Introducing Our Guest Blogger: My Sister!

Hi everyone, I'd like to introduce myself. I'm Heather's older sister, Amy. I live in Washington DC and work as a paralegal. I will be updating at least once a week (if not more!) with a special feature called Restaurant Recreations.

I know that many people, myself included, are cutting back on the extras, namely going out to eat. The purpose of this feature is to recreate restaurant meals at at least 1/2 the price with all of the delicious taste. All prices listed on the recipes are from my local Safeway. Since I live in DC and don't buy products from BJs or Sam's Club, I bet that my meal prices will probably be higher than yours. Leave comments with your Recreation costs!

The first Recreation I decided to tackle was the California Pizza Kitchen BLT Pizza: http://www.cpk.com/menu/pizzas/index.php?page=2. This pizza will feed two VERY hungry adults, or 3-4 kids. My boyfriend and I ate the pizza for lunch and dinner and were completely stuffed.


What you need:

• 12" Prepared Pizza Crust, Regular Thickness (we used Boboli) - $3.99

• 8 slices of bacon - You can use maple flavored or regular. This is about half of a package of bacon. If a package is $5.50 - this would work out to $2.75. The Safeway had a buy one get one free sale on bacon, so the package was only $2.75, and thus 1/2 the packet was $1.38. Score!

• One Roma Tomato - $0.70. I chose this tomato as it was the perfect size to cover the whole pizza and also the cheapest per pound.

• 2 Tbsp of Mayo - $0.00. You probably have this in your fridge. If not, I'm sure you an get some of those little mayo packets for free.

• 2 cups of mozzarella cheese - Two cups of Safeway mozzarella cheese were on sale for $2.50.

• About 1 1/2 cups of iceberg lettuce - $0.80. I bought one of those bags of lettuce/salad mix for $1.00! I didn't even use the whole bag. I recommend using iceberg lettuce as it is pretty much flavorless, which is what the recipe needs.

• Optional - 1 avocado - $1.99. My boyfriend and I really enjoy avocado, so we sliced some up and added it to our pizza.
  
  

How to Cook:

1. Cook the bacon first. Don't cook it to the crispiness level that you would ultimately enjoy, as the bacon will cook up a little more in the oven. We baked ours in the oven for 12 mins at 400 (what can I say, we enjoy the crispy bacon).

2. While the bacon is cooking, prep the pizza crust with a layer of mozzarella and chop the lettuce into fine shreds (about 1/4" wide).

3. When the bacon is done, blot it with a paper towel to get the extra grease off.

4. Put the bacon on the pizza crust, and then cover it with the rest of the mozzarella.

5. Bake it in the oven for 10 minutes at 450 degrees.

6. Whilst the crust et al. is cooking, chop the tomato into circles. Also, put the chopped lettuce in a large Ziploc bag and add the mayo. Shake the bag around until the lettuce is covered with the mayo.

7. When the crust et al. is done, let it sit for about 5 minutes.

8. Add the lettuce and tomatoes.

9. Voila! Delicious pizza!


Total cost of pizza without avocado/with avocado: $9.37/$11.36 (feeds two hungry adults for two meals) Total cost of pizza from my local California Pizza Kitchen: $10.49 (feeds one hungry adult for one meal... maybe two).


Compare your local CPK cost by clicking on the link above, then on "Order Online" in the BLT pizza area. Choose your location, and click on "pizzas". The BLT pizza will be listed there (clearly).