Cheesesteak Pizza

• 1 green pepper, diced
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 2 cups sliced mushrooms
• 6 sandwich steaks (like SteakUmms), chopped in bite size pieces
• 1 pound pizza dough (homemade or store bought)
• 1/2 cup Steak Sauce
• 6 slices provolone cheese
• 6 slices white american cheese

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a nonstick skillet, melt 1 tablespoon butter over medium-high heat.
3. Add mushrooms, peppers, and onions, and steaks.
4. Season with salt and pepper, and saute until soft (about 8-10 minutes) and steaks are cooked.
5. Drain off any excess grease.
6. Roll out the pizza dough on a floured surface.  Put on your pizza pan/stone/cookie sheet.
7. Cover the surface with the american cheese and add the layer of steak sauce.
8. Add the steak mixture and top off with the provolone cheese.
9. Bake 15-20 minutes, until all melty, delicious, and golden brown.

My review:  This was delicious, and better than any that I've had out at a pizza restaurant.  It's nice, because you can control the grease.  We liked it dipped in a little ranch, but it would also be good with more steak sauce.  Yum!

Gyro Pizza

This tasted just like a real gyro sandwich!  Delicious!

1 can classic pizza crust (not thin, there's too many ingredients on top, it wouldn't hold up!)
1/2 lb ground turkey
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup light sour cream
1 1/2 cups mozzerella cheese
3/4 cup cucumber, chopped coarsely
1 medium tomato, chopped coarsely
1/2 red onion, sliced
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Spray 9x13 pan with cooking spray and press pizza dough in the bottom and up sides to form a crust.
Bake for 7 minutes, until crust begins to turn brown on the edges.
Meanwhile, in a skillet, brown the garlic and ground turkey on medium heat until no longer pink.
Stir in the oregano and salt.
Spread the sour cream over the warm pizza crust.
Top with 1 cup of the mozzerella.
Top the cheese with the cooked turkey.
Sprinkle with cucumber and tomato.
Separate the red onion into rings and arrange over the top.
Sprinkle with remaining mozzerella and feta cheese crumbles.
Bake 13-15 minutes.

My review:  I loved this, but then I order gyro sandwiches every time I go to restaurants that offer them.  The ground turkey cooked with garlic, oregano, and salt made it taste just like the lamb used for gyro sandwiches.  I have some leftover that I want to mix up into some gyros, and that recipe will be up here soon!  I will definitely be making this more often!

Meaty MushroomThin Crust Pizza

I'm going to be making a lot of variations of these coming up.  I have class 2 evenings a week, with very little time to get something for dinner, and this is a quick, fun, and healthy meal.  My lovely friend, Nicole, is south beaching it, and she told me about this yummy way she gets to enjoy pizzas.  Here, I'm giving you the ingredients to make two, but you can make as few or as many as you want!

2 low carb wheat tortillas (the wheat, low carb ones get crispier!)
4 tbsp pizza sauce
Reduced fat shredded mozzarella cheese
4 mushrooms, sliced
2 slices deli cooked ham
10-20 turkey pepperonis

Spray a cookie sheet with a little bit of Pam, and then place your tortillas side by side, not overlapping.  You might need two cookie sheets.  Spread 2 tbsp of sauce on each tortilla.  If you like more sauce, feel free to add more.
Top the sauce with your desired amount of cheese on each pizza, and then follow with pepperonis, ham, and mushrooms.  Other topping options could be turkey sausage, onions, peppers, tomatoes, or any other veggie.  Be creative!
Bake at 450 degrees F for 10 minutes.


My review:  Nicole is a genius.  This was so good.  What a nice, easy, low-carb meal.  I can't wait to make more.  I know it's cheating for new recipes, but I'm going to post all my variations that I end up making.  This is really yummy!  Try making your own, and if you get any good variations, lemme know so I can try them too! 

Amazing Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Olive oil
1 can Pillsbury classic pizza crust or thin pizza crust
3 tablespoons butter/margarine
1 lb chicken breasts, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 sweet onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
3 tablespoons Frank's Hot sauce
1 cup diced plum tomatoes (about 2 or 3)
1 1/2 cups shredded Monterey Jack Cheese

If using classic crust, heat oven to 425 degrees. If using thin, heat to 400.
Lightly coat a cookie sheet with olive oil.
Unroll the dough onto the sheet and push out into a crust.
In a ten inch skillet, melt butter on medium high heat. Add chicken, onion, and hot sauce. Cook 4-6 minutes until chicken is fully cooked.
Remove from heat and stir in the tomatoes.
With a slotted spoon, spoon the mixture over dough, leaving a crust on the edges. Sprinkle evenly with cheese.
Bake 13-16 minutes for the classic crust and 11-14 minutes for the thin crust.


My review: This is amazing. A bit spicy, but nothing a little bit of ranch couldn't handle. It's dang yummy and you're crazy if you don't make it right now!!

Crescent Veggie Pizza

This is frequently served at Pampered Chef parties and I've always loved it, but never tried making it. But that changed when I received this recipe in an e-blast from Pillsbury.

2 cans (8 oz each) Pillsbury® refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon dried dill weed
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 cup small fresh broccoli florets
1/3 cup quartered cucumber slices
1 plum (Roma) tomato, seeded, chopped
1/4 cup shredded or chopped carrot

Heat oven to 375°F.
Unroll both cans of dough; separate dough into 4 long rectangles. In ungreased 15x10x1-inch pan, place dough; press in bottom and up sides to form crust.
Bake 13 to 17 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.
In small bowl, mix cream cheese, sour cream, dill and garlic powder until smooth. Spread over crust. Top with vegetables. Serve immediately, or cover and refrigerate 1 to 2 hours before serving.

My review: Yum! and I don't really measure the veggies. I figure the more the better, so just chop like crazy and throw a bunch of healthy stuff on there. Surprisingly, I used low fat cream cheese and sour cream, and noticed absolutely no difference. Delicious appetizer or dish to take to a potluck!

Buffalo Chicken Broiler Pizza

1/4 cup refrigerated ranch dip (dip, not dressing)
12 inch prebaked pizza crust
1 1/2 cups cooked chicken (you can use canned, if you like)
1 cup chopped tomatoes (I like plum tomatoes...)
Buffalo Wing Sauce (about 1/4 cup, but it depends if you like it spicy or beyond..)
1 package (2 cups) Colby-Monterey Jack Cheese Blend (I threw some Mozzerella on as well...)
1/4 cup chopped green pepper (optional) (I recommend it.. seriously.)
1/4 cup chopped onion (optional) (You could pass on this... it added a little extra zing, in my opinion, but if you've noticed, i use onion a lot in my recipes....)


Set your oven to Broil. If you have the option of low or hi (some ovens do, mine does not), set it to low. You would much rather it take a bit longer than have it flaming in your oven!
Spread the dip on the pizza crust.
Top with Chicken and Tomatoes.
Sprinkle the buffalo sauce over the pizza.
Throw on the cheese, green peppers, and onion.
I recommend putting the pizza on the rack of your broiler pan, if you have one. Other pans don't like high broiler heat if they can help it.
Broil about 6 inches from heat, for about 8 minutes. Make sure to watch it closely!


My review: Yum. This was good and spicy. I'm not a huge fan of the prebaked crusts, but that's my deal. Using it here made this recipe done in like 10 minutes, so who can complain?? I used canned chicken, realizing it would be much better with fresh cooked chicken. but still, it was good. I will most likely make this again on a night that I have class, because I am always looking for dinners that don't take much time, but are at least a hot meal. Serve it with a salad and some celery! For some reason, celery just tastes so much better when paired with buffalo chicken ANYTHING.

Baked Potato Pizza

1 can Pillsbury Thin Pizza Crust (or any other pizza crust you wanna use)
Provolone Cheese (about 6 slices)
2 cups cubed baked potato (1 large potato or 2-3 small)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp dry ranch dressing mix
8 strips of bacon, cooked and chopped (or use real bacon bits, if you're lazy like me)
1 cup mild shredded Cheddar
1/4 cup green onions, if you want

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Grease cookie sheet.
Unroll dough into 15x10 rectangle
Arrange the provolone slices on the dough. (I like lots of cheese, so I used 8, but the recipe said 6....)
In a bowl, mix the potatoes, olive oil, and ranch dressing mix.
Spoon mixture evenly on top of the provolone.
Sprinkle with bacon and Cheddar cheese.
Bake until cheese is melted and crust is golden brown (about 12-16 minutes).
Serve with sour cream and/or ranch dressing.


My review: This was good. Not as good as the kind you get out, but if you're searching for carb overload in the comfort of your own home, go for it. Also, I used pizza crust that I found in my grocery store's bakery section. They make their dough, throw it in a bag, and freeze it. So it's fresh and wonderful... Check it out at your store. It also makes fabulous stromboli crust.