Jul 13, 2014
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Need an easy and fun recipe to get dinner together in under 15 minutes? These easy pita pizzas are just what you’ve been looking for.
When I return home from a business trip, I often find my fridge empty. It’s not my husband’s fault, he always offers to swing by the grocery store before I get home… but I don’t like to go to the grocery without some type of plan for the week. Using a meal plan is the only way we are able to feed our family on a budget.
Yesterday, was no different. He went to get eggs, bananas, berries, and a couple basic stapes we purchase every week. While I was in the plane, I mapped out our weekly meals and drove straight to the store on the way home to purchase the rest of the food.
Somehow, I forgot that it was Saturday and I didn’t write down a meal for dinner. By the time I got home, it was 7pm. The kids were hungry, I was tired from a long travel day, and lots of things needed to be put away (I hate unpacking).
Good thing my husband had picked up Toufayan Pitas for his office lunches while at the store! The pitas saved dinner. Everyone was happy and dinner was served 20 minutes later. I always keep gluten free pizza dough in the freezer for my son and keep hoping Toufayan makes gluten free pitas one day.
While travel might seem exciting, I really miss my family when I’m gone. I spend my days in meetings, going from one place to another in Manhattan, working at the nearest Starbucks between meetings, and doing conference calls. By the time I get back to my hotel room at night, I’m spent. Most nights, I eat in my room, take a shower, and FaceTime with my family before going to bed. Exciting, right?
Anyways, back to these pitas. They are super easy to assemble and they are perfect for the next day’s office or school lunch. I typically make an entire pack of pitas into pizzas and toast them in the toaster oven the next day. My daughter loves finding pita pizza in her lunch and she eats it at room temperature.
Easy Pita Pizzas
Ingredients
- 6 Pitas
- 1 ¼ cups pizza sauce
- 1 ½ cups grated mozzarella
- Favorite pizza toppings
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400F and position your oven rack in the lower ⅓ of the oven.
- Meanwhile, line two baking sheets with parchment paper and place 3 pitas in each baking sheet.
- Spread 3-4 tablespoons pizza sauce onto each pita, top with toppings and cheese.
- Bake one tray at a time, 7 minutes, until cheese is bubbly and melted.
Jennifer
when you make extra pitas ahead of time, do you bake them then store? or only bake them prior to eating/packing? If the latter, how do you keep the cheese & toppings from falling off when you store them?
thanks!
Teresa
Hi, Laura,
Here’s a side question — how did you defrost the gluten free dough in time ? I keep some from wholefoods in my freezer but find defrosting to be a problem at crunch time. Also, I have no idea how long is the dough good for when frozen. Do you know ?
Pita pizza sounds great. I will try it sometime, especially the pesto pizza from your picture in at the kid food fest. We found a really great dairy-free pesto at wholefoods that the kids really love. We’re vegetarians and I never feel comfortable using parmesan because it uses lots of animal rennet.
We have a similar super-easy pizza recipe. We use English muffins. My daughter had me follow a recipe she read about from one of her 3rd grade citywide tests passages. It uses one half of an English muffin, 1 layer of basil leaves, thin slices of ripe tomatoes, a few more basil leaves, and mozzarella cheese (we happened to have fresh ones on hand). Then bake in toaster oven at 375 at 12 min. It was so simple she could do it (monitored). Then, to my delight, I put two pieces together, like a sandwich, cheese to cheese, and she ate it all up during lunch at school.
Susan
Hi! I was just wondering if the pitas get soggy from the pizza sauce by lunchtime? My oldest has sensory processing disorder and he can’t handle any type of soggy or mushy texture (think mashed potatoes, or cereal that has been sitting in milk for a while) in his food. I think all my kiddos would love these but was just wondering if it needed to be something that was served right away to avoid food texture issues.
Laura Fuentes
Susan, great question. If you toast it in the morning, allow it to cool down to room temperature prior to packing it in the lunchbox, it should remain crispy. It will get soggy not from the sauce but from the steam that gets trapped in the container if you don’t let it cool down completely. I think it’s worth trying once 🙂
Susan
Thank you Laura! I’ve got these on my menu plan for next week so that we can do a trial run. All three of the kiddos looked at the pictures and are excited about trying them!
Laura Fuentes
So glad this was a success!
Matt Robinson
These look like so much fun to make, and so yummy! Can’t wait to try these with the boys soon:)
Laura Fuentes
Thanks Matt! this makes for a quick and easy dinner for sure.