Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Fav things: Trader Joe's Pizza Dough

I live above a grocery store. A very nice grocery store - some might say "gourmet". The motto: 'Value is more than just price.' does that tell you something? I love it, don't get me wrong. I know most of the employees and they know me by name. Sometimes, they even give me good deals at the meat or cheese counters.

It is not a Trader Joe's. TJ's is a bit of a drive from my 'hood. So, when we were visiting and introduced to brand new baby Abby (6 weeks old!) we had to stop at the TJ's just a few blocks away.

Our focus: Easy yet interesting Weeknight Meals

Our Favorite: Pizza Dough

This dough is near the cheese and fresh pasta. It's in a bag - and is wet. Just warm it up at room temp for about 20 minutes and you can stretch it, top it, and bake it. It was faster and MUCH TASTIER than a frozen pizza. Not as tasty as H's homemade dough - but perfect for a weeknight.

H was in charge of making dinner - and made the following white pizza.


H's White Pizza
* Preheat Oven to 500
* Take dough out of fridge (20 minutes)
* Sauted Spinach
- we had a big bag that we needed to work through. Threw some olive oil and garlic in a big dutch oven and then threw in the spinach. It was done before the dough was done 'warming up'.
* Sprinkle counter with white corn meal (nice crunch on the crust and prevents sticking)
* Stretch dough into desired shape/size
* Top Dough:
- Olive Oil
- Spinach
- Artichokes (also from TJ's!)
- Mozzerella
- Red Pepper flakes
- Grated Parmesan
* Bake until done. This will vary depending on the thickness of your dough. Our pizza took about 8 minutes.

Any other favorite TJ items or fast weeknight ideas? Please share!

Happy Earth Day!

5 comments:

Kate (KnitsInClass) said...

This is a from-scratch that we could probably handle over at our house... One of my favorite TJ take-aways is their lobster bisque soup. Uber-rich and yummy with a loaf of their bread. Good thing TJs is a bit of a drive for us, or hubby and I would eat this way too often.

Anonymous said...

I'll have to try this pizza dough - the white pizza sounds delish!

Claudia said...

I have to go to Woodbury for Trader Joe's but now that spring is here - it might happen again. This looks perfect for a weeknight. A fun and easy pizza - and the photo looks scrumptious. I live at Kowalskis - they know who I am. I keep meaning to cut down going there to say - 5 times a week.

Anonymous said...

I loooove TJs! we sadly don't have one near us though.

Tangled Noodle said...

I live approximately halfway between both the TJ in Maple Grove and the one at Excelsior and Grand (Mpls) so either way, it's a 30 minute haul. But it's more than worth it for some great stuff. I haven't bought their dough in a while but this white pizza has brought on the craving !