Meatless Monday! Week 2

Last week I did my first Meatless Monday post, and today I'm back at it again. As I mentioned last week, Harmony Valley provided me with some of their vegetarian meat substitute products to sample and review. 


This week I used the Harmony Valley Vegetarian Sausage Mix and made a pizza from scratch for dinner. I used a recipe I love from the Betty Crocker Cookbook.






Italian-Style Pizza Dough

• 1 package of regular or quick active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
• 1/2 cup warm water (105-115 degrees F)
• 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon extra-virgin or regular olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar

In large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Stir in half of the flour, the oil, salt, and sugar. Stir in enough of the remaining flour to make dough easy to handle. Place dough on lightly floured surface. Knead about 10 minutes or until smooth and springy. Grease large bowl with shortening (I used spray). Place dough in bowl, turning dough to grease all sides. Cover and let rise in warm place 20 minutes. Gently push fist into dough to deflate. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours but no longer than 48 hours. (If dough should double in size during refrigeration, gently push fist into dough to deflate.)

Move oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 425 F. Grease cookie sheet or 12-inch pizza pan with oil. Press dough into a 12-inch circle on the pan. Press dough from center to edge so the edge is slightly thicker than center.

Then I brushed some olive oil onto the crust and sprinkled with Parmesan cheese. Next I lightly spread some natural canned pizza sauce onto the crust and topped with mozzarella cheese (a little less than a 2-cup pouch). I prepared the Vegetarian Sausage Mix as directed on the package, and then browned it in a non stick skillet. Lastly, I sprinkled the crumbled Vegetarian Sausage Mix on top of the cheese, and baked the pizza for about 20 minutes.

Once again, I didn't tell anyone they were embarking on a Meatless Monday meal. And no one noticed. Everyone gobbled it up. I told Chris later and he was really surprised. I think the Vegetarian Sausage Mix tasted more like real meat than the Vegetarian Hamburger Mix I used last week (I made meatballs with it). However, maybe it was just the particular recipes I used. The hamburger mix seemed to me to have a little bit of an after taste that I didn't notice with the sausage mix. 

I have quite a bit of the cooked sausage mix leftover, so I think I'll try adding some to egg frittatas this week. 

Thanks to Harmony Valley Foods for providing me with these samples and encouraging me to try something new!