This week, we did not have a typical
date night dinner. There is only one more month left of summer. To me that means I need to spend as much time as possible stuffing my face with watermelons and strawberries, going on long bike rides, laying by the pool, and enjoying the nice weather. To Brenden that means there is only one more month until he can step outside without instantly turning into a puddle do to the humidity, he won't have to shower three times a day to cool off and refresh himself, and he can begin to dominate his now 'buy-in' fantasy football league. And with fantasy football comes actual
football. Brenden is a pretty big football fan; I am not. Lucky for me, Brenden's favorite team, the 49ers, lives on the west coast, which means limited TV air time here on the east. But this was Brenden's lucky week.
On Tuesday evening, two nights before the 1st Raven's game of the season, and before our weekly date night dinner, I happened to hear a conversation about the Raven's opening preseason game. As I stated, I don't care much for football, and thus the conversation was not of interest, until I heard the next phrase, "against the 49ners." My ears perked up, and I knew I had to get tickets for Thursday nights game, our dinner would have to be postponed. So I investigated tickets on the internet and ended up getting a really good deal, for seats right over the 50 yard line.
Next was keeping the surprise a surprise. We went on as usual. We picked out some delicious sounding recipes for our typical Thursday night and we made our decision (so make sure to check back next week for a great summer BBQ veggie bowl). But when it came time to get the ingredients, I told Brenden I had something else in store for the night. We made the trip to Baltimore, and as soon as he saw the stadium he knew. He was so excited, and totally prepared to splurge of junky stadium food for the night. Luckily, we had a long walk from the car to the stadium and back, and about 1,000 stairs to climb to our seats, so we could burn off some of the calories. By the time we got to our seats after searching the vendors for a 49ers jersey with no luck, people watching the mass of fans, and grabbing some beer, the game was about to start and Brenden wasn't going anywhere. But my stomach was growling, and thus the food was left to me. Although I heard a tiny voice telling me to be good, my desire for something totally indulgent won over. I grabbed us some cheesesteaks and a giant, bottomless popcorn. It smelled delicious, and it was gone before I realized we hadn't taken a picture of it for this post.
It was delicious, it was expensive, and it was definitely not home-made, but it was our date night dinner with a budget splurge. After all, everyone has to splurge once in a while, and to splurge on a game with a team (a favorite team) Brenden never thought he would see live was totally worth it.
With the school year coming to an end, last minute project tweaks and final presentations to perfect, I was not at all in the mood for cooking. Not only that I really just wanted to sit in front of the t.v. with a giant bowl of eggless cookie dough, a pint of Ben & Jerry's new core flavors, maybe a ice cream cookie sandwich from Meadows, and veg out until my pizza delivery person rang my doorbell. At which point I would leave my cozy couch for a moment to grab the warm pizza bring it to my spot and veg some more. Sounds like the perfect night right?! However, that little scenario was only in my head.
Luckily, Brenden snapped me out of my momentary food coma and a year's worth of sugar intake wishes. It was date night after all, and would have REALLY regretted that food selection the next morning for a multitude of reasons. On the bright side, my dreams weren't crushed into shatters but more used inspiration for dinner and then gently brushed away.
With pizza on the brain, we began our search for dinner. Soon enough we found pizza roll-ups which looked delicious and met all of our requirements. As I mentioned we were both exhausted from a long and stressful week and these seemed like a quick fix. We grabbed some pizza dough and sauce from the store and made do with ingredients we had laying around for our toppings.
Because we were rolling the pizza dough up, it made it very easy for us to use different toppings and different variations of pizza because they were being cut into separate individual pieces. As you may know by now, this was perfect for Brenden and I with our opposing tastes. He got his meaty pepperoni filled pizza while I got my veggie filled caprese roll-up (not to say we didn't try each others...I know I ate like half of his). He also used a garlic white pizza sauce while I used a more traditional tomato sauce. In total we had four kinds of pizza roll-ups to sample. And of course we both had our own favorite - mine the tomato sauce with pepperoni and Brenden the white sauce with spinach. Yumm.
This recipe was pretty simple and extremely customizable. The recipe I have given you is very vague because, as you saw and read, we couldn't decide on toppings ourselves. So, choose a creation we made or create one of your own. Let me know if you discover anything great! Maybe a dessert roll-up, peanut butter and chocolate chips? There my mind goes again, back to those ever so tasty sweets.
Pizza Rollups
Recipe adapted from cinnamonspiceandeverythingnice.com
Ingredients
- 1 package Pillsbury pizza dough
- pizza sauce, to taste
- mozzarella cheese, to taste
- pizza toppings of your choice, to taste
- salt, pepper, oregano, basil, crushed red pepper flakes, to taste
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- On a lightly flowered surface, unroll the pizza dough.
- Spread the sauce from edge to edge, leaving about an inch border on one side.
- Sprinkle with cheese.
- Place any toppings you wish to include on top of the cheese.
- Season with seasonings of your choice to taste.
- Roll the pastry up toward the one-inch border, keeping the roll as tight as possible.
- Use a sharp knife to cut the roll into quarters or eighths.
- Place each piece on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, about 2 inches away from each other.
- Bake for 22-25 minutes.
- Remove from oven, serve, and enjoy.
