Veggie Pizza with Balsamic Glaze and Honey

Hi Everyone!

At this time of the year I would be very excited about the progress my container garden was making and blogging all about it, but this year has been quite the struggle. My plants have been fighting an aphid infestation and also a fungal disease. Needless to say, it hasn't been a good growing season. So to cheer myself up, I bought some fresh veggies at the farmer's market for some homemade pizza and popped in a movie and sat on my couch like a fatty eating pizza and ice cream. And it felt great. Until the next day, when I realized I ate over half a pint of Ben & Jerry's (damn you, brownie batter). Yikes.

Did my garden and I just break up?

Not really. I bought some organic fungicide and it has been helping my garden come back to life. I will write a post with all the details later this week. But I sure was sad enough to eat that much B&J in one sitting, so it sort of felt like a break up...

Although I did that again last night while watching the Miss USA pageant on TV. I was so intrigued by their answers to the final question. Actually, I was just shocked and embarrassed. It is sad that those are the women who are out there "representing" my gender and generation. What happened to our education system? Are those the type of people the system is pumping out? Because holy smokes, that's embarrassing. And don't get me started on the girls that clearly had an eating disorder. I am pretty sure I saw one contestant's entire skeletal system while she strutted in her bikini. There's a difference between being lean, healthy or skinny and just plain sick. I should send her all the B&J I have in my freezer.

Speaking of eating, here is my awesome pizza recipe for this week. It is a veggie pizza with balsamic glaze and honey. I added my favorite vegetables, but you could add whatever vegetables you'd like.

1 store bought pre-made pizza dough (I buy Trader Joe's pizza dough or sometimes Whole Foods)
1-2 eggplants, sliced
1 bottle of pizza sauce (whatever brand you like works great. I use Trader Joe's)
Shredded Mozzarella and Pecorino cheese
1 container of black olives, halves
1 container of artichokes, cut into small pieces
1 bag of sundried tomatoes
1 red pepper, sliced
honey
balsamic glaze

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. I then rolled out the dough to fit the size of my pizza stone. I add a little semolina flour to the pizza stone to help the pizza slide much easier. Once the dough is stretched, I add as much pizza sauce as I want. I don't use an entire container of sauce, but if you like very saucy pizzas go for it! Although you will want to make sure that the fillings don't spill out to the sides of the dough. I then add the cheese followed by all of the veggies except for the sundried tomatoes. Depending on the size of your pizza, you might need more or less veggies. My pizza was enough for 2 people with plenty of left overs. Cook the pizza for about 20min or until the dough is crispy.

I add the sundried tomatoes once the pizza is done and out of the oven. I tried cooking the pizza with the sundried tomatoes and they actually ended up getting burnt. I also then drizzle balsamic glaze and honey on the pizza, let cool a little bit, and serve.

I like to drink sparkling lemon water from Trader Joe's with my pizza. It is such a good deal, you can buy a bottle for $.79. At Whole Foods, it is $2.14 for some lemon flavored sparkling water! I like the orange flavor too, those two are my favorite. Definitely give them a try if you live close to a TJs.

Anyone else have any good pizza recipes?