Chicken and Veggie TJ's Pizza

Trader Joe’s – home of the amazing fresh garlic & herb pizza dough.  I love making homemade pizzas.  I like the fact that I can put all of the toppings on the pizza that I want, make them healthier, and save A LOT of money.  Not to mention, you can eat it hot and right out of the oven when the cheese is still melty and gooey.  Ahhh…bliss! 

Trader Joe’s is featuring the “Out of this World Pizza Edition” of their Fearless Flyer right now.  When it arrived in my mailbox I had to run (not walk) to my neighborhood TJs and pick up all of my favorite pizza toppings.  For this pizza, I chose chicken, marinated artichokes, sundried tomatoes, leafy greens, and red onion.  Totally healthy (well, as healthy as pizza can get) and totally satisfying!  It was the perfect meal to a perfect day of March Madness.

Ingredients:

Garlic & herb pizza dough

Pizza sauce

Sundried tomatoes (julienne cut in olive oil), chopped

Marinated artichokes, chopped

Leafy greens, chopped

Red onion, chopped

Grilled chicken breast or rotisserie chicken, chopped

Mozzarella cheese

Black pepper

Italian seasoning

Here’s are some helpful notes about these ingredients:

1.     My favorite pizza dough at TJs is the garlic & herb.  However, you can easily substitute their plain or whole wheat pizza dough.  Yes, they’re all fresh and in the same section.

2.     TJs has cooked, grilled chicken breast ready and waiting for you to just warm up.  How awesome is that?  You can use it for anything in a pinch!

3.     Leafy greens.  I picked up a powerful organic leafy greens mixture from TJs this time to use for the pizza.  It contains baby kale, baby chard, and baby spinach.  You can use just baby spinach if you want but why not add all of the wonderful nutrients with the kale and chard???  You won’t be disappointed!

The beauty of making a homemade pizza is you can choose how much of everything you want and pile it on.  Therefore, I’m NOT going to tell you how much of each ingredient to use here.  That right – if you want more leafy greens then GO FOR IT!  If you want less onion then by all means, put as little as you like!  The whole idea behind making homemade pizza is to personalize it J.

Some things I would recommend are to squeeze out some of the oil from the sundried tomatoes before putting on the pizza.  Also, pile on the leafy greens – they shrink a lot.  Lastly, place all ingredients and then put cheese on top.  I noticed that some of the ingredients might char or dry out if you don’t put cheese over it.  For the finishing touches, sprinkle some black pepper and Italian seasoning on the cheese for a little added spice.

The Final Four is this weekend…I know what I’ll be eating!

Pizza... and Bread Sticks

While in college, studying some lovely Art History, my friend and I were asked by another student who was conducting some survey what our favorite food was. We both looked incredibly sheepish, wishing we had exciting answers. She said doughnuts. I said pizza. No lobster bisque. No fois gras. Doughnuts. Pizza. This same friend and I made a 4am doughnut run in San Francisco and bought fresh, warm doughnuts with change from my car seats. When I've had a rough day at work (or a great day at work!) we make pizza. I could eat pizza everyday, forever.

Pizza Dough - from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (GREAT book!!)

Makes 2 large pizzas, or 1 pizza and bread sticks

Preheat oven to 425

3 teaspoons yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups white flour
2 cups whole wheat flour (you can use all white flour, or just a bit of whole wheat, but the dough is tough if you use all whole wheat.)
tiny bit of cornmeal


In a large bowl, add yeast, warm water, oil and salt. Mix the flours together and knead them into the liquid mixture - by hand or with a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. Let the dough rise for 30-40 minutes.

Divide dough in two, and generously flour a rolling surface. Roll out one pizza crust at a time. Try to get it pretty thin. Transfer the crust to a pizza stone or a rimmed baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal (I've used dry polenta in a pinch and baking spray in a super-pinch. Cornmeal is what works best for me.) 

Decorate your pizza with whatever sounds good to you, and bake for 15-20 minutes. I like to turn on the low broiler flame for the last 2 minutes of baking to really crisp up the edges.

Toppings... go nuts! For this pizza we used:
1/4 cup jarred marinara sauce
6 oz of fresh mozzarella
1/4 pound cooked spicy Italian sausage
2 chopped roma tomatoes
2 tablespoons slivered red onion
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
Dried oregano
Olive oil
Sprinkling of Parmesan cheese  

Other good toppings:
Pesto, cooked chicken, cherry tomatoes, mozzarella
Marinara, zucchini, cooked eggplant, mozzarella, Parmesan
BBQ Sauce, cooked chicken, cilantro, red onion, Monterrey jack cheese 
Marinara, tomatoes, feta cheese, green olives, red onion, salami
Marinara, artichoke hearts, black olives, mushrooms, feta cheese, Parmesan


With the second half of the dough, you can, of course, make a second pizza, or you can roll it out, slice it into thin strips and make bread sticks.

I rolled out the dough, drizzled olive oil all over it, sprinkled it with garlic salt and the last tiny bit of Parmesan cheese, twisted them up and baked them on a cornmeal dusted baking sheet while the pizza cooked. I hope you enjoy some delicious, homemade pizza that takes just a bit longer than delivery. 

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