Tomatoes from the garden, mini-pizzas, and a mango smoothie

My parents planted a lovely garden in our backyard with okra, tomatoes, mini-yellow tomatoes that are shaped like bells, cherry tomatoes, yellow squash, green bell peppers, eggplant, spicy peppers, and basil. It's lovely, especially the tomatoes. 

Aren't they lovely? 

Anyways, so I made pizza dough. It was good. Then I made mini-pizzas, and a smoothie, they were really good. 

I like to keep pizza dough in the fridge/freezer, it's easy to pull out, defrost, bake up, and make pizza. It sounds complicated, but it's really not. One recipe can make four pizzas. Make one, and freeze three. 

And the better part is making mini-pizzas! 

So I'll tell you how: 

Pizza Dough

**3.5 cups all purpose flour

**1 cup whole wheat flour 

1.75 tsp. salt

1 tsp. active, dry yeast

0.25 cup olive oil

1.75 luke warm water

Cornmeal (optional)

**You can mess with the amounts of whole wheat to APF, you can make it all APF, or half and half, I will say, half and half will change the flavor a great deal**

In a small bowl, mix together the warm water and yeast. Make sure the water is only luke warm, you don't want to kill the yeast. Let it sit for 2 minutes. 

In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, salt, olive oil, and then finally the yeast. Knead together for 5-7 min, or basically until sticky but not wet. 

Divide it into four separate balls. So now the dough is basically done. So you have a few options:

1. Use it right away? Let it rise, in a covered bowl, in a warm spot, for 2 hours. It should double in size. 

2. Use it in the next 2-3 days? Keep it in the fridge wrapped up in plastic wrap. Before you use it, pull it out, and let it rise for 2 hours in a warm spot.

3. Use it in the next month? Freeze it in plastic wrap. Defrost it in the fridge the night before you want to use it. Pull it out and let it rise for 1 hour, and use it.  

How to Bake Them:

While it's going, preheat your oven to 450F. If you have a pizza stone, put it in there 45 minutes before you bake on it. If not, you can bake on a regular round baking pan. Roll it out or stretch it out to the size you want. Dust your pan with cornmeal, and place the dough on top. Bake the dough for 8-10 minutes. Then pull out, put your favorite sauce on top, and your favorite toppings, and bake for another 6-8 minutes. 

Anyways, what I did was I made tasty mini-pizzas for lunch. I used one dough ball, and pulled it apart into tiny rolls, and rolled it out into tiny pizzas. Baked them for 10 min, then put the toppings on top, bake for another 5-6 min. 

My dad's hand in the corner grabbing at them!

Om nom nom

Then I made a mango protein smoothie! Seriously, it didn't taste like a protein smoothie, it was awesome! The protein helps keep you filled up throughout the day, and it tasted great! 

Mango Smoothie

1 cup milk (soy, almond, whole, 1%, 2% whatever you like)

1 mango, peeled and pitted

1 apple, seeds removed

0.5-1 scoops of protein powder (depends on what you want) 

0.5 cup yogurt (I used Activia vanilla yogurt) 

Ice cubes 

Blend it all together, and pour it out! :-) It's tasty, it's filling, and it goes well with the pizzas. 

Blurry but tasty!