Dinner is in the Bag


I will admit it. By the end of the week, I am shot. I am too tired to do anything except sack out on the couch and watch television with the family. I don’t feel like cooking and I also don’t feel like running out to get anything for dinner. This leads to the scenario where my husband and I both look at each other and go, “So…what are you hungry for?” I then reply, “I don’t know, what you are you hungry for?” You can kind of see where this is leading, can’t you? Then we wait another five minutes and repeat the scenario…until someone gives in and breaks out the cereal. It is a sad, sad situation we have going over here in our house.

I am trying to break this cycle so I have our dinner in a bag…literally. I decided to mix up my newest edition to the fifty thousand pizza dough recipes I have and throw it in a bag. I marked it with, “Pizza Mix” and wrote down the two liquid ingredients that needed to be put with it. All I will have to do on Friday night is throw in the bag, add the water, add the oil and hit dough cycle. Since I was making one of the mixes, why not four? So now I have mixes for every Friday night this month and it took ten minutes to do this.

This recipe yields enough for two thin crust pizzas or one thick crust pizza. I prepare one of the pizzas as a…um…pizza. The other recipe is made into breadsticks. I can’t take credit for this one because it comes courtesy to you from my girlfriend (Becky- thanks!) For my breadsticks, I drizzle a little olive oil on top, and sprinkle with dried parsley and garlic salt. I then prepare my sauce (enough for three pizzas) and we dip our breadsticks in the sauce and enjoy a homemade pizza.

You might want to incorporate this little recipe into your family night this week. It is easy as pie and *so* good!

Amy’s Latest Pizza Dough Recipe (Part Three)
*Here are the links to versions
one and two*

1 cup water
4 teaspoons olive oil
3 cups flour (all-purpose or you can do half & half with whole wheat flour)
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon yeast

Put all ingredients into your bread machine per your manufacturer’s instructions. Choose your Dough Cycle. When the pizza dough is done, punch down and roll out onto a floured surface. Cook the pizza in a 425 degree oven for fifteen-twenty minutes.

Amy’s Yummy Pizza Sauce

2 cans tomato paste
2 cups water
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon Italian dried seasonings
1 teaspoon garlic powder
Salt & pepper to taste

Bring the mixture up to a simmer and cook for twenty minutes. Allow mixture to cool before pouring on top of the pizza.

Related Posts with Thumbnails

ENJOYED THIS POST? SHARE IT WITH OTHERS:

Click to share on StumbleUpon STUMBLE This Click to share on kirtsy Add to KiRTSY Click to share on Mixx Add to MIXX Click to share on Delicious It's DELICIOUS
  1. amelia — October 27, 2006 @ 7:41 am

    We are definitely going to have to try this mix for our Sunday night pizza night. I just got a breadmaker last weekend (off freecycle of course)!

    [Reply]

  2. golfermom — October 27, 2006 @ 10:05 am

    This is a great idea. I’m going to give it a go and let my kids make the pizza!

    [Reply]

  3. mira — October 28, 2006 @ 6:18 pm

    This is a great idea! Thanks for sharing. Friday is usually pizza night at our house but I confess half the time I buy it. This should make it easier.

    [Reply]

  4. amelia — October 29, 2006 @ 7:37 pm

    We tried it tonight. Yummy! We made ours wheat and it turned out delicious. Super easy!

    [Reply]

  5. Amy — October 29, 2006 @ 8:38 pm

    I am so glad that you guys enjoyed it. Did you do all wheat flour or half and half? I will have to try that sometime. One of my other recipes used half and half and I really liked the chewy texture that the wheat flour gave it.

    Thanks for letting me know!

    [Reply]

  6. Musings of a Housewife — November 1, 2006 @ 7:15 pm

    Cool idea! I’m definitely going to have to try this.

    [Reply]

  7. Anonymous — November 7, 2006 @ 10:21 am

    Even quicker is to take some time and make up all the dough, parbake it for 8 min in a 350 oven then freeze. Then on pizza night all you have to do is top it, still frozen, and toss it in the oven (ok, place it gently in the oven) Takes a bit longer at the outset, but really speeds things up on the “gee, what should we have for dinner” side.

    Another idea is to break the dough into several balls and make “personal” sized pizzas so each person can top their own.

    Oh, and I always make my pizza 1/2 whole wheat. The family has gotten used to it!

    [Reply]

  8. kddub — October 3, 2007 @ 8:31 am

    this is such a good idea!

    [Reply]

  9. Anonymous — January 4, 2008 @ 9:28 pm

    This is similar to the pizza recipe we do almost weekly in our bread machine. We always do half and half with the whole wheat flour. I turn 1/3 of the dough into breadsticks and the other 2/3 use for the crust. The sticks get done quickly so we can enjoy them while the pizza finishes baking. We make our sticks “Little Caesars” style — bake them plain and when they come out of the oven spread with a little butter and sprinkle grated parmesan cheese on top.

    [Reply]

  10. Gina @ MoneywiseMoms — March 31, 2008 @ 5:16 pm

    I’m ready to make some bags, but a question about using the bread machine–my bread machine booklet says to separate the salt from the yeast (I think the salt keeps it from reacting properly). Has that been a problem for you?

    [Reply]

  11. Amy — March 31, 2008 @ 7:25 pm

    Gina- You can safely mix the ingredients, as long as you plan to dump and run the cycle immediately upon adding the liquids. The order is important only if you were planning to delay a cycle (giving the yeast and other ingredients time to react before actually running a cycle). I have done these for years and never had any problems.

    I hope you enjoy them!!

    [Reply]

  12. Anonymous — January 28, 2009 @ 10:16 am

    I found my bread machine at a local thrift store for 3 dollars and it runs… it won’t bake,,,but I like to bake my bread in my oven anyway! =D Thank You for your site!

    [Reply]

  13. Shannon — February 28, 2010 @ 5:40 pm

    This sounds great! Can you make batches of the sauce and freeze it??

    [Reply]

Subscribe to comments

Leave a comment

CommentLuv Enabled