Pizza on the Grill!

 We used to make pizza in the oven, until we discovered pizza on the grill! We will never go back....EVER. The flavor is completely different and the grill is WAY better. We live close to Rotella's bakery and are able to buy their pre-made pizza dough right from the retail store for $.94 or if you buy 10, I think about $.78 cents each and you can throw them in your freezer! This makes all the difference in the world. We used to make our own dough and it's just not the same. I LOVE Rotella's dough and that is all we use. It is convenient and cheap! You just pull however many you want out of the freezer in the morning and set them on the counter in it's plastic bag and it comes to room temperature by the time you are ready to make it for dinner! 

 Sophie with her own. She likes to do what daddy does.

 Rolling out the dough.

 I started on the toppings. We were going to do two different kinds. One was Italian inspired.

 The other was Mexican inspired. I sauteed onions in a little olive oil, and onions and garlic for the one above.

 For the Italian one I added artichokes (drained and chopped).

 Added some portabella mushrooms and heated it all up.

 For the Mexican one I added some mushrooms to that too and some frozen corn.

 Chopped some fresh basil, katamala olives and tomatoes for the Italian one.

 Oh also, some Vegan Teeze Cheese. It's a soy cheese. And some pre-made pesto. You like how our kitchen is a hodgepodge of kid bowls & plates? Nice and fancy around here! 

Ready for the grill

  Vernon puts the dough on the grill and heat its for about 3-5 minutes. The grill is on medium. Then he flips it over and starts adding the toppings.

 Here are the Mexican ones. We spread some re fried black and traditional beans on the crust.

 Then some salsa.

 Added my mix from the stove.

 And a few random black olives we had in the fridge. If I had more time I would have fancied this up with some green onions, maybe some red and yellow peppers and some cilantro, but we were rushing.

 The Italian one was next.

 Same thing with the dough. Then once it's flipped he smears on some pasta sauce and was supposed to spread on some pesto, but instead plopped some dollops around. Hmph

 Puts on the toppings from the stove I made.

 Then the kalamata olives

 and tomatoes

 and basil

 We only had a little bit of the Teeze cheese left so we put it on Sophie's baby heart pizza.

They both were good, but by far the Italian one was the best!!!! SO flavorful and yummy. And healthy!!! A little labor intensive, but well worth it. Also, while Vernon was grilling a neighbor lady was coming up to get her mail from the community mail box and asked Vernon what he was cooking (yes, our grill is in our driveway). We keep it in the garage and just pull it out when we grill. It's easier. Anyway, he told her that it was Vegan pizza. She was confused and intrigued she and had to come over and look at it. She said it looked and smelled great. Well, after it was done and we had eaten, Vernon took a plate with one of each kind of pizza down to her to try. While he was there, her neighbor was over at her house giving her some apples from his apple tree and gave Vernon some. Vernon came back home and made another plate for that guy and took it to him. A little while later that first lady came back up to our house to tell us how delicious the pizza was and to give us a gallon Ziploc baggie of her fresh basil and pineapple sage that she was needing to harvest. Then today the other neighbor came to our house and gave us another bag of his apples and to tell us thanks for the pizza and how much they loved it. Tonight I made some *healthier* apple crisp ~ stay tuned for another post on that. I almost went down to the neighbors and gave them some crisp, but then I thought that since they have so many apples they are probably making lots of crisp too, so I didn't, plus Vernon LOVED it and wouldn't let me give any away! ; ) Our neighborhood has really been passing it on lately, you can feel the neighborly love!