Week 16 - 80s

When Week 16 of the challenge rolled around with its 80s theme, we weren't really sure what qualified as "80s food." We're children of the 80s, but there isn't much that I associate with the term "80s food" (other than maybe sour cream and onion Tato Skins, I really miss those). Looking over some lists of 80s foods, things like sushi and quiche and blackened proteins came up, but I never really associated any of those solely with the 80s. I still eat those things. One item that did inspire me was French bread pizza, something I associate with elementary school cafeteria lunches and really liked. Talking to A, this seemed like the best way for us to honor 80s week since we both ate these quite a bit when we were kids.

This French bread pizza was one of the simplest things I made all month, since I didn't make the bread or pizza sauce from scratch (thank you, Trader Joe's). 4 ingredients total and less than $3.

I used:

- one demi baguette, cut in half by length and width ($1.29)

- a few tbsp of pizza sauce ($0.40)

- a handful of shredded mozzarella ($0.60)

- olive oil for brushing ($0.30)

The pizza assembly was really easy.

1. Cut the French bread into pizza pieces.

2. Brush with olive oil.

3. Spread pizza sauce on bread.

4. Sprinkle mozzarella sauce over each piece.

5. Bake at 375 degrees until cheese has melted (10-15 minutes).

The French bread pizzas looked pretty good. But both A and I felt they were crustier and crispier than the ones we remembered from our youth. Sure, I may have left them in the oven a tad too long to make sure the cheese melted enough, but the bread was pretty crunchy before I even prepared the pizza and put it in the oven. We remember French bread pizza bread being softer and not so crusty, so it's likely that they didn't actually use French bread and just used some hero rolls or similar softer bread. It was probably cheaper and easier to get those for school lunches anyway.

We paired our pizzas with a spinach, beet and goat cheese salad. I don't remember when the heyday was for this type of salad (I don't think it was the 80s), but it's such a great combination that we made it anyway, regardless of decade, for our side dish. Since the salads cost about $5, this was a good dinner for two for under $10.

We would make the pizzas again, maybe with toppings or some herbs and spices. It's such a quick and easy weeknight dinner!