And Now I Need to Feed Yous Guys?!

A Rachael Ray pizza salad.

This is what it’s come to.

Yes, dear patient readers. The Jersey Girl has not blogged in well over a month, and all I have is this measly 10-minute I-just-worked-all-freaking-day/took-care-of-a-baby/washed- 10-loads-of-laundry/cleaned-the-house-and-I’m-totally-over-it recipe. By Rachael Ray.

It’s not my proudest moment.

But for reals, peeps. This pizza tastes AWESOME.

And it’s not take out. Plus, you can do it on zero sleep/patience/brain cells.

(Yes, there is a jarred pizza sauce involved, but get over it. And give me a bottle of wine, why don’t ya?)

So, hopefully all y’all have been doing fab.

We have been rocking out at Chez Jersey Girl.

Baby Evan is a super big biggie who is creepin’ and crawlin’ all over the joint.

He’s reaching many milestones: Waving to Daddy; saying hi to Daddy; whacking Daddy in the face; gazing at Daddy when asked, “Where’s Mommy?”

Guess it’s time to get all Bob Dole/Elmo on Evan and start talking about Mommy in the third person.

Anyhoo, to make this pizza I used a prebaked pizza shell, such as a Boboli, or as my Aunt Lorraine says, “Baba-lo,” because as proven on such astute television programs as, “Real Housewives of New Jersey,” we pretty much mispronounce everything in my parts.

The actual recipe calls for unbaked pizza dough. So, yes. As I hang my head lowly lowly lowly in shame - I am taking even MORE shortcuts than Rachael Ray.

I asure you, dear readers, that the Jersey Girl is still a Domestic Goddess of the highest order. It's just that time is not on my side.

Back to the cooking before I have to go fold laundry:

I always have the ingredients for a Pizza Salad on hand: container of designer lettuce, prosciutto, garlic, mozzarella, lemons, hot pepper flakes.

And I buy two pizza shells at once – because that’s how my rocking Italian market Bagliani’s packages them. So, I use one now and freeze one for later.

See. Even with Mommy Brain, I can still plan.

The recipe calls for 2 cloves of garlic, but I seriously quadruple the amount. Sometimes, I go crazy and chop up 10 cloves of garlic for it. (The Husband lurves his garlic.)
So please enjoy the recipe below.

And here’s a picture update on my lovely Evan, who is the cutest cutie pie to ever be in my world. I can't believe he's going to be turning the big ONE soon. Eek!

Pizza Salad
"From Cooking Around the Clock"
By Rachael Ray

All-purpose flour, for dusting
Store-bought pizza dough
1/2 cup pizza sauce
2 cups shredded mozzarella or Italian-4 cheese blend
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1/3 lb. prosciutto di Parma, thinly sliced
3 cups arugula leaves
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

Sprinkle a little flour on a clean work surface. Roll or press out dough to form a 12-inch pie and place dough on a pizza pan or cookie sheet. Spread pizza sauce on dough and top with garlic and red pepper flakes. Top with cheese. Bake pizza until cheese is bubbly and crust is crip. About 12 minutes. Top the hot pizza with sliced prosciutto, working all the way to the crust's edge and covering the whole pie. Toss arugula with lemon juice and olive oil in a large bowl. Season arugula with salt and pepper. Pile arugula up on the cetner of the pizza. Cut into quarters and serve.

Yield: 2 servings.

Please note: The Jersey Girl bakes her pizza at 375 degrees for 12 minutes because she uses a prebaked pizza shell, such as Boboli.