First Post

A blog introduction is coming soon, but I wanted to get the ball rolling, so here goes the first post. Last night, Pumba came over for dinner so I made a pizza and a salad. The pizza was inspired by Trader Joe's Garlic and Herb dough, which sounded delicious in the first place, but I got excited when Rosie told me about how it's Eeyore's favorite.

I followed the directions on the package and let the dough sit for a while before I started stretching it out onto the pan. After I lightly oiled the pan, it was good to go. I thought the dough would be the life of the party, so I aimed to keep the toppings somewhat simple. On top of your basic pizza sauce and mozzarella cheese, I put on some sliced tomatoes, mushrooms, red onions, chicken, and parmesan cheese. The chicken seemed like a good idea because Pumba had just come from a track workout and some protein would be beneficial for muscle recovery. I usually avoid meat when I'm cooking for myself since I've been leaning towards vegetarianism for the past year or so and because most things are so much easier to make when you take meat out of the equation. My mom calls me a flexetarian, and she says it's an actual type of diet, even though it sounds like a term she could have made up. I waited a few minutes before tossing the pizza into my preheated oven in an attempt to get the timing right, and then left it in until the cheese was bubbling and browning nicely on the sides, which took about 12 minutes. When I checked out the bottom of it, I found that it was still soft and kind of doughy, so I stuck it in for about five more minutes, and then decided it was done.


I never ended up getting rid of the doughy middle. I was too worried about it being overdone on top that I sacrificed the bottom. Next time I try making a pizza, I think I'll start it in on a baking sheet, then take it out of the oven when it's almost done and put the pizza straight on the racks without the pan. Also, the crust was kind of chewy, but that's probably just the sacrifice you have to make to get the health benefits of dough made with whole wheat. The tomatoes might have been better diced than they were sliced. I think most pizzas that have sliced tomatoes on them are the ones that have a non-tomato based sauce, like pesto, or no sauce under the cheese at all. Lastly, there wasn't enough sauce on it. I was worried that I would put too much on and the cheese would slide around, making it harder to eat. It was hardly even noticeable though. Despite these criticisms, I was pretty satisfied with the pizza overall. The dough had a nice flavor and the pizza would have been too bland without it. I was proud of myself for holding back from putting bell peppers on it, even though they're usually my favorite topping, because it would have considerabley changed the pizza vibe. It was really easy to make and I'll probably do it again too, maybe with zucchini on it. Thanks Trader Joe's for doing all the real work for me.


The salad I made wasn't too interesting. It consisted of Romaine lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, green onions, and grated carrots with a roasted red pepper Italian dressing. There wasn't anything wrong with it, but it also wasn't worth reading about.

It was a good night overall and very little of that had to do with food.