Marinara Sauce and Zucchini Pizzas

Today was another no school day, so naturally I spent the entire day baking and writing lesson plans. I wanted to make a lot of different foods that I could grab throughout the week, but first I sat down with a weekly menu planner and planned out exactly what I wanted to have every day this week for my meals. I'm going to have zero time to cook this week, so I saw today as my opportunity to get it all done.

Yesterday, my mom prepared some spaghetti squash for us to have this week, so the first thing I wanted to make was some marinara sauce that we could add to it as we need it. I didn't have any fresh basil, which is really my favorite part about my usual homemade marinara sauce, so this recipe includes dried basil. Usually what I do is just grab a bundle of basil and add it to the pan as I'm sauteing the tomatoes and garlic. So I definitely advise doing that if you're going to try this recipe. I've never really measured things out for marinara sauce, but I tried to write it all down as I was going this time so I could share it.

Homemade Marinara Sauce

• 4 fresh tomatoes, diced
• 12 ounces of all natural tomato paste
• 1 cup water
• 4-5 cloves garlic
• handful of fresh basil/1 Tbsp dried basil
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• red pepper flakes to taste
• salt and pepper to taste

Spray a large pan with olive oil spray and turn on medium heat. Add the garlic and saute for about 2 minutes, moving the garlic around on the pan constantly. Add the tomatoes and the tomato paste and cook for about 3 minutes, stirring as needed. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for about 5 minutes. If it looks like the sauce is too thick, add a little bit more water. Pour all of the sauce into a food processor and process for about 1 minute, until the sauce is completely smooth. Pour into two jars and let it cool for about 20 minutes before putting the lid on the jars. Keep refrigerated.

Sometimes I change it up by adding fresh mushrooms or Parmesan cheese to the pan, just depending on what I'm using it for. This recipe is the one I use for making pizzas.

Speaking of pizza, I had a zucchini in the fridge that I needed to use soon, so I decided to make some zucchini base pizzas. I've made them before, and I used to just cut the zucchini in half, but that was too thick, so I started cutting them a little thinner, that way the zucchini wouldn't overpower the pizza taste.

Zucchini Pizzas

• 1 whole zucchini, sliced lengthwise into 4 pieces
• 1/4 cup marinara sauce
• 2 slices mozzarella cheese
• 2 Tbsp Parmesan cheese
• garlic powder
• red pepper flakes

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Put the zucchini on a greased pan and sprinkle the tops of them with garlic powder. Bake for about 20-25 minutes in the oven until slightly golden.

 

Add the sauce, cheese, Parmesan, red pepper flakes, and any other pizza toppings you want to add. I usually add some turkey pepperoni but I didn't have any today.

 Put back in the oven for 5 minutes, then increase to broil, and leave in for 2 more minutes. Let the pizzas cool for about 5 minutes before plating.

These were really yummy, and I love trying different things to try to make pizza a little healthier. Because, let's be honest, I can't go one week without pizza. I also made some mushroom soup today, as well as some clean eating chicken tenders and zucchini chips, but it's already pretty late, I have school tomorrow, and I've posted quite a bit in the last two days. So hopefully I'll get those recipes up later this week! 

Happy clean eating!

Andrea