Thin Crust Grilled Garden Vegetable Pizza with Pepper Jack Cheese

I have the most wonderful neighbors around, and they're always so generous with the beautiful vegetables they grow in their gardens. I temporarily looked like quite the vegetable hoarder.... and decided I needed to use them up in one bang. 

Pizza was the perfect vessel, and the grill was calling to me (minus the spider episode, this time.)

I decided a sauce would have been too heavy on the decadent thin crust, so I used a light drizzle of EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil.... for those who don't watch the Food Network/Rachael Ray enough) and some light seasonings on a bed of shredded pepper jack cheese to cushion the beautifully colorful vegetables. Ever since I used pepper jack on pizza a while ago, it's been hard to not crave that extra depth of flavor it provides. 

My little brother Ryan came over today after work for a visit. He arrived right when I was assembling the grilled vegetables. He must have thought I was nuts as I was carefully placing each piece... but I wanted to savor the moment. You see, sometimes I have no time to throw together a pizza, and I just toss the toppings on the dough like a crazy woman. And that's fine.... but on days like today where I have a little extra time to kill, I took my sweet time, caught up with my little brother (who is getting married to Miss Gorgeous in just two short weeks!), and made a beautiful pizza for us to eat while watching the beginning of one of my favorite things: the Summer Olympic Games. Go team.

Thin Crust Grilled Garden Vegetable Pizza with Pepper Jack Cheese

Ingredients:

1 small yellow squash, ends removed, sliced thin

1 medium zucchini, ends removed, sliced thin

1/2 red onion, sliced thin

1 yellow pepper, seeds & top removed, sliced in thin strips

1 red pepper, seeds & top removed, sliced in thin strips

2 C shredded pepper jack cheese

1 C whole mushrooms, sliced with stem

1 package refrigerated thin crust pizza dough

garlic powder

1/4 C EVOO, plus more for drizzling

1/4 C butter, melted

Italian seasoning  

salt & pepper 

Directions:

Get your grill going. Warm up to medium heat. Combine EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) and butter in a large bowl. Throw in all the veggies and stir around until they're all coated. Salt and pepper to taste, and add in a bit of garlic powder. 

Working in several batches, grill the vegetables directly on the grill until heated through, and slightly charred. I started with the zucchini and squash, then headed onto the smaller sliced veggies. Cover veggies to keep warm. 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees (or whatever your packaged dough calls for). Spread out dough on a greased cookie sheet and drizzle with EVOO. Sprinkle a bit of garlic powder and Italian seasoning on dough. Prick all over with a fork. Pre-cook dough for about 5 minutes. 

Take out of oven and layer on your cheese first, then the grilled veggies and sliced mushrooms in whatever design you want. Put back in oven for about 9 minutes. 

Devour.

Source: Baking with Blondie original. 

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