Pizza Night!

I love pizza, it's one of my favorite foods. After moving to Colorado, we tried to find a great local pizza shop. After trying half a dozen places we still haven't found a place that checks all the boxes.
- Great crust
- Reasonable price
- Fast delivery
- Yummy Toppings

A few years ago I bought a cast iron pizza pan that lives in my oven ready to make bread and crisp pizza crusts. The great thing about making your pizza is you can customize it for your family. Does everybody love thin crust? Make it as thin as you want! Lots of toppings? Load them on.

Homemade pizza can easily be transformed into calzones too, but let's save that for another day.

This pizza is our meatless meal of the week. When I pick our meatless meal, I look for something with lots of flavors and textures so that the meat lover in my house wont be left unsatisfied.

I like to make my own whole wheat pizza dough but most supermarkets carry dough in the freezer section so if you don't have time feel free to pick that up instead. Whenever I make pizza dough I double the recipe, one for this week that I put in the fridge and one for another time that I put in the freezer.

I make the dough over the weekend and then let the dough sit in the fridge until I'm ready to use it. Dough that has been in the fridge for a few days has a better flavor and texture than whole wheat dough that you've just made. When you get home from work just take it out of the fridge and let it warm up on the counter so it will be easier to roll.

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough recipe slightly adapted from KitchenMinions

Ingredients for 2 pizzas
- 2 packets active dry yeast
- 3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 1/2 cup warm water
- 1 teaspoonful salt
- 1 tablespoonful brown sugar
- 1/2 tablespoonful olive oil

1.) Stir together the yeast, sugar and 1/2 cup warm water in a large stand mixer bowl fitted with a dough hook and let sit for about 5 minutes until the mixture is puffy and smells yeasty
2.) Add all but 1/2 cup of the flour, the remaining water, salt and oil into the bowl and turn the mixer onto medium
3.) Knead the dough until it forms a ball, adding flour as needed. The dough should be slightly tacky but not so sticky it cannot be handled
4.) Form the dough into a ball and place in a greased bowl
5.) Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise for about 90 minutes
6.) Divide the dough into 2 balls and store in the refrigerator if being used in 1 week or freezer for later use


Portobello Mushroom and Goat Cheese Pizza

Ingredients
- 1 ball of whole wheat dough
- 1 cup tomato sauce
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1-2 oz goat cheese
- 1 large portobello mushroom, gills and stem removed, sliced about 1/4"
- 2 cloves of garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste

1.) Preheat your oven to 500 for at least 20 minutes with your pizza pan on the middle rack
2.) Heat up the oil in a pan then add the mushroom, saute until tender and golden
3.) Add the garlic, salt and pepper and saute for about 1 minute more, transfer onto a plate
4.) Roll out the pizza dough onto floured parchment paper
5.) Spread the sauce on the pizza followed by the cheeses and top with the mushroom
6.) Quickly put the pizza on the pizza pan and cook for about 10 minutes until the dough is cooked and the cheese is all melty
7.) Let the pizza cool for a couple of minutes then dig in!