Making Do in the Kitchen: Part 3

I've shared several of the strange and kind of fun (I think anyway!) ways we make do in our kitchen to save A)time and B) $$money. Saving these two things helps to save my sanity as well! Another way we regularly make do in the kitchen is by creatively using ingredients that we have on hand or regularly stock so that we can subsitute something less costly (to us anyway!) in a recipe we are using. This is illustrated well by our weekly "pizza habit".

The original recipe is found here. Thank you Crystal at Biblical Womanhood for sharing such an awesome recipe on her blog! We have transitioned from trying out a new recipe every week (practically) to only using this recipe because it is SO good and SO fast! I made a minor change or two, but this is pretty much Crystal's recipe other than that.

Crystal’s Homemade Easy Pizza

Crust:
1 TBS yeast
1 cup water (105 to 115 degrees F)
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 TBS oil
1 cup white flour
1 ½ cups whole wheat flour

Dissolve the yeast in the water. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir until combined. Knead for 5 minutes, adding flour if necessary to make it smooth and elastic. Roll out into circle (1/2 inch thick) on pizza stone or greased pan. Top with favorite toppings (our current favorite—again thanks for the idea from Crystal! Is BBQ sauce with cheese and either hamburger or chicken) Bake at 450 degrees for 12-15 minutes.


The "making do" part of our weekly pizza habit is the topping portion. Although Daniel and I both love hawaiian pizza (pineapple and canadian bacon), we don't usually have that since for us, that would mean an extra $3-4 for toppings! Instead we have developed a taste for new and unusual toppings that we already have on hand and/or are cheap to us. The above BBQ sauce idea came out of this, since I got about 15 bottles for $0.10 each a few weeks ago. I would have never thought of it without the idea from Crystal and since then we've expanded on the money saving idea. We do this by using ground beef, which is currently cheap to us, and half cheddar cheese (instead of all mozzarella) since that is on sale more frequently.

Other topping ideas that may be "out of the box" for your family: hamburger pizza (use a tomato base, but put ground beef, cheddar, tomatoes, top with lettuce after cooking), taco pizza (use salsa, chicken, cheddar and whatever else your heart desires), or even a fruity dessert pizza (with a sweet cream cheesey base and apples, struesel topping, etc. on top).

How have you been "making do" in your kitchen lately?