have I ever mentioned...

...that my Mama is the best cook in the world? 

It's true.

Growing up, one of my favorite things that she made was pizza.  Not the out-of-the-box stuff.  I'm talking about real, homemade pizza.  I'd mentioned a few weeks ago that we hadn't had it a while and guess what?  She made some today!

Warning: the following is a recipe for an extremely thin and crunchy crust!  This makes two pizzas.

Mama's Pizza Crust

2 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour

(If you can grind your own, that's even better!)

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon dry yeast

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup warm water (120-130 degrees)

2 tablespoons of oil

Sift 2 cups of flour with other dry ingredients together with a mixer wand.  Add water and oil - mix well.  Add remaining flour as needed to make a soft dough.  Knead a few minutes.  Let rest for 5 minutes.  Roll  out on a floured surface and then place on an oiled pizza pan.

Bake in a 500 degree oven for 5-10 minutes (until lightly brown).

We've been putting flax seed in everything lately.  It's a great source of fiber and it also reduces the risk of heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes.  Just grind it up (we use a coffee grinder) and put it in with the other ingredients.  With breads, like this recipe, just take out a portion of the whole wheat flour and replace it with the flax seed flour.

After you're finished baking the crust, it's time for the toppings!  We use our special spaghetti sauce.  This time we added just a little bit of Rotel to the sauce for a hint of spiciness.  It was really good!

And of course, what pizza would be complete without a ridiculous amount of cheese?

Mozzarella, Cheddar, and a bit of leftover Pepper Jack.

Mmmm!  We love our cheese!

Pop it back in the oven until all of the cheese melts and then you have...



...melty, cheesy, yumminess!

Now, at our house, we can't have pizza without a salad.  That would be serving chili without small peanut butter sandwiches on the side (or is that something that only we do? ;).

I recently found this amazing salad dressing.  The original was ok, but after a little tweaking, we managed to make it even better!

 Salad Dressing

1 cup of olive oil
1/4 cup of lemon juice
1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar
1 tsp of parsley
2 tsp of oregano
1 tsp of dill weed
3 tsp of basil
1 tsp of dry mustard
1/2 tsp garlic powder

This is my new favorite!  It goes wonderful on a salad with sunflower seeds.  The seeds really bring out the nutty flavor in the olive oil.


Enjoy!