I KNOW, I KNOW. What’s wrong with pepperoni? Not single a thing. We just happen to have a 5-year-old major shrimp lover at our house, so when I saw a similar idea in a magazine recently, I gave it a shot. As usual, the adults liked it more than the kids, except for the one, but those who tried it had a treat in store. A fresh and light take on a family staple, homemade pizza. The corn was sweet and crunchy, the feta salty and the shrimp was nice and juicy. I’d make it again for sure, and maybe for a brunch.
This dish was part experiment, part excuse to use leftovers (corn from dinner the night before.) We bought our pizza crust but you could certainly make yours. I like the look of this one from Bobby Flay and a healthier whole-wheat version from 100 Days of Real Food too. Then add a drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper, dried oregano plus the toppings: shrimp, feta crumbles and corn cut off the cob. Into the oven for about 10 minutes and, yep, lunch was ready. We served it with wedges of lemon, which always add zip to any dish, plus my kids love lemon so it’s a gateway food. They’ll try anything they can squeeze a lemon on.
One more thing, I love to encourage our kids to find things they love–then try them in a different dish. One of the best tools I can give these guys is the ability to be open minded about trying something beloved, in a slightly surprising way. I think about strawberry ice cream. It’s delicious but what if I’d been so focused on ordering the pink stuff every time that I never tried chocolate? I’d have missed out on a soulmate true favorite. Your kids don’t have to eat corn pizza, but I believe in taking stuff they already like and presenting it in new ways, just for fun, just to expand, just for lunch.
shrimp, feta & corn pizza
If you buy your dough, follow package’s directions for cooking time and temperature.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 10 mins
- Total Time: 20 mins
Ingredients
- 1 pizza crust
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 pinch salt
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- Couple cracks of fresh pepper
- 1 1/2–2 cups small shrimp (we used pre-cooked, frozen, “medium” sized shrimp and thawed them under the tap)
- 1 ear of corn, cooked and freshly cut off the cob (we used a leftover from dinner the night before)
- 1/2 cup feta cheese crumbles
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F, or whatever your dough package says. Ours advised cooking the dough for 5 minutes first, then adding toppings for an additional 5 minutes.
- When you’re ready to add toppings, drizzle olive oil on dough, followed by salt, oregano and pepper. Then sprinkle a layer of shrimp, corn and finally feta cheese. Pop in the oven for 5-8 minutes–or until everything is warm–and enjoy.
Firstly, this looks great! Secondly, I couldn’t agree more with you regarding having kids try new dishes with ingredients they already like. I do this with my two year old constantly. Keeping a mental note of things he likes and then presenting it to him in new dishes; always making sure to highlight the fact that ” wow, there’s peas in this dish! you love peas!” or whatever the ingredient may be. Of course it doesn’t always work, but many times it does! Great post-thanks for sharing!
~Kari
Hi Kari! Yes, that’s exactly my thought. Spin-offs of what’s already working. Unfortunately the opposite can sometimes be true–my three-year-old is currently anti-peach and will eat none of them in any form. The peach pancake from the other day? She ate the pancake part after carefully removing the peaches. We also made peach fruit leather (post coming up) and she took just the one bite. Oh well, marching on… There will be peaches again next year and I know I’ll find a tasty way to get her hooked. Thanks for your note!
That Bobby Flay pizza dough recipe is our go to! Its soooo good. I can’t recommend it enough. It is simple, and it tastes great. We’ve baked it and grilled it, both great.
Oooh, that’s great to know, Vanessa! I’ll definitely try it this summer then. Thanks for the recommendation.