Pizza Toast

For Weekday Supper, we always share meals that can be made quickly and without a lot of fuss.  But this week, we've sped things up even faster to share ways of getting food on the table in a flash!  Now, there are all sorts of ways to make lightning fast meals.

• use pre-cooked grains (that's what the weekend is for) for a stir-fry or salad
• slice/dice up leftover bits and bobs floating around in the fridge for quesadillas, pastas, or pizza toast
• cook angel hair pasta - it's so thin that it cooks in 2-3 minutes
• add a rotisserie chicken that you picked up on the way home from work to a salad that uses simply different lettuces, fruits and/or berries, and a simple vinaigrette
• pop a roast or chicken thighs into the slow cooker before you leave in the morning with simple sauce or seasoning that you can pour over.  Pile it onto crusty buns with your favorite condiments after you peel off your coat

Those are just a few options.  What are your tricks for getting a busy weekday supper on the meal in 15 minutes or less?

Pizza Toast not only makes a lightning-quick speedy supper (add a crisp green salad and call it a meal), it also makes the perfect quick after school snack.  You know, for those days when the kids haven't even finished stepping off the bus before they're asking what there is for a snack...

Pizza Toast

by Heather Schmitt-Gonzalez

Prep Time: 5

Cook Time: 2-4 minutes

Keywords: broil snack entree bread cheese American

Ingredients (varies)

• thickly cut slices of bread
• garlic clove, optional
• pizza sauce
• cooked meats, optional
• vegetables, cut small or thinly sliced, optional
• mozzarella cheese (shredded or sliced fresh)

Instructions

This is not so much a recipe, as it is a guide.

Preheat your broiler. Line your broiler tray with foil.

You will need 2-4 slices of good, thick bread per person, depending on who that person is, obviously.

Begin by laying bread on foil-lined tray. Leave an inch or so of space between each piece. Do this in as many batches as necessary. Broil until lightly golden on the top. This doesn't take long, probably less than a minute if your broiler is preheated.

Flip the bread over so that the toasted side is down. At this point, you can either layer on your sauce, toppings, and cheese OR you can toast this side first. If you toast it first, rub it with the cut garlic when lightly golden, then layer on as many or as few toppings as you like.

Return to the broiler until the cheese is melted and bubbly, a minute or so. Repeat as needed for as many people as you have eating.

notes:

Just like "real" pizza, there are endless options here. Use meats like ham, salami, pepperoni, ground beef, sausage, prosciutto, chicken, or any small portions of leftovers that you have.

For the veggies, you can use cooked or raw. Just be sure that raw ones are sliced very thinly or cut very small, as they don't have enough time to cook.

I like to put the meat and veggies under the cheese, so that the cheese melts down over them; this helps to "glue" them on.