I took a trip out to one of our local produce stands yesterday.  When I walked in the door, I could immediately smell the basil and tomatoes.  The tomatoes came in so many beautiful colors. To tell you the truth, I’ve never eaten anything but a red tomato.  Since I’ve never met a tomato I didn’t like, I decided to buy a few of each color to try out.

I have basil growing at home, but it’s not quite ready to be picked yet, so I bought a bunch of the most wonderful smelling basil.  I stopped by the grocery store on the way home too and picked up a block of mozzarella and a block of Parmesan.

I record Martha Bakes, on the Hallmark channel, and one of her recent episodes had pizzas with oven dried tomatoes and basil.  I’ve never thought of myself as vegetarian-pizza-type-of-girl.  We’re fans of the meat-lovers pizza at my house, but with my new “can’t eat anything” diet, I thought I’d give it a try.  After oven drying the tomatoes, we each assembled our own pizzas.  My daughter, the picky eater, made a cheese pizza.  Of course after it was cooked, she said it looked disgusting and she heated up some leftover rice instead.  We cooked some chicken sausages, so the boys could add a meaty touch to their pizzas. My son’s is heavy on the meat, light on the veggies.

It turned out really yummy.  Mine had a little bit of olive oil, drizzled on the crust, freshly grated mozzarella and Parmesan cheese, oven dried heirloom tomatoes, and a sprinkling of basil.  The tomatoes were very sweet and the fresh mozzarella had just the right amount of salt. 

Side note- I think grating your own cheese is the ONLY way to go.  The preshredded stuff is nice and easy, but when you cook with it, it’s kind of like plastic.  The fresh cheese made all the difference in this pizza.

Talk about a yummy lunch!  I may get used to this meatless lifestyle yet.

Happy cooking… or baking!  Martha had it on Martha Bakes, so it must be baking.