheese

In a small skillet with a bit of olive oil, saute peppers, onion and mushroom just until caramelized.  Sprinkle lightly with kosher salt.

To make the pizza:

Preheat oven to 500 degrees.

Take a large ball of the dough (you should have enough dough for four pizzas) and spread it on a lightly greased baking pan.  Top the dough with sauce, then a layer of mozzarella.  Spread the vegetables over the mozzarella and break off little bits of the goat cheese and sprinkle it over all.  Bake for about 10 minutes until crust starts to brown, then using a spatula, slide the pizza from the pan directly onto the oven rack and bake another 5-8 minutes or just until the pizza is bubbly and the bottom is nice and brown.  

psst...

recently I had the opportunity to talk about meatless meals on our local news.  If you want to check out the video, you can go here...http://whotv.com/2012/03/05/meatless-meals-families-save-cash-on-meals/