Cold Veggie Ranch Pizza

This dish makes a perfect appetizer or even a light dinner/lunch. A girl that I work with makes this dish anytime we have a “food day” and I love it. She uses Pillsbury croissants for the crust and bottled ranch dressing but otherwise, my recipe is pretty much the same. Feel free to substitute the vegetables you like for the ones I’ve listed. My kids (and husband) love this plus it’s a good way to get the kiddos to eat their share of vegetables without too much fuss.

1 pizza crust dough (I made my own gluten free from a mix)

½ cup ranch dressing (You can use salad dressing, make your own or use those ranch “dip” mixes)
½ cup broccoli, finely chopped
½ cup carrots, finely chopped
¼ cup tomatoes, finely diced
½ cup romaine lettuce, finely chopped
¼ cup green onions, finely chopped
¼ cup shredded cheddar cheese (if desired or tolerated)

• Bake pizza crust according to package directions. If you are using croissants, just roll them out onto a baking sheet like a crust. You could also cut some time out and use a pre-made pizza crust. Let the pizza crust cool completely.
• Once cooled, spread the ranch dressing or dip over the pizza crust. Layer on the veggies as you wish. We don’t really care how pretty it is, we just threw everything together and put it on the crust.
• Sprinkle with cheese if you’d like and enjoy!

Italian Veggie Pizza

So tonight the weather was extremely rare. Typically at the end of July it is close to the 100°F mark and dry as a bone… However, last week it rained (significantly) everyday and this weekend has been wonderful – temps in the 80’s. Tonight it is about 73°F with a light rain. It makes me ready for fall. Also – “Shrek” is on TV so in honor of the lovely weather and one of our favorite movies, we decided to make Gingerbread Man Veggie Pizza and snuggle on the couch. My mother-in-law recently gave me a big gingerbread man cookie pan and I have had no use for it (obviously it is the middle of summer – no gingerbread cookies here). Anyway it worked perfect tonight.

1 GF pizza crust mix (homemade or bought – tonight we used Hodgson Mill’s packaged mix)

1 cup pizza/marinara/spaghetti sauce (we made our own – I’ll post later)
4- ¼” slices of egg plant, cut into small strips
3 oz sliced mushrooms (about 12-1/8” strips
¼ cup sliced zucchini
¼ cup diced onion
1 Tbsp olive oil
½  tsp parsley
½ tsp basil
1 cup shredded cheese (we used apple smoked Gruyere cheese)
Parmesan cheese

• Make pizza crust according to package instructions. Spread onto greased pizza pan or cookie sheet and let rise for about 20 minutes. Pre-bake for about 10 minutes.
• While crust is pre-baking, eggplant, mushrooms, zucchini, parsley and basil in the olive oil over medium heat for about 5 minutes (veggies will still be slightly crisp – this is what you want).
• Once crust is ready, add sauce and toppings. Sprinkle with shredded cheese and parmesan cheese evenly. Bake an additional 10 minutes or until crust is crisp and cheese is melted.
• NOTE: You can use other veggies if you’d like, but this is what we had on hand. Feel free to add in pepperoni or sausage, etc.
• NOTE: After filling up our gingerbread pan with pizza dough, we had about enough dough to make a 8 inch pizza. Otherwise, depending on the crust mix you have, this should make about 2 – 12 inch pizzas.