Do our plans get in the way of our lives? Or, do our lives get in the way of our plans? Either way you look at it, we humans get overly busy from time to time. That I'm sure we can all agree upon. Being busy makes me hungry! Less time to cook, less time to eat, increased likelihood of jamming 4 doughnuts/tacos/grande cappuccinos into my face in a hurried mess. Don't do that, though, it's not good for your sanity or your blood pressure.
My favorite bloggers are those who are most honest and transparent about life's ups and downs. It's easy to speak to the 'ups' although the 'downs' are where I'm able to truly relate to people as actual human beings, know what I mean?
That all being said, I vowed to make a different meat free meal every Friday, right? Sounds fun! Except when it's Friday and my colleagues want to go to happy hour and my husband is at the gym. Then, on the way home, we stop to pick something up from a friend. We run in the house, quickly, to retrieve the borrowed item. We get to meet her Mom, and her brother, and the dog! 45 minutes later we're on the way home to relax... NO, we need to make that meat-less meal! Luckily I'd planned something quite simple. Tomato Pesto Pizza is our 4th Dinner During Lent recipe and it's the easiest yet.
Here's the other thing about being busy and hungry while trying to take photos - you're not patient and just want to eat!
Speaking of that transparency of good bloggers and storytellers... Keeping the camera around while eating is a good idea for a food blogger. That is, until your husband picks it up!
He's hilarious, isn't he? This is real life for you, right here. Often times people tell me they just can't get into cooking. It's my happy place and 99% of the time this is how I look - hair pulled up and PJs on, no jewelry.
After the photo shoot, the pizza was finally finished! One quick photo was taken before we demolished that pie!
Tomato Pesto Pizza
Makes 1 pizza, about 6 - 8 slices
Frozen pizza dough, thawed and rolled or stretched to a (semi) round shape
2 heirloom tomatoes, sliced
1 - 8 ounce can of tomato sauce
Pesto (our favorite store bought type is from Costco)
Mozzarella cheese
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F, or as instructed on the packaging for your dough. [If you have a pizza baking stone, preheat that with the oven.]
Roll / stretch the pizza dough to your desired shape.
Shred your mozzarella cheese (it's easier than you think and you'll never regret it!) and top the dough with tomato sauce, cheese, and tomatoes. [Now would be the time to remove the pizza stone carefully from the oven. Be careful, it's hot!]
Gently place the stretchy pizza onto a flat sheet pan or your [really hot!] pizza stone and pop it into the oven for 12 - 16 minutes, until the crust is golden brown.
Drizzle or drop the pesto on top and mangia!
I'd envisioned beautiful brushstrokes of pesto... that didn't turn out so artfully but it was delicious! The beautiful heirloom tomatoes are really the show stoppers.
We're almost to Easter and have just one more meat-free Friday to go!
* * *
Dinner During Lent
Part 1: Pierogies and Asparagus
Part 3: Shrimp and Black Bean Enchiladas
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