Pizza Bread

Picture this: You wake up, you feed your kids breakfast, you start your day of homeschooling. Your kids last all of ten minutes before they start asking if it’s lunch time. You lose the will to live. You also panic because once again you have no idea what you’re going to serve for lunch.

That happens every day around here. Every single day. It’s a miracle I’ve survived this long.

One of my favorite lunches is pizza bread. Sure, I could just pop a frozen pizza in the oven and it’d be done just as quick as this pizza bread, but then I’d feel lazy. I’d feel like a bad mom. I’d also feel sick of frozen pizza, because we probably just ate it yesterday. Ah, the life of a homeschooler. So glamorous.

This pizza bread is so quick to prepare and I pretty much always have the ingredients on hand. Sweet Italian bread (Yes, I always have some in my cabinet. It’s sweet Italian bread! Why wouldn’t I always have some?), pizza sauce or the ingredients to make my own, pepperoni, and cheese. I don’t think my refrigerator has been without cheese since 1953. Nevermind that I was born in 1982 or that my refrigerator was just purchased last year. Cheese. It’s a staple.

This bakes in about 5-10 minutes. I like to pop it under the broiler for a few minutes to get the cheese good and bubbly, but you can certainly skip that step. After you pull it from the oven be sure to sprinkle on some green flecks. Basil, oregano, parsley…it doesn’t matter. Something green. Green is healthy which means that pizza bread with green flecks is healthy. Those green flecks are the only reason I don’t feel guilty about serving pizza bread twice a week, every week.

Pizza Bread

• 1 loaf sweet Italian bread
• pizza sauce (from a jar or try this recipe)
• pepperoni (or toppings of choice)
• cheese – mozzarella, cheddar, American, provolone – it’s all good

Slice the bread in half length-wise. Spread with pizza sauce (use as much as you like). Top with lots of cheese – my favorite combo of cheese is three slices of American cut in half and divided among each loaf and topped with 8 slices of provolone divided among each loaf. Layer on the pepperoni or whatever other toppings you may like. Bake for 5-10 minutes at 350 degrees until cheese is melted and the bread is heated through. Pop under the broiler for just a couple of minutes to get the cheese nice and bubbly. Sprinkle with green stuff (basil, oregano, parsley) if you want to feel healthful.

*Speaking of pizza sauce and being healthful, Ragu pasta sauces make an excellent pizza sauce and I just so happen to have a review/giveaway going on with them right now. Click here to check it out and enter to win a $100 gift card!*