Friday, January 14, 2011

A Pizza, Some Sushi, and A Winner!

The other night, just by chance, Mark and I created the most amazing Artichoke, Asparagus, Spinach, Sun-dried Tomato, Mushroom, Onion Pizza!


I usually take the time to make homemade dough, but sometimes not. (Mark rolls it out. He has professional pizza-making experience!) Sometimes I have the time to make a homemade sauce, and sometimes not. Either way, homemade pizza is still delicious! And with enough tasty toppings, you don't even miss the cheese! Because friends have been asking for the recipe since I posted this photo on my facebook page, here's the quick and easy recipe for when you're short on time:

Ingredients:

1 packaged pizza dough (I like the pizza dough made by a local company, The Bread Stop)
1 16-oz jar Trader Joe's Fat-free Pizza Sauce
1/2 yellow onion, sliced into 1/4-inch rings
8 asparagus stalks, tough ends removed
1 cup spinach, roughly chopped
1 cup baby bella mushrooms, sliced
1 15-oz can artichoke hearts, drained and sliced into 1/4"-thick rings
sundried tomatoes
fresh basil, roughly chopped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450°F. Roll out pizza dough and place on a lightly-oiled pizza pan or pizza stone. Bake on the bottom rack for 10 minutes. Remove from oven, and gently press down any parts that have risen.

While dough is baking, using a large skillet, gently cook onions in a tablespoon of olive oil, or for a fat-free version, use 1/4 cup water.  (If you have more time, you can caramelize the onions for even more flavor!) Remove from heat, and set aside. 

Place asparagus spears in a steamer basket, and steam for 3 minutes, just until bright green in color. Remove from pot, and set aside.

Spread sauce over par-baked pizza dough, and then evenly place asparagus spears over pizza, so that each pizza slice will have an asparagus spear at its center. Arrange spinach, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, tomatoes, onions, and basil around asparagus spears, decorating as you please. Bake on center rack for an additional 15-20 minutes, until outer crusts begins to turn slightly golden-brown. 

Monday nights are sushi night at our house! It's a cooking-free night for me, and an opportunity to indulge in my favorite veggie sushi rolls: Gail Rolls (avocado, cucumber, and inari), and Crop Burning (marinated shitake, avocado, cucumber, and hot sauce) which we take-out from Sushi Domo. Aren't they pretty?


Okay, enough about food, already. Let's get to the good stuff! The winner of a copy of my favorite new cookbook, Appetite for Reduction is ....~Cee~! Congratulations! Please check your email in-box for my message. Thank you to everyone who participated in this contest. Stay tuned for more to come!

19 comments:

~ Cee ~ said...

Hooray! Thank you so much for the contest. I am so excited!
~Cee~

Vegiegail said...

You're most welcome, Cee! Enjoy the book!

Anonymous said...

You mean I didn't win? Awe, shucks. But the pizza recipe is a pretty great consolation prize. That looks amazing! Congratulations Cee!

Anonymous said...

WOW! That pizza is eye-poppingly spectacular looking! The sushi isn't too shabby looking, either. I just had lunch, I really shouldn't be this hungry right now!

Helen said...

The pizza is making my mouth water. I cannot wait to try the recipe! (Dumbed down version, of course!) :) It does sound impossibly simple and it looks incredibly delicious.

Congratulations Cee!

Anonymous said...

The pizza and the sushi look sooooo good! And I see you like a lot of ginger, too. I'm going to make the pizza this weekend, and the next time I go for sushi, I'm going to ask the sushi chef to make me both of those rolls!

amie said...

Ooh, that pizza looks yummy!

Justine said...

I almost fell out of my seat when I saw that pizza. What a knockout! I want to marry it! LOL! Guess I'll have to settle for making it. :)

Anonymous said...

Both the pizza and the sushi took my breath away. They look very delicious!

Marilyn said...

omg that pizza is stunning! I can't wait to try some...o-o-o the artichokes and mushrooms, YUM! All my favorite stuff (except the onions, iI will leave them off, LOL) - it's just BEEEEEEEEEEEEE-YOU-TEE-FULL!

Angel said...

Vegan sushi is so delicious! I've never heard of Gail rolls or Crop Burning. They look yummy! And that pizza—just incredible. Seriously.

Vegiegail said...

Hi Titut! Thank you for your comment and for alerting me to your discovery. It's a rather odd form of "piracy," as they do add our links to the bottom of each entry. However, it would be nice if they made it very clear up front that they are copying these posts from other blogs and asked for our permission to share them. That's exactly what I'm going to ask them to do right now.

VeganMarr said...

Someone can eat my mushrooms but other than that, Id love a couple slices of this pizza! :-) Oh & congrats, Cee! Happy cooking! Invite us all over to try your experiments! ;-)

Titut said...

Hi there vegiegail, Just want to drop by to say hello. I'm so happy that my efforts re. choco_almonds plagiarism action toward my blog has sweet result. Mine no longer in their web after I report it to some authority who in charge with piracy/plagiarism.

It means that my blog is SEO friendly again. Mine has climbing up easily now since it is taken down from this choco_almonds web. My blog is no.1 again when we search through google or yahoo by its key words. It is danger to let someone copy paste all our blog content and published them as if theirs. It put risk our page rank beyond rather than helping us to promote our blog. There are many ways to promote our blog positively.

I agree with you, that who ever wants to do such like choco should ask permission and most important put our name as creator not them. Another important thing is 'not to copy paste all our blog content' but summarize them or put quote and they can put their own word instead of copy paste words and most important to me : "pictures" espc. with copyright watermark on them.

I have notice all readers in choco_almonds web still don't realize if it is actually written by others not choco. The credits are for choco not the real writer. My concern is choco has financial benefit by doing so. It is like rewarding a thief with gold medallion. Any way, I'm glad my battle is over and I can enjoy my SEO friendly blog again. Keep up the good work vegiegail, I love your blog ;) though don't worry I will never copy paste them and publish them as mine :D LOL as I'm a person with dignity.

BTW, please, please taking down my comments that having choco_almonds link ABOVE. If you do it you are my hero vegiegail ;)

Vegiegail said...

Hi Titut! I left a comment on the offender's post, asking them to give appropriate link and credit to me for the content they republished. Since they have not, I sent a formal complaint of content theft to Wordpress, and I hope that my content will be removed from their site and that there will be no further violations from them in the future. Thank you again for bringing this to my attention. I have removed your previous comment with the ca link.

~ Cee ~ said...

I just received the cookbook today, and it is wonderful! I cannot decide what to cook first. Thank you again!

Millie said...

Love that pizza Gail...its calling me.... LOL.

Vegiegail said...

Enjoy, Cee! Thank you, Millie. I know if you make it, you will love it!

Jamie : ) said...

oh my gosh, gail - this looks amazing!!!!!!!! : )