Skip Takeout!

Caleb and I recently made homemade pizza for the first time and we are officially spoiled!  I procrastinated trying it for awhile, thinking it wouldn't be worth all of the effort.  Boy was I wrong! First of all, it is super easy and so good!  The best part about it is that by making it at home, with nutritious ingredients, you don't have any "eating pizza guilt" either!  

I have taken the Pioneer Woman's pizza crust recipe and adapted it slightly.  (see recipe at bottom of post)

First, take 1 and 1/2 cups warm water and 1 teaspoon active dry yeast

Sprinkle the yeast over the water and let sit

Combine flour & salt in a bowl and mix well

Drizzle olive oil and sweetener over flour mixture

Mix well

Next, check out the yeast and water.  It practically mixes itself!

Pour yeast mixture over flour/oil mixture and stir.

This is about the point where a spoon is no good and hands have to get involved!

Now oil a clean bowl and place the dough ball in it.

Cover with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for at least an hour.

An hour later it will have doubled in size.  This is enough for 2 pizza crusts!

You can store this in your fridge up to four days, so you can definitely make this ahead for quicker meal prep!  Making the crust and cleaning up the mess took at most 15  minutes!

I thought I'd go ahead and show you how we ended up "decorating" our pizza this time as well!  I didn't have any meat, so we went all veggie.  

Balsamic roasted eggplant, roasted red peppers and black olives.  YUM!

Take a pizza sheet and grease it with oil. Take half of the dough and roll it out.  The thickness is totally dependent on your preference. We like ours pretty thin.

For me, the only thing important about my pizza sauce is that it's salty. I literally took a can of tomato sauce, added some Italian seasonings and salt and stirred it together! Easy!

Sprinkle some cheese on top. I used a 5 cheese Italian mix and we both loved it!

Sprinkle your favorite toppings on top of the sauce and cheese.

Bake it at 350* for approximately 30 minutes.  The time will depend on how thick your crust is. Just make sure the cheese has melted and that the crust has browned.

So yum, so filling, pretty cost effective and even semi-healthy! :)

FOR THE CRUST (MAKES TWO CRUSTS):

1 teaspoon Active Dry Or Instant Yeast

2 cups All-purpose Flour

2 cups whole wheat Flour

1.5 tsps sweetener (honey or sugar)

1 teaspoon Kosher Salt

⅓ cups Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Sprinkle yeast over 1 1/2 cups warm (not lukewarm) water.  In a bowl, combine flour and salt. Stir well.  Stir in olive oil. Next, pour in yeast/water mixture and mix until just combined.  At this point I knead it with my hands until it's well combined and forms a ball. 

Coat a separate mixing bowl with a light drizzle of olive oil, and form the dough into a ball. Toss to coat dough in olive oil, then cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and store in the fridge until you need it.  I make it atleast two hours ahead of time, but according to Pioneer woman "It’s best to make the dough at least 24 hours in advance, and 3 or 4 days is even better."