Portabella Pizza (V)

I am traveling for work later this week, and then I am staying with friends this weekend. I can't wait to see how I deal with having to eat out and eat at other, non-vegetarian houses. But tonight's topic is going to focus on the other issue which I have mentioned previously - my horrible tendency to overbuy vegetables, and/or, not knowing what to do with them.

I looked in the fridge, and I have this:

A bag of brussel sprouts
Baby Bok Choy
Two stalks of Broccoli
Two Portabella Mushroom Caps

It is Monday night. I leave Wednesday morning for my work trip. My initial concern was, these vegetables will go to waste! I quickly googled a couple of recipes, I googled if I could freeze vegetables (fyi - you cant without blanching and that just seemed like more work than I wanted to do after cleaning the bathroom and starting laundry). I thought I was in a bad spot. Then, I thought, I bet I can make portabella pizzas, with broccoli on them, and as a side.

So, I googled "portabella pizza" and saw a ton of recipes! Granted I had to use cheese, but I had some leftover Sargento Reduced Fat Provolone I had purchased prior to my meatless adventure. I didn't feel so bad about using this since it had been a pre-veg purchase and would go bad soon anyways. After the cupcake, I'm lucky this day ended this good.

So basically finding out that portabella pizza had been done, I didn't really look at any particular recipes, I kind of just made my own. I didnt have any cans of diced tomatoes, tomato paste, or puree. I was out of onions. My basil was brown. Don't judge me - I know that's sad. I was about to give up on the endeavor, but then I improvised.

First, I cleaned the portabella mushrooms and destalked the broccoli. I put them both on a cookie sheet, and tossed a couple of liberal tablespoons of olive oil over both vegetables. Then, I used my garlic salt grinder and sprinkled that liberally over the veggies. I stuck them in the broiler, and went to work on my sauce for the portabella pizzas.

I was really nervous for this part. I took 6 of my heriloom cherry tomatoes (Trader Joe's needs to pay me for talking about these so much) and put them in a pan with a few drizzles of olive oil. I added italian herb seasoning blend, some granulated garlic, onion powder, some additional basil, and let them cook on medium low until the skin broke. Then, I kind of mashed them and let them continue cooking for a few minutes. Next, I did something a little weird. I added in a touch of almond milk. I wanted to give it a little bit more flavor and creamy-ness, since I didnt have many tomatoes, or anything else to make the sauce with. It worked out great - it tasted so good. People may think I'm nuts, but it was actually quite tasty.

I was going to brown some Gimme Lean Soy Sausage to add to the "pizza," but once it's open, it has to be used in 3-5 days. I knew I wouldnt use enough and didn't want the rest to go to waste, so I'll save that for after the travel is over. I started to think that the pizza needed some more substance, and I need at least a little protein. So, I got a can of black beans out and added it to my tomato "sauce" to heat them through at the very end. The sauce took 20 minutes, total. Next, I took the veggies out of the oven (after about 25 minutes of roasting, and set the broccoli aside. I then spooned the tomato/bean mixture onto the portabella mushrooms, put two pieces of the reduced fat provolone on top, and popped them back in the oven to melt the cheese.

I put the pizzas on plates, put the broccoli on as a side, and topped the broccoli with a little drizzle of olive oil... and had a meal that I was a little worried about.

It was actually really, really good. I wished I had more. I would definately do this again - even without having the cans of diced tomatoes/sauce.