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Little known fact about me: late college, early adult existence, I swore off of red meat for about 5 years.  I basically ate vegetables en masse, with some occasional fish/seafood thrown in for good measure.  It was glorious.  I had all kinds of amazing energy, since I was eating so well.  And because, well… I was 20 something.

When people learn this about me, their first question is usually “What made you change your mind?”

You know that Friends episode during Phoebe’s pregnancy when she suddenly craved every version of sandwich meat she could find?

That.

I don’t even remember where my husband and I were headed, but we drove past a fast food restaurant and I have never (really never) wanted a cheeseburger more than at that exact moment.  I was 4ish months pregnant with our oldest and it hit me like a ton of bricks.

It was awful.  I felt terrible afterwards.  Ugh.  When your stomach is no longer used to eating red meat, you should definitely not choose to start with a fast food burger.  Who does that kind of thing? (Hint – this gal.  Right here.)

Once I recovered, I did work my way back into All the Foods.  Occasionally, though, I still feel a strong need for recipes that have not an ounce of meat in them.  There are well-crafted studies that say you should make such decisions, but cravings work, too.

This veggie pizza happens to be one of the yummy things that has the added value of serving several purposes.  Make it ahead and store pieces for your work week.  Use it as an appetizer for a party.  Or, if you’re like me and ranch dressing is a staple in your house – feed it to that kid that caused you to no longer be a vegetarian.

 

It also happens to be crazy easy.

veggie pizzaHere’s the trick: Crescent roll dough.  From a can. Look, life is short.  This makes a healthy treat that much faster to get ready.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Then prep an 11X15 jelly roll pan or a large cookie sheet – whichever you have at your disposal.  You’ll use two rolls of seamless crescent roll dough and lay them across the top and bottom halves of the pan.  Pinch the middle line together to join the crust.

This will bake for 15 minutes, until it is nice and golden brown.  (Just like if you actually cooked them into rolls!)  Let it cool once you pull it from the oven.

While your crust is baking, beat the two packages of cream cheese together with a mixer.  I like to “mush” them together a bit before I add the other seasonings.  It just seems a little easier to incorporate.

veggie pizza

Add in the ranch seasoning and dill and mix until combined.  I then choose to stir in the shredded cheese by hand.  The mixer feels like it takes shredded cheese and shreds it further, which I don’t love.  Totally up to you, though.  I won’t begrudge you the ease of an electric mixer.

Got your cooled crust?  Here’s where cooled comes in handy. If you spread your lovely cheesy mixture over the top of a warm crust, you will end up with veggie soup vs. veggie pizza.

Top the crust and cream cheese with really any veggies you would like.  I like to use this like a “veggie platter”, so I tend to choose a similar variety as if the crust were missing.  In this case, I sliced some tomato and laid them out like pepperoni, then topped it with shredded carrots, chunks of broccoli and sliced black olives.  You could also use zucchini or cucumber slices, pea pods, some shredded brussel sprouts – truly, anything that speaks to you.