Family Fun Friday: Easy, Quick, and Delicious Mini Grilled Pizzas

Grilled Pizzas- under $3 and under 30 minutes

Hey there folks! Welcome back to Family Fun Friday! We actually have two family fun activities to share tonight. The start to our evening was a favorite Friday evening tradition around here- Grilled Pizza. We also played a hilariously entertaining game, but I'll have to share that in the next post!

Wait a minute... you've never had grilled pizza??? You are seriously missing out on some major yumminess! And on a camping trip... OMG. The nature makes it taste even better!

Before I share the secret to grilled pizza with you, repeat after me: "Pizza doesn't have to be round. Pizza doesn't have to be round." These may not be the most attractive pizzas in the world. I probably won't make the cover of Food Magazine. But that's okay. These babies are awesome! What they lack in appearance, they make up for in taste- smoky, cheesy, herbed deliciousness.

To make pizza, of course you need dough. You can use whatever recipe you like, canned pizza dough, or even biscuits in a pinch. Here is my recipe for pizza dough. You can also use it for dinner rolls, breadsticks, etc.

Mix 1 T yeast in 1 C hot water. Pour into a large mixing bowl. Add 2 T vegetable oil, 2.5 C flour, 1 t sugar, 1 t salt, 1-3 T of Italian Seasoning or oregano, 1 t garlic powder and 1 t onion powder.  Of course, the spices are optional. You can vary according to your taste and your toppings. Our personal opinion is the spices MAKE the dough. Knead dough until it's smooth. The awesome thing about this dough is that it doesn't have to rise. Mix, knead, and go- 5 minutes!

Divide the dough into 6-8 portions and press/roll out dough onto an oiled pizza pan. Brush oil on top of the pizza dough. For grilled pizza, it's so much easier to make individual mini pizzas instead of trying to flip a large one on the grill. That also allows everyone to personalize their toppings.

Have everything ready to go before you put the dough on the grill. These pizzas cook pretty quickly.

Preheat your grill. Once grill is hot, place pizzas onto the grill, oil side down. Direct heat is fine, unless you notice your pizza is burning. Close the grill and let the dough cook for 3-5 minutes, or until the bottom is browned, crispy, and has grill marks. When the dough is cooked on the bottom, flip the pizzas over. Add your pizza sauce, toppings, and cheese. Close the grill again and allow the pizzas to cook for another 3-5 minutes, or until cheese is melted and gooey. If your crust is burning before the cheese is melted, move the pizzas to an upper rack or an indirect heat area.

I will warn you- plan to eat outside, standing beside the grill. We have NEVER made it to the table with these grilled pizzas (at least the first batch. This dough recipe makes seven or eight 4-6" pizzas.)

 

So, how, you ask, is this Family Fun Friday? Well, making Grilled Pizzas is a family affair! The kiddos beg to make them. One kid measures, mixes, and kneads the dough while the other kid browns the sausage, gathers the toppings, etc. Everybody helps put the pizzas and toppings on the grill. And everybody stands by the grill and salivates as they cook.


Know what? Not only does grilled pizza rock, but it costs less and cooks in the same amount of time (or less) as a frozen pizza. Tastes a million times better, too! From start to finish, you can make this grilled pizza in under 30 minutes. By my calculations, it cost maybe 75 cents for the dough, 75 cents for the cheese (1/2 a bag of shredded cheese), 33 cents for the spaghetti sauce (1/3 jar), and 44 cents for the sausage (1/2 lb.). Grand total: $2.27. You can't even buy a generic frozen pizza for that!

Our Family Fun Friday Grilled Pizzas were a hit, quick, and frugal. Under $3, under 30 minutes, family fun, and yummy to boot! This should be your next camping meal. I promise you won't be disappointed!

Wheat Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free Snickerdoodle Pancakes

Wheat Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free Pancakes

I have finally found the perfect recipe for allergy friendly pancakes. Believe it or not, it is possible to make a milk free, wheat free, egg free pancake that actually tastes great! And it only uses a few, fairly normal ingredients, so they’re easy to whip up while camping. I actually mix up several batches of the dry mix at a time and store until I’m ready to use. Then all I have to do is add milk, oil, and applesauce!

 Hunter is allergic to (let me get out my fingers here) milk, wheat, corn, soy, eggs, and rice. Finding a pancake recipe without wheat, rice, or eggs has been a nightmare! But, after much trial and error,  we have done it! It’s loosely based on Cybele Pascal’s recipe for apple pancakes… but these are more of a snickerdoodle pancake!

You will need :

1 cup oat flour (by far, the cheapest of the gluten-free flours- just pour oats, as in oatmeal out of a canister, into your blender or food processor until it resembles a fine flour)

½ tsp salt

3 tsp double acting baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon (Modify this more or less due to your own tastes

2 T sugar (Again, you can modify according to taste. )

1 cup safe milk (almond, soy, coconut, oat)

2 T oil

¼ cup applesauce (This is the egg substitute. You cannot really taste it.)

Mix dry ingredients together, then add wet. Cook on a griddle, or pour into a buttered pan and make baked pancakes. (Trust me, make the baked pancakes!) You can also double the recipe, add a little more sugar and cinnamon, pour into a pan,  and you have snickerdoodle cake!

Linking up to Allergy Friendly Thanksgiving. This will most likely be one of Hunter's desserts for Turkey Day, in cake form. 

The easiest way to make pancakes ever- Baked Pancakes

The easiest way to make pancakes ever. This will change your life. Seriously!

We love pancakes for breakfast (or dinner). Having a nice breakfast is one of the things camping is all about. But camping is also about relaxation, so sometimes it’s hard to force myself to have the long, luxurious, yummy breakfast I know we’ll all enjoy because making pancakes is a little time-consuming. We take our electric griddle, so it’s not hard to do pancakes…but some days I just wanna be lazy. You know? 

And with Hunter having allergies to wheat, dairy, and eggs, his pancakes are extra-special! Having pancakes usually means at least an hour in the kitchen. I have to cook Hunter’s first so as not to contaminate the griddle, but that means his are usually cold and have to be microwaved before we can eat. In other words pancakes= yummy headache!

But, NO MORE! Do you hear me, griddle? No more. You are officially retired from pancake making!

Thanks to Lynn’s Kitchen Adventures, I tried this tip last night. I can honestly say, I will never make another round pancake again! And the best part was, I had two pans going in the oven at once. All the pancakes were ready at the same time! Do you know how long that’s been?

All you do is make your normal pancake batter… whatever special boxed mix recipe your heart desires.

Pour your batter into a buttered 13x9 inch pan, or even a buttered cookie sheet (just be sure it has edges… they don’t have to be deep). Whatever you have in your camper. Your size pan will really depend on your amount of batter. Last night, I made about 3.5 cups of batter in a 13x9 inch pan. Next time, I will divide that into two 13 x 9 inch pans. The pancakes were great, but very thick. Hunter’s mix only made about 2 cups, and I poured his into an 8 x 10 inch pan. I could have probably done his in a 13 x 9. Lynne’s rule of thumb was 2 cups mix to one 13 x 9 pan.

***UPDATE*** I tried this on well-oiled cookie sheets last night. That is THE. WAY. TO. GO! 3.5 cups of batter worked perfectly on 2 large cookie sheets. These pancakes were the perfect combo of moist and crispy. They were truly like real pancakes in thickness. Delish!

Bake at 375 for about 10 – 15 minutes, depending on your oven. You’ll know they’re done just like a cake (which is, well, kinda what you’re making… a Pancake cake!). When your toothpick or knife pulls out clean, it’s done.

Yes, I know. They don't look beautiful. But they taste good. And that's what matters!
 Gluten free pancakes are never pretty, right?
These are in a 13 x 9 pan. 

This last step is important, IF you care how your pancakes look. I mush mine anyway, so I truly didn’t care. If you want pretty pancakes, without ragged edges, let it cool before you cut it. If you’ve got hungry kiddos salivating beside you, go ahead and cut it!

I have to say, these turned out SPECTACULAR!  Especially Hunter’s. Wheat /egg/dairy free pancakes have always come out looking misshapen and funky. These were gorgeous! They actually turned out  so well, I will probably double the recipe and let this be my new allergy-friendly cake recipe from now on.

Biscuits on a Stick- Campfire Cookin'

A fellow camper shared this "recipe" with us this summer, and we fell in love with it!

Biscuits on a Stick!

 You need biscuits, butter, and jelly if you want it.

 Take a canned biscuit, grease your hands with butter, then roll the biscuit up like you would a playdough snake.
Butter the cooking end of your stick. Start at the end, and wrap your biscuit snake around the stick. You want it to be in a tight coil, with the end closed off. Press together as needed to seal.

 Roast over a fire till done. You'll know it's done when it slides off the stick easily.

 Fill with butter or jelly (the squeezey kind works best) and enjoy!

How to Make a Peace Sign Ice Cream Cake

While camping, none the less...

You need: a round pan, 2 cartons of ice cream, sprinkles, and frosting.
Let the ice cream melt SLIGHTLY. Spread one flavor in the bottom (I used Cookies and Cream), then another flavor on top (I used Birthday Cake). Smooth out the top, then sprinkle with sprinkles (ha ha!). Put in the freezer for a few hours till re-solidified or until you're ready to serve.
When you're ready to serve, get out your icing. I cheated, since we're in a camper and all, and didn't feel like making homemade icing and dragging out all the little tips. I bought a $3 can of white frosting that comes with all the tips. I used a flower tip to go around the cake, and a ribbon tip for the peace sign. Add more sprinkles (you can never have enough sprinkles!), and BRAVO! A beautiful, easy peasy, and YUMMY cake! The girls declared it the Best. Cake. Ever.

 I recommend blowing out IMAGINARY candles, since it is ice cream...

Yep, I'd say it's good!

Totally Tubular Camping Meal

We've discovered a totally frugal, totally yummy, totally easy, totally fun, totally customizable camping meal:

biscuits for dinner. Before you say, "huh?" hear me out. I am totally into easy cooking- we are on vacation and all that... the kiddos are totally into "fun" meals.... anything snacky or junky meets their standards. Oh, yeah, we also want it to be frugal. Some fellow campers who were leaving gave us a 4-pack of canned biscuits that were about to expire (or, as Lewis Grizzard used to call them, WHOMP biscuits). (BTW, said fellow campers were also friends... we're not so poor random folks feel the need to give us canned biscuits..ha ha.)

You know how you forget about things? Well, we had forgotten about canned biscuits. We enjoyed those suckers so much, we had to go buy some more. We also bought some toppings to go with them.
For $2.14, we got 4 ten packs of whomp biscuits. Then we bought: Pineapple preserves (if you've never tried this, RUN to the nearest grocery store. Oh my...),grape jelly, strawberry jelly, honey, syrup, and butter. We spent about $9 on the other items, but all that stuff we'll use in other meals as well. For our family of 4, 2 packs of biscuits works out great. 5 biscuits is perfect for each of us. We topped and customized them as we desired- honey, butter & syrup, jelly, cheese, just plain butter... the possibilities are endless. I figure we might have used 75 cents worth of toppings... maybe. 2 packs of biscuits was $1.07, so we had a fun, filling, fantastic, and frugal meal for under two bucks!

Sharing this at:
Frugal Friday http://lifeasmom.com/
Fabulously Creative Friday http://www.jenniferrizzo.com/
Feature Friday http://www.blissfulanddomestic.com/2012/07/feature-friday-linky-party-45.html#more

Homemade ice cream in a bag- camping recipe

We love homemade ice cream. The Easter Bunny brought our kids an ice cream maker this year, which is great for our severely food allergic child to have “safe” ice cream. But, sometimes, you want ice cream NOW and it’s just too much trouble to haul out the ice cream maker. Have no fear, ice cream in a bag is here!

Each person needs:

One large (gallon) and one small (quart or sandwich) Ziploc bag

In the small bag, pour ½ cup milk, 1-2 tablespoons sugar, ½ tsp vanilla

Fill the large bag about half full of ice, then add about 6 tablespoons of rock salt, or regular old table salt, if that’s all you have.

Place the small bag, sealed, inside the large bag and seal it.

Shake until the milk mixture turns into ice cream (should be less than 5 minutes).

This last step is very important! Take the small bag out and rinse it off…. Otherwise your ice cream may taste a little salty!

Check out more yummy recipes at http://makingmemorieswithyourkids.blogspot.com/

Banana Yummies

Camping is a great time to grill… that’s one of my favorite things about it… Mom has to do less cooking! Yippee! We’ve stumbled upon a delectable grilled treat… banana splits on the grill! Slice a banana lengthwise, but don’t go all the way through the peel. Stuff the banana with mini marshmallows and chocolate chips. Grill for about 6 minutes, or until everything is ooey gooey delicious. You can also add coconut, crushed pineapple, strawberry marshmallows… the possibilities are endless. Grilled bananas have such a different flavor than normal… sweet, warm, and delightful!