Pizza Time!

What is that picture of you might ask...or not really since the title gives most of it away. Of course it is pizza. The kids and I LOVE pizzas a (Trooper does as well). On weeks when he is in Dallas, I think we make pizza just about every other day. I have been tweaking a recipe I found for a few weeks and not I am in love with the results. It is so easy (and crazy cheep) to make your very own dough. For much less than the cost of pre-made crust or refrigerated dough, I can make 4 pizzas worth of dough.

As you can see...

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The kids...


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love it!



Okay so you might be wondering about what I put on top of this pizza...well as some of you know I can be a little crazy about making sure my kids get all the veggies they need. Trooper was out of town, I needed to use up stuff in the fridge vs. going to the store with 3 kids. I looked and found a zucchini. I pealed it, sliced it very thin, tossed with extra virgin olive oil, and my salt, pepper, and garlic powder mix. The kids and I tossed it on the pizza (well Parker and I did because Paige and Peyton ate about 8 slices each vs. putting them on the pizza). Of course I put the cheese and tomato sauce on the pizza as well. It turned out great! The kids and I ate it all.

Now for the dough I mentioned above...

In a bowl put 1 package of dry active yeast
mix with 1 1/2 cups of hot water and 1 1/2 teaspoons of sugar

let sit for about 5 minutes until foamy

add:
about 1 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

On counter mix and then create a well of:
4 cups of flour
1 1/2 teaspoons of salt

Add the wet in the center of a well of the flour mixture and kneed by hand for a few minutes or do it all in the mixer with a dough hook (my choice). Once it is together, put in a clean bowl sprayed or brushed with olive oil. Cover with plastic wrap and sit in warm place until it doubles (about 1 1/2 hours).

Preheat your oven to 500 with a cookie sheet or a pizza stone inside preheating.

From there cut into 4 pieces (if you are not using all now, you can put in baggies and put in fridge or freezer). Put a little corn meal down and roll out the dough...make sure you do not let Paige do it all because she will eat more dough than you realize. Put it on top of parchment paper that is sitting on another cookie sheet (not wax paper...found that out the hard way at my parent's house that they are mostly the same thing, unless you bake it). Put your toppings on. Slide the pizza and parchment paper from the cool cookie sheet to the hot one in the oven. Bake for about 6-8 minutes.

Enjoy...I know we do!!