Homemade Pizza

Don't Order Out; Order In! 

This is an easy Homemade Pizza that takes half the time of a normal delivery order for pizza that takes 5 mins to order, a few minutes to exchange payments info, and then the 30-45 min. wait for your pizza (thats not mentioning all the convenience fees and tip, and overpriced processed food!) 

oops, ill get off my soap box and let this yummy and easy meal speak for itself!!

Chad and I love pizza

And I love that it's easy to order! No kitchen clean up.

I know there is a clean up when you do it at home, but you can't beat the price per serving when you make your own pizza verse dining out or ordering in!

The average Large pizza costs 10-15 dollars.

My two pizza's I made totaled 7 dollars!
With 8 Large slices on my pizza that's only $0.85 a slice!

and I actually preferred the homemade flavor.. less gross meat or old veggies, it was all healthy and the richness of the spaghetti sauce was delightful!

If you have kids or are planing on having a few friends over. Let them pick out or bring along a few topping that are their favorite. Let the kids help, this is a fun way to get everyone in the kitchen! 

Prep time:
5-10 minutes

(depending on how long it takes to stretch your dough to appropriate size)

Cook time: 

25-30 minutes

Cooks at:
400 degrees

Ingredients:

2 cup Mozzarella cheese

1 1/2 cup Your favorite Spaghetti Sauce or Marinara

1 pre-made pizza dough ball from grocery store

1 tsp butter or olive oil 

1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese

pinch of fresh chopped or dried chopped basil for garnish and flavor

Toppings:

Any thing you would like to garnish!
Make your favorite combo that you would order out at home!

For mine I am using:

1 Onion

1 Red Bell Pepper

1Green Bell Pepper

 3 Cloves of Garlic

Small Handful of Spinach

This is what I started with:

The pizza dough is awesome. I got it from Win Co. 

and I know that other places like Safeway and Savemart have Pizza dough for sale made fresh!

Whats nice about buying pre-made is it makes for an easy go to meal.

Leave the dough in the fridge for a quick fix for those nights that are just thrown together! 

Everyone almost always has cheese and a jar of Spaghetti sauce on hand! 

One other important part of this was my pizza stone! This made my pizza cooking experience easier and its my favorite way to cook a pizza at home. the stone adds a great crisp to the bottom of the pizza crust and helps cook nice and even.

First you start with the Dough. 

Since I had my dough in the fridge it was not easy to stretch right away. take the dough out and set it on your stone while you chop the veggies or other toppings you may choose to use. 

 (don't mind my nasty stone... It's "normal" from past store bought frozen pizza's, they are so greasy!)

 While we are letting our dough get warmed up a bit cut your veggies!

I made mine early in the day and so I put them in easy to store containers to  put in fridge and was able to easily get out later.

 Make sure to chop your veggies to bite size so there is less mess and easy devouring.

If you are planning on using your dough as a go to meal, chop some veggies early so you can easily grab them out and make your pizza in even less time when you need that quick meal like I did!

(chopping veggies ahead of time makes your pizza a one dish simple meal!)

I stored these in the fridge like this and they were nice and crisp when I needed them!

You can stretch the dough when its cold, it just takes a little more patience. You don't want to tear or stretch too thin, so take your time (but don't be too gentle if it tears, just pinch it back together!)

Lets nicely flour our pizza stone

then start to stretch by kneading the dough from the ball center outward like pie crust. Use your fists instead of a rolling pin.

Start to stretch it with your fingers pulling them from center to edges and turning to keep your round shape.  This might take a few minutes (don't loose patience) 

and stretch with love, till its a bit wider than the desired size leaving room to roll the crust.

 This is how large I made it and then took the sides in, 

Crust:

If you like large fluffy crust make your crust nice and round. You do this by slowly pinching and tucking out the edges, while  folding in and pulling towards the inside to keep the shape and size desired. For flat or thin crust leave pizza crust same as center and be sure to keep sauce away from edge when you top with toppings.

This is what my pizza looked like crusted and nice and round!

 Now you are ready to top your pizza with all the fix in's!

Take your favorite spaghetti sauce (mine is garlic) 

Grab a spoon and spread (as evenly as possible) your desired amount of sauce. 

*beware, the more sauce you put the longer it takes to cook your dough, don't make a mistake by adding too much and making the pizza soupy.

Add first your cheese and then all your toppings:

sprinkle with basil if desired and Ta-DA! 

Pop it into your oven at 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes depending on how thick your crust is!

at 10 minutes in, brush some butter or olive oil lightly on your crust to brown

and let it cook the rest of the way. 

If you find that while its cooking there are large bubbles forming, just puncture them with a fork and they will fall right down no problem... 

Check the bottom of the pizza to make sure it is nice and crispy and firm at the end of timer, and take out if done (add additional minute or two if needed)

That was not too hard was it! 

Serve with a great tossed salad, and some Root Beer (my favorite pizza drink), and ENJOY!

Happy bellies make a happy home!