Tuesday Night Dinner: Make Your Own Pita Pizzas

For Tuesday night dinner this week, we did a make-your-own pita pizza night. It was a lot of fun, not a bad dinner for a big crowd, even if I could only make four pita pizzas at a time. I liked the interactivity of it, the way everyone could make their pizza to their own preferences. Here are some suggestions for hosting your own pita pizza night.

pitas-whole wheat or white
pizza sauce
pesto sauce
chopped broccoli
sliced bell pepppers
sliced onions
caramelized onions
black olives
mozzarella
feta
pepperoni
Italian sausage
sun-dried tomatoes
zucchini

Tuesday Night Dinner: Pizza Party

In order to accommodate changing schedules and not lose any of our regular Wednesday night dinner party members, we switched dinners to Tuesday nights. This week was our first Tuesday night, and it was quite the event. We made eggplant chips, five pizzas, and sundaes for dessert. In case you were wondering, eggplant chips for 15 is a bad idea because it goes on for quite some time. And pizzas for 15 is only a good idea if they all fit in your oven at once. Otherwise, you eat 30 minutes later than originally intended.

Pizza Night

I threw a cocktail party as a belated birthday party for my sister last weekend, and for dinner I made an assortment of pizzas. I love buying pizza dough from Trader Joe's; it's just so cheap and makes the perfect-sized pizza. And, it comes in plain, whole wheat, and garlic-herb. I made a regular cheese pizza; Rachael Ray's sundried tomato, chicken and broccoli; and a tomato, garlic, and feta from For the love cooking. As you can see, I adapted the last recipe a little bit and omitted the basil. All were pretty delicious and the party was a big success.

Chicken, Sun-dried Tomato, and Broccoli Pizza

A few days ago I found this Rachael Ray pizza recipe on the Food Network website and decided immediately that I had to make it. So I had a few friends over for dinner tonight and we made the pizza, minus the basil and Parmigiano-Reggiano, mostly because I don't care for basil and I didn't realize the recipe called for Parmigiano-Reggiano. Don't worry, you won't miss it. I was incredibly satisfied with this pizza, everyone else liked it, and it even felt fairly healthy for you. The prep also went by really quickly.

My adapted recipe:
1 16-oz whole wheat pizza dough
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 chicken breast
handful of broccoli florets
handful of sliced sun-dried tomatoes, packed in olive oil
skim ricotta cheese
shredded mozzarella
minced garlic
salt and pepper

Preheat over to 500 degrees.
Bring small pot of water to a boil, salt the water, and cook broccoli florets for a couple minutes. Drain.
Heat olive oil in small frying pan, add garlic and chicken, season with salt and pepper, and brown.
Roll out pizza dough. Spread ricotta cheese, then top with broccoli, chicken, and sun dried tomatoes, then finish with mozzarella. Lower oven to 450 degrees and bake 12-14 minutes.