I am a cliche.

Typically, I am not a fan of pickles. But guess what I’m really into now? Pickles. That’s right, this pregnancy made me a pickle-eater. But the cravings haven’t stopped there. For a few weeks, my sweet tooth was completely out of control. Ice cream, cake, pie, candy, whatever. Heck, once I even ate a whole box of raspberry-flavored mints in one sitting.

Now, we’ve moved on. I’d say we’ve moved on to carbs, but it’s more specific than that. Really, it’s pizza. Whenever I’m thinking about cooking dinner, a list of available ingredients scrolls through my mind. “We could have shrimp, or chicken, or…” And invariably, I think, “That would be good on a pizza.” And because, as I am now fond of saying, “Pregnancy wants what pregnancy wants,” I usually go ahead and make said pizza.

I keep homemade pizza dough balls in the freezer, but sometimes I’m too lazy for even thawing and rolling, and in those cases, I turn to my good friend naan, a flatbread that originated in Persia. I think pizza cooked on a piece of naan (yes, I just buy it at the supermarket) is a pretty lovely thing, and it’s especially great when you are dog-tired pregnant and just want to get dinner over with so you can go directly to bed and not pass go.

Recently, I had a few raw shrimp in the refrigerator leftover from a previous cooking experiment. and I wanted to use them up. Not enough shrimp to do much with in terms of a whole dish, but a perfect amount to top a pizza. See? I can come up any excuse to make a pizza.

One of the many things I love about pizza is that the world is, well, your pizza. It’s a great catcher for leftovers, and it’s so forgiving about ingredients. I was out of tomato sauce on this particular night, having used it all up in prior pizza-making extravaganzas, so I needed to substitute. On naan, a thicker sauce is desirable anyway, because you don’t want it to just seep into the bread and make it soggy, you want it to rest on top, more like a spread. Enter: cream cheese.

My favorite 2 a.m. pizza to order in college was cream cheese with double bacon from Pizza Shuttle. So when I decided to do a cream cheese “sauce” with my shrimp pizza, I knew it had to have bacon as well. Also, I have an abundance of zucchini right now (doesn’t everyone?) and I feel better about eating pizza every day if it has something green on it. And thusly, my new favorite quick dinner was born.

http://www.lawrence.com/users/photos/2012/jul/02/237139/

Shrimp, Bacon, and Zucchini Naan Pizza
2 pieces of Naan (they come 2 to a package at the supermarket usually)
a dozen or so large shrimp, peeled and deveined
4 strips of crispy cooked bacon
8 oz low-fat cream cheese
1 tablespoon milk
1 cup shredded mozzarella
1/2 a medium-sized zucchini, sliced (about 8 slices)
3 oz fresh mozzarella (or three small balls)
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp garlic powder
kosher salt
pepper
fresh basil leaves

Place your naan on a cookie sheet, start your bacon cooking, and then mix up your “sauce”. Soften 8 ounces of cream with a tablespoon of milk, and stir it together with the dried basil, oregano, a little crushed red pepper and a pinch of salt.

Smear a healthy amount over each piece of naan.

Next, throw on your toppings. You can put the shrimp on raw, but I did season mine a bit with salt and pepper before I put them on. Don’t overload. I placed a slice of fresh mozzarella over each slice of zucchini, and then covered the whole thing with shredded mozzarella. Sprinkle on some cut up bacon (already cooked and crispy), and bake at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes, or until the cheese is good and bubbly.

Top with some cut up basil leaves, and serve. So easy and fast! Mr. Meat and Potatoes, I could tell, was skeptical when he saw me putting them in the oven, but he was pleasantly surprised by the flavors of this pizza, and he didn’t even pick off the zucchini.

http://www.lawrence.com/users/photos/2012/jul/02/237137/

I put this whole thing together in about seven minutes, so with the 12 minutes of cooking time, it’s a 20-minute meal. Can you beat that, for fresh, homemade and delicious?