Last week one of my coworkers made stromboli for all of us in the pastry kitchen to eat. Another one one of my coworkers took a bite of the stromboli, pulled out a green sliver and said "I think this is cactus". Cactus? Why would there be cactus in you food? Who eats cactus? I stood there making fun of her comment. Well, apparently her and her family does. Who knew? It turns out that the cactus was actually a pepper.
So anyway, it got me thinking about the weird things my family ate... Chili on top of sticky rice with a slice of American cheese... Collard greens with sticky rice... Vegetable stir fry and hot dogs... With rice... (I'm sure you're starting to sense a pattern here. My mom is Japanese and my dad is a white boy from the south.) Actually almost everything was with rice... Pizza toast... Not with rice.
Alright. So maybe the pizza toast doesn't sound so strange but I haven't really met many people who have had it. "Oh, it's like a pizza bagel?" Well, yes. It is like a pizza bagel... But on toast.
I like using sliced bread because, first of all, it has less calories than a bagel. Second, it has more surface area and comes without that darned hole that tends to drop all the toppings you pile onto a bagel. Third, I always have bread in the freezer.
The great thing about pizza toast is that bread, sauce and cheese are readily available in most house holds, can be purchased for very cheap (especially if you have coupons!) and it can be made relatively healthy. You can use whatever ingredients you have on hand but for something on the healthier side this is what I would recommend using: whole wheat bread, pasta sauce, part skim (or nonfat) mozzarella cheese and sliced vegetables (peppers, onions, mushrooms). It's quick, easy and almost as if you're eating actual pizza. Almost.
I recommend that you first toast the bread completely before adding the sauce and toppings. Put on a sheet pan and then under the broiler (use an oven or toaster oven) until it looks like the picture above.
This little guy was my last bell pepper of the season. Just when I thought my plants were going to die, they made one last effort to produce something. It made a nice little topping for my pizza toast.
Cutest little pepper I ever did see, bet even my little ones would eat that one. We're planting our first garden this year. Maybe we'll get lucky and get a few little baby peppers of our own ... (fingers crossed)
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