Va Bene Pizzeria & Costco

One of my friends is currently living at the Docklands so today we met up for some Costco shopping & lunch.  I had never been to Costco before & was pretty excited about it.  I didn't buy too much today but I did buy a bulk pack of lint rollers (I was wearing black jeans & was having cat hair issues) & a big bag of dried blueberries.  Any suggestions of what I can bake the blueberries into?

We went for lunch at Va Bene Pizzeria which is his favourite local place.  The wait staff were incredibly friendly & were happy to accommodate me with vegan eats offering me a few different pasta & pizza options.  No pics because I forgot my camera, but I had the Pepperoncini pizza which had roasted capsicum, caramelised onion & parsley which was delicious.  It was not cheap at $19 but there aren't a whole lot of cheap eating options over at Docklands so if you are going to pay a bit for lunch it is nice to get some good service with it.

Va Bene Pizzeria

T10 Shed 9, Central Pier

161 Harbour Esplanade

Docklands Victoria 3008

03 8623 9690

www.vabenepizzeria.com

Eat Pizza

I had read about Eat Pizza ages ago in a number of blogs when a pizza party had been held & had filed it away in my mind fr if I happened to ever be in Maribyrnong & needing a meal. Then I discovered recently that there is an Eat Pizza in Glenroy - yay for vegan pizza not too far from my neighbourhood!! So on Wednesday night we had an ultrasound (I am having a baby girl!) & were driving home late-ish when we decided to give Eat Pizza ago - best decision ever!!!!

It is not cheap, we got a large Vegie Delight pizza which had big chunks of eggplant, roasted capsicum, roasted pumpkin & semi dried tomato ($15) with vegan cheese ($3) & vegan salami ($3). When we ordered we thought that $21 it was a bit expensive but we were hungry & wanted pizza, so went with it. It was so, so good!! They are surprisingly generous with the cheezly & it was cheezy & delicious!! I don't think that I ever need to make pizza again.



Eat Pizza
1/749 Pascoe Vale Road
Glenroy
9304 4040

Last day of mofo!! And I bought a mushroom farm!

That's right - a mushroom farm! I was in Aldi & saw them & thought that I would like to grow my own mushrooms. We got it all set up & put it in a cupboard, misting it with water most days & what do you know - we grew a mushroom!




Since then we have another 4 big mushrooms happily growing. I felt like doing something a bit special with the first mushroom but couldn't work out what to do, so it ended up going on pizza. I was inspired to make pizza after I read an easy pizza dough recipe on Yeah, that vegan shit. This recipe is insanely easy & really delicious.

The Easiest Pizza Dough in the World

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 packet of yeast


• 1 c. warm water


• 2-1/2 c. flour


• 1 t. agave nectar (or 2 t. sugar; I recommend the agave though cuz MAN does it make the crust taste lovely) - I used maple syrup & that was good!
  

• 1 t. salt


• 2 T. olive oil


• 2 T. fresh rosemary, chopped (optional) - I didn't use because I didn't have any
  


• cornmeal

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 200. In a large bowl, add in the yeast and warm water and stir until the yeast dissolves. Add the flour, salt, agave (or sugar), rosemary (if using), and olive oil and stir with a wooden spoon vigorously until combined. Let dough rest for 10 minutes.

Either sprinkle cornmeal onto a walled baking sheet and press dough into it until thin
-OR-
Sprinkle flour on your counter and roll out the pizza dough. Sprinkle cornmeal on a pizza stone and toss the dough on top. Spread olive oil over top (optional), and add all your toppings.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until pizza crust is golden and toppings are heated through.


I topped my pizza with roasted pumpkin, sliced mushrooms, caramelised onions & garlic & herb cheezly. Served with a tasty salad - this is a delicious mid week meal!

Pizza

Everyone loves a pizza night! On weekends I usually cook things which I can take my time with & which is a bit more fun than the usual tofu & roasted vegies that we have during the week. Pizza is a perfect weekend meal for me because I can make everything from scratch & it is kinda junk food.
I made 2 pizzas, one was this one from Yeah that vegan shit & oh my lord was it good!! I would say that it is the best pizza I have ever eaten! I did make my own base & my own pesto though which I think makes a huge difference & I used the cheezley edam "cheese". Sadly my camera died so I have no photos. The second pizza was more traditional & this was the one that the boyfriend preferred. It featured a tomato sauce, mushrooms, olives & tvp meatballs from this recipe. The base I used was this, very easy to make & works really well:

Pizza dough

• 8g sachet dried yeast
• pinch salt
• 1 teaspoon caster sugar
• 2 1/2 cups plain flour
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

1. Make pizza dough Combine 200ml warm water, yeast, salt and sugar in a jug. Stir with a fork. Cover and stand for 5 minutes or until bubbles appear on surface. Sift flour into a large bowl. Add yeast mixture and oil and mix to form a soft dough.
2. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for 5 minutes or until elastic. Cut into quarters. Roll each piece out to an 18cm (diameter) round. Brush edges with water. (Personally I have issues rolling dough into round shapes so mine was more of an abstract rectangle than a round circle)
   

Yum, I love pizza night!