Pizza

I made pizza for dinner tonight. It's just the kids and me and I wanted something easy. I always make my own pizzas. I never order out and I don't buy frozen pizzas (eeks).

I'm going to share some very easy ideas to make great homemade pizzas that your family will LOVE!

A lot of the time I make the crust. I use a simple recipe in one of my cookbooks. I don't have my cookbooks here at this house, so ....Click HERE for a great pizza crust recipe. Tonight I used pre-made crusts. They work great, too. You can even buy whole wheat pre-made crusts now, they taste great.

One pizza had the works (aka whatever I had available). First I added pizza sauce, around the edge of the crust I brushed on pesto sauce -this makes the crust taste so good! You can then sprinkle parmesan cheese on, it will stick to the pesto and make the crust even more tasty. Next I added cheddar and mozzarella cheese and then the toppings; pepperoni, bell pepper slices, onion slices, mushroom slices, black olives, bacon, and a little more cheese, then I topped it off with some Italian seasoning.

The second pizza I spread alfredo sauce on the crust, pesto around the edge of the crust, and canned spinach (drained), then topped it with mozzarella cheese and Italian seasoning.

I baked them in the oven at 450 for approx. 15-20 minutes and they were ready.

Here's a couple of additional ideas:

• 
  When making your own crust, shape dough 1" larger than pan or baking stone. Unwrap mozzarella cheese sticks and place around inside edge and roll extra dough over crust and press down to seal cheese sticks inside dough for cheese stuffed crusts!
• 
  Substitute 1/2 of flour with whole wheat flour for a healthier crust.

Karol