a little pizzaing...

when you have a hankerin' for pizza, you have a hankerin', and there isn't much you can do about. best bet is to feed the beast. fighting it is only going to get you in trouble. trust me, i know.

i had a pantry that was lookin' slim (that seems to be a theme lately, huh?). so i dug around to see what i could round up. luckily, i had two packets of pizza dough mix hidden in the pack of a cupboard. i made the crust according to the package and pressed it into a shallow cookie sheet and baked it for 10 to 15 minutes. just enough to puff it up and prevent it from getting soggy from the sauce.

next, i had to find something to create a sauce - no easy task. i took a can of diced tomatoes, garlic clove, basil and oregano, and a good portion of balsamic vinegar and attempted to make a reduction. it was a little watery, so i took about a tbsp of flour mixed in tiny bit of flour and added it in. i like a thin sauce.

so i first spread ricotta cheese on the warm crust (what i had left in my fridge - about 1 cup), then i slathered the tomato reduction on top of that. next i chopped up some spinach, a can of mushrooms, and a roma tomato and sprinkled that across the top. then i took the half-a-bag of "fancy italian shredded cheese" i found under a package of tortillas (probably a little too close/past the expiration date) and dumped it on top. i did one last sprinkling of oregano and black pepper on top and stuck that puppy in the oven. something like 375 - 400 degrees until the cheese was bubbly and brown and the crust was purty-looking (honestly, i can't remember how long this took - no long though).

it was a tasty treat for dinner and lunch for the next several days :)