Monday, June 15, 2009

Spinach Strawberry Pizza

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My husband and I always say we have champagne tastes and a beer budget. In this economy, I am starting to think that beer is seriously expensive.

When we were planning on a second child the world was completely different. We had spent the summer eating and cooking lavishly. When we found out I was pregnant, the economy had just started to tank. As the baby approaches, we have started to consider where to cut money. Packed lunches, no more frivolous shopping (oh, I will miss the beautiful shoes), no movies… Looking at out spending, we felt food was not one of the places we wanted to cut. Organic healthy food for our children would reap benefits far outstripping the costs (for the environment of the future, for their bodies, for their souls).

Of course, one challenge remains making the most of every dollar spent. We try to use every vegetable from our CSA or farmer’s market basket. But, there are always extenuating circumstances—the impulse purchases at the market, the purchases made of good intensions rather than concrete plans, the 18 lbs of cabbage that from the CSA. This summer, we are trying to spend less by wasting less. To that end, we decided to use up the spinach purchased from the Sunday market tonight. J—made some pizza dough and baked it. When still warm he topped it with raw spinach, raw strawberries, sautéed scapes, and sauteed pinenuts. (The spinach wilts just the right amount from the heat of the pizza.) It was a seriously healthy and satisfying dinner, especially when paired with a glass of wine and a shard of parmesan. Of course, I am off the sauce these days.

This is also my entry this week for One Local Summer and as promised I even know some of the names of the farms:

Snake Hill Farm scapes
Millgate Farm strawberries
Spinach—from North Union Market (next week will get the name of the farm)
Homemade dough
Pinenuts, American but not local.

13 comments:

we are never full said...

damn you've hit the nail on the head - champagne taste and beer budget. i don't even have kids yet! i'm scared now. but i'm with you that fresh food should not be compromised when thinking about saving money. that is, of course, if you're buying truffles or foie gras.

Chou said...

Yum. I like the idea of topping crust with unbaked toppings, or a combination of the two.

krysta said...

that is fabulous!!!! i can seriously get behind this pizza.

Elizabeth said...

Strawberries on pizza! What an amazing idea. I must say I'm very tempted to try this. But don't the strawberries get sort of mushy when being baked?

-Elizabeth

(Haven't seen local strawberries yet but they should be appearing soon. I'm NOT going to get sucked into buying the taste-free California strawberries!)

Trista said...

Wonderful! That looks SO delicious!! I'm a total food-freak so I will definately be back!

La Cuisine d'Helene said...

Such a beautiful pizza. Yes you have to budget with 2 kids. I have 3 and it is expensive.

Melissa said...

I absolutely LOVE this. Not only the meal but the ideas behind it. But it's exactly the kind of pizza I would eat. Fresh, light, no heavy red sauce. Delicious, MM.

OhioMom said...

DH is still working and I am retired (for how long who knows?) and our comfortable beer pocketbook has suddenly become a short 1/2 pint! I am soooooo not liking the food prices, and am constantly thinking of ways to grow even more of my food .. which at least is organic and local :)

I like strawberries in spinach salad, so this looks extremely good to me!

lisaiscooking said...

Sounds fantastic! Spinach and strawberries go great together. I make sure I use every bit of my CSA veggies too. Right now, I'm trying to decide how to use a big, pretty pattypan squash.

Anonymous said...

What a lovely pizza with farm fresh produce! Love the addition of strawberries - yum!

Katerina said...

This looks great, I just made a delicious strawberry and spinach salad, such a good combo.

The thing we always have trouble getting through are our potatoes.

Tiina said...

Wow! Strawberries in a pizza! That is great! Glad to see you are back to blogging.

Greetings,
Tiina

angela@spinachtiger said...

Did you use cheese on this pizza?
I love it and want to go with something like pears and pomegranites for winter.