when you have ingredients left over from a pizza party…

…you make pizza toasts!

I had a pizza party type evening on Sunday with a few of my friends to break in my new floors. This had left me with a lot of leftover pizza toppings – but no left over dough! Not feeling like kneading out some more dough for the rest of the week – and inspired by pizza toasts that I had a few months ago at my sister and her boyfriend’s house, I constructed this surprisingly tasty alternative.

I pre-toasted the bread, and then layered the toppings – and finished it off with a few minutes under the grill – couldn’t be simpler. I paired it with a rocket, parmesan and balsamic salad – a tasty dinner indeed!

bbq pizza: round two

I meant to post last night about my maiden cooking voyage on my new birthday present, my weber q  bbq (thanks mum and dad!) however after preparing all the components and heading outside to begin the cooking it became apparent that my local bunnings had swapped my empty gas can with another empty gas can (I knew it felt too light!) so I soon became deflated at the missed opportunity to bbq and went back inside and cooked the pizzas in the oven – sigh.

But tonight – I went back for round 2! After a lunchtime trip to bbqs galore to get a new (and full!) gas bottle I was ready to roll. If you haven’t made pizza on the bbq before I would highly recommend it – the base gets beautifully crisp, while the toppings get cooked, but not burnt. The technique is slightly different to cooking pizza in the oven, as I prefer to crisp the base initially before the toppings even get put on top. This does involve bringing all the ingredients outside with you – but it is worth it I promise!

I used the following recipe for the dough – it is great because it doesn’t need any rising time, meaning you can make it just before cooking your pizza. I also pre-prepared all my toppings onto my chopping board, and rolled my dough into my desired shapes (as circular as I could get them). All ready to go I headed outside:

the new baby!

the toppings ready to go – and a cider (an essential pizza topping…)

the pre-prepared pizza doughs

the pizza stone warming up, and the corn (for a salad)

pre-cooking the dough (for uber crunchyness)

the first cab off the rank, pizza bianca (olive oil, rosemary and salt) with my corn, chickpea and rocket salad

number two, tomato base, pancetta, red onion and mozzarella

the third, tomato base, mozzarella, prosciutto and fresh basil.

Although there were a few bumps to begin with, it was certainly worth the run around for these pizzas. Now I just need more warm nights for an excuse to get out and bbq.

+39 pizzeria again

Before heading out to Friday night drinks yesterday we headed out to dinner. The place we planned on heading to dinner was no longer open for dinners (outdated Cheap Eats app let me down!) so we headed to the closest other option, +39 desgustation bar and pizzeria, a restaurant I had previously been to and thoroughly enjoyed – this time around however it was a lot busier, with many patrons just lining up in the restaurant waiting for a seat. It did make the place a lot noisier and crowded, but the food was good none the less.

The best thing was potentially the dessert – a lemon soaked sponge with custard – delish!

400 gradi

On Friday I headed out to dinner with some friends to 400 gradi in Brunswick, and it was delicious! The menu was very extensive and had a very upmarket atmosphere for a restaurant featured in the Cheap Eats. We ended up sharing a few pizzas between us, which worked out perfectly because I got to taste more than one.

I definitely recommend popping in if you get the chance.

weekend updates

So the long weekend has nearly been and gone, sigh. It has been a mixture of successes and not so successful events, but all in all it’s been a fantastic four days off!

My interview went well on Friday, so fingers crossed I’ll hear whether I made it to next round tomorrow or on Wednesday. The beautiful days of Friday, Saturday and half of Sunday was also perfect whether for taking my friend around Melbourne sight seeing. We headed out to lunch in the city on Saturday and choose some where from cheap eats that was close by. In true Melbourne fashion we couldn’t find the restaurant – we had to walk up and down the street multiple times before we saw the small entrance to The Commercial Bakery – we ordered a chicken and leek pie for lunch, and it was soooo tasty, definitely worth the search.

Saturday night was the Melbourne Vogue Supper Club – and although there were some awkward silences at the beginning the night went really well. All the girls were lovely and I’m excited for the next one! I had a delicious prosciutto and bocconcini pizza – photo came out a bit fuzzy, but I am sure you get the gist.

Lastly this weekend was supposed to be the weekend my laundry was tiled, unfortunately after pulling up the floorboards it was apparent that the back wall was too bowed due to the water damage and it will be needed to be re-plastered. So now my laundry area looks something like this:

and I have my washing machine in the middle of my living room, sigh. Hopefully I will be able to get a plasterer out asap so I won’t have to live too many weeks with no washing machine access.

Lastly, after all these adventures, I had an awesome nap, joined by Bailey, who decided to hide within the pillows

Now to head back to work tomorrow – sigh – there are never enough long weekends!

+39 pizzeria & degustation

My dad was in town last night, so to celebrate we went to +39 pizzeria & degustation in the Melbourne CBD. It was truly delicious! We started out with a degustation plate:

meats and cheeses….mmm

And then onto the Pizzas:

dad’s fig, brie, prosciutto and rocket pizza

my prosciutto and mozzarella pizza.

There was even enough for leftovers for lunch today, best ever!

healthy eating

So like nearly everyone in January I am trying to eat better. Since Monday I have been loosely following an eating plan recommended by my boot camp company (you can view it here), although I am not back at boot camp for another week and a bit. Mostly the plan involves low levels of carbohydrates and red meats – focusing on vegetables, eggs, fish and more vegetables! The past few days have been going well, I even cooked Tofu for the first time and was pleasantly surprised, however for a well needed break from all the foliage Phil and I made homemade pizzas for dinner last night. Now this isn’t on the recommended meal plan, but we had bought the ingredients before I decided to go on a health kick, so I thought we better use them – and one little cheat didn’t hurt anyone!

Now the rest of the week’s eating doesn’t hold too much excitement – more eggs and vegetables anyone? But, as I am a person who takes much enjoyment from food, I have been a tad more creative for the next 5 weeks of the meal plan – more flavours and more variety are planned. I am headed to the markets this weekend to hopefully save a bit on all the vegies I’ll be buying – I will also have my first foray into fish buying and cooking! My mum always cooked fish at home, but since moving out I haven’t really ventured into the realm of cooking seafood. As this plan calls for fish twice a week for most of the weeks I’ll hopefully be an expert by the end.

Stay tuned for some exciting and healthy food in the coming weeks!

bbq pizza

Who would have thought pizza on the barbecue would be the best homemade pizza’s ever!

(still not sure about the yellow stools – might still paint them red)

pizza meine liebe

Phil returned from his week in New Zealand on the weekend and to celebrate we headed out to dinner at Pizza Meine Liebe (translates to pizza my love)  in Northcote. Not only is this restaurant in the Cheap Eats book, it was also recommended from an old carlton local who had cased nearly all the pizza joints in town. The restaurant was a typical melbourne eatery, with small tables squished close to each other in a long and narrow room. We were sat near the back quite early in the evening, but it was already nearly packed. The menu was extensive with a huge variety of pizzas (you can view it here), not even including the additional pizza specials.

Phil went for the ‘armando’:

Where as I had the ‘exit the dragon’ a pizza special for that week:

We finished the meal off with a chocolate and strawberries pizzette:

The wait between pizzas was long, however it was definitely worth it – the food was simple, but well cooked. Definite two thumbs up.

miscellaneous food adventures

The rest of this week was filled with some miscellaneous cooking – feeling quite lost without access to my taste.com I looked once again to my old cookbooks and delicious magazines. I ended up cooking:

homemade potato pizza

an avocado and blue cheese toasty (courtesy of phil)

miniature hot dogs with caramelised onions

That’s all the meals for this week – I should have my next weeks menu by Sunday – bring on the long weekend!