Kid Friendly Flag Pizza By Clare Crespo

This post is sponsored by Country Crock. I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective, and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

I am a huge fan of vegetables. Give me asparagus, broccoli and green beans over bananas, strawberries and oranges any day!  Unfortunately Little B does not share the same love of vegetables that I do.  She has her core three that she sticks with: broccoli, green beans and sweet potatoes.  I know I shouldn’t complain too much because at least she’s eating them but I would like to add a little more variety to her diet.  We all know that presentation is everything when it comes to feeding our kids.  If it looks like a vegetable then they probably aren’t going to jump for joy and eat it.  Thanks to Clare Crespo and her new cookbook, making vegetables look fun to eat is easy.

I decided to make the flag pizza for a couple of reasons.  One, everyone body likes pizza.  I haven’t met a person yet who says “no” to this Italian treat.  Two, my daughter is fascinated with flags.  It doesn’t matter what kind – the American flag, utility flag markers or garden flags, she loves them.  And three, I had most of the ingredients in my pantry (imperative for all busy moms).

The pizza was really easy to make.  I didn’t have any marinara or pizza sauce on hand so I used a can of tomato sauce instead.  After I rolled out my refrigerated pizza dough and spread on the tomato sauce, I sprinkled it with some herbs and other seasonings.

I had previously sauteed the fresh spinach in a little bit of Country Crock for 2-3 minutes and set aside to cool.   I also sliced the tomatoes and cheese so now it was time to assemble!  A trick to getting straight sides with your spinach is to outline the outside of the rectangle first and then fill in the middle.  I also used a small cookie cutter I had to cut out the stars.

Once your flag is assembled, bake at the recommended temperature according to your pizza dough and cook from 10-20 minutes.  My pizza took 15 minutes and probably could have gone a minute or two longer.  One tip – remove your cheese stars before putting them in the oven!  I didn’t even think about it and of course they melted into cheese blobs.  No worries though, it still tasted great.

Getting my daughter to eat vegetables means doctoring them up with a little bit of Country Crock.  This is a girl I’ve caught LICKING the Country Crock off her roll!!  She loves the flavor it brings and hey, if it gets her to eat more vegetables, then I’ll doctor them up any day.

Are you looking for quick and simple tips and recipes to make serving veggies more fun? Download the free Clare Crespo Cookbook here for fun and whimsical recipes your family is sure to love!