Homemade Heaven

So the other night Dave and I attempted to make a pizza completely from scratch for the first time...now we've made pizza before but never with homemade dough and sauce. Delicious doesn't even begin to describe how good it turned out! We will definitely be doing this again soon. I had some people ask for the recipe so here it is...

Ingredients:
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 package active dry yeast or instant yeast
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup hot tap water (120 - 125°F)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil (canola or olive oil work well too)
1 tablespoon honey

Description: Some people prefer to "pre-bake" the crust for about 3 minutes before adding the toppings. (We accidentally pre-baked ours a bit by having it on top of the hot oven while we finished other things- turned out great this way) Crust will be "crispier" than if not pre-baked.

Directions: Preheat oven to 425°F

In large mixing bowl, combine whole wheat flour, yeast and salt. Blend in water, oil and honey. Stir by hand vigorously until all ingredients are well mixed; about 3 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise to desired size.

Place dough in greased pan. Press dough to cover bottom of pan and up sides to form a rim (to have more of a crust, we opted to do more of a thin crust, dominoes style pizza, so we just rolled ours out really flat)

Add pizza sauce of your choice and your favorite pizza toppings; bake in oven 15 to 20 minutes or until crust is golden brown and toppings are done.
Servings: Provides 8 servings

Nutrition: One slice of crust only provides approximately: 146 calories, 5 g protein, 27 g carbohydrates, 4 g fiber, 2 g fat (0 g saturated), 0 mg cholesterol, 37 mcg folate, 2 mg iron and 219 mg sodium.

Source: Wheat Foods Council

For the sauce we used a 29oz can of tomato paste...makes a TON of sauce, but we loved it because now we have tomato soup :) Or you could always freeze it to save for next time you decide to make pizza! Here are the herbs/spices we used, but make it your own...we like things spicy so ours might be too hot for you if you don't care for spicy things...just play with it and make sure to taste as you go!

Ingredients:
29oz tomato paste
Half can water
Honey (2tbsp)
Pepper
Red pepper
cayenne pepper
Bay leaves
Italian seasoning
Garlic salt
Minced garlic
Parsley
Majoram

Like it says you can add whatever toppings, but in case your wondering...we added green peppers, onions, a mix of Italian and Mexican cheese, and cucumbers on top...I know what you're thinking, CUCUMBERS ON A PIZZA?! But hey, don't knock it 'till you try it, it was delish!

We also made margaritas in our new Ninja we got for Christmas (thanks Dad!) We just followed Bethenny's SkinnyGirl Margarita recipe in the book Naturally Thin (you can also find it on her website www.bethenny.com) Dave made these and they are so much better than pre-made margarita mix, those are way too sugary for me! He just cut out the inside of the limes and put them in the Ninja, along with the tequila, triple sec, ice, and some water (without the water ours was too limey)

Hope you all enjoy it! ~Mal