Grilled Pizza

 Who doesn't love pizza?!?!  And being able to toast it to perfection without heating up the kitchen is a bonus. 

I try to always have a few balls of PW's Pizza Dough on hand in my freezer.  They thaw in 15 - 20 minutes and are delicious. 

My take on PW's Pizza Dough (makes 2 large or 4 individual pizzas):

• 1 teaspoon Active Dry Or Instant Yeast

• 2 1/2 cups All-purpose Flour

• 1 1/2 cups Whole Wheat Flour

• 1 teaspoon Kosher Salt

• ⅓ cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

TO MAKE THE CRUST:

Sprinkle yeast over 1 1/2 cups warm (not lukewarm) water.

In a mixer, combine flour and salt. With the mixer running on low speed (with paddle attachment), drizzle in olive oil until combined with flour. Next, pour in yeast/water mixture and mix until just combined.

Coat a separate mixing bowl with a light drizzle of olive oil, and form the dough into a ball. Toss to coat dough in olive oil, then cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and store in the fridge (or freezer) until you need it.

It’s best to make the dough at least 24 hours in advance, and 3 or 4 days is even better.

The Hubs rolled out the dough for us.  We decided that since our tastes differ wildly, two personal pizzas would be better than sharing one large pizza.  (Oh, and this would be a good time to pre-heat the grill; medium to med-high is best)

Here is where you get clean out your fridge and use those leftovers hiding way in the back.  Dig around a little bit... the deli and veggie drawers will be key! 

And who says you have to use red sauce for a pizza?  Although it's the Hubs' favorite, I never use it. 

Pesto is my favorite.

Be creative.  Each pizza should be a reflection of its maker...

R's Unbaked Pizza

My Unbaked Pizza

You can either cook them on the cookie sheets or directly on the grill, both methods work really well.  After the first 7 or so minutes, rotate the pizzas 180 degrees and cook about 5 more minutes.  Your nose will know when the pizzas are ready, and also when you put the spatula under the pizza it will feel crispy, even in the middle.

R's Grilled Pizza

My Grilled Pizza

After taking them off the grill, let them sit 3 - 5 minutes before enjoying!

Easy Weeknight Dinner

Every Wednesday after work I follow the same routine  - get a snack, fix myself something to drink and check out the weekly food ads.  I am a frugal shopper, but refuse to sacrifice quality or deprive myself of good food, so the food ads are very important to me. 

I stock up on pork tenderloins whenever the price goes below $3/lb.  I love pork tenderloins because they are so versatile and so dang easy to prepare.  All it takes is a good meat thermometer and you're golden. 

My sister got me this one for Christmas 2 years ago and it changed my world. 

One of my favorite weeknight "Go-To Meals" is Raspberry Chipotle Pork Tenderloin.

It's super easy and utilizes several already prepared ingredients. 

Preheat oven to 375 F

After trimming the excess fat and silver skin off of the tenderloins,  season them with whatever spice rub you have on hand.  (Tonight I used Adams Reserve Peppercorn & Garlic Sean-n-Crust, but good old salt and pepper works beautifully too.) 

 I keep several of these in my cabinet at all times and use them on almost everything. 

Heat 1 T of olive oil and 1 T of butter in a skillet or fry pan.  Sear the tenderloins on each side for several minutes, forming a nice 'crust'.  Put them in a roasting pan, pop them in the oven for about 22 - 25 minutes (internal temp should register 140 when you remove them from the oven). 

As soon as you remove them from the oven you'll want to pour a little bit of Raspberry Chipotle Sauce over the tenderloins and tent them with foil.  They need to rest about 10 minutes before carving.

I think everyone and their brother makes a version of this sauce now. 

This just happens to be the one I had in the fridge. 

While the pork is resting, you have plenty of time to do side dishes.  I usually do some sort of whole wheat couscous and a green veggie. 

I love couscous for two reasons:

1. the liquid to couscous ratio is 1:1 *I can never remember what the ratio is for rice*
2. it cooks in 5 minutes 

Tonight's side dishes were Walnut Parmesan Couscous and Walnut Garlic Green Beans. 

For both dishes I toasted the walnuts lightly ahead of time and then later cooked them a little more in some butter and garlic... mmmmm.

From start to finish this dinner takes no more than 35 minutes and most of that is "hands-off" time.  Fresh, tasty food with minimal effort - now that's what I'm talking about.

Advertising...

I will begin this post by reiterating the fact that it always pays to have a plan. 

Each weekend I spend a little time with the food ads, my coupons and cookbooks planning the week's menu.  This allows me to make the most of my grocery shopping trips and save a ton of money.  Last Christmas my mom bought me the cutest perforated notepad  - it's a menu planner on the left and a grocery list on the right.  A true life-saver.  I use the heck out of the thing. 

Anyway, the plan for tonight was to have Hlellem again since we enjoyed it so much last time.  However, just like last time, I forgot to soak the beans while I was at work.  <*groan*>  As frustrating as it was, all was not lost.  I just scanned down the week's menu and decided to make Wednesday's meal instead: Rachel Ray's Shrimp Puttanesca.  It's super easy to make and amazingly tasty.  Again, another "Go-To Meal" for me.

To make the meal you need: pasta (penne works best, but I used farfalle tonight), anchovy filets (do NOT even think about leaving these out!), garlic (lots of garlic), red pepper flakes, olive oil, olives, capers, crushed tomatoes, shrimp and parsely.  These ingredients are all very strong, so it packs HUGE flavor punch.  Not sure I would make this for a first date. 

Anchovies before they melt down and garlic before it softens

The aroma at this point is heavenly... gotta loves those anchovies

Tomatoes, olives, capers and shrimp have been added.  Time to cover and cook.

The finished product 

Total time for the dish, start to finish, is about 20 minutes.  Can't be beat!

Oh, one more thing I forgot to mention about this dish.  Puttanesca sauces are historically linked to prostitutes.  The ladies would place the pots in their window sills and use the aromas to lure sailors to their place of business.  While I am not advocating prostitution, you have to admit, it's a pretty good marketing strategy...