Pizza, Pizza!

Along with cheese, I think the hardest thing to get past is the craving for pizza...the kind packed with pepperoni, sausage and a TON of that cheese. So, in hopes of avoiding the frozen pizza aisle, with it's tasty treats packed with thousands of calories, fat grams and sodium milligrams....I tried this. 

Pizza Fix

Need: 

• Italian bread, 1 loaf
• Sharp bread knife
• 1 large portabella mushroom
• 1 small onion
• 1/2 red pepper
• 1 tbs olive oil
• Boca crumbles
• Kosher salt
• Pizza sauce (I used Meijer Naturals brand) 
• Veggie Shreds (Mozzarella) 
• Kraft Italian cheese-finely shredded (and totally optional)

Do: 

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
2. Heat olive oil in skillet on medium to med-high
3. Peel and chop onion in thinnish slivers
4. Slice pepper in thinnish slices, lengthwise, then cut slices in half
5. Slice portabella cap in thin slices, probably 1/4-inch, then cut slices in half or thirds, if it's an exceptionally LARGE cap. 
6. Saute veggies and Boca crumbles for 5-6 minutes, sprinkling with Kosher salt. 
7. Cut Italian loaf in half, width wise, then cut one half in half lengthwise....not sure I'm explaining that correctly, but if you want to make FOUR pizza pieces, cut the entire loaf in half, then cut each half in half. Something like that!  
8. Spread a generous amount of pizza sauce over each half....(we found that it did get kind of dry during baking, because I didn't use enough sauce, so don't get skimpy, or you get pizza-flavored croutons)
9. Top each saucy half with the veggie/crumble mixture, heap it on! 
10. Top each half with a layer of Veggie Shreds, and a very thin layer of Italian cheese (because it was here and I cannot throw away food, so yeah, this is Vegetarian vs. Vegan!)
11. Bake on cookie sheet for 9-11 minutes, depending on how done you like it. I probably could have stopped at 9 minutes, but I think I actually went for 12...and that was TOO many minutes, yet it was still good, damnit!  

That did it for me.....filling, tasty, pizza-esque. No meat. Though, I do sincerely miss pepperoni!!!  I have found some TVP-Pepperoni, so I might have to give that a try one day soon!  

The whole concoction took less than 30 minutes to prep and cook. The beloved said it was missing something, like garlic. O.O....Garlic on pizza is not for me, but it's what he said it missed, so maybe next time I'll add crushed garlic to the veggies. I don't know. 

Regardless, enjoy!