Pizza Night, Salad Fever

We had our second pizza night last night and it was a success again. Kinda. This time, we had olives, mushrooms, onions, jalapenos, pepperoni, ham, italian sausage and tomatoes. We doled out a portion of the desired toppings to the girls and they put them on their pizzas.

Addy made a pepperoni smiley face on her pizza and put olives in the middle of her pepperonis. Evie had pepperoni, onions, olives, ham and italian sausage. Joey had pepperoni, ham, italian sausage, olives mushrooms and onions. I had onions and jalapenos because I've been craving Boboli pizza with onions and jalapenos.

Evie ate half of her toppings off her pizza while Joey and I were putting toppings on ours. Immediately after the pizzas were put in the oven, she informed us that onions were "YLUCKH". Its her new favorite word. We tried to explain to her that she maybe should have left them off her pizza if she didn't like them, but then we just left it alone, figuring if we didn't highlight the onions on her pizza, she'd forget about them. Which she did.

Joey, Addy, and Evie did great eating their pizzas and Izzy got her own piece (a piece of Evie's with pepperoni and onions and olives on it) this week instead of just having the crust. We've (well, I've) been worried about how cheese will affect her since it seems to stop up some of us and not stop up others, but she had her normal BMs today, and since she ate her pizza slice from the toppings down (toppings, cheese then crust), I know she got all the cheese there was to have on that pizza. So cheese in moderation doesn't seem to affect her badly, which is a relief to me. Constipated babies are not happy babies and we like happy babies.

I on the other hand couldn't eat a bite of my pizza. But I ate well regardless. Since no one ate tomatoes on their pizza and there were leftover mushrooms and onions, we made a salad while the pizza was cooking. It had shredded mexican cheese, tomatoes, sliced mushrooms, sliced onions, sliced olives, and romaine lettuce. The girls complained that they didn't want mushrooms or onions in their salads (including the use of Evie's signature "YLUCKH"), but we informed them that they got to custom make their pizza on pizza night, but not their salads and they could either eat it or not eat it. We gave them their salads while the pizzas were baking and they ate them without complaint, which was nice. I had a huge salad myself, which is good because apparently the bean is not a fan of pizza at the moment :( Which is a bummer for me because I *really* like pizza.

Overall, it was a great dinner. The girls had fun making their pizzas and we all had fun cooking and eating together. I'm glad we're making it a weekly event and I'm hoping each week's pizza night just gets better and better and that the girls and I will be able to hold on to memories of these fun times with daddy while he's in basic. He ships out May 9th, so that is constantly on my mind these days. But we keep on going regardless because what else can you do? If I let it paralyze me, I'll miss out on the good times, like pizza nights. . .

TGIM -- pizza night and yogurt

Tonight was our inaugural weekly make your own pizza night and it was a roaring success. We (well my husband) put the crust, sauce and cheese on the pan to reduce mess and prevent our little ones from having constipation issues from too much cheese consumption, chopped up the veggies and placed them on small plates along with the ham and pepperoni and let our 2 year old and 5 year old dress their pizzas as they saw fit. We all had lots of fun. We all ate our dinner. And we are all looking foreward to next week. Make your own pizza night only has 2 rules -- you must have at least one topping besides cheese on your pizza (to aid in cheese digestion) and you must eat at least one piece of your finished pizza (no turning your nose up at it when you custom made it for yourself).

This week, our toppings were sliced mushrooms, sliced black olives, diced tomatoes (left over from taco night last night), pepperoni, grilled ham, and diced onions.

Next week, I need to make sure and have jalapenos on hand. I didn't realise we were low on jalapenos Saturday when we went grocery shopping and we ran out as soon as we got home. The girls don't eat them, but I have discovered that the bean is quite fond of spicy/salty foods especially of the cheesy variety and especially when alternated with sweet foods. So pizza without jalapenos was particularly disappointing for me.

On the topic of yogurt, I haven't been eating as much for the past 2 weeks. I overdid it a bit when I was first pregnant (but before I found out that I was pregnant) so I got a little burnt out. This week, I bought my starter (Stoneyfield farms organic lowfat greek yogurt) but decided to just eat it because I didn't think I would eat an entire batch of yogurt. I got 4 heaping tbsp of yogurt added a tbsp of honey and did not like it. It was too thin and just didn't taste like my yogurt. I wanted some last night and again tonight, so I am back on for yogurt, so next time I go grocery shopping I will be picking up an extra gallon of milk and a container of starter yogurt and making a batch of yogurt.

So beware of starting to make your own yogurt as you may end up spoiling yourself from being able to eat storebought yogurt again. Not only is it healthier, but it tastes so much better. You just can't go back to how it used to be ;P