Thursday Eats - Pizza Bones!

• Oreo's Mom - Healthy Eating Blog

posted a picture of a pizza on a romantic Valentine's evening out with her husband at the pizza place they had their first date (and congratulations on the two pounds recently lost)

I had a SERIOUS hankering for pizza after that. But I really didn't want to go out in the cold wind to the store, and I didn't want to clear and re-salt the steps for a delivery guy where snow melted today and then re-froze. Besides Abby could use a treat.  Her Dad's only been home one night this week between business trips and she misses him. (She sleeps by our bed which she never does when he is home, guarding me).

So I made a pizza we'd both like, not super heavy on sauce and cheese, some tasty toppings but not too heavy on them, and a dough that's slightly chewy but soft in the middle, baked long enough the cheese welds to the crust without burning.

Making your own pizza dough isn't as hard as you think, and you can control the quality of the ingredients and the amount of sodium.  So why not make my own and then top with lower sodium toppings from the deli. I love deep dish, but didn't want all the extra calories so I made traditional crust (not thick, not thin)

Easy as "Not Pie!" -Dough (makes two 12 inch pizzas)

2 cups warm water
1 tablespoon yeast (not rapid rise)
1 tablespoon sea salt
2 and 1/2 cups flour divided
4 Tablespoons olive oil

Mix water and yeast and let it sit 4-5 minutes so it foams up.

Add yeast to 1/2 of the flour and mix in your mixer with a dough hook.  Add the remaining flour and salt and knead by hand (or with hook) until smooth.

Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit for 30 minutes.  Have a glass of wine.  Think pizza thoughts.

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Pour 2 Tablespoons of oil per pizza stone (or baking pan) and spread to coat evenly.

After the 30 minutes are up, divide the dough in half, adding a few Tablespoons of flour to keep it from being too sticky, and pat out on oiled pizza stone (or pan) until an even thickness.

Top with a thin layer of marinara or pizza sauce, leaving an inch uncovered around the edge, adding toppings of your choice (I used a reduced sodium ham and pineapple) and 2-3 cups cheese per pizza,

Bake 18-20 minutes (Note this pizza and the sauce had NO Garlic - Garlic is VERY toxic to dogs).   So do not give your dog pizza crusts or crusts with sauce infused with garlic, they could get very ill, depending on the amount of garlic and their body weight. I did sprinkle a tiny bit of rosemary on it before baking, in place of my usual garlic.

Oh boy Pizza Bones!