Lunchtime…pizza!

Lunchtime is a hard time of the day. Let’s face it, breakfast is easy and with dinner you have all day to think it through…but lunch seems to blow in out of nowhere. One can only eat so many sandwiches (although I do love a good sandwich)! As a stay at home mom lunch is all about timing. Between picking up and dropping off there isn’t a lot of time to play with. The best days are the ones where lunch is planned out. Isn’t that the key in most situations? However, we can’t be prepared everyday – so it’s best to have a back up plan. Around here, we like to try and reinvent the convenience of fast/frozen food with homemade and healthy options. Enter the kid-sized pizza lunch special.

pizza dough (homemade, defrosted frozen or fresh)

pizza sauce

mozzarella cheese

oregano

flour (we like semolina for this application)

parchment paper

optional items: spesto, pesto, pepperoni, sundried tomatoes, olives, pineapple, tomatoes, etc.

1. preheat the oven to 400F

2. let your dough sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes

3. roll out the dough on a floured surface

4. once you have flattened the dough, you can then begin cutting and pulling off palm sized portions

5. roll the portion into a ball in your hand, then flatten the ball into a circle

6. place the circle of dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet

7. repeat this process for up to 12 circles of dough

8. once you have made your dough circles, coat them with pizza sauce or spesto

9. load each sauced dough circle with a small pile of mozzarella cheese

10. at this point you can add on the toppings of your choice, or you can leave the toppings off and customize the pizza later when reheated

11. once toppings are done, place the baking sheet on the lowest rack in the oven for 15 minutes, or until the toppings are golden brown

12. remove from the oven, place on racks to cool

13. at this point you can serve the pizzas for lunch OR once the pizzas and baking sheet has cooled, return the pizzas to the baking sheets and place in the freezer

14. when the pizzas are completely frozen, about 1 hour, remove them from the freezer and drop them into a large freezer bag

15. return them to the freezer until you need to pull them out again for a future lunch

16. to reheat – heat oven to 350F and place pizza, on parchment lined baking sheet, in oven for about 10 minutes – until heated through

This entire process only takes about 30 minutes to do and one standard sized ball of dough makes about 12 pizzas. Make them on a Sunday evening – ready for the week ahead. Having snack sized pizzas on hand is a great way to have a healthy lunch. With a side of salad and some fruit, your child will be satisfied and ready for the afternoon. You can even pack these for a stay at school lunch! Have you reinvented any fast/frozen foods? What are you making for lunch these days?