Pizza night! (And some salad was involved, too.)

Tuesday night went according to plan – sort of. (And so is life.) We’re fostering a puppy right now and so much of my day-to-day existence has revolved around making sure she isn’t eating our house, peeing everywhere, or otherwise hurting herself. She’s also a bit of a timid little lady, so I took her to a shy and fearful dog class, which was kindly hosted by her rescue organization, Second Hand Hounds. The class started at 6:30pm, so I naively thought that it’d last an hour, I’d be home by 8pm, and I could take charge of dinner then. No such luck. I left the class at 8:30pm and got home at 9pm, thinking that dinner was all over. And then… as I climbed the apartment stairs, delicious smells started wafting through the air. “Could it be,” I wondered in my starved stupor. I steadily mounted the last stairs, opened the apartment door, and gasped in excitement: the pizza had been prepared (by my kind and loving husband). Seriously, there is nothing better than coming home to have a freshly cooked pizza waiting for you. So here is our favorite pizza to make at home. It’s nothing special, but it’s oh so delicious and oh so easy and enjoyable on a night where you don’t really have much gas left in the tank and you want a cheap and simple meal.

Simple Homemade Pizza

• Prepared pizza dough (when I called this pizza “homemade,” I stretched the truth a little bit). We’ve bought our dough at Whole Foods, our local food coop, and Trader Joes. Your local pizza place may have dough for purchase as well.
• A jar of pesto.
• Salami
• Mozzarella

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (or follow whatever cooking directions your dough provides).

2. Roll out the dough on a baking pan – feel free to spray the pan with non-stick spray first.

3. Spread the pesto on the dough, place the salami on the pizza, and then cut up the mozzarella into slices and arrange on the pie.

4. Stick in the oven and let that baby cook until the crust is where you want it -maybe around 20 minutes.  Totally easy and totally yummy.

To make ourselves feel better about having pizza, we also pulled together a quick salad. The story behind this salad: for the longest time, I’ve been going to restaurants and ordering an arugula salad – it’s always super simple and I feel clean and wholesome and pretty while I eat it (before diving into whatever pasta deliciousness I’ve also willed to appear on the table). But then I go home and forget about arugula until the next time I go to a restaurant and run through the same cycle and spend another eight bucks on something I could have easily made myself. Recently, I realized that I was being stupendously silly and set out to rectify the situation. And here it is: the best (and easiest ) salad ever.

• 1 packet of baby arugula
• 1/2 a lemon
• Thin slices of parmesan
• A gentle swirl of olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Mix it all together until you find the balance that makes your taste buds sing, and enjoy! (I told you it was easy.)