This week’s meal is quite possibly my favourite yet. It ticks all the right boxes – fast, easy, cheap, tasty and satisfying. I can’t get over how much I enjoyed this meal, and it is probably one of the simpler and least impressive of them all. We took on Cheat’s Pizza, 3 Delish Salads and Squashed Cherries with Vanilla Mascarpone Cream. I am a huge fan of all these dishes now and I can tell you right now I will definitely be making this food again!!
This week we had the company of my sister and her boyfriend, both of whom are big fans of good food and good company. Most times when my sister’s boyfriend is invited to a meal you can bet on there being few leftovers, which is one of the reasons we love him so much in our family! But that is no reason not to bring the A-game when cooking for him. So because this week was their first Challenge Night experience, I wanted to make sure it was a good one!
Now it is absolutely no secret that I am a pizza lover. I mean really…. I’ll have it any way it comes. Wood-fired pizza, English muffin pizza, pizza pocket, take-away shop pizza, chain store pizza, homemade pizza…. You name it, I’m on it. But I can honestly say that this is one of the best pizzas I have ever eaten. When you weigh up the hidden ingredients and addatives that often come with store-bought pizzas (and not to mention the potential for hygiene issues), homemade pizza is often better for you anyway. But this pizza is so simple and easily put together that it saves you loads of time, as well as giving you the advantage of knowing just what is going into it and allowing a degree of control. You could put as much or as little cheese as you like (I love a cheesy pizza, Dear Housemate not so much), how much spice or flavor, how heavy on the toppings and how thick the base. Basically its winning all round – and who can honestly say they don’t like pizza? Seriously? Who??
The salads were so simple that at first I felt a little bit jipped. I wondered why they weren’t all just thrown in the one bowl together, instead of being three separate salads (Rocket, Tomato and Mozzarella salads, for those wondering). But partway through eating the meal, I realized why they were separate…because as you eat, you get to build the flavours on top of each other. A bit of the Mozzarella with the Tomato tasted really great, a bit of the Rocket with the pizza was divine, a bit of each salad and a bite of pizza together was like heaven on a fork. And the advantage of having them separate to each other is that you could exclude what you weren’t a fan of or avoid a flavor altogether. Dear Housemate’s aversion to cheese meant she could happily avoid the Mozzarella salad but still enjoy the rocket flavours with the other parts of the meal. My love of spice meant that I could load up on the tomato salad and take the bite out with a bit of the cheese. It was good all round, something for everyone!
And dessert – this was again super easy. I don’t think I will ever grow tired of just how super easy these meals are to make. Every week I am still surprised by how little effort is required of me! It was as simple as chilling some cherries, mixing a couple of ingredients in a bowl and then throwing it all together with some biscuits at the last minute. I think the mascarpone cream would work well with just about any fruit or biscuit, so it is a great recipe to have on hand if you decide to throw a last minute dinner party. Its dead easy, it tastes great, its completely versatile and you can just use what you have on hand. Win!
So there were pretty much no leftovers this week, which is awesome. The pizza easily feeds four, but it could also feed two grownups and several little mouths also. It was super cheap, super tasty and super easy to tweak to your own tastes and preferences. This is by far the most versatile meal we have made so far and is officially going on the list as my number one favourite so far!
And that concludes another week! Til next time, Bon Appetit!
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