Mmmmmm... Pizza.

This isn't the pizza I made last night, but doesn't it look good? I think I could eat pizza every day! I'd rather make my own pizza than order one. I love to load my pizza down with toppings! I prefer veggie pizzas, but I'll occasionally put a little meat on one. Oh, and I always sprinkle a little extra cheese on top! (And I prebake my crust so it doesn't get soggy beneath all my piles of toppings.)

The pizza pictured above is on a homemade crust, topped with Great Value brand pizza sauce, shredded Colby and Monterey Jack cheeses, fresh mushrooms, black olives, a little onion, and some Canadian bacon. It was delicious!

Last night's pizza was topped with GV sauce, a blend of shredded Italian cheeses, fresh mushrooms, black olives, onion, and some slices of fresh jalapeno pepper.

Another favorite pizza is my Garden Veggie Pizza, which is topped with a mixture of olive oil, Italian seasoning, and garlic instead of a tomato-based sauce. I layer whatever blend of cheese I want along with slices of zuchinni, baby spinach leaves, fresh mushrooms, black olives, red onion, diced tomatoes, and chopped marinated artichoke hearts. (The one pictured below has white onion instead of red, and I was out of olives. Billy doesn't like tomatoes, so his half has extra artichoke hearts instead. Oh, and it's all topped with some fresh grated Parmesan cheese.)



A new pizza I made recently was a Mediterranean Hummus Pizza. It was good, but a little saltier than I like. Leftovers were good the next day, but not after that. The cucumbers and tomatoes got spongy and the crust was a little soggy. Ugh!

The crust I make is pretty filling. Billy and I can now eat only half of a 15-inch pizza. The boys typically eat a little less than half of their 13-inch pizza, but they must have been starving last night. They ate 3/4 of it! I'll let them have their last two pieces for lunch today and make them some mac & cheese tonight. Billy and I will enjoy our other half tonight while we watch Survivor.

I've eaten BBQ chicken pizza before, and it was really good, but I haven't ventured to make one yet. I'm not sure the boys would like it, but since I always make two pizzas anyway, I could make them their standard - pizza sauce, cheese, mushrooms, and black olives.

I'm not a big fan of Alfredo sauce, but the few pizzas I've had with it have been really good. I may try to make a white pizza one of these days.

Other varieties I'd like to make: Tuscan chicken, Hawaiian (pineapple and ham), and Thai (peanut sauce instead of tomato).

What pizza flavors do you recommend?

Menu Plan Monday #4

Well, last week's craziness affected my menu plan. I had to take the van in Monday to see what was causing my "check engine" light to stay on. We spent the morning homeschooling there in the waiting area. When they finally finished getting that figured out and changing my oil, I found out they would have to order a part and I would have to come back in Wednesday afternoon to get it put on. That, and being tired from everything else we'd been doing, put off my grocery trip a few days, which threw off my menu.

On a more fun note, even though I veered from the menu plan again, the boys and I spent about 2 1/2 hours at the arboretum Friday afternoon. It was so much fun! I think we're definitely going to have to buy a membership for there so we can go more often - just like we do the zoo. I'll try to post some pictures from there before too much longer.

So with all the changes to last week's plan, this week's is a little off-kilter from what I had planned earlier on. (I plan for a month at a time.)

Monday: - leftover Baked Potato Soup and Tomato Basil bread from Panera (We have a class at church tonight.)

Tuesday: - Totino's pizza (Billy's class night)

Wednesday: - Homemade Pizza (I know, the boys and I will have just had pizza the night before. I love pizza and can eat it any time!)

Thursday: - leftover pizza

Friday: - Taco Soup

Saturday: - ?? (Our small group from church is coming over for our monthly gathering. This month we're hosting a missionary team from our church who will be going to Budapest with Campus Crusade next year. After everyone signs up for something to bring for dinner to go with Jane's roast and gravy, I'll make what's missing.)

Sunday: - leftover soup (Fall Festival night at church; I need to make sure the boys eat before they go or they'll be eating too much candy on an empty stomach. I'd rather them have homemade soup than the hot dogs they'll have on hand there. Caleb and I don't like hot dogs anyway...)

Looks to be an easy week for cooking. It's still going to be a busy week, but not as busy as last week. Maybe the week after that things will slow down a bit. Once the holidays get here, things don't seem to slow down until mid-March. I'd like a little time to rest before all that gets started.

Check out more menu plans at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

The City

I couldn't decide on just one photo for today's Photo Friday challenge, so I'm posting three of my favorites. All of these were taken on our Dallas on the DART Rail trip, same as last week's photo.

On the way to catch the train to Reunion Tower:


A familiar view of the Dallas skyline:


One of my favorite buildings downtown:

Menu Plan Monday #3

I'm a day late, but this is a crazy week. In fact, the boys and I are so tired from being so busy that I'm skipping my team meeting tonight so we can stay home and rest!

Here's this week's menu:

Monday: - sandwiches (I had a show last night: Garden Veggie Pizza and Chocolate Trifle!)

Tuesday: - Totino's pizza or sandwiches

Wednesday: - Baked Potato Soup and some good crusty bread from Panera

Thursday: - leftover soup and bread

Friday: - homemade pizza - probably with fresh mushrooms, black olives, and onion

Saturday: - leftover pizza or pick up something (I have a show: Hot & Spicy Artichoke Dip and Chocolate Trifle!)

Sunday: - Chicken Enchiladas - Our church is kicking off its annual Missions Conference with an International Missions Dinner. Our Sunday school class is hosting two tables with international foods: Mexican and German. I signed up to make chicken enchiladas, and I don't really know when I'm going to have the time to make them. When I signed up, I didn't have my planner handy to check the date and didn't realize it was for this weekend. Oh, well. I'll get them ready Saturday and have Billy stick them in the oven to bring with him when he comes Sunday evening.

Next week looks to be a little slower so I'll have a better menu...

Check out some other meal plans at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Real Life

For Mother's Day, I got a new digital camera, which I absolutely love. I've always enjoyed taking pictures and learned a lot about using a photograph to tell a story in a college photojournalism class. Now I need to put those two together and see what I can come up with.

I'd like to start participating in Photo Friday, but after seeing a lot of the photos posted through it, I feel very inadequate. Still, it's a great challenge - not just to find a picture that fits that week's theme, but to start looking for the picturesque details in every day moments.

This week's theme: Real Life.


I took this in August, just a few weeks after this local gas plant exploded. I took it from atop Reunion Tower, at full zoom. I don't remember if this shot was through a piece of plexiglass or if I managed to find an opening between pieces.

It's a Keeper!

Last night's Apple-Maple Turkey Sausage Breakfast Sammies were pretty good, and I even had to improvise:

I had a medium Gala apple instead of a small Macintosh.

The lid of my pure maple syrup was stuck shut, and it had sugared in the bottle. (I don't know how old it was.) I substituted regular pancake syrup.

I thought I had plain old poultry seasoning but I didn't, so I used Old Bay Seasoning instead.

I had bought regular-sized English muffins instead of jumbos, which was fine because they were very filling. Billy took the last one for breakfast this morning.

My recipe printout was folded before the end of the ingredient list, so I forgot I needed eggs for scrambling. Luckily I had 4 in the 'fridge (instead of the 8 the recipe called for). Jacob eats two scrambled eggs by themselves, so we split it all the best we could.

Caleb doesn't like sausage, but he loved this. Jacob, on the other hand, loves sausage, but wouldn't even try it. (I think he was turned off from it when he saw me mixing it all up in the bowl.)

Maybe next time I'll read everything - and check my ingredients - more closely. I bet it "really" tastes even better than what I came up with!

Oh, and I found a good combination for a grilled cheese sandwich tonight: sharp cheddar and pepper jack on Mrs. Baird's "Harvest Selects Honey 7 Grain Recipe" bread. Mmmmm. The boys had a Totino's 3 Meat Pizza. Not quite as good as my sandwich, though... :o)