French Loaf Pizza, Pizza Sauce and mmm, Bacon

I’m trying really hard to use up stuff I have in my freezer so have been using that to get back into menu planning. I’ve found sometimes in the past when I planned out my menu in advance I actually ended up spending more in groceries than when I didn’t, weird I know because it should be the other way around(and no, eating out wasn’t where it made the difference, we rarely eat out more than once a week unless I’m not feeling well and need hubby to pick stuff up…which is usually that crappy TOM LOL). My freezers have been so crammed full of stuff that I really need to empty them out a bit, I had one hell of a time trying to fit my turkey stock from my Thanksgiving turkey in there.

I bought a couple of French Loaves a few weeks ago because they were on sale for 89 cents, I figured we would easily use them because I make garlic bread a lot, but we just haven’t had a meal that goes with garlic bread since I bought them and 2 loaves take up quite a bit of space in the freezer. So, how can you make a French Loaf the main part of a meal instead of just the bread on the side? Use it as a pizza crust!

First start off with your Pizza Sauce, yes you can buy it and I sometimes do(if I buy it I buy a Garlic and Basil sauce, the plain ones are blah). But why buy it when you can make it even better and it takes very little time and tastes so much better! Even making a single recipe I didn’t even use half the sauce, so there’s plenty to refrigerate or freeze until next time.

Onions, Italian Season and Oregano…the smell of it cooking is amazing, my kids were asking me why I was trying to torture them.

Who needs store bought Pizza Sauce when in a short time you can have this!

Pizza Sauce

recipe adapted from Kittencal’s Pizza Sauce on Food.com

3 tbsp Oil*

1 Medium Onion, finely chopped

1 tbsp Minced Garlic (or 1tsp Garlic Powder)

4 tsp Italian Seasoning

4 tsp Oregano

1 6oz can Tomato Paste

1 28oz can Tomato Sauce

1tsp Salt

1 tsp Pepper

1-2 tsp Sugar**

Saute the onion, Italian Seasoning and Oregano in the oil until onion is translucent. Add garlic and saute for another minute. Mix in tomato paste, tomato sauce, salt, and pepper. Simmer on low for 45 minutes to an hour. Add sugar at the end if you would like.

*I just used some bacon fat because I had it and I’m running low on oil, but use Canola or Olive or whatever you have.

**I actually forgot to put any sugar in and didn’t notice.

I’m a horribly photographer, but doesn’t that look delish?

French Loaf Pizza

1 French Loaf

Pizza Sauce

Shredded Cheese*

Onion, sliced thin

Meat of your choice**

Preheat oven to 400 F. Cut French Loaf in half and then each half horizontally in half so you have 4 quadrants of loaf, place on baking sheets. Smooth pizza sauce on each piece, I put it on a little heavy because it is a thick loaf and will soak in a bit. Add a little bit of cheese, I find putting a bit of cheese on the bottom and then a bit more on the top helps to “sandwich” the toppings and help them stay put better. Add onion slices, and meats of your choice….load it up as much or as little as you want. Top with more cheese….a generous amount .  Once you have it loaded up as you like put in the oven for 10 to 12 minutes, until cheese is melted and bread has crisped up a bit. Let cool a few minutes then slice each quadrant into 3. Enjoy!

Ingredients are vague because like all pizza you can really just add whatever you want….this is how I made it this time, but how I make it in the future will depend on whatever I happen to have on hand.

*I use Marble Cheese for almost everything, it’s our favorite, but use whatever cheese you like.

**I used ground pork sausage and bacon, it’s what I had in the freezer.

mmmm, Bacon!

Hate cooking bacon? Hate that greasy splattered mess all over your kitchen and that nice top that is ruined from playing catch with grease splatters? Have no fear! There is a solution!

I’m not a big fan of regular bacon, I do enjoy it on stuff but if I’m having bacon and eggs or a BLT or something I prefer the taste of Turkey Bacon, regular is just too greasy tasting for me. I do like regular bacon on some things though, and my guys love it. I got away with not having to cook it for a very long time, but hubby is on a bacon kick lately, so I’ve been doing a lot of cooking bacon.

I cook turkey bacon in the microwave, it is quick and easy and always comes out the perfect crispiness without making any mess. I’ve tried the microwave for regular bacon, it sucks! A frying pan for regular bacon leaves the stove, the counters, the cupboards, the floor and me covered in grease. For a while I started using my big pot to cook bacon and it was MUCH better, because of the high sides it drastically reduced how much splattered out. Biggest problem was that I could only do 4 pieces of bacon at a time that way, and with 3 males in the house, 2 of them growing boys with huge appetites, I need to a cook the whole package of bacon and it just took too long.

There has got to be a better way of cooking lots of bacon at once with little mess I thought, surely it can be baked? Bakin’ bacon…yep, you betcha! You can do the whole package at one time, clean up is easy, and it really doesn’t take that long. Here is how to do an entire package of bacon at one time:

First cover 2 baking sheets with foil(make sure you use baking sheets that fit side by side in your oven). Lay bacon out on the foil in a single layer. It’s better if it’s a little more spaced out than I have it here, but this package had more slices than they usually do so really filled up the trays even more than usual.

Place sheets of bacon in a 400 F oven for about 15 to 25 minutes, depending on how crispy you like it. And then you will have this:

mmm, yummy crispy bacon! We like it super crispy, can you tell? I take the bacon off the trays and put it on some paper towel to help soak up the extra grease. I pour the bacon grease from the trays into a bowl to use in other cooking…..I don’t normally use anything that fatty as an oil in my cooking(I’m a Canola Oil or Olive Oil girl!), but some things taste great with the extra flavor the bacon fat adds. Certainly not something I would use for cooking on a regular basis though.

Let me know if you use any of the recipes or tips that I post! I would love to hear opinions and comments on them!

Jolene