making a pizza from semi-scratch

So I love to make pizzas. They are cheap, easy to make and fairly quick. The most expensive part is the cheese and even that isn't too bad. I will show you how easy it can be.

Start with:
1 box (packet) of pizza crust (Jiffy and Great Value from Wal-mart works well) ($.47-$.66)
1/4 can of pizza sauce ($1)
1/2 bag of Mozzarella cheese (~$2 roughly)

Extras:
Olive oil if you have it
Italian seasoning herbs
garlic salt or powder
any topping you like on your pizza

1. preheat oven and follow instructions on box. basically, mix pizza crust with water and let rise in a warm spot with a towel covering. I usually mix italian seasoning and garlic powder or salt into the pizza crust mix for more taste.
2. after rising for about 5 mins, roll dough out on greased pizza pan or pizza stone. poke dough lightly with a fork all over. it should look like the pie edging  from Stone White and not a pizza you can see through. I find that it helps if you LIGHTLY sprinkle olive oil on crust after poking it so it doesn't dry out
2.5. Depending on box, it may call for you to cook crust like this for 1-2 before the next step. If so, follow box and then continue (after pulling pizza out of oven.)
3. spread the pizza sauce over dough.
4. Cover with half of cheese add toppings and top with cheese. I tend to sprinkle more italian seasoning on top of pizza and sprinkle garlic salt on crust after topping to give extra flavor.
5. Pop in oven and back for time alloted. Remember to rotate pizza in oven as there are hot spots in the oven and you want to allow the pizza to cook evenly.
6. when done, take out, allow to cool a little. Then cut, eat and enjoy!

Dollar sauce packets

While I have a seasoning drawer that would make a normal chef weep with envy, today when I was shopping, I was in the sauces aisle and decided to try some. Even with all the creations I could make with mine, somedays I am so tired by the time I get home, I just want to throw some food together and have it taste good without spending an hour on it.

Hence my new love affair with seasoning packets. True, they will eat up my budget so I only get it when they are on sale, but today when it was finally 50 degrees for once since October, I didn't want to cook. I had to work for 5 hours today, go shopping and get food before going back to homework (that will inevitably be the death of me) and meeting, I wanted something quick and good.

So I threw some chicken (tenderloins - many uses, easy to separate and freeze)  and veggies (can of tomatoes and a can of mushrooms) and a can of tomato sauce in the crock-pot with an Italian Herb Chicken slow cooker packet from McCormick. It was delicious. Threw it together, went to work, came home to food ready for me before I had to turn around for meetings and more homework.

Ah, I do not know what I would do without my slow cooker. That is my ultimate love affair (unless someone got me a stand mixer, I would die to have one)!

Delicious Starbucks drink I had

So I was at Starbucks a week ago wanting to get some iced coffee.

Since they were out, the barista recommended another drink that would be free for me since they did not have what I wanted.

It was called a caffe americano. I had it iced with Peppermint syrup ( I get free syrups because of the reward level I am at). It was phenomenal! I have had it a couple more times since then and love it!

What it is is espresso and hot (but in my case cold) water added to be like a coffee in that it has more to drink than a single espresso shot.

But it is very good. I highly recommend it!