Pizza That Cleans Out The Fridge

The other day my fridge was full of bits and ends of meals that were not enough to just reheat and eat alone so I had to get creative. I knew that pizza would be something that would be eaten with no complaints so . . . I pulled 2 partially baked pizza crusts out of the freezer and all my ends of food out onto the counter to brainstorm. I had made shrimp with spaghetti the night before and since shrimp was $4.99/lb at Harris Teeter, I made 2 pounds instead of one (which is never enough for my boys anyway). All of the spaghetti was eaten but there were 21 shrimp leftover. They had been cooked in a yummy lemon, garlic and herb mixture so I knew they would be fine on a pizza. I had also made some pesto using baby spinach earlier in the week and had a small container of it ready to be spread all over a pizza crust. I wasn't sure the kids would eat the pizza with only the pesto as the sauce so I mixed a little bit of jar Alfredo sauce that I had in the pantry into the pesto. And so I began to build.

Here is my thawed partially baked pizza crust with the pesto/Alfredo mixture and my leftover shrimp.

Then I realized that our oldest was not going to eat the pizza because he just recently decided that he does not like shrimp. I planned on making the second pizza a cheese pizza but I thought he might be weirded out by the sauce. I chopped up 2 Roma tomatoes that I had in the fridge and sauteed them in EVOO and a little kosher salt until they started to break down.

I ran them through the blender and mixed them into the rest of the Alfredo/pesto mixture. It made a lovely creamy tomato sauce.

I spread the sauce on the crust that was to be the cheese pizza.

There was a little leftover so I spooned it over the shrimp on the other pizza.

I topped both pizzas with a bag of pre-shredded Italian blend cheese. Here is the cheese pizza.

Here is the shrimp pizza going into a 450 degree oven for about 10 minutes. I just put the pizza right on the oven rack.

Here is the cheese pizza baked for about 10 minutes or until the cheese is as golden as you like it.

Here is the shrimp pizza. I didn't want the shrimp to get over cooked so I took it out at the early stages of doneness.

Both pizzas were devoured and it took less than 30 minutes total to make them because I used leftovers to make some very gourmet style pizzas. My friend's son was over for dinner and he said I should give his mom the recipe. The bonus was that all 4 boys (my 3 and our guest) ate spinach without even knowing it.

What are your favorite leftover recipes?