Black Bean Nacho Pizza

 Do you ever have one of those days where you want something different but familiar at the same time? Well that's where this came from. I wanted to make pizza but didn't want to make the typical tomato sauce, mozarella pizza that we have every time. I wanted something different and this definitely hit the mark.

I was searching online for fun pizza ideas when I came across this one over at Eating Well. I liked that not only did I have everything on hand to make it but it wasn't a huge process to make either. I used to love cooking at our last house but here, not so much. The kitchen is so tiny. Half of my kitchen gadgets are in a tote box out in the garage because I could only fit the essentials in the cabinets. Not to mention that their food selection is very limited let alone, not the most fresh produce/seafood. But then again, what do you except when you're living on top of a mountain in the middle of the desert with one road that connects you to civilization. So needless to say, when it comes to cooking, I try to stick with basic ingredients and easy recipes.

This was a fun pizza to make. I wouldn't say that it tasted like nachos but it defintiely had that feel to it. It was a great variation to the usual pizza toppings and was perfect for what I was looking for. Just like any pizza, you can mix it up and add/remove any nacho toppings you'd like. This will definitely be a pizza I will be making again.

• 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons lukewarm water (105-115°F)
• 1 package active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup whole-wheat flour
• 1 cup bread flour or all-purpose flour, plus additional for dusting
• 2 tablespoons yellow cornmeal

Topping

• 1 cup canned black beans, rinsed
• 1/2 cup chopped jarred roasted red peppers
• 1 medium clove garlic, quartered
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Yellow cornmeal, for dusting
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/4 c. salsa
• 1/2 medium onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped pitted ripe black olives
• 4 tablespoons chopped pickled jalapeños

1. To prepare dough: Stir water, yeast, sugar and salt in a large bowl; let stand until the yeast has dissolved, about 5 minutes. Stir in whole-wheat flour, bread flour (or all-purpose flour) and cornmeal until the dough begins to come together.
2. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. (Alternatively, mix the dough in a food processor. Process until it forms a ball, then process for 1 minute to knead.)
3. Place the dough in an oiled bowl and turn to coat. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and set aside in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
4. When you’re ready to make your pizza, preheat oven to 450°F. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Dust the top with flour; dimple with your fingertips to shape into a thick, flattened circle—don’t worry if it’s not perfectly symmetrical. Then use a rolling pin to roll into a circle about 14 inches in diameter and place on pizza/baking sheet. Bake the crust for 10 minutes.
5. To prepare topping & assemble pizza: Place beans, peppers, garlic, chili powder and salt in a food processor and process until smooth, scraping down the sides as needed.
6. Spread the bean mixture over the pizza dough like a sauce. Spread the salsa on top and then assemble your pizza with the rest of the toppings. 
7. Bake pizza for 15 minutes.

Spinach Pizza Dough

I have a new addiction and that is Pinterest. I love the visual you get with the pictures, you can find a ton of recipes on there and you can create your own categories. So much better than the "favorites" section on my web browser. So now I do most of my recipe browsing on pinterst. Which just so happens to be where I found this beauty. I mean, come on, spinach pizza crust? What a marvelous idea! Usually I try to justify eating half of a pizza pie by the fact that is has calcium with the cheese, nutrients from all of the veggies I load on top and antioxidants from the tomato sauce. Now I can add spinach crust the list!



Now all things on pinterest come from somewhere and this recipe comes from Jane's blog Get Healthy, Feel Awesome! I am so glad that I found this recipe because I absolutely love it. It's just like making normal pizza dough but with the added benefit of the spinach. Plus my favorite color and even though some foods that are green (like ketchup, YUCK!) freak me out, something about my pizza crust being green thrills me. Now if I said this out loud with the Mr. around he would look at me and give me the infamous "look" like I just said something stupid. He hates it when I describe food as earthy or fun. To him, food is only fun if it's being thrown at someone in a food fight. Boys... pffft. :oP

• 3 cups white flour
• 2 ¼ tsp active dry yeast (equivalent to one packet)
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 TBSP sugar
• 1 (10 oz.) Package frozen spinach, thawed
• ¼ cup warm water
• 2 TBSP olive oil

1. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in ¼ cup warm water and let sit for five minutes or until foaming.
2. Using a blender or immersion blender, pulse the thawed spinach with juices until half-way pureed.
3. In a large mixing bowl, stir together flour, salt, and sugar.
4. Add pureed spinach and olive oil followed with the yeast/water mixture. Stir until fully incorporated and proceed to knead until mixture is elastic – about 10 minutes. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Cover dough and let sit for 20 minutes.
5. Roll dough out and top with pizza toppings of choice. Bake for 15-20 minutes in 400 degree oven.

This post is submitted in
Just Another Meatless Monday

Pizza Puffs

What's not to love about pizza? Pizza is so versatile that the sky's the limit when it comes to the different kinds of pizza that is out there, not to mention all the possibilities for toppings. There are dessert pizzas, meat lovers pizzas, veggie pizzas, pinwheels, calzones, thin crust, deep dish... like I said the sky's the limit. So it is no surprise that I found pizza puffs while looking up recipes over at Kate's blog. After reading the recipe and drooling over the pictures I checked to make sure I had everything on hand to make it and got to work.

Black Bean Chorizo Pizza

I am sure that you think I might have gone a little nuts with this one. The Mr. definitely thought that when I told him what was for dinner. I cannot take all the credit on this one though. One of my good friend's who is also a marine wife makes this black bean dish with essentially the same ingredients but she mashes it up and adds the cheese on top. Every time she makes it I gobble it up and usually go back and clean out her leftovers. Hey, what are friends for anyways? I am just doing my friendly duties to make sure that she never runs out of room in her refrigerator.

Parmesan Pizza

When I was a kid my grandmother would always pick me up from elementary school and watch me until my parents got off from work and picked me up. Every once in a while I would walk in the house and see pizza sitting in the kitchen waiting for me. Now when I say pizza it is not the DiGiorno or even regular homemade pizza, my grandmother had her own way of making pizza. She would roll the pizza dough out so thin you could almost see the pan through the dough, then she would add her homemade marinara sauce and instead of tons of toppings and mozzarella cheese she would top it with Parmesan. There was something about this very simple pizza that set it apart from all the others.

BBQ Chicken Pizza

I had my first BBQ chicken pizza when I was 16 years old. My friend and I walked into a pizzeria downtown and that was when I seen it. I am usually a strictly veggies kinda girl when it comes to pizza but I decided that this sounded too good to pass up on. It was love at first bite! Warm water and a warm draft free area for the dough to rise is key. I preheat my oven to the lowest temperature the oven will go and shut it off before I am finished kneading the dough. I store my dough in the oven for the 45 minutes to rise, it works every time.


Dough recipe

• 1 1/4 c. warm water (105-115 degrees F)
• 1 envelope (.25 ounce) active dry yeast
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tsp. garlic salt
• 3 1/2 c. wheat flour
  
• 1 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 2 tsp. cornmeal

1. Place 1/4 c. water in a large bowl. Sprinkle yeast over water, stir in sugar. Let stand 5 minutes.
2. Add remaining water, oil, red pepper flakes and garlic salt. Stir in flour until dough pulls away from side of bowl.
3. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth, 8-10 minutes.
   
4. Coat the large bowl with cooking spray, place dough in bowl, turning over to grease the top of the dough. Cover loosely with plastic wrap. Let rise in warm place until almost double in size, about 45 minutes.
5. Preheat oven to 450. Punch down dough. Coat two 12 inch pizza pans with cooking spray, sprinkle pans with cornmeal. Divide dough in half. Roll dough to fit the pan, press dough against edge to form rim. Bake crust for 10 minutes.

Pizza Toppings

• 1 c. BBQ sauce
• 1 c. cooked chicken, cubed
  
• 1/2 c. pineapple, chopped
  
• 1 small green bell pepper, chopped
  
• 1 small onion, sliced
  
• 1/2 c. feta cheese
• 1/2 c. mozzarella cheese

1. When the 10 minutes are up top the crust with BBQ sauce. Add the rest of the toppings and sprinkle with feta and mozzarella cheese. Bake until the cheese it melted, 15-20 minutes.