Pinterest Party: Fail-Proof Pizza Dough

I'm linking up with Our Front Door today!  Head on over to Our Front Door to link up or see other Pinterest Posts.

As I have mentioned a time or twenty, David and I lead a room of kindergarteners through second graders at church every Friday night.  David becomes quite spunky during this hour and has earned the nickname:  "Mr. Microphone."

If you know David, this is funny.  If you don't know David, well, you are probably super confused and wondering what on earth I am blabbing about.

David, aka Mr. Microphone, gets up onstage every week and warms the kids up with an opening question.  The point is to get the kids out of their seats and meeting new friends.  So, one week, he opens with this question:

"Find someone who goes to the same school as you do, and ask them what their favorite lunch is."

Now, as luck would have it, I was looking at my daughter, Daisy Mae, at the time he announced the opening question.  I watched her little face light up as she stood up to go and meet new kids.  Then she got a look of discouragement, such as this one:

and sat back down.

For you see, dear readers, we homeschool.  I had mercy on the poor girl's soul and went to her:

"Hey!  I go to the same school as you!"

*giggle, giggle, chuckle, chuckle*

And I asked her what her favorite school lunch was and she said without hesitation:

"Your homemade pizza!"

My kids do love it when I make pizza for lunch.  I have tried a few recipes and I like a couple of them.  But I saw on Pinterest the other day this pin for Fail-Proof Pizza Dough and Cheesy Garlic Breadsticks:

(Recipe Link and Image Source)

The above link will take you to another blog written by Lauren.  Lauren has a recipe for Fail-Proof pizza dough, along with a recipe to make Garlic Cheese Breadsticks using the pizza dough.  The other night, I knew we would be working on getting the garden ready until dark, so I threw some spaghetti sauce in the crockpot and got the dough for breadsticks ready and rising.  Then we went and worked for hours upon hours, because have you heard?  My husband is a slave driver.

I kid!  I jest!

I ran inside at 8pm and was able to prepare the breadsticks easily while the pasta was cooking!  They were delicious and tasted like something you would get at a restaurant.  I used the full recipe for dough, even though Lauren's recipe is for half of a recipe.  I did try to use less butter and cheese than she recommended.  Because I am the epitome of healthy habits.  And isn't epitome a fun word?  The answer is yes.  Yes, it is.

Here is a picture of my breadsticks:

They were gone in a flash!

So, I decided to give her dough a try for pizza one day for lunch.

The only thing I did differently was I used unsweetened applesauce in place of the oil.  I do this all the time with pizza dough and rolls and such.  My kids never notice and it cuts out a lot of fat.

Try it sometime.  Do it.  I dare you.

If you aren't sure about it, you could sub only half of the oil for unsweetened applesauce.  I did this, and then I just started trying out using the entire amount.  We think it is fine, but if I were making pizza for company, I probably would only use half.  Because I have great fears of others passing judgement on me.  Which is super healthy and completely normal.

Although, if I were you, I would try it with just my family before serving it to guests, just in case you don't find it to be as brilliant of an idea as I do.

And here my kids are, getting ready to enjoy their favorite "school lunch."

Sadly, the five of us eat that all in one meal.  Because we are dainty like that.

And now some links, for I know you loveth them.

Click here to go to Pinterest. 

Click here to go to my Pinterest account, as exciting as THAT is.

Click here to visit Lauren's site with the pizza dough/breadstick recipe.

Click here to go to Our Front Door to see what other Pinterest-y Pins bloggers are trying.

Later, Gators!