Valentine's Day Strawberry Pizza!

There are so many things in my brain that I want to blog about, but I'm going to blog about something more timely.  A.J., Greg, and I made these fun, strawberry heart-shaped  pizzas for Valentine's Day. Quality time and service were my two primary love languages from The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman.  Greg hates to shop, so I am always welcome to receive the gift of his time, rather than something tangible.  So when I saw this recipe in Kiwi magazine, I roped Greg into making them with me as a Valentine's Day gift.

The first step is to take 6 (10 inch) tortillas and either cut them into a heart shape, or use a cookie cutter (which is what I did).  Then line them up on a baking sheet wrapped with tin foil (okay, okay aluminum foil!).  I did this during A.J.'s naptime.  Slice up about 12 strawberries and grate 2 ounces of white chocolate (also done during naptime).

Once A.J.'s naptime was over, we got to work on assembling our pizzas.  With 1/4 cup of melted Earth Balance (the recipe actually call for butter, if you want to substitute), A.J. and I "painted" the butter on the tortillas.  As soon as he saw the pastry brushes (which he has never used before - as far as I can recall), he said, "painting!".  He's sooo smart, and I'm not biased at all.  He did really well with the process, especially considering he's only 21 months old.  He did drip "butter" all over the floor....

and he did get distracted and decide to mark his own pizzas by taking a bite out of them, but overall really well.

So, once the hearts have been "painted," you sprinkle about 3 teaspoons of turbinado sugar on the hearts.  The turbinado sugar is the same thing as "sugar in the raw.'  It gives it a nice, little crunch.  When Greg saw A.J. do this, he was very impressed, and said, "Wow!  He's gonna' be a chef!"  Greg then helped Aidan sprinkle the cinnamon over the hearts.  You'll need about 1 teaspoon.

 

Once the cinnamon is added, the pizzas go into a 350 degree oven for 3 minutes.  Once they have cooled a we bit, you spread about 1/2 cup of seedless raspberry jam over the hearts, and then spread the grated white chocolate on the hearts.  Send them back to the oven for another 2 minutes.  Place the sliced strawberries on top of the pizzas and serve.

I thought they were delicious and I think this would work well on bread too, maybe even better!  Greg liked them too!  A.J. hardly ate his because he filled up on strawberries as we were making them.  That was probably better for him nutritionally anyway.  This is a fun recipe for kids!!