Like many mothers and wives, I'm always on the lookout for new recipes and different meal ideas to feed my family for supper. I have a rotating menu of things - tacos, spaghetti, lasagne, pork chops, stir fry chicken, different varieties of Hamburger Helper (Cheesy Hashbrowns are our favorite), shepherd's pie, steak and onion pie, roast beef....those are but a few of the things that are served for dinner chez Dharma.
But they're old. We've had them over and over and over again for the past couple of months, and we're getting tired of them. When someone asks "what's for dinner?" and I say "spaghetti", the response has been "oh"...rather than the usual "cool, I'm starving!".
So, I've been racking my brains, trying to come up with something that everyone will like, that's nutritious and that's FUN. The 'everyone will like' part is the most important; we can be a picky bunch. I often end up making 2 pans of lasagne and 2 different kinds of marinara sauce because we like different things.
It came to me this morning as I was tossing the stale garlic bread that I had made on Sunday: french bread pizzas. I can make the french bread at home, and we can each have half a loaf. We've got all the fixings in the fridge - the tomato pizza sauce, onions, bell peppers, pepperoni, mushrooms, mozzarella cheese, even canadian bacon and pineapple should one of us get wild and want a 'Hawaian' pizza. Each person can have what THEY want on their pizza - they can even build it themselves.
I spent all afternoon making baguettes - the last one is going in the oven in as soon as I finish writing this article - and my house smells wonderful. There's something about the smell of freshly baked bread that I find to be very comforting. I've thin sliced the onions and the peppers, I've got the pepperoni and canadian bacon all ready to go, the pineapple is drained, the cheese is sliced and shredded....
...as soon as everyone comes home from school and work, dinner will be served!