Grilling pizza

So, my goal in my food transformation is to get rid of as many processed foods as I can, however, I'm a realist.  I'm not going to be eating all raw foods, or cut out things I love like chips and salsa, my husband and I will still want to go out to eat...but I figure if I can make the transition to 90% whole and 10% processed, I'll be pretty good off.  I'm slowly changing life, I figure show changes will more likely become lifelong changes.  I find it much easier to make a lifestyle change stick if you do it one step at a time, so that's my goal...hopefully over time I'll look back in disbelief and have trouble remembering life any other way!

On to today's recipe topic.....

I can't take credit for our love of grilled pizza...or our technique for cooking it.  That credit goes to my friends Greg and Nadene.  The innocently invited us to there home for dinner one warm summer evening, and Greg prepared us some unbelievable grilled pizza...we ate til we couldn't fit one more bite in...stuffed ourselves, and left that night hooked.  We of course made him share his process...and brought that home with us, the rest is history.  We've created an array of pizzas...some of our favorite have been a buffalo chicken and a roast beef with roasted red peppers (inspired by a pizza our friends had prepared for us).  I'm making a couple changes to our old pizza recipe, the first is preparing our own pizza sauce, minus high fructose corn syrup and preservatives, with the base starting with a canned tomato sauce.  I'm hoping that someday this will transform into making our own sauce from our own fresh tomatoes, but for today, I'll settle for the small step of moving to a "whole" canned food...minus all the other stuff.  The tomato sauce I found already has peppers and onions listed on the ingredient list, along with tomatoes and salt, so keep that in mind if you prepare the following recipe! 

Pizza sauce

1 can tomato sauce
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried thyme
red pepper flakes to taste (optional)

Mix all ingredients together and chill for one hour to let flavors develop.

We like a little spice in our sauce, so we add some red pepper flakes, but it's obviously optional.  I used dried herbs, because it's what I had on hand, but fresh herbs would be amazing!!!

And now on to my other change to our original pizza recipe...making our own crust.  I usually just bought some at the store...but looking at the ingredient list on most of them, I think it's best not to do that any longer!!  Plus...the pizza crust recipes I looked at were all VERY simple!!!  I didn't like any of the one's I found, so I took a little from each and made my own...a trait I come by naturally from my mom!!  We joke, because we rarely can make the same thing twice...we never remember how we change the recipe!!  So here's the pizza crust recipe:

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

1 pkg dry yeast
1 1/4 c lukewarm water
1 tbs honey
2 1/2 c whole wheat flour
1 c all purpose flour
2 tsp salt
1 tbs olive oil
cornmeal for dusting board

Mix honey in water.  Proof yeast in honey and water mix. 
Add flour, salt, olive oil and yeast mixture to food processor and pulse til all ingredients are mixed, then turn on processor until dough forms a ball on the blade.  Transfer ball into an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap or kitchen towel for about 45 minutes, or until dough doubles in size. 
Punch dough down and transfer to floured board, knead briefly.  Cut dough into four equal sections (to make 4-8 inch pizzas, we cut in half and make two larger pizzas) and roll each into balls.  Cover individually and refrigerate at least two hours, or overnight.  Bring dough to room temperature before you need it. 
Dust your board with cornmeal, the roll and stretch each crust individually. 

Although I have several antique rolling pins, I put them somewhere while

I waited to find something to display them on.  Well, they are VERY safe

somewhere...can't even find em....had to resort back to the glass!

Most recipes I found call for over half the flour to be all purpose flour, so I still made this with some all purpose because I didn't know how it would turn out otherwise.  I think I will slowly play around with decreasing the amount of all purpose flour and see if I can get rid of it all together.  I also plan on adding some ground flax seed to the dough next time to add some good omega's and increase the nutritional value of the dough. 

We sprinkle the dough with a little olive oil before putting it on the grill....depending on your grill, you might need to spray the grill itself to make sure your crust doesn't stick.

Is there really any better smell than grilling bread??  I don't mean processed white bread slathered in margarine and slapped on a griddle...I mean the smell of yeasty, delicious dough sizzling over an open flame...it's just amazing!!!  I think there's a biological reason why something with such easily available energy source (carbs) is so appealing to humans!  Breads are in fact full of complex carbs, which do tons of things to keep our bodies running properly...we just have to make better choices about which ones to eat.

We usually cook one side of the crust and leave the other side without grill marks...it has cooked some since we have it in a closed lid 400 degree grill, but this gives us a little extra time for the toppings to heat through before the bottom is burnt!

At this point we take it off the grill, cooked side up and transfer it to a baking sheet.  Our friends also showed us that he easiest way to transfer the dough and pizzas was to use a baking sheet without sides.  You use it as a scoop and spatula, it works quite well.  The beauty of pizza is you can truly put about anything on it!  We've done shrimp alfredo, chicken and broccoli, and even fruit...try different sauces and toppings, you'll be amazed!!  We used what we had on hand, so we didn't do anything real interesting or new. 
Apply the sauce and toppings to the grilled side of the dough, then return it to the grill.  We've also found that at this point, indirect heat works best.  If you are using a charcoal grill, try to keep the coals on only half of the grill, place the pizza on the half without the coals...same concept with a gas grill. 

Keep a close eye on your crust...it can burn quite quickly.  If your crust is done and your toppings aren't...there's no shame in transferring the pizza to your oven to finish cooking!!! 

This is my husband's pizza...he's a meat eater...doesn't care what else is on his pizza,

as long as there's lots of meat!!!

So that's that...grilled pizza...so delicious!!  I'm sure I'll be posting different new recipes for grilled pizza throughout the summer...it's a simple, delicious meal that satisfies the whole family!  Hopefully my recipes will continue to evolve to include more veggies, more nutrition...continue to improve myself, my lifestyle, my health and my families health.