Pizza!!

As the start of a new school year has whittled away at my free time (hence my lack of posts), I've been forced to face the fact that summer days spent in the garden and kitchen are gone. Instead, I've been trying to come up with some quick, healthy options for dinner. The garden is still providing us with more food than we can eat (see photos below) so I also want to make sure I'm putting our veggies to good use.

Since I still have lots of peppers, tomatoes, and basil growing, I've been making a lot of pizza. To save time, I just use a pre-made whole wheat crust and pile on the toppings.  I like the refrigerated dough in the bag from Trader Joe's, but there are tons of options available.  I don't like a lot of sauce, so I usually just brush the dough with olive oil.  Then I slather on a layer of ricotta with dried basil, oregano, garlic, and salt and pepper mixed in.

After this, the possibilities are pretty much endless.  Below are some of my favorite toppings: basil, bacon, tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and roasted red peppers.  I usually cook and chop the bacon and roast and slice the peppers ahead of time to make things even faster after a long day of work and graduate school.

Once you get all the toppings on, it's just a matter of waiting until the cheese is bubbly and starting to brown.  Pictured below are a tomato, basil, mozzarella and bacon pizza (left) and a roasted red pepper and goat cheese pizza (right) I recently made during the week in less than 20 minutes.

Just slice, serve, and avoid those feelings of guilt that come with not using up your end of summer veggies!