Homemade Pizza

    I LOVE Homemade Pizza nights.  Yes, it's always fun to get pizza delivered from your favorite pizza place, but nothing beats homemade pizzas when you can cater your pizzas to what your kids like.  When I make our pizzas, I start making the crust in the afternoon.  Don't panic!  It's a very easy pizza dough with only 4 ingredients...YES 4 INGREDIENTS!!!  The link for the dough is included below.  I'm not saying that you can't use flatbread, store bought pizza doughs, or even tortillas for your pizzas, but this dough is so easy to make and cheap, I just make our own.  The dough yields 3 doughs to make three separate pizzas.  If you don't have a reason to make 3, save the dough in the fridge overnight and use to make bread, empanadas, or anything else you can think of for it.

    Now, let's talk about toppings.  What are your favorite toppings?  When we have homemade pizza, we can have up to four pizzas at a time.  Why the madness you ask?  Because everyone has different tastes and I try to make the pizzas they like.  I will often ask for the kids help when making the pizzas and they have fun doing it.  So, what are our toppings?  The old standards of sausage and pepperoni, Hawaiian pizza (ham and pineapple), BBQ chicken, meatlovers, and more.  It could change from one time to the next.  

    I also make it easy on myself and will use jarred pasta sauce.  I usually buy that instead of pizza sauce since it's cheaper and we always have it on hand.  I don't use one brand or variety in particular, but I will say it's usually the Aldi sauce.  If we have it, or if I'm feeling up to it, I'll make an Alfredo sauce to use as a sauce as well.  I've also used pesto. And here I go, blowing your mind again.  When I add cheese to our pizzas, it's cheese that I bought in the block form and shredded in our cuisinart.  I will make my own combination of half sharp cheddar and half mozzarella.  

    Once you make your own pizza, you won't want to go back!  The possibilities are endless.

Ingredients:

• Homemade Pizza Dough by Giada de Laurentiis
• 1 jar of favorite pasta sauce (red sauce or Alfredo sauce)
• Choose one or all...it's up to you!!
• ground sausage
• pepperoni
• sliced ham lunch meat
• 1/2 can of pineapple chunks, cut in half and drained
• 2 chicken breasts, diced
• shredded cheese (regular and/or dairy free)
• olive oil
• your favorite pizza toppings

Directions:

1. Start the dough early in the afternoon.  It will need time to rise.  Once the dough is prepared, if you have pizza stones, put them in the oven as you preheat your oven.  The pizza stones are great when making homemade pizzas.  They give the bottom of the crust a little extra crunch.  Set oven temperature to 400 degrees. 
2. Place sheets of parchment paper on the stones and/or baking sheets.  Carefully transfer dough to stone and/or baking sheets.  Using a fork, poke holes all around the crust to let the air escape.  Drizzle olive oil on the doughs and place in the oven for 8-10 minutes.
3. Prepare the toppings!  In a medium skillet on medium high heat, add 2 tbsp of olive oil.  Brown the sausage.  Once the sausage is cooked, remove from the skillet, set aside.  Add a bit more olive oil, add the chicken.  Brown the chicken and season with salt and pepper.  Set aside.  Drain the pineapple chunks and slice in half.  Set aside.  Slice the ham lunch meat into thin strips, set aside.  Dice or slice any veggies you would like to add to your pizzas.  Set aside.
4. Remove doughs from the oven, top with sauce and your toppings of choice.  Add shredded cheeses.  I make two with dairy free cheese and two with regular cheese.
5. Place pizzas into the oven.  Bake for 10 minutes to melt the cheeses and fully cook the dough.
6. Remove from the oven.  Allow to cool for 5 minutes before cutting.  Use a large knife or pizza cutter for your pizzas!  Enjoy!!!

Dairy Free Pepperoni Pizza

Chicken Pizza with Sliced Ham, Diced Red Onions, Fresh Basil

Half Meatlovers and Half Pepperoni