Quick Recipe 3: Flatbread Pizza with Spinach and Mozzarella

Sometimes, actually most times of late, I don't know what the heck to cook! When I complain over the phone to my dear brother, he says: Go eat some grass off your backyard. 

You know what, I just might in fact do that one of these days!! 

Flatbread pizza is a great idea for people like yours truly. I mean, it is not even a "recipe" really, but it turns out pretty damn good. It's quick, easy, delicious. 

Ingredients: 

Flatbread- any kind such as pita, naan, roti, parantha, lavash, etc. 

Marinara sauce- I love Trader Joe's marinara, it's delicious

Mozzarella cheese- grated

Baby spinach- a few leaves

Method: 

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F. 

1. Top flatbread of your choice with marinara sauce, followed by spinach, and grated mozzarella. I like to add a dash of salt and pepper on top of the spinach before the mozzarella. 

Top it up

2. Place on a baking sheet (doh!) and place on the middle rack in the oven heated to 425 degrees F. Bake for 3 minutes. The cheese will have melted. 

3. Then switch off the bake feature, and switch on the broil feature. Broil on high for 2 minutes, or just until the cheese starts browning. 

That's it! Sprinkle some oregano or a little bit of dry Italian seasoning, and eat away! 

Delicious Roti Pizza! 

Birthday Loot!

March 20th happens to be not only the first day of Spring, but my birthday too! Go on, wish me a Happy Birthday! Blow those party horns now, will ya?! ;)

The husband (and the kids) got me an excellent gift this year- a  Mod Pizza gift card! I was so delighted! I don't remember screaming out this way when I got those gizmo gifts, or that salon gift card in the previous years.... this time, he nailed it! Ever since they opened Mod Pizza here in our neighborhood, pizza nights have never been the same. Mod pizza simply rocks! Their 10 signature pizzas are not your typical kind that you find in other pizza places, well, except for maybe the classic cheese, and perhaps the Mad Dog. They actually have legit (I'm using my kids' lingo now!) pesto for a topping! Check out their menu, and you'll see what I'm saying. The best part is that all their regular pizzas are just under 7 bucks, and you can choose whatever toppings you want.

So my birthday lunch today was a beautiful Tristan, topped with mozzarella, asiago, marinated roasted red peppers, mushrooms, and pesto. I also asked for red onions, black olives, artichokes, and grilled chicken. That's correct, a 9-topping pizza, all for under 7 bucks! Pretty sweet deal!

My birthday gift ;) 

The Tristan, with 4 extra toppings- yumm!

My next birthday gift came from my brother, and sister in law, and I will call this the ghost pepper gone wild! I don't think I will ever find the need to buy any more crazy hot sauces ever again!! Look at this collection! There is also a packet of dried crushed ghost pepper, that I transferred into a spice grinder, that came with it all. My eyes are still watering...... that is how strong this stuff is!!! What an overly thoughtful gift!!

Ghost Pepper Gone Wild!

Definitely a fantastic birthday loot for this crazy spice-loving foodie!

The latest sensation- Naanizza!

A few weekends ago we went to Pallino Pastaria and my daughter and I ordered two individual pizzas- one was a chicken-pesto and the other supposedly a "four seasons" pizza. We were all excited (and we were super-hungry) until the waiter brought our orders. I mean, literally, our faces fell upon seeing those little itsy-bitsy things that were placed on our table. To elaborate- the pizza base was basically a naan (we all know what a naan is, right?), floppy, that too! The chicken-pesto naan, oops, I mean, pizza was basically topped with 4 really tiny pieces of chicken, half a teaspoon of pesto and 1 slice of tomato, while the "four seasons" kind was topped with exactly 1 slice of prosciutto, 1 miniature slice of salami, 1 artichoke piece (definitely from a can) and 1 slice of tomato (aah, "four" seasons indeed!). Dunno where the mushroom(s) went! The menu mentioned mushrooms too......... oh well, so it was a total rip-off and we decided never to go there again.

Last week I bought a bag of naan from Costco. You get 8 lovely naans from one bag which is great. What do you think I did with those naans? One guess!

• I pre-heated the oven to 400 degrees
• Placed a couple naans on a lightly greased baking sheet
• Topped each naan with the desired toppings
• Threw it in the oven and baked for about 5 minutes and then switched it to the broiler mode and broiled for about 7-8  minutes (basically until the cheese got bubbly and the naan base got brown)
• And I created some out-of-this world pizzas--- well, definitely a thousand times better than that restaurant pizza!

Toppings:

•  The son had pepperoni, tomatoes and cheddar cheese; the daughter had canadian bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes and chipotle jack cheese; the husband and I had Supreme pizza (basically with everything!). 

• For the kids I used some plain old tomato ketchup and spruced it up with italian seasoning- hey, it was yummy! While for us two, I used a gourmet spicy sauce. 

Broiling is on.......the cheese is melting.....

Ready to eat-- crisp and delicious!

I got so excited with the success of my pizza, that I even made a dessert pizza. So I topped half a naan with some fresh blueberries and some brown sugar and a few chunks of chocolate and just baked and broiled like I did for the other pizzas. It was fantastic!!

Note to Self: Next time, I should omit the brown sugar and just use chocolate and fresh fruit and maybe some kind of jelly/jam.

Blueberry and chocolate pizza--- mmm!

Apparently now this kind of pizza actually has a name--- a Naanizza! Wow!

So will I order pizza from one of those pizza places now that I can create my own gourmet pizza, or should I say, Naanizza, at home? Heck, yeah!! But, but, but---- I am certainly not going to that restaurant to get ripped off again!