Pizza and a Movie Night! (whole wheat crust recipe)

Friday is my favorite day of the week because Friday night is our weekly Pizza and a movie night! I started out buying frozen pizzas then moved to the roll out canned dough and my own toppings, then a little over a year ago began looking for a homemade crust option. My son has had some gastrointestinal issues and a friend of mine who is a dietician suggested cutting out anything that has "enriched bleached white flour".  This is where my homemade whole wheat cooking journey started (because EVERYTHING has that!!) and I am so thankful because I have learned to make so many yummy things from scratch. One of these things is pizza crust.

**Also in this post: Sneaking in the spinach! :)

This requires a bread machine, so if you don't have one I am sorry! I have tried a couple recipes that don't use a bread machine but it never turns out this good, so I am probably doing something wrong! This one however is SO easy!

Here is your list:

1 cup + 2 Tablespoon water

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

2 cups Whole Wheat Flour

1 cup White Wheat Flour

1 teaspoon Sugar

1 teaspoon Salt

1 packet of yeast

I love King Arthur brand flours and make sure that you DO NOT use the rapid rise yeast. 

I use this one: 

                                                        

 Put all of it in your bread machine IN THAT ORDER (listed above). Do not mix it yourself. Just set the machine to do the mix cycle and the first rise. My bread machine does this in an hour and 40 minutes, but this may vary depending on the machine that you have. 

When it is done, take it out and place it on your lightly flowered counter top. Flour the top of it so that it does not stick to your roller, roll it out and you are ready!

Put it on your pizza stone or pan (if you don't have a stone, you need one, they are awesome) and now for the sauce. Here is where you get to sneak in some spinach. Sometimes I simply spread out the sauce and tear or cut up fresh spinach and put it on before the cheese and other toppings. However, the last time I did this I must have left the pieces too big because my picky little girl caught me! "What's this gween stuff?" "Um... that is just part of the seasoning in the sauce" "I don't like that" SIGH. Her most used dinner time phrase is  "i don't like that" usually BEFORE she has even tasted it. Sometimes while I am cooking she will come ask what's for dinner and when I tell her, she replies "I don't like that"

 

So, if you need to be sneaky, here is my suggestion (tested on the a fore mentioned super picky little girl): Cut up you spinach and put it is a sauce pan over low heat. Cook it until it starts wilting stirring it around every couple of minutes. 

When it is starting to look pretty wilty add your sauce and stir it in well. Leave it on low heat while you roll out your dough to heat a little more and further wilt (hide) the spinach.

When the dough is ready, spread out the sauce and then it is time to pile on the toppings! Here is how it looks like when spread: 





 

 <--Here are a few of our favorite toppings
My kids love when we have extra toppings because that meas that they get an appetizer. It is funny b/c the picky daughter sometimes picks the toppings off, but she will eat them raw by themselves... weirdo! ;)

Then bake at 400 degrees for 18 minutes and enjoy!  

Had to throw in a picture of my oldest 2 little monkeys enjoying pizza and a movie night!