Pizza Pizzazz

Healthy Hump Day Recipe

My little brother came over to hang out the other day. He is currently in college about 45 minutes away from where we live, so we try to see each other as often as our schedules allow. He is a vegetarian, so we have to get creative in what to make for dinner. The craving was pizza, and after a long day, ordering in seemed really appealing... UNTIL I remembered what delicious homemade pizza dough our bread machine can make! As delicious as those take-out pizzas are, they are the furthest thing from healthy. With the help of a bread machine, making your very own personalized homemade pizza is so easy to make, especially considering that the ingredients are fairly common items that you probably already have in your pantry and refrigerator. We had 1 marinara sauce pizza and 1 barbecue sauce pizza with which Seth's Famous BBQ sauce got to star in again. It was the perfectly fun end to a great day!

Jared's Pizza

Ingredients
(Pizza Dough)
-1 1/3 cup warm water at about 80-90 degrees
-1 tsp honey
-2 tsp salt
-2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
-3 cups bread flour
-1 cup whole wheat flour
- 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
(Pizza)
-2 tbsp flour
-4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, divided
-1 tbsp garlic salt, divided
-1 cup chopped onion, divided
-1 cup marinara sauce
-1 cup barbecue sauce
-2 cups chopped spinach, divided
-2 cup park-skim shredded mozzarella cheese, divided

Directions
1. Prepare pizza dough using a bread machine's specific instructions. Mine had me put all of the above ingredients under "Pizza Dough" into the bread machine in the order listed, select the "Dough" cycle, "Large" loaf size, and push "Start".
2. Once the dough is done, remove from the bread machine and split in half. Roll out each half until at your desired crust shape and width.
3. Lightly dust flour on 2 cookie trays and lay 1/2 of the pizza dough out on one and 1/2 on the other.
4. Drizzle oil onto each pizza dough and brush evenly over entire pieces of dough.
5. Sprinkle the secret ingredient, garlic salt, over the doughs.
6. Spread marinara sauce onto one dough and barbecue sauce onto other.
7. Saute onion in a pan until crispiness is gone. Then sprinkle evenly over each dough.
8. Sprinkle spinach evenly over each dough.
9. Sprinkle cheese evenly over each dough.
10. Bake in preheated oven. The temperature times can drastically vary. I prefer a medium-crust pizza that doesn't turn out too crispy, so I baked mine at 425 degrees for 20 minutes. For a thicker crust, bake at about 450 degrees for about 30 minutes. If you prefer a crispy crust, bake for longer under close observation so as not to burn the pizza.

*If you do not have a bread machine, grocery stores sell ready-to-bake pizza dough!
*Experiment with your favorite sauces and toppings to make it more personalized!
*Makes a great appetizer flatbread or meal
*By using both bread flour and wheat flour, you're getting that extra bit of whole wheat healthiness that your body will love!