Margherita Pizza

Now here's where all these homesteading skills, or whatever you like to call it, come in handy. You can begin to combine techniques! I was in the mood for a quick and easy dinner-PIZZA.  But since we've essentially "cut the crap" from our diet, regular pizza just does not appeal to me anymore. Homemade pizza is still pretty quick and easy. It takes a little more time, but with the help of my handy dandy breadmaker ( and yes I just said that in Steve from Blues Clues' voice) it isn't much effort.

We have a lot of fresh basil in our garden, so I was really craving a margherita pizza.  Simple, perfectly matched ingredients.  Basil, fresh mozzarella, ripe tomatoes and a crispy crust.  Problem was, I was out of mozzarella. Oh well, I could make more!

So, I tossed the crust ingredients in the breadmaker.  Here's my Basic Pizza Dough Recipe

And I got to work on the Mozzarella

The cheese was done before the dough! So while we waited for the dough to rise, Noorah and I headed to the garden to pick some basil. 

By the time we came in, the dough was ready.  We rolled out our dough into two crusts and got it in the oven. As it was baking we sliced our tomatoes, cheese and basil (and ate quite a bit of cheese and tomatoes in the meantime) 

We topped our pizzas and sprinkled with a little cracked black pepper, and just popped it back in the oven just long enough for the cheese to get melty and the tomatoes to get warm. 

When they came out, I did a quick drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and that was it! It was delicious, the cheese just melted in my mouth, the tomatoes were sweet and earthy.  I love fresh bread in any form, so it was a win/win/win for me! The only change I would have made....I should have waited until the pizza was out of the oven to add the basil. It got a little wilted, a little dry. But still pretty tasty.  And a healthy meal that I am proud to serve my family!

I know, this is not what most people would consider convenience food. And it certainly isn't. But it was less than an hour of work, which my daughter and I did together.  When she asked why we were making the cheese, I replied "Because we try not to buy things that we know how to make at home".  I am trying to teach her to be self reliant in a variety of ways, and I know it sounds silly, but there is a sense of accomplishment when you are able to take a gallon of milk and turn it into cheese, or yogurt.  I try to live and teach this self reliance on a variety of levels.  We have a food garden, where we grow vegetables and herbs.  Most of them aren't ready yet(being early June) but we try to use the ones that are.  We planned the garden on our own eating habits and personal tastes.

Food isn't meant to be a convenience. Yes it is a necessity,  but the quality of that food can seriously impact your life.  And its not only about nutrition labels.  It is a whole process - growing food, preparing food, serving food and eating food.  The more tasks in this process that we can do ourselves, the more control we have over the quality. And the more we get to watch our children light up and realize "I can do that!" when they help roll out some dough or pick a tomato.