What's for dinner?

I try to plan ahead and know what I'm feeding my guys for dinner so as to avoid the last minute rush that ensues if I don't have a plan. The (sad) truth is, more often than not, life gets in the way and it's 20 minutes before dinnertime and I've got nothing. I try to keep things on hand that can be quickly turned into a tasty dinner that we will all love, but lately my family has been turning up their nose at my black bean soup.  So it was time for a change.

My life saver this week has been a batch of bread dough from the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day. 

I usually keep a half batch of the master recipe on hand in my fridge (a full batch is just too large for our little family of 3), since it makes such delicious bread. One glimpse through the cookbook, and I realized it would also make delicious pizza crust and pita bread. Both have been part of our last-minute dinners this week.

Mini pizzas topped with left-over roasted veggies and caramelized onions, some salami and kalamata olives, and whatever cheese we had on hand baked in the 15 minutes it took to make a salad. The crust turned out amazing, and the best part was there was absolutely no whining from M. He even helped to make these!

Two nights later, we used the left over dough to make pita bread to accompany the last of our salami and capiccola, white cheddar, and apples. Probably not as balanced a meal as I would ideally like, but we all gobbled it up and enjoyed every bite. And it sure beats getting take-out.

What do you keep on hand for last minute dinners?