Did you guys know that my skinny pizza dough makes great Chicago style deep dish pizza?   I could have sworn I had leftover pizza dough in my fridge, but for the life of me couldn’t find it. When I asked Hannah if she had seen it, she said “look in the leftover bin!”  Yes, there is a rectangle tray in our fridge dedicated to leftovers.  When it wasn’t there, I just made a quick batch on the fly.  Wouldn’t you know that I found it this morning. . .in the meat drawer.  Which is why Hannah can’t stand the way I organize my fridge.

Here are a few tips to making deep dish pizza at home:

Bake your pizza at 425 on the lower third of your oven.  While I cook my thin crust at 500, you need a lower temperature because this will take 30 minutes to bake.

Brush the bottom of your cake pan with 1 teaspoon of grape seed oil – this will give your pizza that crispy crunchy.

This is an 8 inch cake pan – I used the whole dough recipe for this pan – which makes the dough 20 points, or 5 points per quarter.  This dough didn’t rise since I made it and rolled it out, so this will be a bit denser dough than if I would have let it rise all day – still delicious though!

Put the dough in the cake pan and push the sides up.  Now here is what is important – put your cheese as the first layer – you’ll want a barrier from the pizza sauce – if you put the sauce on first, it will immediately start soaking into the dough and you won’t get that crisp crust.

But your toppings on next – I used turkey sausage and spinach.  Put your sausage on RAW.  Yep, I am yelling that part because so many people cook their sausage, then put it on pizza, where it cooks a second time.  With a thin crust at 500 degrees or a deep dish at 425 for 30 minutes – both ways will cook your sausage – promise.  Just keep them no bigger than the size of a nickel.

Finish with the sauce and then top with one more ounce of cheese.  I prefer Trader Joe’s light mozzarella, but I am out – you can see the difference – the reduced fat mozzarella cheese doesn’t melt as well as the TJ brand – also my 1/2 cup cost me 6 points, while the same 1/2 cup would have only cost me 2 points.

Nearly ready for the oven – just add more cheese and seasonings of choice – I like Italian seasoning, dried fennel and a couple pinches of crushed red pepper.

This whole pizza is 32 points – 20 for the dough, 4 for the sausage, 6 for the cheese, 1 for the oil, 1 for the sauce.  That slice is 8 points, and while I would have eaten half no problem, since I worked late, I didn’t eat dinner until 10:15 – so that slice was plenty.

My breakfast was delicious yesterday – my delicata biscuits are so good!  I toasted it and added a schmear of butter and some sugar free strawberry preserves.  I can’t share the recipe until it goes live on The Chopping Block, but thanks to my friend Jeana for coming up with a great name for them:  #delicuits!  

My blood sugar before lunch?  68.  Too low to go walking, and it turned out my sister’s son was meeting her so I took a short lunch and heated up my Tuscan Bean Soup.  I gave some to one of my co-workers and she couldn’t stop talking about how good this soup was.  It’s a keeper!

I ate half of that apple as my afternoon snack – I had to weigh it for shits and giggles – nearly 1 pound!

Here’s the view from one of my bosses office – which faces west.  So pretty!  The lit up building is the Merchandise Mart where The Chopping Block is. 😀

It felt like I was asleep for a minute.  Fingers crossed I don’t have to work late tonight.  

I am so excited about this cookbook!  I pre-ordered this as a birthday gift to myself in March, and it just got delivered on Tuesday.  I have followed Mississippi Vegan for a long time on Instagram – he’s funny, makes delicious looking food, and I know you are shocked that I bought a vegan cookbook, but one of my goals for 2019 will be to eat more plant based foods – I’ll only eat steak three times a week. 😀  You can check out his blog here.

I’ve made his vegan mac n cheese when my niece was in town for Mother’s Day this year – so good!

Happy Thursday friends – make it a great day!