Makin' Easy Pizza

All ready to go into the oven

I love pizza!

With a big family, pizza can be a pretty pricey meal. . . unless you make it yourself. I think it scares cooks—it seems hard to make—but it is really a cinch once you get the hang of it.

I bake my week's bread every Monday morning (6 loaves). Today while I was shaping dough into loaves, I took one of them, divided it into 2 parts, and spread each one out on a cookie sheet. I poured some canned crushed tomatoes on top of the stretched out dough in the middle, and added a teaspoon of crushed garlic (or some garlic powder), and about a half teaspoon of Italian seasoning. I stirred this into the crushed tomatoes right on top of the pizza dough, and then spread the sauce out. Then I sprinkled on grated mozzarella, and added lots of veggies, slicing them right on top of the pizza, spreading them out as I sliced: olives, mushrooms, onions, green peppers, fresh spinach leaves and artichoke hearts (canned). I let the pizza set on top of my stove for 20 minutes, giving the dough a chance to rise. Then I baked it at 450 to 500 degrees for approx. 12-18 minutes.

The great thing about pizza is that you can be creative and it is not exacting. I doubt whoever made the first pizza had a recipe. Kids can't really mess it up--it turns out great without measuring, and the end result looks gourmet.

I use just one loaf worth of my bread dough to make 2 pizzas (recipe in a former post) and it is delicious with a whole (white) wheat crust, but if you are just making the dough specifically for pizza, cut the recipe in 1/4 and omit the oil and honey from the recipe. The recipe will be a bit crisper and save you some calories.

Here's my pizza, hot from the oven, just in time for lunch! Yum!


Enjoy!

It really is easy!